Payments Are A Flat Circle (TWIF 4/25)

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⚡Some great content from around the TWIFiverse this week:

Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below.

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SWIFT launched a case management tool to streamline investigations of delayed international payments, aiming to reduce operational costs and resolution times for banks.

Meanwhile! Circle partnered with Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale, and Santander to develop a stablecoin-based cross-border payment network intended to rival SWIFT, the Circle Payments Network.

Circle and BitGo are also preparing to apply for U.S. banking licenses to gain regulatory clarity and expand their services within the traditional financial system. And Bank of America initiated efforts to launch its own cash-backed digital dollar, the "Bank of America coin," and lobbied for regulations that would restrict stablecoin issuance to banks.

The SEC approved the establishment of the Green Impact Exchange, the first U.S. stock exchange dedicated to companies committed to sustainable governance, set to begin trading next year.

Blackstone may be getting into the retail game? The private equity firm is partnering with Vanguard and Wellington in a strategic alliance aimed at expanding their presence in individual investors' portfolios.

Cantor Fitzgerald entered into a $3.6 billion cryptocurrency venture deal with SoftBank and Tether, focusing on bitcoin acquisition and related services.

Circle launched the Refund Protocol, a smart contract enabling non-custodial refunds and dispute resolution for stablecoin payments.

Wise introduced the 'Spend with Others' feature, allowing users to create groups of up to five people to share spending directly through the Wise platform.

Zopa it will launch a current account following its second consecutive profitable year. The UK-based digital bank doubled its pre-tax profits to £34.2 million and expanded its customer base to 1.4 million.

Bill.com expanded its financial operations platform by adding procurement capabilities, integrating accounts payable, accounts receivable, spend management, and forecasting into a single solution.

Greenfi launched as a climate-friendly consumer financial brand, emerging from the acquisition of Aspiration's consumer fintech division.

Coinflow* added cryptocurrency purchase capabilities to its payment portfolio suite, enabling businesses to accept crypto payments alongside traditional methods.

Ziina* launched Tap to Pay on iPhone in the UAE, allowing businesses to accept in-person, contactless payments directly on their iPhones without additional hardware.

Lynq, a collaboration among digital asset industry leaders including Arca Labs, Tassat, tZERO, and U.S. Bank, announced the upcoming launch of a real-time, yield-bearing settlement network for institutional clients.

10x Banking unveiled a suite of AI-powered core banking products designed to automate the mapping of legacy banking data, accelerate core migration, and provide real-time insights.

Thunes launched its Business Payments platform, enabling faster cross-border transactions in over 30 currencies across more than 50 countries. The solution allows businesses to pay suppliers in local currencies, reducing exchange rate and reconciliation costs.

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Neobank Revolut reported pre-tax profits of $1.4 billion and net profit at $1 billion for 2024.

Ramp is pursuing a contract with the U.S. General Services Administration's SmartPay program after noticing a tweet from the DOGE. The potential $25 million pilot aimed to modernize the government's $700 billion expense card system.

PayPal will now pay a 3.7% APY on PayPal USD (PYUSD) balances for U.S. users of PayPal and Venmo.

A group of senators is demanding that the Federal Reserve release records it has related to the failure of Synapse, a fintech firm that collapsed last year and left thousands of people without access to their savings.

Moneygram is partnering with Plaid to enable U.S. customers to authenticate their bank accounts for faster and more secure domestic and cross-border payments.

Spark is collaborating with Brale to introduce fiat-backed stablecoins natively on the Bitcoin network, enabling instant, fee-free transactions. (Come see them both on-stage at Stablecon!)

Klarna sealed a deal with eBay to roll out its flexible payment options to millions of shoppers across the US.

Adyen suffered three distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on Easter Monday, disrupting payment services across Europe.

The FDIC ordered Discover Bank to pay over $1.2 billion in restitution to merchants overcharged on interchange fees due to misclassified credit cards.