Hello Fintech Friends,

Welcome to the 873 new readers who’ve joined us since last week. You’re joining 202,000+ other subscribers. Today's newsletter is brought to you by Taktile.

❓ Question for the group: Who are the most interesting early-stage founders you know building agentic commerce tools?

🤝 There is never a dull moment in stablecoins. Just as I was writing this, and just as Chuk's Weekly Stable newsletter published, news dropped that Ripple will acquire Rail, a stablecoin-powered platform for global payments, for $200 million to expand Ripple's stablecoin acceptance coverage.

💲More to come in this Sunday's M&A news.

🪙 And speaking of stables... You should join Turnkey and TWIF for Verified: Fintech X Crypto next Thursday — a night where fintech meets crypto over cocktails, networking, and a touch of close-up magic. We'll have 50+ founders, investors, and operators meeting in Flatiron.

💼 Want to join the team? We're looking for a great Director of Operations at Stablecon and Account Exec at TWIF.

🏠 Lastly: has the time finally come to privatize Fannie and Freddie? Since the two mortgage lenders were acquired and repurposed as government entities in the financial crisis, successive presidential administrations have promised to spin them out again as private corporations.

🏦 But... the government provision of mortgages seems to be working out pretty well (unless you take increased home prices into consideration...) Now, the White House is inviting JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and others to pitch taking the Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp public (or private). Is this the end of state-run mortgages in the US?

Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below.

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

As the pressure mounts to monetize AI investments, expand distribution, and build embedded infrastructure, the smartest players aren’t going it alone. They’re partnering with purpose — and they’re operationalizing it like a revenue channel.

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🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🚀 Product Launches

Citizens launched two new open-finance features—Switch Payments and direct deposit tools—that streamline mobile bill‑payer updates and paycheck redirection.

Huntington Bank unveiled a refreshed brand identity, new products, and revamped digital experiences to support a modern, customer‑centric banking approach, and partnered with True Link to launch teen banking.

📰 Other News

FedEx adopted JP Morgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments, a blockchain‑based solution enabling programmable, round‑the‑clock treasury transfers across currencies. FIS partnered with Circle to enable banks to transact in USDC stablecoin through its platform rather than issuing its own coin.

💬 Quote of the Week

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

Shopify released three agentic commerce tools:

• Checkout Kit: embed commerce widgets and checkout directly into your agent and chat.
• Shopify Catalog: global product search across millions of merchants.
• Universal Cart: shop from any store, anywhere, in one cart.

Wix launched a new financial services suite—Wix Checking and Wix Capital—that delivered integrated business checking and merchant cash advances to help merchants manage cash flow and access capital directly within the platform.

BVNK released Smart Treasury, an AI-powered tool that automated real-time stablecoin liquidity management across blockchain networks.

Privy, the stablecoin authentication and embedded wallet provider recently acquired by Stripe, launched Privy Home: for developers, a way to give users low-level wallet controls without overcomplicating apps; for users: a hub to track and manage your wallets across every app.

Remitly launched a multi-currency digital wallet in partnership with Bridge which supports fiat and stablecoins—called Remitly Wallet—aimed at enabling faster, more cost-effective cross-border payments (currently in beta).

As the pressure mounts to monetize AI investments, expand distribution, and build embedded infrastructure, the smartest players aren’t going it alone. They’re partnering with purpose — and they’re operationalizing it like a revenue channel.

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

🍻 Upcoming Events

Join TWIF and Oscilar for an exclusive after-hours gathering during the ACAMS Conference on Tuesday, 9/16.  Connect with leaders in fintech, compliance, and risk over cocktails and conversations in Las Vegas. Space is limited so RSVP now to secure your spot.

Unwind after the Jack Henry Conference on Tuesday, 9/9 at an intimate after-hours gathering hosted by Cambr, and Xenios. RSVP now to secure your spot.

📰 Other News

Klarna is withholding Buy Now, Pay Later customer data from U.S. credit bureaus until it is that assured customers wouldn't be penalized under current scoring systems.

Coinbase and PayPal are both pressing forward with stablecoin rewards programs—framing them as “rewards” via third-party issuers—to sidestep yield bans imposed by the GENIUS Act.

🤝 Partnership Corner

MetaMask proposed launching a USD‑pegged stablecoin called mmUSD, to be issued and settled via Stripe’s infrastructure and integrated natively into its wallet ecosystem.

Arcade.dev and Lithic announced a partnership to build AI‑powered e‑commerce agents capable of autonomously searching, comparing, and completing secure purchases in one streamlined process.

👎 The Bad News

An alleged fraud scheme targeted up to 142 SBA 7(a) loans totaling around $115.6 million—potentially marking it as the largest fraud in the agency’s history.

CoreCard risks losing its flagship Apple Card processing business—responsible for features like first-of-the-month billing and a payment‑wheel UI—as Apple’s partnership shifted from Goldman Sachs toward JPMorgan Chase, threatening its future despite securing an acquisition by Euronet.