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This week's fintech news is led by the announcement that investment manager Charles Schwab will acquire private markets alternative asset investing platform Forge Global for $660 million.

Forge has facilitated over $17 billion in private share sales in its lifetime. The company is a key secondary market for holders of startup equity and fund investments to find and trade their shares. The platform began its life as a marketplace, but over time it's evolved into a market insights and data platform as well, similar to Bloomberg for public markets:

The distinction between public and private markets continues to collapse, as private capital markets become deeper and more liquid: companies are able to find buyers for their privately-held shares at any price (look at OpenAI's recent $500B sale for confirmation), without the traditional constraints imposed on them by public market filing and reporting requirements. Retail investors (well, at least accredited ones, but that distinction seems to be collapsing as well) are able to get near real-time financial and pricing information from market providers like Forge. And now, Charles Schwab will become the latest brokerage to offer both products.

At this point, why would a late-stage private tech company choose to list on a public stock exchange? If investors are looking for liquidity, why not continue to provide tender offers and match buyers and sellers?

There are some obvious answers – public markets offer a broader range of financing options, often other capital vehicles like bond issuance are made easier by public listings, private liquidity tends to dry up and be more stochastic than public liquidity, etc.

But with brokerages like Forge and Charles Schwab combining, you can see why private company CEOs are tempted to stay private.

Elsewhere, in closer news, I'm excited to share that this week we launched Stablecon EMEA, our dedicated stablecoin conference for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions, scheduled for May 19-20, 2026 in Amsterdam, and raised a $750,000 strategic investment from Events Venture Group to fuel our international expansion.

Stablecon Lands $750K Strategic Investment from Events Venture Group To Take Conference Global

In the early fall of 2024, Nik Milanovic and Dennis Sem came to a realization: the stablecoin space needed its own conference. Milanovic, who is a general partner at The Fintech Fund and creator of This Week in Fintech, and Sem (COO of TWIF) didn’t waste time to fill

This Week in FintechMary Ann Azevedo

🎟️ Tickets for Stablecon EMEA are available for a limited time at a 50% discount, so join us now while the pricing lasts!

Events Venture Group Announces Strategic Investment in Stablecon, Fueling International Expansion

The Events Venture Group announced a strategic investment of $750,000 in Stablecon, and will help it expand internationally.

Trade Show ExecutiveAndrew Warrick

Here are a few of our initial speakers:

• GB Agboola, Founder and CEO, Flutterwave
• Chris Harmse, Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer, BVNK
• Chris Maurice, CEO, Yellowcard
• Edward Woodford, CEO, Zerohash
• Bam Azizi, CEO, Mesh
• Keith Grose, Senior Country Director, UK, Coinbase and CEO of CB Payments Ltd

EMEA – Stablecon

.........and even sooner, we'll be heading to Fintech Nerdcon in Miami in two weeks!

🌴 Will you be there with us?

Confirmed speakers include Mercury CEO and Founder Immad Akhund, Nubank Co-Founder Cristina Junqueira, and Adyen Chief Technology Officer Tom Adams.

Grab a ticket now while they're still available.

(And join us at the afterparty)

Fintech Nerdcon Afterparty with TWIF, FTA & Paul Hastings · Luma

This Week in Fintech, the Financial Technology Association (FTA), and Paul Hastings are bringing you an afterparty you won’t want to miss following Fintech…

This Week in Fintech

Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below.

Have feedback for us? Let us know. Find me at @nikmilanovic, @twifintech, and @ndm

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Financial Services & Banking

Product Launches

Banco Santander launched a digital-first, human-led platform to help businesses expand globally.

Kinexys by J.P. Morgan introduced a blockchain-based fund-flows tool to streamline alternative investment fund distribution and settlement.

U.S. Bank rolled out its “Split Card,” which automatically divided purchases into interest-free instalments at Mastercard merchants.

Other News

Visa added support for four stablecoins across four unique blockchains as Visa card spend quadrupled when compared to a year ago.

JPMorgan Chase disclosed a U.S. government inquiry into its alleged "debanking" access practices.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s open-banking rule was temporarily blocked by a U.S. judge via a preliminary injunction.

Experian overhauled its credit-scoring system by expanding the score range and adding new behaviours like rental payments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s work on private-credit rules for retirement plans was stalled during a U.S. government shutdown.

Eurojust foiled a €600 million cryptocurrency scam ring by coordinating arrests across multiple countries.

BaFin imposed a record €45 million fine on JPMorgan Chase for anti-money-laundering control failures.

Quote of the Week

Fintech

Product Launches

Venn* now offers a 2% yield on operating balances to attract Canadian SMBs away from the large banks.

Current introduced the “Current Max” subscription, which included up to 6% savings rate, expanded fee-free overdraft, and enhanced rewards to boost value for everyday Americans.

Ripple launched a U.S.-market digital asset prime brokerage through its acquisition of Hidden Road, enabling OTC spot and cross-margin trading for institutional clients. (The company also raised a new $500 million in funding at a $40 billion valuation from investors including Fortress, Citadel, and Pantera.)

Cash App launched a high‑interest savings option for teenagers that allows them to earn interest on balances.

Autograph launched its platform after raising US $2.1 million from investors.

Flutterwave announced plans to enable pan‑African cross‑border payments using stablecoins across its network of African countries.

Clear Junction released a multi‑currency SWIFT payments service designed for global remittances.

Clearstream launched a tokenized securities platform to modernize post‑trade settlement.

Carrington Labs launched its MCP Server product to integrate compliant credit‑model infrastructure into AI‑driven lending workflows.

Expensify rolled out a hybrid human/AI expense‑agent service called Concierge to provide enhanced support via chat, email and text.

Stripe demonstrated a facial‑recognition payment service in partnership with NEC to showcase biometric payment capabilities.

Worldpay (from FIS) announced new awards and business updates as part of its ongoing global payments growth strategy.

SPONSORED

The Fintech Effect 2025 reveals how rising user expectations are reshaping the industry—from faster sign-ins and smarter lending to trust in AI. Based on insights from 2,000+ U.S. consumers, this report is a blueprint for building products that stand out in 2026 and beyond.

Download the report and stay ahead of what’s next.

Learn more

Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.

Other News

Fireblocks, Polygon Labs, Solana Foundation, Stellar Development Foundation and TON formed a consortium aimed at standardising stable‑coin payments across blockchains.

Robinhood Markets reported that its revenue doubled in the third quarter on the back of a strong crypto trading performance.

Airwallex crossed US$1 billion in annualised run‑rate revenue, marking a major growth milestone for its global payments business.

Coinbase urged the U.S. Treasury to keep the implementation rules for the GENIUS Act aligned with Congress’s intent, especially regarding stable‑coin regulation.

Partnership Corner

Amazon offered extra credit and extended installment options to Nubank customers in Brazil via their partnership.

Worldline explored stable‑coin payment and settlement use‑cases in collaboration with Fipto to integrate digital assets and traditional payment rails.

The Bad News

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman cut about 30 % of the bank‑supervision staff at the Federal Reserve through attrition and voluntary departures.

The  Central Bank of Ireland fined  Coinbase €21.5 million for failing to monitor transactions properly.