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Fintech PR agency

Pocket PR is a fintech PR agency for payments and crypto companies that want finance reporters to trust their numbers.

We are a remote team based in Kyiv and Brno.

In fintech a press release can break a law, so the work starts with what a regulator allows you to say and then finds the story inside those lines.

By the Pocket PR editorial team.

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Fintech PR agency

Illustration

Fintech money and FCA action in figures

  • $103.1Bglobal fintech investment in the first half of 2026kpmg.com
  • 19,766UK financial promotions amended or withdrawn in 2024 after FCA actionfca.org.uk

What a fintech PR agency does for payments and banking startups

A fintech PR firm combines four jobs that general tech agencies rarely put together.

Finance trade desks differ from startup tech desks, and a pitch that works for Finextra will bore American Banker, so each job is planned market by market.

  • Mapping which rules apply to each sentence in each market.
  • Building stories from your own transaction data.
  • Pitching the specialist finance trade desks.
  • Timing news to the few conferences where fintech reporters gather.
Release draft under review beside a card terminal

Illustration

What fintech reporters actually cover

A month of fintech trade press shows five story types on repeat. Money now goes to fewer, larger companies.

KPMG counted 2,100 fintech deals in the first half of 2026 against 2,501 in the half before, while the money invested rose.

So a seed round alone rarely earns a story, while a round with a licence or a new market does.

Product feature news sits at the bottom.

What fintech reporters cover, funding, fraud, banks, payments and data
What fintech reporters cover, funding, fraud, banks, payments and data
  1. Funding and acquisitions with a clear reason behind them.
  2. Licences and charters, because they change what a company may legally do.
  3. Bank and fintech partnerships, including sponsor bank deals and their failures.
  4. Regulation and enforcement, where a founder with a clear view gets quoted.
  5. Outages and fraud. Reporters cover them hard, which is why a prepared statement comes first.

Finance desks and newsletters we pitch

  • Finextra

    Bank technology deals and the vendors who win them

    London online daily with a community blog section

  • Fintech Business Weekly

    Banking as a service and the consent orders that hit sponsor banks

    Weekly newsletter by Jason Mikula

  • This Week in Fintech

    A weekly roundup of rounds and launches from fintech operators

    Weekly newsletter with a community

  • FinTech Futures

    Core banking software and the regtech vendors around it

    Online trade title with awards and event coverage

All 13 outlets

  • American Banker

    US banks and their regulators, including bank partnerships with fintechs

    Subscription daily for bank executives

  • Payments Dive

    Card networks and real-time payments in the US, plus their regulation

    Free daily newsletter

  • Sifted fintech desk

    European fintech rounds with long founder interviews

    Online, with a paid fintech briefing

  • AltFi

    Fintech funding in the UK and Europe, with a focus on lending

    London online title with events

  • Tearsheet

    US digital banking, credit unions included

    Online publication with podcasts

  • CoinDesk

    Crypto markets and policy, with stablecoins a growing share

    Online daily with newsletters

  • The Block

    Crypto companies read through on chain data

    Online daily with a research unit

  • Fintech Insider podcast

    Weekly news review and interviews on banking and fintech from the 11FS team

    Podcast

  • Breaking Banks

    Fintech founders worldwide talking about bank innovation

    Weekly podcast with a radio show

Fintech compliance rules that shape every press release

A fintech release takes longer to approve than a SaaS release, and the rules differ by market.

What follows is general information, not legal advice. None of this stops PR. It changes the verbs.

Safe becomes safeguarded, guaranteed becomes insured up to a stated limit, and every number gets a date and a source.

Under section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act, a financial promotion must be made or approved by an authorised firm. FCA action led firms to amend or withdraw 19,766 promotions in 2024, almost double 2023. Crypto has had its own regime since October 2023. It requires risk warnings plus a cooling off period for new investors.

MiCA has applied since 30 December 2024. Crypto marketing must be labelled as marketing and must not mislead. It has to agree with the white paper and carry a disclaimer that no authority approved it. A launch release that mentions returns counts as marketing.

FINRA Rule 2210 requires principal approval of broker dealer retail communications. The SEC Marketing Rule allows adviser testimonials only with disclosures about payment and conflicts. FDIC rules bar a nonbank from implying it is FDIC insured, and pass through coverage must be described accurately.

Fintech PR angles that work

These angles get opened in fintech inboxes because a competitor's release cannot supply them.

Angles built on disrupting banking or democratizing finance, or a feature list with no user number, go straight to the bin.

  • Your own data as a small index. Anonymised and dated, with a method note.
  • The licence as the headline, told as what customers can now do.
  • A named bank partner with a start date. Unnamed partners read as rumour.
  • A regulation explainer with a position, ready the day a rule changes.
  • A fraud or scam warning that shows the company knows its risks.
Analyst marking his own payment data on a printed chart in a quiet office
Repeat the indexA small data index earns more when it comes back every quarter. Reporters can come to expect it and quote the change.Illustration

Fintech PR in Europe versus the US

European fintech coverage is thinner in money and heavier in regulation, so European desks write fewer funding stories.

They write more about licences and about who is actually profitable. For a Central or Eastern European company a home round rarely travels.

The UK press wants a UK licence or customer, US desks a US bank partner.

Who reviews fintech claims before a pitch goes out

Our lead PR expert reviews every fintech draft before it reaches a reporter.

Each claim gets a line in a table with its source and the rule it must satisfy, and your compliance officer signs that table instead of a vague draft.

Regulatory legal review stays with your counsel, and the table keeps it short.

Anastasiia Bratkova, lead PR expert at Pocket PR

Illustration

How much a fintech PR firm costs

In the US, mid-sized agencies with a tech or B2B specialty bill $10,000 to $25,000 a month, and retainers usually carry a minimum of three to six months, according to Everything PR.

Pocket PR runs fintech work from $390 a month for one market and a steady data story, and from $890 for two markets with conference support.

Wider market rates are on how much PR costs.

Rising bars for fintech PR prices from one-market plan to specialist firm
Rising bars for fintech PR prices from one-market plan to specialist firm

How a fintech story gets cleared and pitched

  1. Claims review first

    Each release is checked against the promotion rules of every market it reaches. In the UK that means the FCA regime, in the EU it means MiCA.

  2. Data stories

    We turn your anonymised transaction or lending data into one number a payments reporter can quote and your compliance team can defend.

  3. Conference calendar

    A licence or a bank partnership is timed to the conference its reporters attend, with briefings booked before the doors open.

A Warsaw payments startup gets its UK licence

A Polish payments startup entering the UK

Situation
A seed stage payments company from Warsaw receives its UK electronic money authorisation and wants UK trade coverage, but its draft release promises instant, risk free transfers.
What we do
The claims review removes risk free and names the safeguarding bank instead. The story becomes the licence plus one number from its own data on how long SME invoices wait for payment. Finextra and AltFi get an embargoed briefing a week before FinovateEurope.
Outcome
This is an illustrative scenario, not a client result. The point is the order of work. The licence and the data come first, the claims check second, the press last.
Release draft with risky claims struck out on a Warsaw startup desk, the Palace of Culture outside
Name the safeguarding bankA UK e-money firm holds customer funds with a named bank. Saying which one answers the safety question without a single promise the FCA could object to.PR in the UKIllustration

How to time a fintech launch around industry conferences

  1. Early June at RAI Amsterdam, next edition June 2027

    Money20/20 Europe

    European payments and banking press sit in one hall for three days, so partnership news booked two weeks ahead gets meetings

  2. 18 to 21 October 2026 at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas

    Money20/20 USA

    US fintech reporters build their autumn coverage here, the right stage for a US launch or a sponsor bank deal

  3. 28 September to 1 October 2026 in Miami Beach, run by Swift

    Sibos

    The transaction banking press covers it, so infrastructure vendors selling to banks get their audience

  4. September in New York

    FinovateFall

    Seven minute live demos in front of bank buyers, a natural hook for a product story

  5. Early spring in London

    FinovateEurope

    European bank innovation teams meet the UK trade press here, a good place for a first UK market story

A founder talking to a reporter in a conference hallway
Avoid launch day crowdsThe opening morning of a big fintech show brings a flood of exhibitor releases. A briefing held the week before gives the reporter time to write.Illustration
Anastasiia Bratkova portrait

Anastasiia Bratkova

Chief Brand, Marketing & Communications Officer, RSE

Signs every pitch

About Anastasiia

Questions

What fintech founders ask about promotion rules

Do fintech startups need an FCA approved promotion before talking to press?

Press releases and interviews are usually treated as news rather than promotions, but anything that invites a UK reader to invest or open an account can fall under section 21 of FSMA. If your product is regulated, your compliance officer should sign the release. We draft it so that sign off is quick.

Can a crypto company run PR in the EU under MiCA?

Yes. Marketing communications must not mislead, they must match the white paper, and they carry the MiCA disclaimer. Crypto service providers must also warn clients of risk. We keep news about the company separate from anything that reads as an offer.

Can we call ourselves a bank in our announcements?

Only if you hold a banking licence. A US fintech that partners with a bank must say it is not itself FDIC insured, and pass through insurance must be explained accurately. In the UK and EU the word bank is also reserved for licensed institutions.

Can we use customer testimonials in fintech PR?

For US investment advisers the SEC Marketing Rule allows testimonials only with disclosures about payment and conflicts. For broker dealers, retail communications need principal approval under FINRA Rule 2210. A quoted customer in a news story is safer than a testimonial on an ad.

Which fintech events are worth building a launch around?

Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam in June and Money20/20 USA in Las Vegas in October draw the largest press rooms. Sibos suits payments infrastructure and bank software. Finovate suits demo friendly products.

How long does fintech PR take to show results?

A licence or funding story can land in a few weeks. Standing as a quoted expert on payments or credit policy takes several months of commentary and data.

Sources

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