CloudFintech — Financial Technology Intelligence

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A practical model for measuring AML transaction-monitoring workload without confusing fewer alerts with better controls.

12 Aug 20269 min read

Data download

Research assets

Original visual research and downloadable source material from CloudFintech analysis.

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Open Banking Explained: How API-Driven Finance Is Reshaping Banking

Open banking regulatory timeline

Data download

The RegTech Stack Every Digital Bank and Neobank Needs in 2026

RegTech capability and evidence map

Data download

How Payment Orchestration Works: Architecture and Trade-offs

Payment orchestration value sensitivity

AI Tools

What Is Synthetic Data, and Why Does Financial AI Use It?

Synthetic data is solving AI's privacy paradox in finance. How banks and fintechs are using algorithmically generated data to train models without exposing real customers.

1 Jul 20267 min

synthetic datafinancial AI

Banking Tech

Open Banking Explained: How API-Driven Finance Is Reshaping Banking

Banks held data about their customers but kept it to themselves. Open banking changed the deal: with your consent, that data can now flow to the services you actually want to use.

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) Explained: Retail, Wholesale, and the Race to Digital Cash

Central bank digital currencies are sovereign money in digital form. Here is how retail and wholesale CBDCs work — and where major projects stand.

29 Jun 202611 min

CBDCdigital euro

AI Tools

Machine Learning in Wealth Management: How AI Is Changing Investing

Robo-advisers were just the start. Machine learning is now embedded in portfolio construction, tax optimisation, risk profiling, and research analysis — though what it cannot do is as instructive as what it can.

29 Jun 202611 min

machine learningwealth management

Regulation

The RegTech Stack Every Digital Bank and Neobank Needs in 2026

Standing up a neobank is easier than ever. Staying compliant once you have customers is where most of the operational risk sits — and where choosing the wrong RegTech stack becomes expensive.

How Payment Orchestration Works: Architecture and Trade-offs

A technical guide to payment orchestration: routing, tokenisation, retries, reconciliation, cost modelling, and the build-versus-buy decision.

29 Jun 20269 min

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payment orchestrationpayment routing

Payments

Account-to-Account Payments Explained: The Challenge to Card Networks

Moving money directly between bank accounts costs a fraction of what card networks charge merchants. The technology exists, the regulatory framework is in place, and the card networks are paying attention.

29 Jun 202610 min

A2A paymentsopen banking

Payments

BNPL Explained: How Buy Now, Pay Later Works — and Who Is Actually Winning

Buy now, pay later spread from Scandinavian fashion checkout buttons to a global consumer credit product worth hundreds of billions. The 'no interest, no credit check' pitch obscured a more complicated business model — one that regulators are now examining closely.

29 Jun 202610 min

BNPLbuy now pay later

Regulation

KYC, KYB and AML Explained: Fintech's Compliance Backbone

Every fintech that touches money has to answer three questions about its customers: who are you, what is your business, and are you laundering money? The answers determine whether the firm operates or gets shut down.

29 Jun 202611 min

KYCKYB

Banking Tech

What Is Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS)? Platforms, Players, and Risks Explained

BaaS promised to turn any software company into a bank. The infrastructure exists — but the Synapse collapse exposed exactly what happens when the middleware layer fails.

29 Jun 202610 min

BaaSbanking-as-a-service

Banking Tech

How Do Neobanks Make Money? The Full Business Model Explained

Neobanks grew fast by offering free accounts — but free is not the same as unprofitable. Here is how Monzo, Revolut, Starling, Chime and their peers actually generate revenue, and why turning a profit has taken longer than the hype suggested.

29 Jun 20269 min

neobanksfintech business model

Payments

What Is Embedded Insurance and How Is It Sold? The 2026 Revenue Model

Embedded insurance is moving from travel sites to B2B software. Here's how the distribution economics work and where the margin really sits.

26 Jun 20267 min

embedded insuranceinsurance distribution

Startups

What Makes a Neobank Profitable? A Unit-Economics Model

A reproducible model for neobank profitability across interchange, deposits, lending, subscriptions, acquisition, losses and operating cost.

20 Jun 20268 min

neobanksunit economics

AI Tools

How Banks Use AI to Detect Rogue Traders: A Control Benchmark

A primary-source control benchmark for rogue-trading surveillance: what the Kerviel and Adoboli cases reveal, where analytics helps, and which decisions must remain human.

15 Jun 202610 min

Data download

AI surveillancetrading compliance

Startups

Fintech Funding in 2026: What the Latest Data Shows

The latest complete datasets show a 2025 funding rebound with fewer deals, larger cheques, and concentration in digital assets and AI.

8 Jun 20269 min

fintech fundingventure capital

Banking Tech

Cloud-Native Core Banking Migration: The 2026 Playbook

A practical guide to cloud-native core-banking migration patterns, the limits of public case studies, and the controls a bank should test before moving customer cohorts.

AI in Financial Services 2026: The Complete Map

A function-by-function map of where AI is actually deployed across banking and finance in 2026 — and why the durable value sits in the back office, not the demo-stage chatbot.