WEEKLY EDITION BY NIKITA ALEXANDER

Welcome to your latest Bobsguide's Weekend Digest, your essential update on the biggest cybersecurity and fintech security challenges shaping the financial sector.

As cyber threats evolve and innovation reshapes financial services, we’ve gathered key insights to keep you informed, prepared, and ahead of emerging risks.

In this issue, you'll find:

- Major UK retail hacks raise spillover risks for fintech

- Over €36M in AML fines spotlight compliance urgency

- Liberis reveals its embedded finance blueprint with GenAI

We're here to keep you ahead of the curve every weekend.

INSIGHTS

UK retail cyberattacks spillover risks for fintech

A wave of cyberattacks on UK retailers like Harrods, M&S, and Co-op has prompted warnings from the NCSC about broader threats across industries. The M&S breach, linked to the DragonForce ransomware and Scattered Spider group, disrupted online operations and underscored vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure. With retailers and fintechs sharing tech vendors and customer data dependencies, spillover risks are growing.

Fintech firms are urged to bolster ransomware defenses, assess third-party security, and tighten business continuity planning. The takeaway? Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue - it’s a critical business risk that requires board-level attention.

ANALYSIS

Record AML fines in Europe highlight the high stakes of compliance

According to Vixio’s 2025 AML Outlook, European regulators have issued over €36 million in fines for AML breaches in the past year. Payments and e-money firms are in the crosshairs, with roughly 30 enforcement actions involving weak KYC, poor risk monitoring, and governance failures.

Cases include BaFin’s fine against Ratepay and license revocations in Lithuania and Estonia. As the EU prepares to launch AMLA, its centralized enforcement authority, compliance expectations are rising sharply. Firms must invest in robust monitoring systems, staff training, and timely SAR reporting - or face financial penalties and reputational damage that threaten long-term growth and trust.

Q&A

Nima Montazeri on Liberis’ blueprint for smarter SMB funding

Liberis CPO, Nima Montazeri shares how the fintech is scaling embedded finance with real-time infrastructure powered by GenAI, modular APIs, and over a decade of proprietary business data. From parsing unstructured financial data to enabling smarter credit decisions, GenAI is embedded directly into the firm’s underwriting engine.

The Create Journey API allows partners to offer pre-approved capital seamlessly and compliantly. With differing regulatory environments across the US and EU, Liberis builds flexible, scalable tools to handle complexity. Looking ahead, Montazeri sees agentic systems and adaptive intelligence shaping the future of funding — enabling faster, smarter financial experiences for SMBs.