Hello Fintech Friends,

🤝 Welcome to the 1,009+ new readers who’ve joined us since last week. You’re joining 159,000+ other subscribers. Today's newsletter is brought to you by our friends at Fintech Meetup.

🇲🇽 I'll be in Mexico City with our COO Dennis the last week of February for our events and meetings during the city's fintech festival. Who should we meet with while we're in town?

Come join one our events: 

TWIF @ Mexico Fintech Week

TWIF @ Mexico Fintech Week

TWIF @ Mexico Fintech Week

💼 We also re-launched the TWIF Job Board this week! Want to get your job in-front of 200,000+ followers across our newsletters, Slack, and social media every week? Drop us an email at sponsor@thisweekinfintech.com and we'll get you set up.

This Week in Fintech Job Board

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This Week in Fintech

Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below.

(👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know. Find me at @nikmilanovic, @twifintech, and @ndm)

Ticket prices go up at MIDNIGHT! ⏰

Don't miss out on your last chance to get tickets at $500 off the full rate, and make sure that you secure your spot to register for meetings at Fintech Meetup 2025! The process begins on Monday, so time is running out to take part in the biggest and most valuable meetings program in fintech!

Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🚀 Product Launches

Wells Fargo expanded its commercial banking by partnering with core provider Q2 to launch a platform aimed at improving banker efficiency and client service through enhanced collaboration with commercial customers and real-time insights.

📰 Other News 

BNY Mellon processed the largest instant payment in U.S. history – $10 million – utilizing the The Clearing House's RTP network to enhance real-time payment capabilities for its clients.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation published its prior letters requesting banks to pause activities related to cryptocurrencies, including those associated with the USDF Consortium, as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.

Trump fintech? Trump Media & Technology Group applied for trademarks to launch exchange-traded funds and separately-managed accounts, including the "Made in America" and "Energy Independence" funds.

The administration also nominated former cryptocurrency VC Brian Quintenz to head the CFTC and former Bitfury Chief Legal Officer Jonathan Gould to lead the OCC.

Russell Vought, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ordered staff to halt supervision, examinations, and stakeholder engagement, following directives from the DOGE, leading to legal challenges and concerns over (the US' lack of) consumer protection. A labor union also filed a lawsuit against the CFPB after the Director instructed staff to cease the agency's activities, alleging that the directives violated statutory obligations and threatened employee rights.

💬 Quote of the Week

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

iPiD collaborated with Microsoft to develop an AI-powered name-matching tool for Verification of Payee (VoP), enhancing payment security and compliance by accurately matching payee names.

Plaid partnered with Algebrik AI to launch a loan origination platform focused on credit unions, integrating Plaid's consumer-permissioned data to streamline identity verification and improve lending decisions.

Real-time payment platform Orum* launched Monitor, a business payments platform for orchestration, verifications, transfer tracking, and automation.

Small business neobank Mercury* launched same-day transfers and liquidity with a new JP Morgan-offered 4.16% yield fund.

Fruitful introduced a high-yield cash account offering a 5.00% annual percentage yield and a cash-back charge card with up to 2% cash back, combining saving and spending management with personalized financial guidance in a $98/month membership.

Pomelo partnered with Mastercard and Coastal Community Bank to combine U.S. consumer credit with international money transfers to the Philippines, allowing customers to build credit while supporting family and friends overseas.

Ticket prices go up at MIDNIGHT! ⏰

Don't miss out on your last chance to get tickets at $500 off the full rate, and make sure that you secure your spot to register for meetings at Fintech Meetup 2025! The process begins on Monday, so time is running out to take part in the biggest and most valuable meetings program in fintech!

Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.

🍻 Upcoming Events

💼 Jobs of the Week

This Week in Fintech Job Board

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This Week in Fintech

📰 Other News

Klarna is getting ready to embrace crypto by exploring integration strategies, including adding crypto as a payment option and incorporating a crypto wallet feature into its mobile app, ahead of its anticipated IPO in April 2025.

FICO announced plans to incorporate BNPL data into its credit scoring models after a year-long study with Affirm, aiming to provide a more comprehensive assessment of consumers' creditworthiness.

Robinhood is suspending its Super Bowl events contracts following what it said was a formal request from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to “not permit customers to access” sports event contracts.

🤝 Partnership Corner

Klarna partnered with JPMorgan Payments to integrate its payment solutions, including interest-free buy now, pay later (BNPL) options, into JPMorgan's Commerce Solutions Platform, aiming to enhance merchant services.

Affirm collaborated with FIS to enable banks to offer BNPL services through debit cards, expanding flexible payment options for consumers.

Spade teamed up with Stripe to provide real-time merchant intelligence, offering enriched transaction data such as merchant logos, names, locations, and categories to improve transaction visibility for businesses using Stripe Issuing.

👎 The Bad News

For the first time in a long time, there was no fintech-specific bad news this week.