Apple's Takeover of Your Wallet Just Got a New Feature
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Apple has been quietly building a payments empire since 2014. The receipt-splitting feature is just its latest move to make sure you never need to leave the iPhone ecosystem to handle money.
The tool would live in Wallet and Messages, so Apple Watch users could even approve payments from their wrist.
The threat to strong players in peer-to-peer payments like Splitwise, Venmo, and Cash App is real.
Apple doesn't disclose Apple Pay's revenue separately; it's folded into the broader Services segment alongside the App Store, iCloud, and Apple Music.
What we do know is that in 2024, Apple Pay's revenue was estimated at around $2.7 billion annually, according to Capital One Shopping Research.
Speaking of big numbers. Circle's Q1 results are one scroll away. I did a deep dive on the USDC issuer that you don’t want to miss. 👇See you tomorrow!
Cheers,
#FINTECHREPORT
📊 Circle’s Q1 2026 results highlight the growing role of stablecoins as financial infrastructure, with USDC circulation reaching $77 billion and on-chain transaction volume surging to $21.5 trillion. Beyond payments, Circle is expanding into enterprise treasury, tokenized assets, and AI-driven commerce. Find the full breakdown here
INSIGHTS
📰 3 mobile tactics digital banks use to win by AppsFlyer. According to AppsFlyer, digital banks are growing significantly faster than traditional banks, while many incumbents continue to face challenges around mobile engagement. The company highlights three key growth levers: behavioral segmentation, deep linking, and stronger measurement infrastructure, helping boost conversions, reduce onboarding drop-off, and better optimize marketing spend.
FINTECH NEWS
🌎 Apple reportedly plans to introduce iPhone bill splitting via receipt scans. According to the report, users would be able to scan a receipt, select who ordered which items, and send payment requests from their iPhone. The feature is also expected to account for tax and tip when calculating each person’s share.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇳🇱 ABN AMRO has introduced BUUT Pay through its youth banking app BUUT, enabling children aged 10 and older in the Netherlands to make mobile payments. The solution allows young users to pay directly from designated savings pots while giving parents oversight and control, supporting financial education in a digital-first environment.
🇳🇬 Flutterwave promotes 25% of its global workforce as part of a talent retention move. The company, which recently secured a microfinance banking licence in Nigeria, also introduced employee support measures including cost-of-living adjustments, tax assistance, and one-time economic relief payments.
🇺🇸 MoneyGram launches MGUSD, a stablecoin to power its own global network. MGUSD will serve as the connective tissue powering those services for families sending money across borders and billions of people underserved by traditional finance.
🇬🇧 Wallester expands to the UK with EMI authorisation. The EMI application was first submitted to the regulator for Wallester UK on 1 August 2025 and received official approval on 28 May 2026. The company will use the licence to extend Wallester's embedded finance and payment infrastructure offering to enterprise clients in the region.
REGTECH NEWS
🇬🇧 UK banks blocked from cyber AI tool Mythos get an offer from rival OpenAI. OpenAI has offered nine major UK banks access to GPT-5.5 Cyber, its cybersecurity-focused AI model designed to identify vulnerabilities in digital systems.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇮🇳 Revolut rolls out services to thousands of users in India, giving a small group of users access to services including UPI payments, multi-currency cards, e-money wallets, and virtual cards. The rollout marks a key step in FinTech’s long-awaited entry, with around 450,000 users already on its waitlist.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇦🇪 Binance launches regulated AED crypto transfers in the UAE. Under the new service, Binance users can deposit AED directly into their accounts through ADCB with zero fees, subject to a minimum transfer amount of Dhs10 and a maximum daily limit of Dhs7.2m.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇬🇧 Checkout.com enables stablecoin acceptance for merchants in partnership with Coinbase. The capability allows eligible enterprise merchants to accept stablecoin payments from consumers, giving them more ways to capture global demand and meet growing customer appetite for digital money.
🇧🇷 Payments technology firm Juspay joins the Mastercard Engage partner network for Mastercard Click to Pay. Building on its rollout in Brazil, Juspay plans to support the global expansion of Click to Pay, helping merchants streamline online card payments and improve checkout conversion rates.
🇳🇱 Worldline, ING, and Mastercard complete a live end-to-end European agentic payment in production. Completed between an ING cardholder and a merchant in the Netherlands, the solution operates on the same underlying infrastructure across Belgium and runs across the Mastercard network, leveraging their respective secure authentication and authorisation mechanisms.
🇬🇧 UK Payments Initiative Ltd has launched a new open banking payments scheme. Backed by major banks and FinTechs including Yapily, TrueLayer, GoCardless, Plaid, Revolut, and Monzo, the initiative aims to provide a scalable alternative to cards and direct debits for businesses, government, and consumers.
🇰🇭 Indian travellers can use UPI to pay in Cambodia via the KHQR network, including retail stores, restaurants, and tourist locations. Transactions are enabled through real-time QR-based payments, allowing users to pay in local currency through their existing UPI apps.
🇬🇧 Adyen selected as payment services provider for GOV.UK Pay. The move will see around 1,000 public sector services migrate to Adyen’s platform as the government modernizes its payments infrastructure and expands account-to-account payment capabilities.
🇬🇧 Affirm and Stripe team up to power flexible UK payments. The partnership enables Stripe merchants to offer Affirm’s pay-over-time options at checkout starting in July. The companies are also collaborating on AI-powered commerce initiatives, including support for Shared Payment Tokens to facilitate installment payments in agent-driven shopping experiences.
🌍 TransferMate partners with BVNK to bring real-time stablecoin settlements to the global payments network. The integration will allow customers to access 24/7 settlement options using fiat-backed stablecoins, reflecting the growing adoption of stablecoin-based payment rails by enterprise financial institutions.
🇺🇸 Kraken adds native support for USDT0 deposits and withdrawals on Tempo, allowing customers to move stablecoins with sub-second settlement and without needing a separate gas token. The integration is designed to simplify funding and transfers while providing faster, lower-cost payment rails for stablecoin users.
🇺🇸 Exodus was named UFC's first official payments partner. The partnership will debut at UFC Freedom 250 in Washington, D.C., where Exodus will showcase its Exodus Pay offering as part of a broader push to promote digital dollar payments and self-custody financial services.
🇺🇸 BitGo and Concrete partner to launch an institutional onchain-optimized asset growth platform. This collaboration is designed to enable institutional clients to earn onchain-optimized asset growth while their underlying digital assets remain in qualified custody through BitGo Bank & Trust.
🇬🇧 Thredd renews and expands its partnership with Caxton. As part of the renewed agreement, Thredd will bring Caxton’s parent-child card programme, nimbl, onto the Thredd platform. All nimbl customers will be re-carded as the programme is launched using Thredd’s infrastructure, with completion targeted before the end of the year.
🇱🇹 WALLETTO chooses AMLYZE to advance payment compliance. By integrating AMLYZE’s cloud-native AML/CFT platform, WALLETTO will reinforce its compliance framework across its growing payment ecosystem. Read more
🇺🇸 Cash App has rolled out Afterpay to eligible Cash App Card users across the U.S., enabling BNPL for everyday purchases. The launch expands pay-over-time access beyond merchant checkouts, combining Cash App’s cash-flow-based underwriting with Afterpay’s installment payment model for its 59 million monthly active users.
🇺🇸 Crossmint launches Agentic Cards API using Visa Intelligent Commerce and Basis Theory. Users can access Visa Intelligent Commerce Connect to create tokenized credentials linked to cardholders’ existing Visa cards for agentic payments subject to issuer approval and applicable controls.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
💰Over the last week, there were nine FinTech deals in Europe, totaling €168.4m in disclosed funding, including two transactions in the UK, two in Ireland, one in Germany, one in Belgium, one in Spain, one in Italy and one in Switzerland.
🇺🇸 Digital Bank Forbright is seeking to raise $158 million in a US IPO. The middle-market lender and digital banking platform plans to offer 7.9 million shares at $18–$20 each, which would value the company at nearly $1 billion at the top end of the proposed range.
M&A
🇲🇽 Klar acquires Yave to expand into Mexico mortgage market. The acquisition allows Klar to accelerate its expansion into secured credit markets and lays the groundwork for future entry into additional segments such as automotive financing.
🇧🇪 Keyrock to acquire BlockFills for $3.25M, pending court approval. This acquisition will enable Keyrock to gain access to BlockFills’s network of institutional clients, including funds, asset management companies, market makers, and mining companies, as well as its proprietary technology and intellectual property.
🇺🇸 NMI acquires Fee Navigator, adding AI-powered pricing intelligence to its embedded payments platform. The deal adds merchant pricing optimization tools to NMI’s embedded payments platform, further expanding its offerings across payments, real-time money movement, and merchant services.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇺🇸 Mastercard announces leadership updates to advance strategy and support continued growth. As part of these updates and continuous evolution, Mastercard is unifying its customer focus under one team to underscore its consistent support, coordination, and accountability across all markets.
🇧🇷 Nubank appoints Rob Livingston as Chief Financial Officer. Livingston will be responsible for leading Nubank’s global finance organization, including capital and liquidity planning, financial reporting, corporate development, tax and investor relations.
🇺🇸 SoFi Technology Solutions appoints Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore as President. Pierce-Gilmore brings over 25 years of experience in the financial and FinTech spheres to the role. She joins the group as SoFi became the first national bank to issue its own stablecoin last week.
🇳🇱 Yuno appoints Edwin Poot as Chief Technology Officer. Poot brings more than two decades of technology leadership across FinTech, payments, and large-scale digital infrastructure and will lead Yuno’s global engineering organization as the company continues to expand its platform and capabilities for merchants worldwide.
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