Monoup news digest: main updates from fintech industry

Friday news from Monoup and here are the biggest stories of the week you need to know.

TikTok is working toward becoming a super-app and is actively exploring financial licenses. The company is eyeing promising Brazilian market and has filed for a license that would allow it to not only process payments but also offer lending. What's behind this move and what it could mean — read on.

Meanwhile, A2A payments are expanding into Uzbekistan. The technology is now live for customers across all banks in the country, mirroring successful rollouts in Europe and the UK. Account-to-account transfers are, in essence, a return to banking roots — only the original version was slower and more expensive. The new infrastructure makes these transfers cheaper to process than the major card networks. For years, the growth of card payments was seen as a positive sign of digitization and faster money movement, but today many countries are moving in the opposite direction: stepping away from costly card systems.

Let's dig into these stories.

A2A payments launch in Uzbekistan

The account-to-account payment standard is now available across all banks in Uzbekistan. It's another step in the country's push to develop its financial infrastructure, but will everyday users actually notice?

The key difference from standard P2P card transfers is that the payment moves directly from the payer's account to the recipient's account through an instant payment system, without going through a card network. This makes transactions faster and, more importantly, cheaper for the banking system — no fees to Visa, Mastercard, or any other card brand.

A2A is the foundation of open banking, which in the EU has become a genuine alternative to traditional bank transfers. The banking sector in Uzbekistan and the broader CIS region, however, has long relied on card-to-card transfers for retail payments — unlike Western Europe, where paying by card number was never really a mass-market behavior. That's precisely why this payment method may not make a big splash with general audiences without meaningful investment in awareness and promotion.

The main advantage of A2A payments globally is cost. If a standard SEPA transfer runs a few euros, A2A rails can bring that price down. In Uzbekistan, though, the actual price difference will likely be modest, since card-to-card transfers at many local banks are already nearly free. Given that, our impression for now is that A2A will find its strongest footing in institutional use cases rather than everyday consumer transactions.

Monzo exits the US

British fintech Monzo has decided to step back from the race for the American market and refocus on its home ground in the UK and Europe.

The company has been pushing into the US since 2020, but fierce competition and regulatory complexity kept it from gaining traction. At one-point Monzo even applied for a banking license, only to withdraw the application on its own terms. In Ireland, however, the picture looks different — a banking license was secured last year, which opens a direct path to European customers through passporting. With an Irish hub, the bank can offer accounts and services to customers across the entire EU, and it's a market Monoup already knows well. The decision to exit the challenging US segment was made precisely to concentrate resources where the company already has strength.

Existing US users will be able to access their accounts until June 2026, after which the service will be shut down.

What's interesting is that Revolut, Monzo's biggest rival, is doing the exact opposite — doubling down on the US and picking up speed regardless of local competition. Both are major players in their home British market, and Monzo, it seems, has chosen a strategy of dominating closer to home rather than chasing global expansion.

TikTok goes full-cycle fintech in Brazil

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is seeking a financial license in Brazil that would allow it to process payments directly on the platform and even extend credit — loans to sellers and installment options for buyers.

Outside of China, this is the first market where TikTok has gone after a full financial license and end-to-end coverage of its payment flows. In Europe, the company set up a payments division, but progress has been slow. Elsewhere, TikTok typically relies on third-party payment gateways, which means paying processing fees on every transaction. Given the volumes involved, those fees add up fast — the company's 2026 sales forecast is over $100 billion.

That revenue is being generated outside China, across global markets. The core is Southeast Asia and the US, where TikTok Shop is driven by in-house creators and short videos. A company that started as a platform for short clips is now turning into a media giant that may soon have its own financial products under the same roof. This logic is familiar to many businesses looking to cut costs through vertical integration — though how well it works varies widely by industry. We explored this topic in an earlier piece on whether iGaming projects need their own payment infrastructure.

Chainalysis brings blockchain investigations to everyone

Chainalysis is launching AI agents for blockchain investigations in the coming months, as an upgrade to its existing analytics platform. Serious research today often requires technical specialists and dedicated analysts, but these agents will allow anyone to run complex investigations in minutes — checking large numbers of addresses across different networks, identifying clusters, and mapping withdrawal routes. The service is available to all clients, from law enforcement to compliance teams at fintech companies. Being able to describe a task in plain language and get a clear answer means practically any employee can use the tool without needing specialized expertise.

This development is Chainalysis direct response to the growing threat of crypto fraud: in 2025, crypto scams accounted for $17 billion in stolen funds, and tracking down lost assets can take months. This tool shifts the dynamic toward faster, more effective responses.

That's the week in fintech from Monoup. Stay connected with us on Telegram to be the first to know what's happening, and check out our reviews and in-depth articles on the site in the MonoTalks section.