News: US and UK push stablecoins, Flutterwave lands $3.2bn, and Green-Got makes Crowdcube history

**Kate Moody** (0:04)
This is Fintech Insider News. This week, US and UK move from stablecoin legislation to implementation, payment startup Flutterwave hits $3.2 billion valuation backed by Ripple, and French near bank Greengoo shatters Crowdcube records. We'll be talking all of this and more on today's new show. So don't go anywhere.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:28)
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**Kate Moody** (1:03)
Hello, and welcome to episode 1076 of Fintech Insider News, brought to you by 11FS, the sixth time consultancy of the year that works with financial providers, big and small, to build the next generation of financial services. I'm Kate Moody, customer strategy director at 11FS.
To help me unpack the biggest and most interesting stories from Fintech and financial service from the past week, I'm joined by a brilliant panel of guests. First up, we have a welcome back to the show for Valerie Kontor, founder of Black in Fintech. Welcome to the show, Valerie, great to see you. How are things going for you in Black in Fintech?

**Valerie Kontor** (1:35)
Yeah, it's going really good. We're nine months in planning our sixth event, which is in two weeks' time. That'll be Currency of Culture at Black is Innovation Hub, so glad to be back.

**Kate Moody** (1:45)
Awesome. Great to have you on the show. It's also a big welcome back to the show for the one and only Matt Cooper, Koci of Crowdcube. Matt, always a pleasure to have you on the show. How are things going for you?

**Matt Cooper** (1:54)
Hey Kate, thanks for having me. Going really well. We are busy beavering away on lots of primary funding rounds for companies.
Increasingly, lots of secondary liquidity events for companies and their employees. All very exciting stuff.

**Kate Moody** (2:09)
Awesome. Looking forward to digging into that in more detail. Last but not least, making the very welcome Fintech Insider debut, we have a welcome to the show for Radi El Haj, CEO of RS2.
Welcome to the show. Would you mind introducing yourself and RS2, please?

**Radi El Haj** (2:22)
Thank you very much, Kate. Nice to meet you, Valerie and Matt in this event. My name is Radi El Haj. I'm the CEO of RS2 Group.
RS2 has been building payments and technology over the last 30 years, helping banks, payment processors, fintechs to modernize their platform for issuing and acquiring using one single platform. Today, we operate globally and we are very fortunate to see payments trends developing across very different markets. Thank you for inviting me today.

**Kate Moody** (2:52)
No, thank you for joining us. Looking forward to picking your brain as we go through the stories. Right. We have a panel. I'm excited to get started, so let's dive in. Okay. Our first story comes from the papers, and that is US and UK moved from stablecoin legislation to implementation. Stablecoins took another step towards the financial mainstream this week, with regulators in both the US and UK publishing major updates to their rule books. In the US, agencies including the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and Treasury have proposed identity verification requirements for stablecoin issuers under the Genius Act, bringing AML and customer onboarding expectations close to those already applied to banks and regulated financial institutions. Meanwhile, across the pond, the Bank of England has published its long-awaited framework for systemic stablecoin issuers outlining how reserves should be managed, setting a temporary 40-4-0 billion issuance guardrail and laying the groundwork for regulated stablecoins to begin operating in the UK from 2027
Radi, you came out and said the UK has not missed its opportunity, the opportunity has changed.
What's your take on this? Maybe you could explain a bit more about your stance on this.

**Radi El Haj** (3:59)
Yeah. Katie, I genuinely believe that the UK hasn't really missed anything. I think the opportunity itself has simply evolved and matured. If you look five years ago, we were asking whether stablecoin could work. Today, we are asking how can it operate really safely and scale within our regulated financial markets. I think this is the discussion which we are having today. We are moving from really innovation into building an infrastructure that institution can actually trust. This is a sign that the market is maturing rather than really slowing down.