In this week's @twifintech UK and Europe edition I look at the return of rewards cards in the UK. After the interchange caps of the 2010s, which capped consumer debit cards at 0.20% and consumer credit 0.30%, many co-brand and rewards cards fell away. Prior to the caps the highest earning debit cards made issuers 1.5%-1.8% and with the drop in interchange that funded the rewards schemes it was difficult to make these schemes work. Over time issuers closed down co-brand and rewards cards and for a time there was very little choice for consumers that wasn't American Express. In the past couple of years things have changed. Revolut and Yonder have launched rewards and made them central to their offering. Users who have a paid Revolut account earn more RevPoints based on their tier. Additionally, Revolut have launched a card with InterContinental Hotels & Resorts. At the same time Currensea have brought to market several cards in partnership with leading hotel and airline groups — the latest is the Miles and More card, which allows users to redeem miles with a range of airlines such as Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines. The striking thing is that most of these rewards cards are debit — not credit — cards. The business model has changed somewhat. Annual or monthly fees are the norm and a large spend is required to really reap the full benefit of some schemes. This development has gone somewhat under the radar but it's great to see the return of more consumer options in this space. Also this week: - DNA Payments has embedded @iwoca lending into its merchant portal, allowing merchants to apply directly for Flexi Loans ranging from £1,000 to £1m. - @Paymentology is powering the UK launch of Maxim, a credit platform aimed at helping members of the African diaspora build credit histories and access a UK credit card. - @Fidesmo has partnered with @Honorglobal to bring Fidesmo Pay to the HONOR Watch 6, enabling contactless Visa and Mastercard payments through its network. - @Revolut and @Visa completed France’s first passkey-authenticated agentic card payment, with a Visa AI agent making a live purchase using a Revolut-issued card. - TWINT and SIX joined a Swiss bank-led stablecoin project, expanding the initiative beyond its original group of six banks. - @Mastercard launched Agent Connect, giving merchants a single integration to make their products discoverable to AI agents. - @SumUp landed a deal as Manchester United's shirt sleeve sponsor. - Tallinn-based Creditstar Group secured €4.6m from Kilde, structured as a convertible loan at a €130m pre-money valuation — the company will use the funding for product expansion. - Molten Ventures raised £175m at the first close of a new UK and European growth fund, with the British Business Bank providing a £75m cornerstone commitment. thisweekinfintech.com/p/card…

A massive massive fail for UK PLC Especially when you consider that the competition outside of the US wasn’t so great - there was plenty of space left

Every country should copy this immediately and also for phone calls on speakerphone in public places

US seizes bank accounts of payments group working for Tether’s bank ft.trib.al/IxsiLen

Striking how the results of this cross-party growth survey of economic experts from @BritishProgress suggests pretty much the opposite of the govt's position - social housing irrelevant, wealth taxes harmful etc etc

Never thought I’d see Man City in a lower division than Cardiff City but it may happen

It's a very grim pronouncement, but you have to concede this is a very funny line from Peter Hargreaves

Heathrow Airport’s third runway to be delayed until 2039. What a joke country.

EXCLUSIVE: Monzo, the digital lender which has become one of Britain's biggest consumer banks, is in talks about a sale to Brazil's Nu Holdings which could value it at between £8bn and £10bn, ending the prospect of a near-term IPO of a UK fintech champion. news.sky.com/story/digital-b…

Sums up the current British mindset doesn't it

crew member @mttjon just shipped Matina 🚢 The todo list that you've always wanted - tick off your tasks from your desktop. shipped 7 days away from certain death feedback from the crew — the captains reviewed it: "super clean. Lead with the midnight reset idea in the hero instead of the generic to-do headline, that is the part that actually sticks in my head."

and here come the agents

Exclusive: Tether has some funds stuck at one of its offshore banking partners, which is facing liquidation risks after U.S. seizure of assets. Tether said its assets held at the bank, EQIBank, are limited and represent less than 0.034% of its assets. Story with @MichaelRoddan: theinformation.com/articles/…

Oops

I always enjoy watching @rowlsmanthorpe on Sky News. Always offers a fresh and informed perspective on AI - not the same surface level stuff always heard on most other news orgs.

Hence why Stripe wants to be an AI company

It will be hard for anyone to compete with $META Muse. You either compete on the product, distribution or price. $META is really strong in all three categories: - The product reviews for Muse are 40k ratings with a 4.88 score (truly rare) telling you users love the product. - In terms of distribution, $META owns the biggest ecosystem by far. - In terms of price $META has the most spare infra capacity + enough profits from its core to subsidize if needed.

We can’t keep concentrating tax on the top percentiles - this is a very British phenomenon but seems to be what most political parties want to do

This matters more than ever Everyone needs to learn Product alone isn’t enough Marketing is distribution plus a warm fuzzy glow which makes you want to use a product Claude Code was product line for a while But all the doom and gloom and the patronising tone of Claude made some people move away I still use Claude Code daily but the successful AI products will need to crack both B2B and consumer - together