Worldline has announced a collaboration with Fipto to test and deploy stablecoin use cases across Europe and parts of Asia-Pacific. The partnership focuses on bridging traditional payment systems with blockchain-based solutions in a compliant, secure way.

What they are doing

The two companies will jointly develop payment and settlement solutions that allow merchants, banks, and financial institutions to handle both traditional digital money and stablecoin-based transactions. Instead of replacing existing systems, their goal is to make them interoperable; allowing both to operate side by side.

The initiative aligns with Europe’s push to strengthen its own digital payment infrastructure and maintain technological sovereignty. Fipto’s role brings regulatory credibility, given its licenses in France and registration as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) in Luxembourg. Worldline contributes its established payments network and technical expertise.

Why this matters

Stablecoins offer attributes that traditional payment systems can’t easily match: programmability, transparency, and continuous 24/7 operation. These features can improve settlement times and reduce friction in cross-border transactions.

However, integrating stablecoins into regulated environments is complex. Compliance, security, and operational interoperability are key challenges. By joining forces, Worldline and Fipto are testing how blockchain-based assets can coexist with existing rails while staying within the boundaries of financial regulation.

Key takeaways for fintech startups

• Stablecoins are moving closer to mainstream payments. Study their potential for faster and cheaper settlement.
  
  
• Collaborating with larger infrastructure players can accelerate innovation and market reach.
  
  
• Build interoperability from day one. New payment methods must fit existing rails.
  
  
• Keep compliance central. Regulatory trust is becoming a core differentiator in fintech.
  
  
• Focus on practical use cases where digital assets clearly improve efficiency or customer experience.

If you want to assess how digital asset rails could fit into your fintech growth strategy, contact Your Fintech Story. We help startups build payment foundations that scale.

The 2025 Lloyds Banking Group Consumer Digital Index is packed with insight on how people across the UK are using artificial intelligence to manage their money. For fintech founders, it’s a real-world map of user behaviour, trust gaps and opportunity.

AI has become part of daily money life

Lloyds found that 56 percent of UK adults – around 28 million people – used AI to manage their money in the past year. Nearly one in three use it weekly.

The most common tools are ChatGPT (60 percent), bank AI assistants (32 percent) and financial apps such as robo-advisers (9 percent).

AI use is strongest among younger adults, parents and Londoners, and half of users plan to increase their use over the next year. People rely on it for budgeting, savings goals and financial education.

Among those using AI weekly, the average reported saving is £474 a year, while across all AI users the average is £399.

These are self-reported numbers, but they confirm a clear pattern: AI has moved from experiment to everyday habit in personal finance.

Confidence grows with digital skills

The Index highlights a strong link between digital engagement and financial confidence. Among people who feel informed about their finances, 31 percent use AI daily or weekly, far above the average. Regular AI users are also more likely to invest, improve credit scores and save for retirement than those who never use such tools.

Digital fluency and financial capability are reinforcing each other. As people gain confidence with digital tools, they take more control of their financial decisions.

Trust will define who wins

The biggest barrier now is trust. Forty percent of adults say they trust banks and advisers more than AI, while 15 percent trust AI-generated advice more. Among 25–34 year olds, that rises to 23 percent.

Concerns about data privacy and bias remain high. Eighty-eight percent of non-users worry about these issues compared with 77 percent of regular users. Once people start using AI, anxiety drops, showing that familiarity and transparency help build trust.

For fintechs, this data is a warning and an opening. Responsible, transparent AI is not a compliance checkbox. It is how you earn the right to be part of people’s financial routines.

Incumbents are already moving fast

Lloyds has more than 800 AI models in production and uses Athena, a generative AI assistant deployed to 30,000 employees, cutting customer query times by 66 percent. The bank is among the top five globally for AI transparency in the 2025 Evident AI Index.

Fintech startups cannot outspend that scale, but they can out-focus it. Agility, clarity and human-centred design are the paths to staying relevant in this new AI landscape.

Key takeaways for fintech startups

Here’s what founders should note from the Lloyds data:

• Mainstream adoption: 56 percent of UK adults already use AI in finance.
  
  
• Trust gap: Younger users are open to AI, older users still prefer banks.
  
  
• Financial impact: Average reported savings of £399–£474 per year.
  
  
• Confidence link: Digital skills and financial capability grow together.
  
  
• Strategic signal: Transparent, explainable AI is becoming a market standard.

To turn these findings into growth strategy, contact Your Fintech Story. We help fintech startups translate complex trends into clear positioning and smart marketing moves.

On 4 November 2025, the Derby-based startup Vigilant AI.ai announced a £585k pre-seed funding round led by Haatch, together with the East Midlands Combined County Authority and the British Business Bank.

The company’s mission is clear: help regulated organisations adopt generative AI while staying fully compliant. It is a timely message in sectors where governance concerns often block innovation.

Closing the compliance gap

Vigilant AI.ai focuses on what it calls “AI Teammates,” generative AI systems that embed into workflows with built-in guardrails, immutable audit logs, and transparent governance tools. For industries such as financial services, where every AI-assisted output must be explainable, this model offers a path to use AI responsibly.

Their value proposition is centred on trust. Instead of replacing human decision-making with opaque models, the company integrates AI into existing processes and ensures every action is traceable.

How the new capital will be used

The £585k pre-seed funding will help expand the team, enhance product development, and move from pilot projects to revenue-generating deployments. Vigilant AI.ai plans to strengthen engineering and go-to-market efforts, refine its platform’s usability, and secure enterprise-grade certifications.

For an early-stage player in a highly regulated space, this type of pre-seed investment signals investor belief in compliance-first AI infrastructure, not just AI buzz.

Why it matters for fintech and reg tech

In regulated industries, the main barrier to AI adoption is not technology but trust. Vigilant AI.ai’s model reflects a growing trend where compliance, traceability, and auditability are built into the core product.

This approach is pragmatic. Many firms talk about AI transformation, but few can show how it fits within oversight frameworks. Vigilant AI.ai aims to be part of the infrastructure that makes safe, compliant AI deployment possible.

Key takeaways for fintech startups

Here are a few lessons founders can take from Vigilant AI.ai’s story:

• Treat compliance as a product feature, not a limitation.
  
  
• Build transparency and auditability into workflows from the start.
  
  
• Work with investors who understand regulatory complexity.
  
  
• Focus on measurable pilot results instead of broad AI promises.
  
  
• Map the route from pilot to revenue early, since traction builds credibility.

If your fintech or reg tech startup is balancing innovation with compliance, contact Your Fintech Story. We help founders design strategies that earn trust and scale responsibly.