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Hello fintech friends,
Agentic commerce is coming sooner than we think.
Any platform that processes large transaction volumes — airlines, e-commerce, retail, sports ticketing, travel — needs to think about what it means to redesign checkout flows for non-human users (and where liability lies). Resy recently suspended BTV investor JC Bahr-de Stefano’s account for connecting Instinct to obtain a hard-to-get reservation.
But the approach to agents in the checkout differs across platforms. Amazon banned agents impersonating users (story link below), while Shopify this week partnered with Meta to enable Muse checkout (also linked below). Muse is reportedly working on its first agentic wallet. And Stripe has been introducing new features to its Link wallet to support agentic checkout.
We should assume that the internet will increasingly be driven by non-human users, so the checkout flow needs to adjust accordingly. Traditional principles of web design don’t apply to agents. Will agents opt-into BNPL options? Is pay by bank more viable with an agent that can execute the flow as easily as entering a card number?
We’ll be talking about this and more at Money20/20 USA coming up next month in Las Vegas.
Do you have a hot take on agentic commerce? Let us know and we’ll record your take and post it to TWIF social.
Our video editor Roland and I will be on the floor of the conference interviewing people for their biggest agentic payments fintech predictions. Also, TWIF readers get a discount on their tickets! Use code TWIF250 in your (human) checkout flow for $250 off:
Money20/20 USA is the world’s greatest most influential gathering of the global money ecosystem including banks, payments, tech, startups, retail, fintech, financial services, policy, and more.
This is where you will accelerate deals, build partnerships, raise your profile and make breakthroughs with fintech’s most senior audience (1 in 3 C-Suite attendees). This is where you come to grow your business. Join now and use code TWIF250 to save $250 off your pass.
Elsewhere in payments and banking this week, stablecoin-native bank Erebor continues to chart an unconventional path to grow deposits: moving into geographies previously sanctioned to US banks.
The de novo bank, which holds approximately $4.66 billion in total assets according to its latest regulatory call report data, has been onboarding sovereign wealth and corporate clients in Venezuela and now plans an expansion to Syria.
It’s exciting to see fintechs spearheading financial access into new markets, but it will be equally interesting to see whether this approach survives regulatory scrutiny under future administrations.
- Nik
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The Rundown
🏦 Financial Services & Banking
Citi launched Citi Commerce Media, an ad platform that uses transaction data from its 70M+ U.S. card customers to help brands target shoppers. It will be bolstered by Kard, the rewards platform Citi agreed to buy.
The Federal Reserve opened FedNow to cross-border use.
The SEC cleared tokenized stock trading through a five-year "Innovation Exemption." Synthetic stocks are prohibited, issuers can opt out, and tokens must carry the same rights as the underlying shares.
ECB chief Christine Lagarde helped block Binance's MiCA license in Greece, according to the WSJ. She reportedly worried that Binance's scale could accelerate dollar-backed stablecoin use in the EU….
Canada's six largest banks, BMO, CIBC, National Bank, RBC, Scotiabank and TD, teamed up on a Canadian dollar tokenized deposit network.
The Eurosystem launched Pontes, letting wholesale tokenized-asset transactions settle in central bank money.
Bank of America, Capital One, NatWest, ING, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and ASB Bank published joint principles for agentic commerce covering transparency, safety, and interoperability.
🚀 Product Launches
Juniper Square and Nasdaq eVestment launched Capital Intelligence, an AI tool inside Juniper Square's investor CRM.
Tink co-founders Daniel Kjellén and Fredrik Hedberg returned with Freda, an agentic compliance platform that maps a company's regulatory obligations.
Revolut is piloting “pay with smile” facial recognition payments.
💸 Other News
OpenAI added credit score tracking to ChatGPT's Finances hub. U.S. Plus and Pro users can connect their Experian report for personalized insights.
SoFi went live with stablecoin settlement on Mastercard's network, becoming the first national bank to do so.
Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan told compliance staff to keep growing and pay any fines later, according to a WSJ investigation. He reportedly said this while fraudsters used stolen debit cards to attempt at least $10M in theft on its U.S. platform. The CFTC is reportedly investigating.
Stablecoin infrastructure firm Bastion won conditional OCC approval for a national trust bank charter.
😞 The Bad News
Revolut warned more customers that their data may be at-risk in a second third-party data breach this month.
Kremlin-backed A7 funneled more than $6.9B in sanctions-evading-payments through the global banking system, according to an FT investigation. It used front companies and forged invoices to slip past bank checks, and Standard Chartered accounts in Hong Kong alone received $1.1B.
New York sued Polymarket's U.S. arm, alleging its prediction markets are an unlicensed gambling operation that serves users under 21. It follows New York's suits against Kalshi, Coinbase and Gemini.
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