NeoBankDB

Journal

Longer notes from the desk

Licence literacy, country thinning, and why a metal card is not a score. Not a roundup.

Note17 Sept 2026 · 6 min

Zero-forex and travel cards

Travel is a tariff, not a charter. Scapia is a Federal Bank credit card. Niyo Global is a partner-bank forex SKU. Wise is an EMI. Revolut is a UK bank for eligible customers and an EMI wallet elsewhere. Put them on one page so a search for “zero forex card” does not land on a clone shop.

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Earlier notes

Note4 Aug 2026 · 8 min

Crypto cards after the stadium era: RedotPay, Crypto.com, Wirex

The job is spend USDT at a terminal. The risk is that the balance is not a deposit. A comparison that ignores the BIN sponsor is incomplete.

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Note14 Jul 2026 · 9 min

EMI vs bank: the sentence every neobank review should open with

Safeguarding is not FSCS. Partner banks are not the app brand. Here is the split that actually decides whether your salary is protected.

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Note22 Jun 2026 · 8 min

Indian neobanks in 2026: UPI won, so the apps sell metal and US stocks

RBI does not license a generic neobank. Jupiter, Fi, and Niyo wrap partner banks. Here is how to read the card.

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Note18 May 2026 · 7 min

Switzerland’s digital-bank graveyard: radicant, FlowBank, Swiss4

FINMA does not play. The home market is small. A fourth payments app is a hobby, not a bank.

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Note9 Apr 2026 · 10 min

After Synapse: how to read a US neobank that is not a bank

FDIC pass-through is a record-keeping claim. If the middleware holds the ledger, you have a new kind of risk.

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Note28 Mar 2026 · 8 min

Australia after the thinning: Up, Archa, Spriggy, Airwallex

The consumer ADI that lasted, the business card that is not a bank, the kids prepaid, and the cross-border platform founders actually use.

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Note12 Feb 2026 · 6 min

How the register is marked: six numbers, no mystery sauce

Safety 25, fees 20, features 15, app 15, global 15, support 10. Why those weights, and what a 9.0 actually means.

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Note20 Jan 2026 · 8 min

Mercury, Airwallex, Qonto, Aspire: pick from the incorporation, not the homepage

US C-corp, APAC trade, French SAS, SEA SME — four products, four home markets, one bad habit of calling them all banks.

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