Sustainable investing has evolved from a niche trend into a mainstream product. Yet, as the volume of capital in green funds grows, so does the pressure to answer a question that has long remained in the background: how do we actually know if an investment is truly sustainable? ESG ratings were supposed to provide the answer. However, recent years have shown that they are one of the weakest links in the entire system. The European Union is responding with a series of regulatory measures, the latest of which—direct oversight of ESG rating providers—came into effect on July 2, 2026.

Whether this newsletter finds you at the office or on vacation, we believe there is always room for interesting content and hope you can spare a few minutes to catch up on the latest industry news from the past month. The holiday season also marks the slow end of the conference season. We managed to attend a few, and we are sharing our key takeaways with you here.

From June 16–18, our representative, Ondřej Mikulčík, attended the iFX EXPO International 2026 conference, which took place in Limassol, Cyprus. This is one of the most significant conferences focusing on online trading, fintech, brokerage, and related technological solutions.

Ondřej Mikulčík represented us at the Venture & FinTech MeetUp business mission in Hungary, which took place on June 10–11 in Budapest, organized by CzechTrade. The program focused on establishing contacts between Czech startups, fintech companies, and technology companies on one side, and Hungarian investors, banks, associations, and other key players in the local ecosystem on the other.

Summer is just around the corner, so it's a good time to catch up on new industry insights before the start of the traditional summer slowdown. In this issue, we bring you plenty of them. You can also mark August 27th in your calendars now, as it's when the 6th annual edition of our CryptoNight conference will take place.

You may have noticed that this edition of the newsletter arrived in your inbox later than usual. We were diligently preparing for our flagship conference, FinTech Roadmap 2026, and scheduled its distribution for a time when we could provide you with a recording from the main stage of the conference.