Insights.

Analysis, commentary, and playbooks on fintech regulation, infrastructure, and financial operations.

Finance Ops•15 Apr 2026

What Does It Actually Cost to Build a Compliant EMI Operation?

The licence is one cost. The operation behind it is another, and it is almost always the larger one. Regulators expect that operation to be real at the point of authorisation, not assembled afterwards, so the spend on capital, systems, and senior people runs alongside the application and continues long after go-live. Most firms budget carefully for the first cost and badly underestimate the second.

Read Article 10 min read

Regulation•1 Apr 2026

The T+1 Split

One of the most common mistakes we see in early-stage payment institutions is treating safeguarding and settlement as the same thing. They are not. Mixing them up creates compliance risk and operational chaos, and are a particular focus area of the regulators – rightfully so, given that it's the customers' funds that are the subject matter.

Read Article 5 min read

Infrastructure•25 Mar 2026

The Missing Layer

Every payment institution starts with a gateway. It processes transactions. It shows volumes, approval rates, chargebacks. Normally it would also have a client-facing front, showing the information that is relevant to a merchant. But does it really show what is due to be paid to the merchant, or what has been earned last month?

Read Article 8 min read

Operations•18 Mar 2026

The First 90 Days

The license is granted. The congratulations come in. And then the next morning arrives. The license itself doesn't process a single payment. It doesn't onboard a single merchant. It doesn't settle, reconcile, or safeguard anything. It's a permission slip, waiting for activation.

Read Article 7 min read

Finance Ops•11 Mar 2026

Beyond the Spreadsheet

Board meetings at financial companies where the entire financial presentation is a single spreadsheet, emailed the night before, with no cost centres, no product breakdown, no client-level profitability, and no comparison to budget – are more common than anyone in the industry admits.

Read Article 7 min read