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Robinhood this week announced that it plans to roll out Robinhood Social early next year, a feature allowing users to share real equity, options or asset trades, follow others’ profits/losses, post commentary and memes, and track public figures’ trades — all inside its own platform — a potential competitor to Reddit’s WallStreetBets community.

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Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below.

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Financial Services & Banking

Product Launches

Mastercard launched On-Demand Decisioning, a first-of-its-kind tool that let issuers define transaction approval/decline rules directly on Mastercard’s network via a customizable rules engine and automated business logic, providing instant decisioning aligned with their customer experience strategy.

Other News

The Nasdaq pushed to allow trading of tokenized securities on its main market, filing with the SEC to have blockchain-based digital tokens treated the same as traditional securities and aiming for token-settled trades by Q3 2026.

BlackRock was appointed to manage about $80 billion in assets from Citi Wealth clients, with Citi using BlackRock’s Aladdin Wealth platform and some existing Citi Investment Management staff moving over.

Kazakhstan announced a national crypto reserve and pioneered stablecoin payments for regulatory fees, aiming to strengthen its role in digital assets.

The SEC issued a joint statement raising concerns about regulatory overreach in digital assets and calling for clearer, innovation-friendly frameworks.

Buffalu highlighted leaked documents suggesting Revolut was preparing a U.S. launch for its banking services.

Zip Pay emerged as a joint P2P payments app by AIB, Bank of Ireland, and PTSB, set to launch in 2026 to let Irish bank customers send, request, and split payments via mobile numbers inside their banking apps.

Fintech

Product Launches

OnePay is now offering its own mobile phone plan in partnership with the Telecom-as-a-Service platform Gigs after Walmart backed the fintech.

Hummingbird* introduced a unified compliance and risk platform with enhanced transaction monitoring and customer-screening solutions.

Gemini launched a new product suite in Europe, adding derivatives and staking services for ETH and SOL following regulatory approvals.

Revolut introduced a “Pay by Bank” option that allowed payments to be made directly from consumers’ bank accounts without using card networks.

Robinhood deployed a social platform designed for users to post trades, commentary and market takes, positioning itself against communities like Reddit’s WallStreetBets.

easyGroup (the EasyJet founder) launched easyBitcoin, a new Bitcoin-trading app developed in partnership with Uphold, targeting everyday users with lower fees and rewards.

Payslip unveiled Payslip Alpha, an AI-powered suite built to automate, standardize, and scale global payroll operations.

Ant International’s Antom unit released an agentic AI payments technology that supports both card and alternative payment methods.

Other News

X is planning a payments-feature “X Money” but it is stalled due to regulatory hurdles and staff turnover.

Robinhood shares soared about 14% when it earned its long-awaited entry into the S&P 500.

Scalable Capital became a fully-licensed bank after the ECB authorized it to conduct deposit and lending operations alongside its brokerage and wealth management services.

StableX executed the first purchase of “FLUID” tokens under its new pure-play strategy focusing on foundational crypto tokens in the stablecoin industry.

bunq celebrated its 10th anniversary by surpassing 20 million users and launched a redesigned app shaped by user feedback.

The Bad News

Synapse faces misconduct allegations from FINRA after its executives allegedly opened accounts without proper authorization, moved customer funds improperly, and failed to reconcile internal ledgers.

Wealthsimple discovered a data breach in which government IDs, account numbers, IP addresses, Social Insurance Numbers, and dates of birth of under one percent of its customers were exposed.

Temenos saw its shares drop sharply (~14%) when it ousted its CEO Jean-Pierre Brulard and appointed the CFO Takis Spiliopoulos as interim boss, citing the need for clearer leadership.