Business & Tech
The latest stories from independent business & tech media.
FCA warns wealth managers over fees, financial crime and AI risks
The FCA has warned wealth managers to strengthen standards around fees, fair value and financial crime controls, while managing the risks associated with growing AI adoption across the sector.
$1K laser mosquito zapper promises precision strikes as backers itch for answers
After raising $2.8M, the project has entered production, but company comms have done little to reassure buyers
Payments giant Stripe is about to drop over $7 billion to become a gateway to AI token sales
AI gateways look promising as companies struggle with model orchestration
Xen Project gets serious about safety in push to possibly partition robot brains
Boeing quietly joins FOSS hypervisor crew, as AMD and Renesas lead new effort to comply with formal standards
Stripe agrees $7bn takeover of AI firm OpenRouter - Bloomberg
Payments giant Stripe has struck a $7 billion deal to acquire AI gateway keeper OpenRouter, according to Bloomberg.
Google ships an open-source C++ library for validating digital media
Google open-sources library for developers working on content provenance amid AI slop deluge.
Almost nobody pays attention to web standards anymore
Screen readers suffer as nearly 90% of top websites tested contain HTML spec violations
Crook hawks millions of records allegedly plundered from corporate Azure tenants
McDonald's, Vodafone, TCS, Kyndryl, and others named as researchers point to compromised credentials
Siemens and Reinhausen turn up the voltage for hungry AI racks
Not a German cop show, but a pair of engineering firms aiming to feed 800 VDC to next-gen kit
Agentic AI costs set to balloon fivefold by 2028
Cheaper tokens won't help when complex workflows consume so many more of them, Gartner warns
France tax agency hack affects at least 678,000
Attackers claim millions more may have been affected.
An AI broke Snowflake's code. Then another AI agent exploited it
Don't worry, this one was via a bug bounty program
Mozilla adds ad blocking to Firefox for iOS
Experimental feature to block some, but not all, ads
GitHub has Issues as repo downloads hit 50% error rate
Copilot also wobbles as another outage tests developer patience
Windows 11 movable taskbar edges closer to general release
Preview also brings compact icons, Start menu sizing, and the final shove for WMIC
Northern Gritstone seeks US capital with new San Francisco office
Northern Gritstone, an investment group specialising in backing tech innovations coming from universities in the north of England, aims to secure more US capital as it prepares to open a San Francisco office.
Nick Green: Why protection needs underwriting at the front door
The Financial Conduct Authority’s interim report from its Pure Protection Market Study shows that protection works well for many current customers, but that too many remain unprotected or disengaged.
Capita handed vital role in next pandemic despite civil service pension failures
Initial £31M deal comes with scope to scale sharply during a major outbreak
Defence investor GALLOS Technologies raises £35m
GALLOS Technologies, a defence venture studio founded by former UK national security and special forces leaders, has announced a $50m (£35m) balance sheet investment round to fund the creation and scaling of early-stage defence startups.
Synchrony unveils ChatGPT plugin
Consumer financial services firm Synchrony is launching a ChatGPT plugin that lets shoppers find savings and offers from the firm's marketplace.
Resolved: GitHub down in worldwide, multihour outage - again
Purdey to launch pop-up boutique at Harrods
British outdoors and country lifestyle retailer Purdey is launching a pop-up at Harrods in September to mark the start of the game season.
Revolut to open network of airport lounges across Europe
Revolut has unveiled plans for a network of premium branded airport lounges across major European destinations.
STACKUP: The Stack's weekly tech startups and funding wrap
Monzo chairman Hoffman steps down
The chairman of UK digital bank Monzo, Gary Hoffman, is standing down months after facing a shareholder revolt following the departure of CEO TS Anil.
Why Banks Should Invest in More Orchestration for Better Security
At EBAday 2026 in Copenhagen, Trevor LaFleche, Director, Global Banking Products, ACI Worldwide, spoke to FinextraTV about orchestration within Wero and other payment trends. LaFleche suggested that banks are still in a 'siloed mode' .
Trump-linked World Liberty Financial gets conditional bank charter approval
Donald Trump-linked crypto venture World Liberty Financial has received conditional approval for a bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Majestic Wine MD on why stores are at “the heart of everything”
Majestic Wine recently kicked off a £4 million investment into its store portfolio, as it unveiled its newest shop in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. Its investment over 2026/27 includes the launch of at least four new stores, as well as a comprehensive programme of improvements to its…
