Dollar ⬇️, Bitcoin ⬆️ (TWIF 5/23)

Hello Fintech Friends,

Welcome to the 1,165 new readers who’ve joined us since last week. You’re joining 183,000+ other subscribers who live and breathe fintech. Today's newsletter is brought to you by our friends at Fireblocks, who will be kicking off Stablecon next Thursday with their Opening Keynote.

If you're attending Febraban Tech in São Paulo and you're into Risk and Fraud Management, we're hosting a private happy hour with our good friends at Oscilar and Decidir on June 9th, organized by Adrielle from TWIF Brazil:

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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Powering over 2,000 businesses and moving trillions of dollars in value with unmatched scale and reliability, Fireblocks delivers the infrastructure for every step of your stablecoin journey—enabling you to grow with trust, operate efficiently, and stay ahead in the evolving digital asset economy.

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SG Forge, the crypto division of Société Générale, will launch a dollar-backed stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain. The initiative follows the 2023 debut of SG Forge's euro-denominated stablecoin, EURCV, and aims to expand its digital asset offerings amidst growing adoption of stablecoins by traditional financial institutions

JPMorgan introduced an AI-generated Account Confidence Score (ACS) to assist corporate clients in assessing fraud risk before initiating payments. By analyzing over 15 billion transaction records, the AI model evaluates beneficiary accounts on factors such as age, transaction history, and known fraud incidents, assigning a score from 0 (lowest confidence) to 1,000 (highest confidence). The bank also released an open-source quantum software library named qLDPC, developed in collaboration with Infleqtion.

Moody’s downgraded the U.S. government’s long-term credit rating from Aaa to Aa1, citing concerns over the country's deteriorating fiscal position and political gridlock. The downgrade reflected worries about the growing national debt, which stands at 6.4% of GDP, and the lack of effective measures to address fiscal challenges.

Financial institutions like JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are expanding their crypto offerings, anticipating clearer regulatory frameworks that would legitimize and facilitate digital asset services. Relatedly, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon reversed his longstanding skepticism toward Bitcoin, announcing that the bank would now allow clients to invest in the cryptocurrency.

The U.S. Senate advanced the GENIUS Act, a significant bipartisan crypto regulation bill aimed at establishing a comprehensive framework for digital assets. The legislation seeks to provide clarity for stablecoin issuers and integrate cryptocurrencies into the broader financial system.

Sweden's Central Bank, the Riksbank, advocated for the continued use of cash payments, proposing legislation to mandate cash acceptance for essential goods and services. The UK government introduced new regulations to oversee Buy Now, Pay Later lenders, requiring them to conduct affordability checks and provide clearer information on fees and credit impacts. Hong Kong's Legislative Council passed a landmark stablecoin bill, establishing a licensing framework for fiat-referenced stablecoin issuers.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to exempt tips from federal income tax to provide financial relief to service industry workers. The US is also reportedly preparing to make substantial cuts to banks’ capital requirements – the largest in more than a decade – by reducing the supplementary leverage ratio, which requires big banks to have a set amount of high-quality capital against assets like loans and things like derivatives.

A UK court finalized a £200 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit against Mastercard, brought on behalf of British consumers over excessive credit card fees.

Stripe introduced Stablecoin Financial Accounts, enabling businesses in 101 countries to hold dollar-denominated stablecoin balances, and to send and receive funds via ACH, wire, SEPA, and across eight blockchain networks. This initiative is powered by Bridge, the stablecoin orchestration platform that Stripe acquired earlier this year.

CreditSights launched AdvisorEdge, a platform designed to enhance wealth management by providing advisors with research, recommendations, and company analyses for over 1,200 fixed income issuers.

Temenos launched a GenAI co-pilot for its retail banking core product, enabling banks to test and launch new products faster.

Roy launched NILVault, a fintech platform designed to assist universities in managing and paying for Name, Image, and Likeness opportunities for student-athletes.

💡

A Message From our Partner

Powering over 2,000 businesses and moving trillions of dollars in value with unmatched scale and reliability, Fireblocks delivers the infrastructure for every step of your stablecoin journey—enabling you to grow with trust, operate efficiently, and stay ahead in the evolving digital asset economy.

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

Binance integrated its Binance Pay service with Brazil's Pix payment system, allowing users to make instant crypto payments in Brazilian reais.

Klarna reported a substantial increase in efficiency, with revenue per employee nearing $1 million, up from $575,000 the previous year.

Revolut announced plans to invest over €1 billion in France over the next three years, designating Paris as its Western European headquarters.

Nuvei partnered with Wero, a European digital wallet developed by the European Payments Initiative (EPI), to offer Wero as a payment option in online checkouts starting September 2025.

Brex announced a partnership with former competitor Zip, a procurement startup, to offer "Brex for Zip," embedding Brex's virtual cards directly into Zip's platform. The collaboration is part of Brex's strategy to diversify revenue streams and reduce cash burn as it prepares for a potential IPO; the companies combined served over 30,000 businesses.

Klarna’s net loss more than doubled in the first quarter as more consumers failed to repay loans from the Swedish “buy now, pay later” lender as concerns rose about the financial health of US consumers. On Monday, the company reported a net loss of $99mn for the three months to March, up from $47mn a year earlier.

Ramp faces an investigation initiated by Representative Gerald Connolly, ranking member of the U.S. House Oversight Committee, concerning its bid for a $25 million federal contract. The probe focused on whether Ramp received preferential treatment in the General Services Administration's (GSA) pilot program for the SmartPay expense card system.