TLDR Fintech 2025-11-03

Identity threats targeting financial services are getting smarter. SHI and Okta want to show you can go beyond authentication and stop attacks with AI-powered Identity Threat Protection and Identity Security Posture Management. Take a 30-minute meeting - walk away with security insights and your choice of premium gift. Grab your meeting slot

The Federal Reserve is exploring a plan that could give fintech leaders like Circle and Stripe direct access to its core payment systems through so-called “skinny” master accounts — limited versions of bank accounts that exclude perks like interest and overdraft protection. The proposal would allow qualified fintechs to move money through the Fed without relying on sponsor banks, potentially cutting costs and reducing counterparty risk. If adopted, the move could erode a major revenue stream for sponsor banks and mark a major shift toward treating fintechs more like regulated banks, bringing the US closer to Europe's more open payments model.

Affirm is expanding its partnership with New York Life Insurance, which will purchase up to $750 million in Affirm loans through 2026, providing off-balance-sheet funding to support about $1.75 billion in annual loan volume. The insurer has already invested nearly $2 billion in Affirm's collateral pools since 2023. The move reflects a broader trend of insurers such as Liberty Mutual and PGIM backing fintech lenders seeking stable, higher-yield assets amid elevated rates.

Wealthsimple has doubled its valuation to $10 billion following a new Series E round of up to $750 million CAD led by Dragoneer, GIC, and CPP Investments. The Toronto-based fintech now manages over $100 billion in assets and serves three million clients. The fresh capital will fuel expansion across investing, spending, and credit, as well as strategic acquisitions, giving Wealthsimple flexibility to delay an IPO while it continues its push toward a stated $1 trillion AUA goal by 2034.

Coinbase is in late-stage talks to acquire UK-based stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for about $2 billion, aiming to expand beyond trading fees and strengthen its stablecoin business. The move follows new US stablecoin regulations and growing industry adoption by players like Visa and Mastercard. BVNK's payment platform could bolster Coinbase Business, enhancing merchant payments and stablecoin-based banking. BVNK is backed by Citi Ventures, Haun Ventures, and Visa. The deal could close by early 2026.

2025 marked fintech's comeback year - IPOs are reopening, M&A is heating up, and growth-stage funding is flowing across every corner of the ecosystem. Giants like Xero, Stripe, and Barclays are back on the acquisition trail, while Circle, Chime, and Klarna have made successful public debuts. JC Bahr-de Stefano, one of the industry's most active fintech early-stage investors, says the launch of BTV Fund III comes at the perfect time, as AI and financial infrastructure begin to converge. He believes vertical, regulated fintech builders, not general AI players, are best positioned to seize this next wave of data-rich, compliance-heavy, high-impact opportunities.

The next era of digital payments might not begin with instant payments, stablecoins, or a brand-new rail. It might start with something far quieter but equally transformative: software that can make payments on our behalf. As of 2025, we have already seen applications that can search, catalog, and suggest items for us to shop. Agentic Commerce takes this to the next step, where AI can search, decide, and pay within limits we define.

A federal court's injunction has frozen the CFPB's open banking rule, raising fresh questions about the balance of power in US financial data. The decision does more than halt a rule - it reopens a debate that sits at the center of modern finance: who controls consumer data, and under what conditions it can move. Judge Danny C. Reeves of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky issued the injunction, pausing the agency's Personal Financial Data Rights rule and forcing a regulatory rethink. For now, banks gain breathing room, fintechs lose momentum, and consumers remain locked out of their own data, as the US decides whether open banking will empower innovation or entrench the status quo.

Moving fast shouldn't mean breaking things. Temporal's guide reveals how financial services teams at companies like JP Morgan Chase, Snapchat, Coinbase, and ANZ build reliable, scalable systems with code-first orchestration to increase developer velocity, remove friction, and keep customers confident. Get moving – grab your copy today.

JPMorgan Chase has taken a major step toward modernizing alternative investments by tokenizing a private-equity fund on its proprietary blockchain, offering access to its wealthy private bank clients. The move is part of its upcoming Kinexys Fund Flow platform, designed to streamline fund ownership, cash movement, and reporting through smart contracts.

Revolut now allows users to convert between USD and the stablecoins USDC or USDT at a perfect 1:1 rate, with no fees or spreads on transactions up to €500,000 every 30 days. The feature supports deposits and withdrawals across six major blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, and Tron. This move deepens Revolut's push into digital assets and could set the stage for the neobank to issue its own stablecoin in the near future.

JPMorgan Chase's payments business hit another record, with Q3 revenue up 13% year-over-year to $4.9 billion, helping lift total revenue to $46.4 billion. The bank's payments arm, spanning merchant processing, fraud management, and treasury services, continues to outpace growth across the firm. Merchant services reached $2 trillion in transaction volume, running ahead of last year's pace. Excluding equity investments, segment revenue rose 6%, reflecting higher balances and fee growth despite margin compression.

Ant International, the global arm of Ant Group, has invested in R2, a Latin American embedded lending platform that powers credit services for firms like Rappi and InDrive. The deal, whose size wasn't disclosed, aims to expand SME lending using AI tools to lower borrowing costs. The move reflects a wider Asian fintech push into Latin America, where underbanked consumers and digital payments growth resemble early-stage Asian markets.

Berkshire Hathaway reported Q3 operating profit of $13.5 billion, up 34% year over year, driven by a 200%+ surge in insurance underwriting income to $2.37 billion. Despite a stock pullback, Warren Buffett made no share buybacks and raised the firm's cash pile to a record $381.6 billion. The company also net sold equities for a $10.4 billion gain as Buffett prepares to step down as CEO at year-end, with Greg Abel set to succeed him. Overall earnings rose 17% to $30.8 billion, buoyed by strong insurance and investment gains.

Agentic AI is redefining how patents are discovered and drafted, shifting from simple keyword lookups to autonomous, goal-driven research that mimics human reasoning.

New regulations, AI, and automation are reshaping core systems across healthcare, government, security, energy, and finance.

Mercury founder Immad Akhund credits the startup's success to tackling the hardest challenges—bank compliance, core features, and reliability—before launch.