Western Union Just Put Its Stablecoin Card On Rain's Rails
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Western Union just launched a stablecoin-powered card.
The 175-year-old remittance giant rolled out Stablecard, built on Rain's stablecoin infrastructure. Remittances now land as USDPT, Western Union's own stablecoin on Solana, and can be spent instantly anywhere Visa is accepted.
The timing makes it even more striking: last week, Western Union shut down its digital banking app.
Kill the digital bank, keep the digital dollar.
For recipients who used to walk into a physical location and leave with cash, this is a completely different relationship. Western Union finally keeps the customer after the transfer lands.
Is this a retreat, or a full repositioning?
See what else is shaping FinTech. 👇
I'll be back in your inbox tomorrow!
Cheers,
FINTECH NEWS
🌍 Amex GBT adds AI tools across its business travel platforms, rolling out a Travel Manager Dashboard with AI summaries and proactive alerts. Updates span Complete, Egencia and Neo covering disruption handling and leakage reporting.
🇳🇬 PalmPay weighs a Hong Kong IPO after reaching a $1 billion valuation, according to reports. The Nigeria-based mobile payments company is exploring a public listing as it expands across Africa.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇵🇭 Apple Pay is now live in the Philippines, enabling contactless payments via iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac and iPad. Initial supported issuers include China Banking Corp., GoTyme Bank, Metrobank and UnionBank, with Visa and Mastercard confirming network support.
🇪🇹 Abay Bank introduces an international prepaid Visa card for global ATM withdrawals, POS payments and online purchases. The card targets business owners, professionals and travellers as Ethiopia's banking sector expands cross-border digital payment access.
🇿🇦 SA FinTech TurnStay processes $60.5M in travel payments in six months, three years after launch. The company cuts cross-border costs for African travel merchants to as low as 1.6% by combining a merchant-of-record model with stablecoin rails.
🇮🇳 MobiKwik swings to profit in Q1, posting Rs 7.6 crore PAT versus a Rs 42 crore loss a year earlier. Total expenses fell 13.3% YoY to Rs 281 crore while revenue rose 3.7%, driving the turnaround in profitability.
🇿🇦 Stitch adds PayShap Request to its payment platform, enabling businesses to initiate real-time payment requests directly to customers. The feature lets merchants collect funds via South Africa's instant payment network without manual transfers.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇬🇧 Metro Bank posts its highest half-year profit on record, reporting £60.7M pre-tax profit, up 41% YoY. Core target lending grew 43% to £6.2B as the bank continues its pivot toward SME and specialist lending.
🇮🇱 Israeli digital bank One Zero connects its AI agent to ChatGPT, letting customers query their account activity through natural-language conversation via the MCP protocol. Investment house IBI and platform Fair have launched similar integrations, raising cybersecurity questions about financial data shared with external AI models.
🇺🇸 US Treasury fines UBS Financial Services $125M for bank secrecy violations, according to Reuters. The penalty relates to secrecy violations at the firm.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇺🇸 Checkout.com scales stablecoin settlement for US merchants in partnership with Fireblocks, offering 24/7/365 payouts into preferred stablecoin wallets. The solution provides an alternative to fixed banking hours and multi-day transfers.
🇧🇭 Infinios goes live with Mastercard on stablecoin settlement, marking a first for card issuers in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The integration enables real-time stablecoin payouts for Mastercard issuers in the region.
🇺🇸 zerohash expands stablecoin infrastructure support for BlackRock tokenized funds, broadening access to institutional-grade digital asset settlement. The expansion extends stablecoin infrastructure to BlackRock tokenized fund investors.
🇺🇸 Western Union launches Stablecard in partnership with Rain, combining a physical and virtual Visa card with a stablecoin wallet for everyday spending. Read more.
🇬🇧 Robinhood wins UK crypto registration with the FCA ahead of a comprehensive regulatory regime starting October 2027. The existing AML registration positions the firm ahead of a brief authorization window opening in September.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇺🇸 Fiserv and Mastercard deepen their global partnership to help merchants access real-time payment capabilities and expanded network services. The collaboration builds on existing infrastructure to streamline merchant onboarding and payment acceptance globally.
🇺🇸 Plaid and Sierra partner to embed financial data inside AI agents, letting customers connect bank accounts and make payments without leaving a conversation. The integration enables agents to orchestrate workflows like loan applications.
🇲🇽 Hey Banco announces a partnership with Tapi to expand its digital financial services offering in Mexico. The alliance enables Hey Banco customers to access new payment and commerce capabilities through Tapi's platform.
🇬🇧 Manchester FinTech Firenze inks a major lending deal with AJ Bell Investcentre, expanding access to Lombard lending for advisers and their clients through the investment platform. Read more.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇿🇦 Canal+ and General Catalyst back African payments startup Moment in a $22M Series A led by AlphaCode Venture Partners. The Cape Town company aggregates cards, mobile money and bank transfers behind a single API, handling 600,000 daily transactions.
🇬🇧 10x Banking raises £40M from AshGrove Capital after reaching EBITDA profitability and surpassing 10 million live accounts. ARR grew over 30% in the past 12 months as the core banking platform expands its global go-to-market activity.
🇺🇸 Maximum launches with a $30M seed round to replace legacy bank cores with an agentic AI operating system. Founder Randy Fernando and backer CRV are targeting an industry where Fiserv, Jack Henry and FIS hold core contracts with 76% of surveyed U.S. banks.
🇺🇸 Polymarket seeks a valuation above $20B in a new funding round, according to Bloomberg. The prediction market platform is targeting more than $20 billion as it pursues fresh capital.
🌎 Decade raises $85M in Latin America's largest-ever seed round to build an AI-driven wealth platform targeting a new generation of millionaires. The company plans to use the capital to expand its investment and financial planning services across the region.
🇮🇳 GetVantage raises Rs 63 crore in a Series A1 round to expand its revenue-based financing platform for digital businesses. The FinTech has deployed capital to over 1,000 businesses and plans to deepen its presence across India and Southeast Asia.
M&A
🇮🇳 Mintoak acquires UAE-based ICC Loyalty to add rewards and engagement capabilities to its banking platform. The deal expands Mintoak's presence across the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, evolving it into a payments and engagement OS for banks.
🌍 Deel hits $1.5B ARR and acquires AI security pioneer Clarity to combat deepfake fraud across its global workforce platform. The acquisition strengthens identity verification as Deel scales payroll and compliance services. Keep reading.
🇬🇧 HSBC to sell its Egyptian retail banking business to Emirates NBD, marking an exit from one of its longest-standing African markets. Read more.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇬🇧 Revolut's Chief Banking Officer Sid Jajodia joins the Group Board as Executive Director, subject to regulatory approvals. The appointment reflects expanding banking operations across the UK, Mexico and Australia, plus a pending US national bank charter application.
🇮🇳 Payoneer appoints Namitha Nair as Marketing Manager for India to strengthen its presence in one of its fastest-growing markets. Nair joins from the B2B SaaS space as Payoneer holds RBI in-principle authorization and processes $87.5B in annual volume.
🇺🇸 Yendo names Ben Probber general counsel, strengthening its leadership as the FinTech platform expands into unsecured credit cards alongside its asset-backed products and auto refinance loans. Probber will oversee legal, regulatory and corporate functions to support scaling with banking partners.
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