The credit reporting system is no longer fit for purpose. Built for a different era, it fails to account for the dynamics of modern lending, particularly short-term, high-frequency credit products like BNPL. Instead of helping lenders assess risk and enabling consumers to access fair credit, the current system misrepresents creditworthiness. The solution is not to exclude BNPL data from credit reporting. Nor is it to shoehorn new behaviours into old models. We need structural change. A credit reporting system designed for the 2020s should include: 1) Modern scoring logic: Models should focus on actual repayment behaviour and differentiate between product types. High frequency, short term credit such as BNPL should be assessed in its own context. 2) Real-time data infrastructure: Data should be delivered instantly, through APIs and event driven systems, enabling lenders to see the full picture in the moment it matters. Real time capabilities also allow for responsible product design, like adaptive credit limits and instant affordability checks. 3) Fit for purpose standards: Data formats must accommodate transaction-level detail, flexible repayment schedules, and user context. Standards should evolve with innovation, not lag behind it. A shared taxonomy for short-term credit products is also essential to ensure consistent interpretation.
Banks are pushing cryptos into mainstream following regulatory maturation, the real-world quest for stablecoin utility and the institutionalization of digital assets
With new SEC leadership and defined compliance expectations, banks and companies are moving from experimentation to operational integration — using crypto and stablecoins for cross-border payments, corporate treasuries and programmable money at scale. Major global banks, like ING, are in fact beginning to partner on stablecoin projects, motivated both by the fear of being left behind and the opportunity to define new standards. These are robust, multi-bank consortia aiming for real-world use cases — cross-border payments, corporate treasuries and eventually programmable money at scale. The Lynq network — developed by Arca Labs, Tassat Group, and tZERO — promises real-time, yield-bearing settlements, a marked upgrade from legacy systems that still settle on T+2 timelines. This settlement innovation, which also includes participation from U.S. Bank, is critical for both risk management and unlocking new forms of financial products. Putting an exclamation point on today’s landscape, a Cantor Fitzgerald affiliate business is teaming up with SoftBank and Tether to create a multi-billion-dollar corporate treasury vehicle with the goal of accumulating bitcoin. Upexi, a consumer products firm, is raising $100 million to accumulate Solana, echoing the “corporate treasury as crypto hedge” playbook pioneered by MicroStrategy. This signals not just speculative belief, but operational integration: companies see blockchains not only as investment vehicles but as potential infrastructure for their own business models. Circle’s launch of a stablecoin orchestration layer aims to make stablecoins “invisible” in the best sense: moving money across borders, across blockchains and into the hands of consumers without them needing to understand the underlying tech. Major financial institutions are taking notice, not just with experimental projects but with real investment and product launches. The partnership between CompoSecure and MoneyGram exemplifies this. By enabling cash-to-crypto conversions at thousands of global MoneyGram locations, stablecoins are made accessible to the unbanked and underbanked, potentially reshaping remittance and financial inclusion. With Visa, Mastercard and JPMorgan testing tokenized forms of cash, treasuries and even real estate, we’re beginning to see the outlines of a future where everything of value can be transacted in programmable, composable digital units. Taken together, these three trends — regulatory maturation, the real-world quest for stablecoin utility and the institutionalization of digital assets — mark a turning point. The Wild West days of crypto are fading, replaced by a convergence with mainstream finance. Success could mean a financial system that is faster, fairer and more inclusive, leveraging the strengths of both centralized and decentralized models.
Private credit markets with a higher degree of customization are more resilient to restrictive monetary policy compared to public credit markets and bank lending
Fed Gov. Adriana Kugler said the growth of private lending in the wake of the global financial crisis created a market that was relatively immune to the central bank’s restrictive policy stance. “One implication of this strong growth during this past policy tightening is that monetary policy transmission to private credit markets appeared more muted relative to financing through public credit markets or bank commercial and industrial lending,” Kugler said. Kugler attributed the proliferation of private credit to structural advantages such lenders have over banks, including their ability to offer “higher customization” to borrowers and investors alike. The resilience of nonbank lenders was not the Fed’s only takeaway from its post-pandemic tightening cycle. Kugler said the central bank also learned about the impact of excess savings on monetary policy transmission. She noted that the combination of government stimulus and curtailed spending as a result of COVID-19 social distancing “led the personal savings rate to soar.” The saving glut, she said, effectively created a buffer between consumers and higher borrowing costs. “If households are flush with excess cash, they are less likely to respond to elevated interest rates by curtailing demand,” Kugler said. “Instead, they may have funds to avoid financing or may feel they are able to afford higher monthly payments.” Those excess savings have largely evaporated, Kugler said, allowing monetary policy to impact the economy in a more typical fashion. But, she added, the effects have been more pronounced for less creditworthy borrowers, pointing to credit card and auto loan delinquencies, which have risen above pre-pandemic levels. Kugler said the disparate impacts between prime and subprime borrowers could play out in the inverse, once the Fed resumes lowering interest rates. “For these [lower credit] households, easing monetary policy may have larger effects,” she said. Kugler said financial conditions — namely the willingness of banks to provide credit — have front-run some of the Fed’s monetary decisions. She noted that conditions began easing last year even before the Fed began cutting interest rates in September, which corresponded with an increased demand for loans by households and businesses. But, overall, she said banks have only reduced the interest rates they charge modestly from their post-pandemic peaks and stopped doing so early this year in accordance with the Fed’s pause on policy adjustments. “Banks stopped tightening lending standards after nine consecutive quarters, but they left standards unchanged in January,” she said.
Goldman Sachs executives’ images are convincingly used in deepfake video campaign on Instagram, matching both look and sound of the execs
A video ad campaign on Instagram used convincing deepfakes of Goldman Sachs executives Abby Joseph Cohen and David Kostin, in addition to Michael Hewson (formerly of CMC Markets), to tempt amateurs who want to get rich quick into a stock-buying WhatsApp group. The videos were fake, and Meta says it has removed the campaign from its platform. “This is a fraudulent message and not representative of Goldman Sachs,” the bank told. “There should always be caution exercised around any unverified communication purporting to come from a Goldman Sachs employee.” In fact, there is a whole raft of fake AI video chief investment officers making the rounds on social media right now. Goldman’s chief U.S. equity strategist, David Kostin, who has been at the bank for 30 years, has one. Former CMC Markets chief analyst Michael Hewson (16 years at the company) has another. The videos don’t just look like the three execs, they sound like them too. One of the few giveaways is that their lips don’t quite match the words they are saying—a common flaw with AI deepfakes. CMC and Meta, Instagram’s owner, also confirmed the videos were fake.
Square’s new app offers intuitive modifier workflows and smart pre-authorization features to give sellers a personalized POS experience
Square announced the new Square Point of Sale app – its next-generation software that brings Square’s deep vertical-specific commerce and payments functionality into a single, unified app that sellers can personalize to meet the complex needs of their business, while supporting their business growth and evolution into the future. With the new Square Point of Sale, all of Square’s power and innovation is now available in one single app – making it easier for sellers to discover the tools that are right for their business and expand their features as they grow. From our testing, we found that feature discovery and usage among new sellers grew nearly 80% from the rate on the previous Square POS experience. The new Square Point of Sale makes it easy to manage it all, flow between operations, and deliver a great experience. The power and ease of Square Point of Sale resides in its modes – easy-to-understand feature sets, purpose-built for each industry, to give sellers a personalized POS experience that instantly sets them up with the right tools for their business. Sellers can easily add modes to expand their sales capabilities with no limitations on growth, while Square can now ship new features to more sellers at a faster rate. There are currently seven modes available on Square’s platform, offering unique technology and feature needs even within verticals:
Three Food & Beverage modes let sellers choose highly tailored solutions for their needs: Quick Service mode; Full Service mode; and Bar mode. Others include: Retail mode, Bookings mode, Services mode, and Standard mode
Ameriprise 1Q25: the wealth unit netted pretax adjusted operating earnings of $792 million on revenue of $2.78 billion, for a margin of 28.5%; The profit increased 4% from the same time a year ago
In the competitive recruiting fight for financial advisor talent, Ameriprise has followed the lead of rivals that have restricted their publicly reported headcounts to a vague number. Advice & Wealth Management segment generated 65% of its adjusted operating net revenue for the period and set a record level of advisor productivity. Business growth, rising client activity and asset appreciation fueled a new high in 12-month adjusted operating net revenue per advisor at $1.06 million. That figure jumped 12% year-over-year. Asset values plus “client and advisor engagement, and a focus on positioning portfolios to meet financial planning goals across market cycles,” drove higher customer holdings, according to the firm. Total client assets climbed 7% from the year-ago period to $1.02 trillion, while net flows rose 21% to $10.3 billion and incoming advisory holdings soared 34% to $8.7 billion. The higher advisor productivity led to more compensation costs and other expenses tied to increased business, according to the firm. Adjusted operating expenses escalated 11% year over year to $1.99 billion in the first quarter. The general and administrative portion enlarged just 1% to $424 million due to “strong expense discipline, as well as continued investments in growth initiatives and volume-related expenses due to business growth,” the firm said. For the quarter, the wealth unit netted pretax adjusted operating earnings of $792 million on revenue of $2.78 billion, for a margin of 28.5%. The profit increased 4% from the same time a year ago, while revenue was up 9% and the margin slipped by 130 basis points.
Revolut expands ‘Karma’ system adding six new risk and compliance behaviors that help determine bonus payments for employees
Revolut has expanded a system that tracks employees’ risky behavior and ultimately determines how much they’re paid every year. The company added six new sources to its Karma system last year, which allows employees to gain or lose points based on their behavior throughout the year. Those points are then tallied up and help determine bonus payments, the report shows. “We have seen companywide Karma performance related to key risk and compliance processes increase by 25% since its inception, showing the success of linking these actions to remuneration,” the company said. The Karma system includes more than 30 risk processes, the report shows. In one example, it might be used to track employees’ actions after a risk incident: the system would ensure that staffers complete any investigation and partake in remediation in a timely manner. The expanded system shows Revolut is still laser-focused on shaking off its reputation around weak financial controls that have dogged the company in previous years. “Karma is essential for measuring and incentivizing good risk and compliance outcomes, and its coverage was expanded in 2024 to address our organization’s growing complexity,” Pierre Decote, group chief risk and compliance officer, said
Coinbase’s customers to gain direct access to PayPal’s PYUSD and institutions already using crypto to have increased utility with PYUSD
PayPal and Coinbase announced an expansion of their partnership to increase the adoption, distribution, and utilization of the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin. This collaboration will provide value for consumers, enterprises, and institutions as they continue to utilize digital currencies across platforms and borders with the stability of regulated USD-denominated crypto-native assets. This partnership will give Coinbase’s millions of customers direct access to PYUSD while also enabling the thousands of institutions already using crypto increased utility with PYUSD. Additional details include:
1:1 PYUSD to USD conversions– Coinbase users will now be able to buy, sell, trade PYUSD with no platform fees, while also being able to redeem PYUSD 1:1 for US dollars directly on Coinbase platforms.
Payments related activities – The two companies are committed to collaborating on a variety of innovations that will help accelerate the adoption and utility of stablecoin based solutions for the purposes of moving or managing money around the world, particularly in commerce.
DeFi exploration – Coinbase and PayPal agree to explore new use cases for PYUSD in DeFi and onchain platforms.
Citigroup predicts stablecoin supply could hit $3.7 trillion by 2030; spawning opportunity for banks in- on and off ramps, cash management, custody and helping the issuer to buy and sell Treasuries and participate in repo
A new paper from Citi Institute forecasts the issuance of stablecoins reaching up to $3.7 trillion by 2030 in a bullish scenario that assumes minimal hurdles along the way. It also provided a base prediction of $1.6 trillion, which is less than the $2.4 trillion forecast from the Boston Consulting Group. The Citi numbers are based on several factors such as the proportion of cash that switches to stablecoins both domestically and globally, as well as bank balances and term deposits. Further adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency will make up the largest proportion of stablecoin balances in all scenarios. While there are potential tailwinds from US and EU stablecoin legislation, the document highlights that more positive factors are required in order to achieve the optimistic case, including favorable legislation in other jurisdictions. The research also explores several potential headwinds. For example, some jurisdictions that fear dollarization could restrict the use of stablecoins. The IMF has regularly written about the challenges of crypto and stablecoin for monetary sovereignty, especially in countries that have exchange controls. On the one hand, if there’s a dramatic shift towards stablecoins, this could negatively impact deposits and the ability of banks to provide affordable lending. However, there are also opportunities for banks. These include obvious ones such as providing on and off ramps, stablecoin cash management services, custody of the reserves, and helping the issuer to buy and sell Treasuries and participate in repo. Banks could even use stablecoin infrastructure themselves. For example, MUFG startup Progmat is exploring using stablecoins instead of Swift for cross border payments, with business users giving them instructions in the normal way. Other banks are already leaning heavily into providing stablecoin services to issuers. BNY Mellon is Circle’s primary bank. Standard Chartered is the bank that has leaned in the most. It has relationships with issuers Paxos and StraitsX in Singapore and is part of a joint venture in Hong Kong to issue a stablecoin. Plus, one of its indirect subsidiaries, Zodia Markets, uses stablecoins for cross border foreign exchange.
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Corporate treasuries are exploring yield-bearing strategies such as staking, lending and liquidity pools following the maturation of decentralized finance protocols and tokenized products
Major firms and new entities are amassing crypto holdings for treasury operations, reflecting a broader adoption and diversification of crypto assets beyond bitcoin. Corporate treasuries are exploring yield-bearing strategies such as staking, lending and providing liquidity, driven by the maturation of decentralized finance protocols and tokenized products. In the simplest sense, farming yield for enterprise reasons involves actively putting digital assets to work through yield-bearing instruments, such as staking, lending and liquidity pools. For example, in proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain networks, holders can “stake” their assets to help secure the network, earning rewards (usually paid in the native token). For CFOs, staking offers a yield-generating mechanism somewhat akin to a dividend, albeit with technical, liquidity and regulatory considerations. Crypto lending platforms, for their part, can enable asset holders to lend their tokens in exchange for interest payments. This helps allow treasuries to deploy idle crypto assets and earn returns, similar to money-market strategies in traditional finance. By supplying their digital assets to decentralized exchanges or automated market makers (AMMs), corporate treasuries can earn fees from trading activity. While this method is potentially lucrative, it exposes providers to unique risks such as impermanent loss, a phenomenon where the value of supplied assets diverges from simply holding them.