The 18th Edition Connected Banking Summit Innovation and Excellence Awards 2025 - West Africa celebrated the most outstanding banking and fintech leaders in West Africa,  recognizing institutions and individuals driving digital transformation, cybersecurity  advancements, and customer-centric financial services. 

Honoring Innovation & Leadership 

Santander has obtained regulatory authorization to acquire 89.9% of Tresmares Capital, an alternative financing and private equity platform founded in 2020 that offers financial solutions to high-growth SMEs and private equity managers throughout Europe.

The acquisition of this platform is one of the pillars of the bank's growth strategy in alternative asset management, promoting private debt and funds of funds verticals.

Oracle Customer Edge Summit -- Oracle today announced new AI agent capabilities embedded directly within Oracle Textura Payment Management Cloud Service.

eToro, the trading and investing platform, announced today that it is adding five new cryptoassets to its platform.

The new cryptoassets are:

McKay Brothers International launched the lowest latency connectivity between key crypto trading hubs in Tokyo with those in London and Dublin. The new service achieves sub-132ms latency (round trip) between Tokyo and London. McKay’s Tokyo-London-Dublin service connects traders hosted in AWS in Tokyo and those trading at Equinix LD4 in London and AWS in Dublin. McKay’s newest route complements its existing ultra-low latency crypto connectivity from Tokyo to Hong Kong, Singapore, Chicago, and Ashburn.

Lantern Finance, Inc. today announced the successful close of its oversubscribed $1 million+ pre-seed financing round. The funding will accelerate the development of Lantern's next generation crypto-backed lending platform for US-based crypto investors. By allowing users to borrow against their digital assets and receive funds directly into their bank accounts, Lantern Finance fills a critical market gap—enabling them to access liquidity without selling their crypto, avoiding taxable events and preserving long-term upside.

MTN Mobile Money (U) Limited, in partnership with Mastercard, Diamond Trust Bank and Network International, has launched the Virtual Card by MoMo, an innovative payment solution designed to enable MTN MoMo subscribers to perform secure online transactions without needing a physical card or bank account. This latest offering strengthens MTN’s commitment to driving financial inclusion and enhancing digital accessibility across Uganda, aligning with the company’s broader mission of enabling a digital economy for all.

Coinhako, (a leading Singapore-based firm a leading digital asset platform in Singapore) today announces it will be joining Fusion Digital Assets, TP ICAP's FCA registered UK-based wholesale spot cryptoasset exchange.

Fiserv, Inc. , a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, today announced it has completed its acquisition of Payfare Inc., a provider of program management solutions with a particular focus on new economy workforces. Payfare’s co-founders and employees are now part of the Fiserv team.

Pepper Advantage, a leading credit management firm with operations in Europe and Asia, today announced the closure of its acquisition by