Banks have been concerned about stablecoin issuers coming for their deposits, but the growing popularity of the digital asset could have wider implications, including a reduction in available credit. While stablecoins are still early in their evolution, they are bound to scale massively, Rajeev Bamra, associate managing director, head of strategy, digital economy at Moody’s Ratings, told American Banker. This scale could impact traditional lending, investment products and marketwide risk as the use of Treasuries as stablecoin reserves impacts other sectors of finance. “Stablecoins’ role in the plumbing of financial markets … is making them more systemically important,” Bamra said. Stablecoins have been growing at a fast clip, with circulation doubling from January 2024 to July 2025, accounting for $30 billion of transactions daily, or less than 1% of global money flows, according to McKinsey and Company. That growth is not expected to slow anytime soon. Today, the stablecoin market is just over $250 billion, with Tether and Circle’s stablecoins making up the lion’s share at $165 billion and $67 billion, respectively. Stefan Jacewitz, assistant vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, believes that the stablecoin industry will eventually grow large enough to boost demand for Treasury bonds, but that growth comes at a cost as the role of Treasuries declines elsewhere in banking. Presently, the role of Treasuries in the stablecoin market is limited. Stablecoin issuers such as Circle and Tether favor U.S. Treasuries as a backing for their stablecoins in circulation because they are low risk and highly liquid. Both issuers hold about half of their assets in U.S. treasury notes: As of June 30, Circle held just less than half of its total $61 billion in assets, $27 billion, in Treasuries, and Tether held $105 billion in Treasuries to back its USDT stablecoin, according to the two company’s respective transparency reports. “If all issuers held a similar proportion of their assets as Treasuries, they would hold around $125 billion in Treasury bills — less than 2% of the $6 trillion in outstanding Treasury bills,” Jacewitz wrote in a research bulletin. “While this sum is not negligible, the stablecoin industry is not as yet considered a major part of the Treasury-bill market, and issuer behavior likely has a limited effect on overall Treasury liquidity.” The stablecoin industry would need to grow to about $900 billion to reach the size of the next smallest category of U.S. Treasury owners, which are private pension funds that hold a little more than $450 billion in Treasuries. By comparison, the largest private holders of T-bills are mutual funds, at $4.5 trillion, according to Jacewitz. But as stablecoin issuers grow their share of coins in circulation, so too will the demand for T-bills, Jacewitz said. JPMorganChase has estimated that the market will grow to $500 billion by 2028, and Standard Chartered estimated the stablecoin market would grow to $3 trillion by 2028. Analysts at Bernstein are also bullish, and predicted the market could grow to $4 trillion by 2035. “This potential flow of funds from bank deposits into stablecoins could increase Treasury demand but also could reduce the supply of loans in the economy,” Jacewitz said. “Assuming the stablecoin market grows from $250 billion to $900 billion … the $650 billion in growth could represent a shift from bank deposits to stablecoins,” Jacewitz said. “This shift would represent a 1% decrease in both bank assets and bank lending — that is, a $325 billion reduction in bank loans to the economy.”
AI agents evolve how automated customer service works- deplolying automated work assignment through ServiceNow Task Intelligence and integrated GenAI capabilities is allowing engineers to resolve problems 36% to 38% faster without forwarding calls
Scott Steele, CEO of Thrive, discusses the use of AI in contact center operations, focusing on end-user support. The company uses ServiceNow as its primary workflow engine to maintain data across various platforms, ensuring accuracy and alignment across the business. Steele emphasizes the importance of policy, governance, and management in AI strategy to ensure successful implementation. Thrive’s main uses for AI in the contact center include process management, which involves understanding bottlenecks and improving customer experience. They have deployed automated work assignment through ServiceNow Task Intelligence and integrated GenAI capabilities, allowing engineers to resolve problems 36% to 38% faster without forwarding calls. This has reduced the time spent on the phone with customers and improved the route of calls. However, some agents still want to remain call center agents and are being moved to other call centers. As the industry continues to evolve, it is expected that autonomous AI agents will take on more decision-making responsibility. Steele predicts that in five years, AI will become the exoskeleton for individuals, making them bigger, faster, and stronger. As AI becomes more digital-oriented, chat will improve, reducing the need for voice-side assistance. However, Steele acknowledges that getting away from humans 100% may be difficult. Automation has already saved hundreds of thousands of hours and improved efficiency and cost structure, making agentic AI an opportunity for businesses to drive efficiency and cost structure.
Citi’s new retail head of retail banking says simplified strategy distinguishes Citi from larger banks; credits fintechs with pushing traditional banks to reduce complexity
Kate Luft, Citi’s new head of U.S. retail banking, draws inspiration for customer engagement from the airline industry. “I think of it like an airline,” she said. “The more you do with us, the more we recognize you.” Luft led the overhaul of Citi’s U.S. retail strategy last year, simplifying products, consolidating checking accounts, and introducing “relationship tiers” that reward customers with perks like waived fees when they meet balance thresholds. “Really what we did was redefine our products and value [propositions],” she said. “Our mandate was, how do we make it super-simple for our clients?”
WEX’s Benefits segment is a growth engine- revenue in Q2 rose 8.5% year over year to $195.1 million, driven by 6% growth in SaaS accounts and 11.4% growth in custodial investment income
WEX is transforming from a legacy fuel card provider into a diversified FinTech infrastructure company, now operating in three segments: Mobility, Benefits, and Corporate Payments. The mobility segment, which still accounts for about 50% of WEX’s total revenue, is navigating pressures. Same-store sales across local and over-the-road (OTR) fleets are down, reflecting both efficiency gains (i.e., fewer gallons per mile) and cautious spending by mid-market fleet operators. While the full revenue from BP’s existing card portfolio won’t hit until after its conversion — likely sometime in 2026 — WEX expects 0.5% to 1% of additional annual revenue from the deal once fully implemented. In the meantime, the company is seeing strong traction from increased investments in digital marketing aimed at small fleet operators. Historically, each dollar spent in this channel has generated $4 in revenue over two years, and early signs suggest the return profile remains intact. WEX’s Benefits segment may not make headlines, but it continues to be one of the company’s most stable growth engines. Revenue in Q2 rose 8.5% year over year to $195.1 million, driven by 6% growth in software-as-a-service (SaaS) accounts and 11.4% growth in custodial investment income. This segment — built on the complex infrastructure that powers HSAs, FSAs, and COBRA accounts — has both high margins and high stickiness. Switching providers in this space is “complex, time-consuming and disruptive,” which explains why WEX serves nearly 60% of the Fortune 1000 and powers more than 20% of the HSA market through its direct and channel partner offerings. WEX also launched a new AI-driven claims processing tool that slashes reimbursement processing from days to minutes — a rare moment where FinTech buzzwords meet real impact. The automation reduces costs while improving the user experience — an important differentiator as benefits become a battleground for attracting talent. If there’s a wildcard in WEX’s portfolio, it’s corporate payments. The segment, which includes both embedded payments (mainly virtual cards used in travel and other verticals) and accounts payable (AP) automation, saw revenue decline 11.8% to $118.3 million. WEX has increased its dedicated AP sales force by over 50% and is riding a wave of demand from mid-size and enterprise companies looking to digitize legacy payment workflows. With more than 140 new customers signed year-to-date and a record pipeline, this unit could quietly become a growth engine in its own right. Meanwhile, the company is expanding its embedded payments offering into new verticals such as media, eCommerce and expense management. Owning a bank (WEX Bank) gives it an edge in these scenarios, allowing end-to-end integration that many FinTech challengers struggle to offer at scale.
Research finds while the number of active users of OpenAI’s ChatGPT app was 5.8% lower on Sundays compared to the average day in the first half of 2024, it was only 2.5% lower in the first half of 2025 indicating consumers’ expanding use of AI assistants in daily lives
Consumers are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) assistants in their personal lives as well as at work. While AI usage used to drop on weekends, that is less true today, digital intelligence and analytics firm Sensor Tower said. The company found that while the number of active users of OpenAI’s ChatGPT app was 5.8% lower on Sundays compared to the average day in the first half of 2024, it was only 2.5% lower in the first half of 2025. Similarly, the number of active users of ChatGPT on the web was 19.2% lower on Sundays than on the average day in the first half of 2024, it was 8.0% lower in the first half of 2025. By contrast, work-focused apps like Microsoft Teams and Salesforce’s Slack still see large drops in usage on weekends. “This makes [ChatGPT’s] app usage trends more similar to Google, which consumers rely on as a primary resource while working and outside of work alike,” Jonathan Briskman, principal market insights manager at Sensor Tower, wrote. Sensor Tower also found other signs that consumers are becoming more comfortable with using generative AI apps. The company said ChatGPT became the fastest app to reach 1 billion global downloads across iOS and Google Play; prompt data shows users are turning to ChatGPT for answers related to not just work and education but also lifestyle and entertainment; and the number of apps mentioning “AI” or AI-related terms increased by more than 200 in the first half. “This reflects how ChatGPT has not only reached a much broader user base, but how consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable using the tool for more varied use cases,” Briskman wrote.
Wells Fargo to partner the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM) at The Ohio State University providing insights into the banking needs of middle market companies, helping guide research reports, and Middle Market Indicator
Wells Fargo announced a collaboration with the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM) at The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business. Wells Fargo’s Commercial Banking group will provide the NCMM with insights into the banking needs of middle market companies, helping guide research reports, including their flagship Middle Market Indicator. The collaboration will also support special research projects and work on Wells Fargo’s middle market-focused thought leadership. The NCMM is the leading source of knowledge, leadership, and innovative research on the middle market economy, providing critical data analysis, insights, and perspectives for companies, policymakers, and other key stakeholders, to help accelerate growth, increase competitiveness, and create jobs in this sector. “We are excited to work with the NCMM and share their data and insights with our clients as they seek to build and grow their businesses,” said John Manning, head of Market Coverage for Wells Fargo Commercial Banking. “They have been focused on understanding middle market companies for 14 years, and combined with our expertise with these companies, we believe collaborating with the NCMM will help us provide additional insights to support growth in this important segment of the U.S. economy,” added Manning. Middle market companies – generally defined as companies with annual revenues between $10 million and $1 billion – account for roughly one-third of total employment and GDP in the U.S. and generate more than $10 trillion in annual revenue.i “Middle market businesses play a key role in driving innovation and job creation and are the backbone of local communities across the country,” said Doug Farren, managing director of the NCMM. “Wells Fargo brings decades of middle market banking experience to this collaboration. We look forward to working together to gain an even better understanding of the opportunities and challenges in this segment to support future growth,” added Farren.
U.S. Bank’s Business Resources Central (BRC) is centered on ease of access and comprehensive educational offerings, “open not just to U.S. Bank clients but is actually open to everyone”
US Bank Chief Product Officer for Business Banking Shruti Patel provided an assessment of the sentiment among SMBs. Results from a U.S. Bank survey show just where the worries lie, she said. “Almost 60% to 80% of our respondents are feeling very overwhelmed with the macro environment stressors right now,” she said, adding that her unit’s focus is on enterprises with sales under the $25 million threshold. “The uncertainty around tariffs, the impact on cost of operations, whether they’re going to absorb the cost, pass it down, the rate environment, access to capital” are top of mind. Last month, the bank launched U.S. Bank Business Resources Central (BRC). The free, online hub builds on the bank’s financial literacy and community access initiatives, said Patel, who added that the business access advisor program was set up in 2021. The online offering, launched in collaboration with Next Street, a firm focused on training programs for small businesses, functions as a sort of Coursera for enterprises. The overarching goal is to provide foundational business skills that remain relevant regardless of economic shifts. The collaboration uses Next Street’s experience to co-create content that addresses the broader needs of small businesses beyond banking and payments, Patel said. The functionality of the BRC is centered on ease of access and comprehensive educational offerings. The hub is “open not just to U.S. Bank clients but is actually open to everyone,” Patel said. The content (contained in 10 courses) covers essential topics such as how to secure financing, protect against cybercrime and improve digital literacy. There’s also emphasis on artificial intelligence, given its growing adoption by small businesses. “We made AI a very big portion of the business resource hub because we hear a lot from our customers … that they are deploying AI more and more in everyday operations,” Patel said. “Almost 80% of our small business survey respondents deploy AI. They’re trying to minimize the cost of their operations.” The hub offers dedicated toolkits to help businesses learn about and use AI tools for efficiency and cost reduction. The content is also customizable, tailored to the specific industry and stage of development of each small business. Beyond general business acumen, the BRC also helps SMBs navigate specific opportunities, such as becoming vendors for larger institutions, with the help of the business access advisors that act as procurement specialists and are located across more than a dozen markets around the United States. The focus on active use and return visits will help fine-tune the platform’s value to SMBs, Patel said. “The success of the platform is all about keeping up with the challenging times and continuing to iterate on the curated content to make sure that engagement metrics stay high,” she said. Early results show that nearly 20% of users in the initial weeks are already defined as U.S. Bank customers, and many are reaching out for one-on-one coaching. U.S. Bank is promoting the BRC through various marketing channels, including publications and social media, and through direct outreach by its business access advisors in communities across its footprint markets. “If we can help small businesses, whether they became a vendor, whether they get access to capital, whether they were able to understand how they can [undertake] sustaining and growing their business, that would be a big success story for us,” Patel said.
Payoneer announced a collaboration with Citi to launch real-time, blockchain-enabled treasury transfers via Citi Token Services, the firm’s tokenized liquidity and payment platform
Payoneer the global financial technology company powering business growth across borders, announced a collaboration with Citi to launch real-time, blockchain-enabled treasury transfers via Citi® Token Services, the firm’s tokenized liquidity and payment platform. This new capability enables Payoneer to transfer funds between its global accounts in participating branches and currencies with greater speed, automation and transparency. This marks a major step in Payoneer’s long-term commitment to modernizing its financial stack through thoughtful, purpose-driven innovation. The collaboration leverages Citi’s blockchain-based solution to move money across Payoneer-owned accounts, helping to reduce reliance on traditional payment methods and delays caused by banking cut-off times, holidays and weekends. This builds on Payoneer’s existing relationship with Citi to leverage the global bank’s Banking as a Service and cross-border FX and payment capabilities. “We’re constantly looking for ways to simplify the complex world of cross-border payments,” said Bea Ordonez, Chief Financial Officer, Payoneer. “Blockchain-based infrastructure is transforming how money moves globally and with Citi Token Services, we gain the ability to move money in real time across borders, delivering a faster, more efficient experience for our customers.” The expected benefits of this infrastructure include: Instant Global Liquidity: Transfer funds 24/7 between Payoneer entities in markets like the U.S., UK, and Singapore, reducing delays and constraints tied to weekends or holidays. Improved Treasury Efficiency: Enables fast, transparent, and automated intra-company transfers, streamlining both cash management and FX risk mitigation through programmable, blockchain-based settlements. Simple Integration: Modern APIs and blockchain protocols allow for easy integration with existing treasury and payment systems, minimizing the need for complex infrastructure changes and accelerating time to market. “Citi Token Services is transforming how our global clients manage liquidity and payments, providing real-time, 24/7, cross-border access and significantly improving efficiency,” said Ryan Rugg, Global Head of Digital Assets, Treasury and Trade Solutions at Citi. “In this rapidly evolving digital banking landscape, we’re pleased to collaborate with clients, like Payoneer, on a range of our cross-border payments capabilities to deliver secure, scalable and transparent payments globally.” Launched in 2024, Citi Token Services facilitates multimillion-dollar transactions and provides always-on cross-border liquidity and payments between participating Citi branches. It has processed billions in transaction value since its launch. Citi Token Services is live in the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore and Hong Kong branches with transfers in US dollars (USD).
New York sues Zelle, alleging failure to prevent fraud
Zelle operator Early Warning Services is being sued by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who alleged that the company fails to protect its users from “massive amounts of fraud.” . An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) revealed that EWS designed Zelle without critical safety features, allowing scammers to easily target users and steal over $1 billion between 2017 and 2023. EWS knew from the beginning that key features of the Zelle network made it uniquely susceptible to fraud, and yet it failed to adopt basic safeguards to address these glaring flaws or enforce any meaningful anti-fraud rules on its partner banks. Attorney General James filed this lawsuit after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) abandoned a similar lawsuit, filed in December 2024, following the change in the federal administration. With this lawsuit, Attorney General James is seeking restitution and damages for affected New Yorkers, as well as a court order mandating Zelle maintain anti-fraud measures necessary to protect its users.
B2B payment transformation leverages virtual cards, cloud tools, and AI-driven agreements—turning payment practices into collaborative, adaptive engines of cash flow efficiency
Under the combined weight of ongoing tariff-driven uncertainty, macroeconomic disruptions and cash flow volatility, B2B suppliers and buyers are taking a fresh look at the rules of engagement. This renewed attention on accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) points to a new era of trust-building in B2B payments may be emerging, powered by technology, alternative financing tools and an openness to collaboration. The integration of suppliers—through digital means, as their billing systems are linked to the buyers’ payment operations—can improve cash flow for both parties, and by extension, create B2B ecosystems that are efficient. Virtual card platforms are also being adapted for B2B trade. By issuing single-use cards with pre-approved amounts and automatic reconciliation, companies can guarantee payment upon delivery while maintaining tight spend controls. Visa and B2B payment orchestration platform Bluechain, for example, partnered to enable digital transformation of B2B payments in the U.K. The trust-building era in B2B isn’t just a mindset change; it’s also being engineered into the payment process itself. Cloud-based procurement platforms now integrate payment scheduling, financing options and tariff tracking in real time. Both buyer and supplier can see where money is, when it will arrive and how external cost factors might change the plan. This transparency is a departure from legacy systems, where payment status was opaque and disputes were resolved by phone or email chains. Of course, the move toward mutual benefit doesn’t eliminate risk, and there’s also the challenge of ensuring digital tools integrate cleanly with enterprise resource planning systems and comply with local regulations. The B2B trust-building trend may only continue to accelerate as generative AI and predictive analytics enhance B2B payment platforms. In this vision, payment terms cease to be static clauses and become living agreements that adapt in real time to economic signals. That adaptability could turn payment practices from a source of friction into a driver of resilience.