Buy Now, Bank Later

JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and PNC are exploring acquiring a debit network owned by Fiserv — a move that could exempt them from Durbin Amendment caps on debit interchange, following the playbook Capital One ran with its $50.6 billion Discover deal. The talks were preliminary, and several banks reportedly already cooled on the idea over fears of political backlash.

AI Financial, the Nasdaq-listed treasury vehicle stuffed with the Trump family's WLFI tokens, entered talks to sell its core payments business — its only revenue-generating unit — to Tokyo-based Perpetuals for up to $15 million. The Trump family reportedly pocketed ~$540 million from the arrangement while AI Financial shareholders watched the stock fall more than 90%.

Visa launched Visa Destinations, a mobile-first travel platform offering cardholders curated experiences, city guides, and perks across 10 markets.

Swift announced that its blockchain-based ledger is live, with 17 banks across six continents — including Citi, HSBC, BNP Paribas, UBS, and Standard Chartered.

The IMF warned that tokenization could shift financial risk from banks to smart contracts and platforms beyond regulators' reach.

The ECB ordered the 110 banks it supervises to submit action plans by October 31 addressing AI-enabled cyber threats.

Float, the South African card-linked instalment platform, went live in the UK, letting merchants offer shoppers up to 12 interest- and fee-free monthly instalments on the Visa or Mastercard credit cards they already carry.

Privy, owned by Stripe, launched global fiat onramps for users to buy crypto directly in their app with a card.

Zodia Markets, Standard Chartered's crypto subsidiary, revealed that Turkish lira-pegged stablecoins were its second-most-used tokens last year, ahead of the euro and every G10 currency.

Klarna applied to establish Klarna Bank USA, an FDIC-insured, Utah-chartered industrial bank, in its latest push to become a full consumer bank rather than a BNPL brand.

Toss, South Korea's fintech super-app, signed an MOU with Optimism and Sunnyside Labs for a three-month proof of concept testing a Korean won-pegged stablecoin on the OP Stack.

Starling announced it would cut roughly 130 jobs, about 3% of its workforce, as it restructures banking and tech operations and ‘leans harder into AI.’