Fintech & Payments

The ruling establishes that communications and account-management practices that regulators deem unclear or aggressive can trigger consumer-protection enforcement in Italy. Firms offering investment or banking services face heightened legal risk on the content and automation of customer-facing communications.

Payment systems can no longer rely on single-factor, SMS-only verification as a sufficient control, raising the operational bar for authentication flows. Engineering, vendor-integration, and compliance work must be completed to prevent increased transaction rejections and regulatory non-compliance.

NPCI International Payments Limited partnered with LankaPay to enable UPI acceptance via LankaQR codes across multiple Sri Lankan outlets. Indian travellers can use UPI-enabled apps to scan LankaQR codes to complete payments at participating merchants. Named participating outlets include Cinnamon Hotels, Taj Hotels, Barista, Keells Supermarket and Odel. UPI processes over 20 billion transactions monthly and enables instant account-to-account transfers; Indian arrivals numbered over 416,000 in 2024 and 531,000 in 2025.

The revised fee applies to eligible non-commercial vehicles equipped with a valid FASTag and takes effect on April 1, 2026, for the 2026–27 financial year. The Annual Pass grants validity for one year or a total of 200 toll plaza crossings for a one-time fee. The pass is available at approximately 1,150 fee plazas across the National Highways and National Expressways network. The user base for the Annual Pass has exceeded 56 lakh private vehicle owners since its launch on August 15, 2025.

The Prudential Regulation Authority granted full banking authorisation after an application lodged in 2021 and a prior restricted UK banking licence in 2024. Revolut addressed accounting issues, EU regulatory breaches and reputational concerns prior to receiving full authorisation. The authorisation covers retail and business customer accounts. Revolut will start introducing current accounts to a small number of new customers within days.

The authorisation imposes the compliance and operational regime that applies to licensed payment-system operators, creating binding requirements for reporting, transaction controls, and settlement processes. That raises governance, risk-management, and operational workloads for teams that handle merchant onboarding, payments processing, and customer refunds.