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Regulation
EU General Court upholds Stripchat's designation as a very large platform
The EU General Court has dismissed in full the action brought by Technius, the company behind Stripchat, against its designation as a very large online platform under the Digital Services Act. The company had reported about 31.8 million average monthly active users in the EU, while the Commission, using Similarweb data, found unique visitors exceeded 62 million. The court held that the Commission's method was reliable and that a later correction of Similarweb's figures did not affect the legality of the decision. The DSA threshold is 45 million users.
What it means: The ruling matters well beyond this platform, because it concerns how users are counted for applying the DSA. The court accepted that the Commission may rely on third-party measurement data and reject methods that artificially lower user numbers. It also held that legality is judged on the data available when the decision was taken, not on later corrections. For digital platforms near the thresholds, the message is that creative user accounting is not a safe strategy. For Greek platforms, far below the 45 million mark, the core DSA duties already apply: notice-and-action mechanisms for illegal content, advertising transparency and regular publication of EU active user figures. The judgment is a reminder that those numbers are not a formality but can be checked and challenged. Companies building marketplaces or social apps should document their measurement method and apply it consistently from the start. The judgment can still be appealed to the Court of Justice.
Read the original on Court of Justice of the EU (General Court)
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Fintech
Fragment raises $12M for a ledger that keeps AI agents in check
Fragment, a New York startup, announced a $12 million Series A co-led by FirstMark and BoxGroup. The company builds software building blocks that let AI agents handle billing, payments and accounting safely. Its system relies on double-entry bookkeeping and checks that entries balance before any money moves. It follows an $11 million seed round led by Stripe.
What it means: The idea behind Fragment is simple but important: if an autonomous program is going to move money, every move should pass a neutral check that does not depend on the model's judgement. Double-entry bookkeeping has done exactly that for centuries, and using it as a brake on agents is more reliable than any instruction in a prompt. For Greek software companies building automation for invoicing, collections or supplier payments, the lesson is to separate decision logic from record keeping. An agent may propose a payment, but a rules engine should confirm there is a matching document, the amount fits and no limit is breached. In Greece this ties directly to myDATA, where income and expenses must match what is reported to AADE, so an agent's mistake can become a tax problem as well as a financial one. Builders of such tools should also keep an immutable history of entries, so the accountant can reconstruct who did what and when.
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Regulation
ESMA: 15.5 million retail investors use firms based in another member state
ESMA's annual analysis for 2025 shows that about 15.5 million clients in the EU and EEA receive investment services from firms based in another member state, almost double the 2023 figure. Compared with 2024, retail clients rose 47%, while the number of firms grew only 2% and complaints stayed stable. Cyprus remains the main home of passporting firms with a 20% share, followed by Luxembourg and Germany. France, Spain, Germany and Italy are the main destination markets.
What it means: The data show that the single market for investment services works for retail investors mainly through a few digital platforms, many of them licensed in Cyprus. For Greek investors, that means the app they use to buy shares or ETFs is probably supervised by another country's authority, and resolving a dispute may be more complicated. The rapid rise in clients against an almost flat number of firms points to concentration: a handful of large players are winning most of the market. For Greek investment firms, competition from such platforms is already intense, and differentiation comes from local service, the Greek language and specialised advice. The fall in complaints per client is encouraging, yet regulators will keep watching aggressive marketing aimed at young investors. The Hellenic Capital Market Commission can use these figures to seek closer cooperation with home-country authorities. Greek fintechs with European ambitions can also see the room for growth here.
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Regulation
ESMA sets enforcement priorities for 2026 annual reports
ESMA has published its European Common Enforcement Priorities for the 2026 annual financial reports of listed companies. For IFRS it focuses on geopolitical uncertainty and on restructuring provisions and debt restructuring. For sustainability statements under ESRS it calls for progress on materiality assessment and connected information on impacts, risks, policies, targets and metrics. For the ESEF digital format it highlights frequent errors in the statement of changes in equity.
What it means: ESMA's priorities are in effect the checklist the Hellenic Capital Market Commission will use when reviewing Greek listed companies' 2026 accounts. Anyone preparing financial statements or sustainability reports now knows where the focus will fall. The stress on geopolitical uncertainty means generic references to war or tariffs will not do. Companies need to show how those risks affect specific estimates such as impairments and provisions. For ESRS the key is consistency: policies, targets and metrics must link to the risks the company judged material rather than appear in isolation. ESEF errors in the statement of changes in equity are a practical issue for reporting software vendors and accounting teams, because they often stem from incorrect XBRL tagging. For unlisted Greek SMEs the priorities are not binding, yet they indirectly shape what banks and large customers ask for in sustainability data. The emphasis on materiality signals that the goal is sharper reports, not longer ones.
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Regulation
European supervisory authorities set joint priorities for 2027
The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities, EBA, EIOPA and ESMA, has published its annual work programme for 2027. Key priorities are digital operational resilience, technological innovation, sustainable finance, securitisation and cross-sectoral risk monitoring. Under DORA the authorities will continue overseeing critical ICT third-party providers and will assess the implications of artificial intelligence. Consumer protection remains a central aim, alongside simplification of the regulatory framework.
What it means: The programme brings no new rules, but it shows where supervisors will focus next year, which is useful for anyone planning a compliance budget. The emphasis on DORA and critical ICT providers means the large cloud and software vendors serving banks and insurers will stay under constant scrutiny. For Greek software firms selling to financial institutions, client demands for documentation, resilience testing and exit plans will keep rising, even if the vendors themselves are never designated critical. The mention of artificial intelligence also matters. Supervisors want to understand how AI models affect credit scoring, insurance pricing and customer service, which could lead to guidance that complements the AI Act. The nod to simplification shows political pressure to reduce burden has reached the supervisors, although that rarely means less work for regulated firms in the short term. Compliance leads should build these themes into their plans for the coming year, starting with an updated register of ICT contracts.
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Regulation
EBA classifies USDC as the EU's first significant e-money token
The European Banking Authority has classified USDC, issued in the EU by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, as a significant e-money token under MiCA. Of the 45 such tokens notified in the EU, it is the first to receive this designation. From 12 November 2026 the EBA takes over direct supervision of own funds, reserves, liquidity and recovery and redemption plans, while France's ACPR keeps oversight of governance and fit-and-proper matters. The EBA has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the New York Department of Financial Services.
What it means: The designation shows MiCA moving from theory to practice for large stablecoins. Dual supervision means the core elements of a token's stability, namely reserves, liquidity and redemption at par, move to the European level. For EU users this strengthens confidence in USDC as a settlement asset, since a European authority now checks it directly. For the issuer, significant tokens carry higher own funds and liquidity requirements and therefore higher compliance costs. For Greek crypto-asset service providers and fintechs the takeaway is practical: choosing a stablecoin for payments or treasury should depend on its regulatory status, not just its market liquidity. ESMA has already told providers not to serve stablecoins lacking MiCA authorisation, so the line between approved and unapproved tokens is becoming decisive. The memorandum with New York also shows that supervising global stablecoins requires cross-border cooperation, which will matter for future euro stablecoins as well. Greek firms holding USDC should review issuer disclosures after November.
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Crypto & Digital Euro
DriveWealth teams up with Ripple for RLUSD stablecoin settlement
DriveWealth, which provides brokerage infrastructure to investing apps, is partnering with Ripple to use the RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger. Settlement will start in Europe and later expand to the US. Clients will be able to fund collateral accounts with stablecoins that convert to cash in near real time instead of waiting for a bank wire. DriveWealth is also moving treasury and custody functions onto Ripple's infrastructure.
What it means: The problem this partnership tackles is very specific: US equities now settle in one business day, but money arriving from another continent gets stuck in bank opening hours and time zones. A stablecoin that moves around the clock closes that gap. For European investors buying US shares through apps, the change could mean faster access to funds and less money tied up as prefunding. For Greek investment firms and fintechs considering access to foreign markets, the news shows that infrastructure providers are already wiring stablecoins in behind the scenes. Compliance is the catch. In the EU, offering services in stablecoins without MiCA authorisation is under growing pressure from ESMA, so any European partner must check the status of the specific token in the EU before using it. The decision to start in Europe will show how supervisors treat such flows. Treasury teams should also weigh the counterparty risk of the issuer before relying on it.
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Tech
China's CXMT rattles memory stocks with new DRAM design claim
China's ChangXin Memory Technologies said it had made progress on a new 4F² DRAM cell architecture that increases storage density. According to reports, it plans to ship a server DDR5 product using the design by the end of 2026. The news sent SK Hynix down 10%, Samsung down 7.4% and Micron down about 3.6%. CXMT has not yet shared speeds, capacities or customers.
What it means: The market reaction shows how sensitive the AI supply chain is to any sign of Chinese competition. Memory is one of the most expensive parts of a server, and prices have risen sharply on AI demand. If CXMT really can produce competitive server memory, it could push prices down over the medium term, which would help anyone buying infrastructure or cloud services. For Greek businesses planning server upgrades or private cloud projects, that is no reason to wait. The announcement came without specifications, and US export rules may limit the use of Chinese components in some markets. Public procurement and financial sector clients also increasingly ask for documentation on hardware origin. The more useful lesson is to diversify suppliers and sign contracts with price clauses, so that a sudden swing in memory prices does not wreck a project budget halfway through delivery. Software teams can also cut exposure by tuning memory-hungry workloads, since caching and smaller models often reduce how much RAM a service really needs.
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Crypto & Digital Euro
Breeden: Bank of England in no hurry for a retail digital pound
Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden said at an event on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings that the UK may not need a retail digital pound quickly. She argued that sterling stablecoins from regulated firms and tokenised bank deposits could deliver similar benefits. She noted that central bank money's share of transactions has fallen to 8%. The Bank aims to finalise its code for systemic stablecoins by the end of 2026, with a temporary issuance cap of £40 billion.
What it means: The Bank of England's stance differs markedly from the ECB's, which is pressing ahead with the digital euro and a pilot programme. London is betting that a tightly regulated private sector can meet the demand for digital money, while the central bank modernises its own settlement system for round-the-clock operation. Europe, by contrast, believes that without public digital money payments will depend on American networks and dollar tokens. Breeden's remark that it would be madness for Britons to access innovation only through dollar stablecoins shows both sides worry about the same thing and simply choose different tools. For Greek businesses trading with the UK, the future may include settlement in sterling stablecoins, while the euro area will see a digital euro, bank tokens and euro stablecoins side by side. Payment software providers should design platforms that handle several forms of digital money at par, as Breeden herself describes. Interoperability will be the key technical challenge.
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Crypto & Digital Euro
Coinbase's Base launches Earn & Borrow for in-app yield and loans
Base, the network developed by Coinbase, has launched Earn & Borrow, a toolkit that lets wallets, exchanges and fintechs offer variable stablecoin yield and loans backed by crypto assets. It relies on third-party lending markets such as Morpho and Aave and is not a protocol of its own. Independent curators choose the markets and set risk limits, and Coinbase says it does not guarantee the vaults. Average yield on dollar stablecoins was reported at about 4.45% before incentives.
What it means: Base's pitch is to make decentralised finance a building block that slots into any app, much as card payments did through APIs. For fintechs that means offering yield or loans without becoming a bank. In Europe the picture is more complicated. MiCA does not fully cover crypto lending, and ESMA and the EBA have already asked for it to be examined in the regulation's review. A Greek app offering such yield to customers would need to check whether it is an investment service, a crypto-asset service or something that is not allowed without a specific licence. The risk for end users is real as well: smart contracts can have bugs, collateral can be liquidated in a sharp price fall and returns are not guaranteed. For Greek businesses holding cash in stablecoins, an attractive yield should not hide the fact that this is a completely different risk profile from an insured bank deposit. A clear treasury policy has to come first.
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Fintech
Barclaycard Payments and Visa bring Unified Checkout to UK merchants
Barclaycard Payments is embedding Visa's Unified Checkout into its Smartpay Fuse payment gateway. Merchants get access through a single integration to cards, Click to Pay, digital wallets, pay-by-link and invoicing. The solution is low-code and built on modular APIs, so it does not require a large developer team. The aim is higher online conversion and a more consistent experience across channels.
What it means: The move shows that the payments battle is shifting from who accepts cards to how easily a merchant can add new payment methods without rewriting its online shop. One integration that covers cards, wallets and pay-by-link cuts development cost and reduces the number of places where things can break. In Greece, where many small online shops rely on basic bank solutions, the question is how fast local acquirers will follow. Pay-by-link and invoices with built-in payment are especially useful for service professionals and B2B sales, where customers pay after receiving the document. If that is tied to e-invoicing, which is becoming mandatory in Greece, collections could speed up noticeably. Click to Pay also shows the card schemes trying to compete with Apple and Google wallets. Greek developers building e-shops should favour gateways with modular APIs, so adding Wero or other methods does not mean starting a new project from scratch.
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Fintech
Bank of America hired 1,000 contractors to patch flaws found by Mythos
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said the bank added 1,000 outside contractors in the second quarter to fix software vulnerabilities uncovered by advanced AI models such as Anthropic's Mythos. They work alongside about 3,000 internal staff. Software remediation together with anti-money laundering compliance work cost more than two hundred million dollars in the third quarter. The bank expects these costs to fall and projects $700 million in savings from 130 internal AI projects.
What it means: This is one of the first times a major bank has put concrete numbers on the cost of defending against vulnerabilities exposed by new AI models. The conclusion is that AI does not only bring savings, it also creates a sudden bill for anyone with old code and many software vendors. Greek banks and payment providers face a similar problem on a smaller scale: decades-old systems, third-party dependencies and limited security staff. Under DORA, responsibility for flaws in third-party software does not pass to the vendor, so contracts need fix deadlines and audit rights. For Greek software firms selling to banks, it means they will be asked to prove they have tested their code with the same tools attackers use. The right response is not panic but an application inventory, prioritised critical systems and scheduled AI-assisted reviews before rushed mass hiring becomes necessary. Security budgets for 2027 should reflect this new workload.
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Crypto & Digital Euro
Baillie Gifford brings a natively tokenised bond fund to Singapore
Baillie Gifford is offering the Baillie Gifford Enhanced Yield Fund in Singapore, an actively managed short-duration bond fund. The fund is natively tokenised: investors receive tokens on Ethereum and the blockchain is the legal record of ownership. It is a US dollar UK-regulated OEIC investing in government and corporate bonds, with a yield of around 7%, a duration of about two years and an average credit rating of BBB. The firm sees tokenisation as a route to faster settlement and greater transparency.
What it means: Most tokenised funds so far are money market funds or simple wrappers around existing products. The difference here is that the blockchain is not a copy of a traditional register but the register itself. That is a meaningful step, because it moves tokenisation from liquidity tools into actively managed investment products. For the European market, the question is how such a product fits UCITS rules and central securities depository rules, and how the EU's DLT pilot regime applies. For Greek fund managers, the news is a reminder that large competitors are experimenting actively while the Greek market remains largely traditional. For investors, a 7% yield should not hide the fact that these are mid-grade bonds carrying credit risk, regardless of the technology. Tokenisation changes how ownership is recorded and settled, not the nature of investment risk. Greek fintech developers can study how transfer restrictions and investor identification are built into such tokens.
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Tech
ASML posts record sales as customers ask to order for 2030
Dutch chip equipment maker ASML reported record third-quarter 2026 net sales of €11.7 billion and net income of €5 billion, with a 57.5% gross margin. CEO Christophe Fouquet said some customers want to place orders as far out as 2029 and 2030 because of AI investment. The company expects its planned output for 2027 and 2028 to fall short of demand and is looking at adding more capacity. It guides full-year 2026 sales of €44 to €45 billion.
What it means: ASML is the only maker of the EUV lithography machines needed for the most advanced chips, so its results are one of the best gauges of where AI demand is heading. Customers wanting to book orders for 2030 means chipmakers see demand as long-lasting rather than a bubble of a few quarters. For Europe, ASML is one of the few strategic strongholds in the semiconductor chain, and its success supports the case for European technology autonomy. For Greek businesses, the direct consequence is that AI compute will stay in short supply for years. Anyone planning services that depend on GPUs or premium models should budget for persistently high costs and consider smaller, cheaper models for tasks that do not need top performance. For investors weighing Greek hardware startups, the news strengthens interest in specialised components and software that squeeze more efficiency out of the infrastructure already installed. Chip export rules and geopolitics remain the main risk to this outlook, so any plan that relies on cheap compute should include a fallback scenario.
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Crypto & Digital Euro
ANZ completes live corporate payments with tokenised deposits for BHP
Australia's ANZ became the first bank in the country to carry out live cross-border corporate payments in dollars using tokenised deposits, together with Citi, Swift and mining group BHP. BHP paid from its existing ANZ account through standard banking channels. Token processing and interbank messaging took place on Swift's distributed ledger without any extra step from the customer. ANZ has been testing tokenised asset exchanges for years, including in Project Guardian.
What it means: The most interesting detail of the test is that the customer noticed nothing. BHP paid as usual, while behind the scenes the money moved between banks as a token. That is probably how blockchain will enter corporate payments: not as a new app for the accountant but as an infrastructure change that makes settlement faster and liquidity management more efficient. Swift's involvement matters, because it means banks do not have to choose between the existing network and a new blockchain. For Greek banks, already connected to Swift, this path looks more realistic than a standalone system. For Greek exporters and shipping companies that make large dollar payments, faster settlement means less capital tied up in transit. Tokenised deposits also remain a liability of the bank and sit within the existing supervisory framework, which makes them easier for finance directors to accept than stablecoins when setting treasury policy. Banks in Greece could start with intragroup transfers for multinational clients, where the legal questions are simplest.
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Tech
Anthropic opens Singapore office and signs government MOU
Anthropic has opened an office in Singapore, its fifth in the Asia-Pacific region. It also signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the country's Ministry of Digital Development and Information on the sidelines of Singapore International Cyber Week. The MOU covers model safety and evaluation, research on AI adoption and responsible use in the public and private sectors. Claude is already used by organisations such as GovTech Singapore, Grab and DBS.
What it means: The move shows a model of state and AI vendor relations that could interest Greece too: not just buying licences, but joint work on testing, evaluation and incident response. Singapore has spent years building model assurance capacity and now uses it as leverage. For the Greek public sector, which is already experimenting with digital assistants on gov.gr, the example suggests that in-house evaluation skills are a precondition for having a real voice with large providers. For private companies, the point is that vendors invest in local presence where usage is high and rules are clear. Europe has the second ingredient through the AI Act but still needs more of the first. Greek startups building on Claude or other models should watch where providers open offices, because partner programmes, local support and pilot credits tend to follow those decisions closely. A Greek counterpart to Singapore's testing sandbox, run with universities and the national AI authority, would also give local firms a trusted place to validate Greek-language deployments before launch.
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Tech
Anthropic: small AI models may soon self-replicate on IoT devices
Anthropic's Frontier Red Team published experiments suggesting that small AI models may be months away from being able to copy themselves onto cheap IoT devices. In tests, a 9-billion-parameter model got inference running on 8 of 9 hardware types, while a larger model ran distributed across 15 Android TV boxes costing about $55 each. Stronger models completed full replication cycles in a simplified setting. The company stresses that no working rogue replicator exists yet.
What it means: The research does not describe a threat that exists today, but it shows where risk is heading: away from expensive data centres and towards cheap, poorly protected devices found in every office and shop. Cameras, smart TVs, thermostats and point-of-sale gadgets often run old software with factory passwords. If a future program carrying its own model can work out how to use unfamiliar devices, old-style botnets gain new flexibility. For Greek SMEs the practical answer is well known but rarely applied: a separate network for IoT devices, changed passwords, remote access switched off where it is not needed and hardware bought from vendors who ship updates. The EU Cyber Resilience Act will gradually push such requirements onto manufacturers, yet equipment already installed will stay in use for years. Companies building devices or firmware, such as ordering kiosks, should design on the assumption that someone will try to run foreign code on them.
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Regulation
AADE: data on 171 million accounts were exchanged globally in 2024
Greece's tax authority AADE is hosting in Athens, from 12 to 15 October 2026, the 25th meeting of the OECD Global Forum's Peer Review Group on the automatic exchange of information. Governor Giorgos Pitsilis said that in 2024 alone, information on more than 171 million financial accounts holding assets of almost €13 trillion was exchanged internationally under the Common Reporting Standard. The figures are global totals, not Greek data. He also highlighted the amended CRS and the new Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, CARF.
What it means: The reference to CARF is the most important point for Greek businesses and individuals holding crypto assets. The new framework, applied in the EU through the DAC8 directive from 2026, requires crypto-asset service providers to report client and transaction data to tax authorities, which then exchange it among themselves. Put simply, trading on foreign exchanges is no longer invisible to AADE. For accountants, clients with crypto holdings must declare gains and income correctly, because cross-checking will be automatic. For Greek crypto-asset service providers, reporting duties mean collecting clients' tax residence and tax ID properly from the start. The amended CRS also extends coverage to e-money and central bank digital currencies, which matters for fintechs offering payment accounts. Hosting the meeting in Athens shows AADE's wish to present itself as a modern, data-driven authority. Businesses should assume the transparency of their holdings abroad will keep increasing year after year.
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Tech
Workday and Anthropic link Sana agents with Claude
Workday and Anthropic announced a partnership connecting Workday’s Sana AI agents with Claude. Employees can start work in Claude or in Sana, exchanging context through the open Model Context Protocol. Every action follows the customer’s existing Workday permissions and audit controls, and the user confirms changes. The Sana in Claude plugin is available to early-access customers and is expected to reach general availability late in 2026.
What it means: The partnership shows how major enterprise platforms want frontier reasoning inside HR and finance workflows without loosening existing permissions. For Greek companies already on Workday or evaluating agentic tools, the key point is that rules stay in the system of record instead of drifting into an uncontrolled general chatbot. That lowers the risk of an agent approving a payment or changing pay outside company policy. It also opens practical cases such as invoice exception review or internal mobility planning inside tools teams already use. Builders of custom integrations should watch standards such as MCP and keep human confirmation for sensitive actions. Late-2026 availability leaves room for pilots, but not for delaying an agent access policy, because buyers will soon expect governed AI inside core people and money processes across everyday business operations. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs.
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Tech
Workday to buy C1.ai for identity of people and AI agents
Workday announced a definitive agreement to acquire C1.ai, an agentic identity platform that governs access for employees and autonomous AI agents. C1.ai connects to systems such as email, CRM, code repositories, finance tools and cloud infrastructure. The deal is expected to close in Workday’s fiscal fourth quarter ending 31 January 2027. Workday frames the move as becoming the identity governance layer for people, money and agents across the enterprise.
What it means: The deal shows the market moving from experimental AI agents to access control. When agents open email, change payroll data or call payment APIs, the hard question is not only what they can do, but who granted the right and when it is revoked. Greek firms on Workday or similar HR and finance stacks should ask vendors for agent inventories, time-bounded permissions and audit trails. The same logic applies to companies building their own agents on ERP, myDATA or ordering platforms: without identity and revocation, a mistake or breach scales instantly. The move also maps to AI Act and cybersecurity expectations, where proof of control over automated systems becomes part of compliance. Software vendors selling to businesses should design role-based rights for agents now, not only for human users, because buyers will increasingly treat agent identity as a procurement requirement rather than an optional add-on in enterprise deals. It belongs in operational planning for Greek SMEs.
Summaries are ours. Copyright in the original articles remains with their publishers.
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