Wall Street Ledger desk
Fintech
Coverage of payments companies, buy-now-pay-later lenders, corporate spend platforms and the credit-reporting infrastructure behind consumer and business finance.
Company Spotlight
Hunt Score is HL Hunt’s attempt to make underwriting an embeddable utility
The AI underwriting product is pitched to lenders, dealers and platforms as a white-label decision engine, with bureau and alternative-data inputs, adverse-action notices and volume-based pricing.
Payments
OPay files for a New York listing as Standard Bank agrees to conditional $200 million placement
The African payments company’s proposed public-market route comes with a strategic investment from Standard Bank Group, subject to the terms and conditions disclosed with the transaction.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt’s Business Credit Builder turns a monthly membership into a reported tradeline — with a closed-loop catch
The product reports a business account to commercial bureaus, but the credit can only be spent inside HL Hunt’s marketplace; the company says the structure avoids personal guarantees and personal credit checks.
Payments Infrastructure
Volante and Circle put USDC workflows inside bank payment infrastructure
The partnership is aimed at banks that want to connect stablecoin settlement to existing payment systems without rebuilding their core payment-processing stack from scratch.
Payments
Mollie launches Pay by Bank in the UK and Netherlands through GoCardless connectivity
The Amsterdam payments company is adding direct bank payments to its embedded checkout stack, giving merchants an alternative to cards for one-off and recurring transactions.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt’s HLX wants to sell stocks, crypto, forex, options and futures from one login — and let an AI agent trade all of it
The pre-launch platform’s pitch hinges on three preset AI agents with simulated annual returns as high as 91%, and a single account spanning asset classes that normally require separate broker-dealer, forex and futures licenses.
Standard Chartered plans Singapore custody for crypto, stablecoins and tokenized assets
The bank intends to offer institutional custody services pending regulatory approval and the completion of its acquisition of Zodia Custody’s regulated business, with no launch date or supported-asset list yet confirmed.
HSBC and Ant International complete first Middle East tokenized deposit pilot
The pilot used HSBC’s blockchain-based Tokenised Deposit Service to move dirham and dollar payments through the UAE and onward to Hong Kong and Singapore, extending a settlement platform the bank has now live in six markets.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt shows its work: three sample deals behind the “banks said no” pitch
A logistics company, a dental practice and an auto repair shop appear on HL Hunt’s site as recently funded examples. The page frames the product as capital for businesses banks turn down — the company’s words, not an audited track record.
Fintech
ACI Worldwide raises full-year guidance after 7% revenue growth in fiscal second quarter
The payments-software company reported $430 million in quarterly revenue and lifted its full-year outlook to $1.895 billion to $1.925 billion.
Fintech
Lloyds and Visa settle cross-border payment in under an hour in live stablecoin pilot
The UK bank purchased USDC through regulated exchange Archax and settled $750,000 with Visa using separate blockchain networks, testing whether stablecoins can speed up institutional settlement without changing customer-facing payments.
Tokenization
Paxos tokenized gold gets a yield layer through new onchain credit business Hare
Hare, an onchain credit venture backed by market maker GSR, launched Aave-powered vaults that let holders of Paxos’ PAXG and PAXGy gold tokens earn yield, with GSR providing anchor liquidity through a credit facility.
Private Credit
Blue Owl Capital says redemption pressure eased in the third quarter, but its tech-credit fund stayed near its cap
Investors sought $4.2 billion in withdrawals across two of Blue Owl’s non-traded credit funds, down from $4.7 billion the prior quarter, even as its technology-focused fund’s repurchase requests climbed to roughly 39% of net assets.
Kraken’s parent company plugs into a Singapore bank for round-the-clock dollar settlement
Payward has integrated with Singapore Gulf Bank’s SGB Net platform so institutional clients can settle U.S. dollar transactions outside normal banking hours, addressing one of crypto trading’s longest-standing frictions with traditional finance.
Exzeo Group launches an AI-only venture arm after a $57.8 million second quarter
The insurance-technology company is spinning up Exzeo Ventures to build AI-native claims, underwriting, and risk-transfer products from scratch rather than retrofitting its existing platform.
Company Spotlight
SellFi’s flat-fee pricing and seven target verticals, from Rolex dealers to real estate
HL Hunt’s pre-launch seller-financing platform charges by portfolio size rather than a cut of deal volume, and pitches itself to watch dealers, private auto sellers and owner-financed real estate alike.
Banking
Safe Harbor Financial reports 7.4% deposit growth in preliminary Q3 2026 update
The cannabis-industry banking specialist said its trailing 14-day average deposit balance reached about $119.3 million as of September 30, ahead of its full quarterly results.
Markets
IG Group revenue falls 14% in Q3 as trading retention slips, but client growth climbs
The UK-listed trading platform reported roughly £240 million in third-quarter revenue, down from a year earlier, even as active customers grew about 17% and first trades jumped more than 25%.
Capital Markets
Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan moves toward October IPO after $82 million debt raise
MNT-Halan is preparing to list a stake in its Egyptian lending subsidiary on the Egyptian Exchange this month, following a securitized bond issuance that adds to its 2026 debt-financing plans.
Company Spotlight
From $495 a month to unlimited: how HL Hunt prices AI underwriting across 55-plus credit products
Two prior pieces on this site covered HL Hunt’s Hunt Score decisioning and its custom-model builder. A return visit to the product page surfaces the three-tier pricing structure and the company’s own comparison table pitting its AI against bureau scores and manual underwriting.
Earnings
IDT’s BOSS Money remittance unit drives fintech segment to record $176 million in fiscal 2026
IDT Corporation reported record fiscal-year 2026 results in its fintech segment, led by its BOSS Money international remittance brand, alongside continued growth at its net2phone communications unit.
Company Spotlight
Twelve currencies, a five-minute application: the onboarding pitch behind HL Hunt’s still-unlaunched business account
Beyond the pricing tiers already covered on this site, HL Hunt Business Banking’s marketing also leans on multi-currency support, instant-transfer mockups and a three-step, no-credit-check signup — all still demo material ahead of a live launch.
ABN AMRO says 2026 profitability is running ahead of plan as cost cuts land early
The Dutch bank reported a 29% jump in second-quarter net profit and said it has already reached half of its planned headcount reduction, prompting a lower full-year cost target.
The Clearing House picks Quant Network to build its tokenized-deposit settlement layer
The bank-owned payments utility selected Quant to supply the interoperability and orchestration technology behind its On-Chain Money Initiative, targeting a 2027 launch.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt Pay publishes a feature-by-feature comparison against Stripe and Square
The company’s self-authored table pits its own rates, settlement speed and fraud tooling against two of the largest payment processors, alongside a three-tier pricing structure.
Company Spotlight
Inside HL Hunt’s AI negotiator: how the collections platform builds payment plans on the fly
HL Hunt Financial says its AI Debt Collection product does more than send reminders — it negotiates. The company’s product page details an automated four-step recovery flow that ends with an AI-generated menu of payment plans for every past-due account.
ING raises 2027 profitability target as fee income and commercial activity outperform
The Dutch bank now expects to exceed 16% return on tangible equity by 2027, up from the 14% goal it set at its 2024 investor day, citing stronger commercial activity and fee income than originally projected.
MoonPay to acquire broker-dealer North Capital in push into tokenized securities
The crypto payments company struck an all-stock deal worth more than $60 million for North Capital Investment Technology, gaining a regulated broker-dealer, an alternative trading system, and transfer-agent capabilities.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt’s pitch to lenders: Metro 2 reporting without the Metro 2 expertise
The company’s own comparison table pits its AI-driven Metro 2 Software against manual spreadsheet formatting and legacy reporting platforms, promising minutes of setup instead of weeks and built-in dispute handling instead of a separate module.
Navy Federal Credit Union settles class action over unauthorized personal loans
The credit union agreed to cancel loans opened via unrecognized devices, request their removal from credit reports, refund payments already made, and pay up to $250 to affected members.
KeyCorp posts 28% EPS growth in first half of 2026, reaffirms buyback plans
The Cleveland-based regional bank told investors it earned $0.88 in diluted per-share profit over the first six months of the year and still intends to repurchase at least $1.3 billion in shares.
Ally Financial launches fee-free Loyally rewards program for banking and auto customers
The digital bank’s new app-based program drops traditional point systems and minimum-balance requirements in favor of personalized discounts, brand partnerships and VIP experiences.
U.S. Bancorp posts record quarterly net income of $2.18 billion
The Minneapolis-based bank reported record net revenue and a sharp year-over-year jump in earnings per share for its second quarter, continuing a stretch of steady results for one of the country’s largest regional lenders.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt Pay markets twelve ways to collect a payment, from tap-to-pay to email invoicing
The company’s pitch centers on channel breadth — cards, ACH, payment links, virtual terminals and more — alongside a head-to-head pricing comparison against Stripe and Square that it publishes itself.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt’s HLX Trading is courting algo traders and institutions with sub-millisecond execution — before it has actually launched
Beyond the retail pitch, HLX advertises a REST and WebSocket API, an Institutional tier with white-labeling, and a security stack including multi-sig cold storage and SOC 2 Type II — all still specification, not a live audit.
Saudi BNPL firm Tabby raises $233 million at a $6.5 billion valuation
The buy-now-pay-later company’s Series F round, led by Blue Pool Capital, is aimed at funding its expansion beyond installment payments into consumer and SME lending, digital wallets, and money management across Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Company Spotlight
What actually happens when you spend an HL Hunt tradeline: inside the closed-loop marketplace
The company issues a revolving line at 0.00% APR — but every dollar of it has to be spent inside HL Hunt’s own marketplace of business tools. That is the mechanic that makes the whole product work.
Company Spotlight
Inside HL Hunt’s four-step personal credit builder: no interest, no credit check, five-minute setup
The company says every membership tier carries 0.00% APR for life and roughly five minutes to open, structured around a four-step account-setup-to-reporting flow — with trade reference letters as a feature the tiers themselves don’t advertise.
Huntington Bancshares trims 2027 profit outlook, citing rates and loan-growth pressure
The regional bank revised its 2027 earnings-per-share guidance down to a range of $1.75 to $1.83 at a September 16, 2026 investor conference, pointing to a more difficult rate environment and softer growth in commercial real estate, mortgages and auto lending.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt’s Personal Credit Builder bets on primary tradelines, not authorized-user add-ons
Five membership tiers from $9.99 to $99.99 a month each report a revolving account opened in the member’s own name to Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — a structure the company argues carries more weight than the authorized-user tradelines sold by many competitors.
VersaBank’s digital-only model keeps posting double-digit growth as assets pass $6.9 billion
The Canadian bank, which operates entirely without branches by lending through point-of-sale and equipment-finance partners, reported a 53% jump in net income for its fiscal third quarter.
Company Spotlight
Inside SellFi’s demo: a $14,500 Rolex sale turned into a 36-month, 9.9% APR loan
HL Hunt’s still-unlaunched seller-financing platform illustrates its pitch with a sample watch deal and a portfolio dashboard — a preview of the mechanics, not a live transaction.
Truist is exiting near-prime auto lending, selling $5.5 billion in loans to Apollo
The bank’s September 15 agreement to sell substantially all of Regional Acceptance Corporation’s assets is expected to free up $945 million in capital and close by year-end.
Fifth Third finished folding Comerica into its systems over Labor Day, creating a top-10 US bank
The technology and brand conversion migrated roughly 600,000 accounts and 293 banking centers, pushing the combined bank past $300 billion in assets as it chases $1 billion in total deal synergies.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt Pay’s pitch to merchants: let AI chase your declined payments so you don’t have to
Beyond checkout, the company markets smart transaction routing for higher approval rates and an automated recovery agent that retries and re-bills customers whose payments fail.
S&P Global is buying a smart-contract auditor to start rating the code behind stablecoins
The ratings giant agreed on September 17 to acquire OpenZeppelin, extending its risk-assessment franchise from corporate debt into the technical security of blockchain-based finance.
Capital One’s profit nearly quadrupled a year after the Discover deal closed
The bank reported $3.0 billion in second-quarter net income, up from a $4.3 billion loss a year earlier, as CEO Richard Fairbank said Discover integration is “going well” fourteen months in.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt’s funding calculator puts a number on the cost of speed — and it isn’t small
A $50,000-a-month business plugged into HL Hunt Business Funding’s own estimator sees a $62,500 advance carry a 1.24 factor rate and $77,500 total repayment. The company is upfront that the number is illustrative, not an offer.
Enova dropped its bank-buying bid after 20 states cried foul — but its lending arm didn’t slow down
The OnDeck parent withdrew its application to acquire Grasshopper Bank following opposition from state attorneys general, even as OnDeck originated $1.6 billion in small-business loans last quarter.
Block wants a single federal charter to replace 50-plus state licenses for its crypto business
The company filed with the OCC on September 8 to create an uninsured national trust bank for bitcoin and stablecoin custody, days after opening its Cash App Score to outside lenders through Nova Credit.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt will build you a custom underwriting model for a product it doesn’t already cover
Beyond its 55-plus prebuilt lending, insurance and eligibility products, Hunt Score lets a client describe a new credit product and get an AI-generated application flow, risk model and decision logic in return.
LendingClub, now operating as Happen, beat revenue estimates as risk-adjusted revenue grew 31%
The online lender reported second-quarter revenue of $262.9 million, edging past analyst expectations of roughly $260.5 million, with a closely watched credit-loss-adjusted metric climbing faster than the top line.
Green Dot narrowed its net loss as banking-as-a-service revenue grew nearly 29%, ahead of a pending sale
The prepaid-card and BaaS company reported second-quarter revenue of $595.9 million, up 18%, but skipped its usual guidance and earnings call while an acquisition by Smith Ventures and CommerceOne is pending.
Company Spotlight
Why HL Hunt’s business credit builder requires an EIN before it requires anything else
The company will not run a personal credit check — but it will check that a business is actually incorporated. The distinction explains who the product can and can’t help.
Dave Inc. posted its sixth straight profitable quarter as revenue grew 30%
The cash-advance and banking app reported $170.8 million in second-quarter revenue and $6.7 million in net income, extending a turnaround from its near-collapse in 2023.
Fiserv shares fell sharply after the payments giant cut its 2026 profit outlook
The company reported a second-quarter organic revenue decline of 5% and lowered full-year adjusted earnings guidance, citing Argentina volatility, delayed client rollouts and softer hardware sales.
Credit Karma grew revenue 16% as Intuit closed out its fiscal year with double-digit growth across the board
Intuit reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $4.4 billion, up 14% year over year, with Credit Karma’s personal-loans, auto-insurance and credit-card referral business leading the gain.
American Express card spending rose 9% as premium fee income kept growing
The company reported second-quarter revenue of $19.6 billion and net income of $3.1 billion, with U.S. consumer spending up 11% and billed business reaching $455.8 billion.
Bilt Rewards relaunched its card without Wells Fargo — and without the bank that made it possible
After Wells Fargo ended its card partnership with the rent-rewards company in February, Bilt rebuilt around a three-card lineup issued by Column N.A. and managed through the Cardless platform.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt’s business bank account is “launching soon” — here’s the banking-as-a-service pitch behind it
HL Hunt Business Banking promises a fee-free operating account, 4.25% APY reserves and same-day ACH built on a partner-bank BaaS model, but the product remains a waitlist with no live account yet.
Zelle’s banks reimburse a narrow category of scam victims — a policy still being tested in court
Early Warning Services, which operates Zelle, has required member banks since 2023 to reimburse transfers induced by scammers impersonating a bank, government agency or service provider, even though federal law does not require it.
Synchrony’s net interest income topped $4.6 billion as store-card lending held steady
The consumer-finance company, a major issuer of retail private-label credit cards, reported second-quarter net earnings of $885 million.
Company Spotlight
Inside HL Hunt Pay’s pitch to merchants: no FX markup, no contract, pay only when you get paid
A second look at HL Hunt’s payment-processing product zeroes in on the pricing structure and developer tooling behind its speed and fraud-detection claims.
Western Union leans on its new stablecoin as remittance revenue keeps sliding
The company reported a 1% second-quarter revenue decline and launched a stablecoin-powered card in 37 markets, as it shifts from cash payouts toward digital rails and targets $50 million in cost savings.
Adyen processed €804 billion in six months and raised its growth forecast again
The Dutch payments company reported first-half 2026 net revenue of €1.3 billion, up 19%, and lifted its full-year revenue growth outlook to 21%-23% following two acquisitions.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt will collect your past-due accounts for as little as 3% — down from a traditional agency’s 25 to 50%
AI Debt Collection replaces contingency-fee collection agencies with an automated, multi-channel outreach engine whose commission rate drops as a creditor’s recovered volume grows.
Visa’s stablecoin settlement volume nears a $20 billion run rate as card networks race to plug in blockchain rails
Visa and Mastercard both expanded stablecoin settlement capabilities this month, with Visa pairing VisaNet data with blockchain-based lending and Mastercard enabling issuers to settle card transactions in USDC, PYUSD and RLUSD.
Mercury clears a second regulatory hurdle toward becoming a chartered bank
The startup-focused banking platform, which serves more than 300,000 businesses, received conditional FDIC deposit insurance approval on September 8, following its OCC charter approval in April.
JPMorgan nears $1 trillion in market value while it quietly builds bank-issued digital dollars
Fresh off a $16.9 billion adjusted quarterly profit, the bank is expanding its JPMD deposit token on a public blockchain even as executives say a retail JPMorgan stablecoin remains unannounced.
Marqeta grew processing volume 32% even as its biggest customer pulls back
The card-issuing platform reported $120 billion in total processing volume for the second quarter, but disclosed that new card issuance tied to Block’s Cash App has begun declining and could shrink to near zero by year-end.
Wells Fargo’s revenue jumped 9% in its first full quarter free of the Fed’s asset cap
The bank reported $6.4 billion in second-quarter net income and 11% year-over-year loan growth, more than a year after regulators lifted the $1.95 trillion balance-sheet restriction imposed after its sales-practices scandal.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt bets lenders will pay $99 a month to stop hand-building Metro 2 files
The company’s Metro 2 Software claims to convert raw loan data into bureau-ready files for Equifax, Experian and TransUnion in under five seconds, undercutting legacy reporting software on price.
Toast added 9,500 restaurant locations in a quarter and raised its profit outlook
The restaurant-technology and payments company reported second-quarter revenue of $1.9 billion and grew its location count 22% year over year, prompting a higher full-year Adjusted EBITDA forecast.
Circle swung to a $48 million profit as USDC in circulation grew 25%
The stablecoin issuer reported $701.3 million in total revenue and reserve income for the second quarter, with average USDC circulation reaching $76.5 billion even as the reserve return rate declined.
Company Spotlight
HLX Trading is HL Hunt’s pitch for a broker that proves it isn’t touching your money — once it launches
The waitlisted platform leads with continuous proof-of-reserves and “funds never leave your account” AI trading agents, whose double-digit backtested returns come with an explicit simulated-results disclaimer.
Wise grew active customers 21% as cross-border volume topped $69 billion for the quarter
The money-transfer company reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 net revenue of $714 million, up 25%, with customer balances held on the platform reaching $41.2 billion.
Revolut clears a first US banking hurdle as its valuation climbs to $115 billion
The London-based financial super-app won preliminary conditional approval from the OCC for a US bank charter in early September, with FDIC and Federal Reserve sign-off still required before a targeted first-half-2027 launch.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt’s SellFi wants to turn any seller into a lender — but it hasn’t launched yet
The pre-launch “seller finance” platform promises 60-second financing deals, auto-generated contracts and ACH collection. For now it is a waitlist and a set of forward-looking projections.
Upstart returned to GAAP profitability as AI-lending revenue jumped 42%
The lending marketplace reported $365 million in second-quarter revenue, record contribution profit of $193 million and $16.5 million in net income.
Stripe processed $1.9 trillion last year — and is now spending to own the AI plumbing too
The privately held payments company, last valued near $159 billion, agreed in August to acquire AI model-routing startup OpenRouter for more than $7 billion.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt Pay leads with a promise rivals don’t make: “we never shut down your account”
The company’s AI payment-processing product pairs sub-second authorizations and same-day settlement with a pitch aimed squarely at merchants burned by frozen funds.
Coinbase revenue fell 19% as trading cooled, even as it took a record share of crypto volume
The exchange reported $1.22 billion in second-quarter revenue and a net loss of $359.5 million, with subscription and services revenue nearly matching transaction revenue.
PayPal’s payment volume grew faster than revenue as Venmo notched a seventh straight strong quarter
The company reported $8.68 billion in second-quarter net revenue and $486.4 billion in total payment volume, and raised its full-year profit guidance.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt Business Funding is a matchmaker, not a lender — here’s what that means for the terms
One application, five product types, funding in as little as 24 hours. The company says it weights revenue over FICO and accepts scores from 500.
Nubank passed 139 million customers and posted record $1.1 billion quarterly profit
The Latin American digital bank reported gross revenue of nearly $5.9 billion for the second quarter, up 39%, as its Mexico base neared 16 million customers.
Robinhood’s revenue hit a record even as crypto trading revenue fell 38%
The brokerage reported $1.31 billion in second-quarter net revenue and $573 million in net income, with strength across the platform offsetting a sharp drop in crypto.
Block’s Cash App keeps outrunning Square as gross profit rises 25%
The company reported $3.17 billion in second-quarter gross profit, with Cash App up 31% to $1.97 billion and Square up 13% to $1.16 billion, and raised its full-year guidance.
SoFi’s member base crossed 15.8 million as second-quarter revenue jumped 40%
The digital lender reported record adjusted net revenue of $1.2 billion for the quarter ended June 30, adding 1.1 million members and reaching 24.4 million total products.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt’s personal credit builder: five tiers, one tradeline, three bureaus a month
The company reports a revolving personal account to Experian, Equifax and TransUnion every month. Spending only happens inside its own marketplace.
Chime added 200,000 active members in the second quarter as revenue climbed 27%
The neobank reported $670 million in second-quarter revenue and 10.4 million active members as of June 30, up 20% from a year earlier.
Affirm’s fourth quarter shows buy-now-pay-later volume still accelerating, not cooling
The installment lender reported $14.1 billion in gross merchandise volume for the quarter ended June 30, up 36% from a year earlier, as revenue climbed 33% to $1.166 billion.
Company Spotlight
HL Hunt is selling its underwriting model to other lenders, not just using it on its own credit builder
Hunt Score promises sub-250-millisecond credit decisions across more than 55 lending, insurance and eligibility products, priced as a platform fee plus a per-decision rate.
Payments
Banks are quietly building stablecoin settlement rails instead of waiting to be disrupted by them
A year after federal stablecoin legislation set reserve and licensing rules, several large banks have moved from pilots to production for cross-border and treasury payments.
Company Spotlight
Inside HL Hunt’s business credit builder: a closed-loop tradeline aimed at thin-file companies
The company reports a revolving business account to four commercial bureaus each month. Credit is usable only inside its own marketplace — the constraint is the design.
Ramp raised $750 million at a $44 billion valuation, and its newest product line is AI spending
The corporate card company has passed $1 billion in annualized revenue. Its pitch now includes controlling what companies spend on AI models.
Klarna beat on revenue and cut its guidance anyway, and the market only heard the second part
Q2 revenue rose 27 percent and credit losses improved, but a lowered full-year outlook sent the stock down about 20 percent in a session.