Zuckerberg Says Billions Will Rely on Personal AI Agents
Zuckerberg predicted that within five years, billions of people will have personal AI agents. He made this statement during Meta's Q2 earnings call, a day after criticizing OpenAI and Anthropic.
NatWest teams with Uinsure to deliver home insurance quotes in seconds
NatWest partnered with Uinsure to offer home insurance quotes in seconds through a new technology platform. The exclusive partnership aims to simplify how customers find, manage, and review their coverage.
Binance.US Prepares CFTC Application to Launch Prediction Markets
Binance.US plans to submit a Commodity Futures Trade Commission application for a Designated Contract Market license to offer prediction markets. The company announced this intention through CEO Stephen Gregory at a blockchain event in July.
Freehand Raises $75 Million to Automate Enterprise Procurement and Payments
Freehand raised $75 million to expand autonomous AI agents that automate procurement, supplier management, invoicing, and payments for enterprises. These agents can negotiate rates, enforce contracts, manage suppliers, process payments, and reconcile data within enterprise systems.
WEX Deploys AI to Stop Fleet Fuel Fraud Before It Happens
WEX is adding an AI-powered fraud prevention tool called SecureFuel to its WEXOnline platform to identify and block unauthorized fuel purchases before approval. The capability will be deployed for North American fleet customers beginning August 3.
EnFi Secures $15 Million to Bring Agentic AI to Commercial Lending
EnFi raised $15 million in Series A funding to scale agentic AI technology for commercial lending workflows. The Massachusetts-based fintech will use the capital to grow its team and accelerate go-to-market efforts.
Banc of California sees surprise $251.3M loss
Banc of California incurred a surprise $251.3 million loss after repositioning securities into shorter-duration, higher-yielding products. The bank launched a sale of $827 million in real estate and multifamily loans while retiring $385 million in debt.
InvestiFi, a Fintech Serving Community Banks, Credit Unions, Raises $20 Million
InvestiFi raised $20 million in growth capital led by Vibe Credit Union and supported by investors including BankTech Ventures and other credit unions. The fintech serves credit unions and community banks, though specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.
‘We use prompts that have been tuned through GEPA, so the LLM isn’t freelancing’: Intuit Credit Karma’s Gurpreet Singh on pairing financial modeling with Gen AI
Intuit Credit Karma built specialized AI assistants for specific financial tasks like debt management rather than deploying general-purpose chatbots. The company uses prompts tuned through GEPA to keep the language model focused on particular financial decisions.
Private market fund accounting platform LemonEdge raises $21 million
A fund accounting platform for private markets completed a $21 million Series A funding round led by Blackstone Innovations Investments. BNY and Sidekick Partners also participated in the investment round for LemonEdge.
Ramp Expands Internationally into Canada
Ramp, a corporate card and expense management platform, launched its services to Canadian businesses this week. The New York-based company previously piloted operations with select Canadian small businesses before this broader Canadian expansion.
Visa Expands Money Movement as Card Spending Accelerates
U.S. payments volume on Visa cards grew 10% year-over-year while the company simultaneously expanded into AI agents, stablecoins, and tokens. Visa is balancing traditional card-based commerce with emerging digital money-movement channels that route transactions through new pathways.
Fenergo Launches AI Agent Orchestration Platform
An agentic AI orchestration platform for banks automates client onboarding, due diligence, and compliance tasks while maintaining human oversight and audit trails. The platform enables real-time risk assessment during routine banking operations.
Heritage Hub Federal Credit Union Partners with Kiro Money to Launch AI Money Coach
Heritage Hub Federal Credit Union deployed an AI financial tool called the Heritage Hub AI Money Coach through a partnership with Kiro Money. The tool is accessible directly from the credit union's Financial Literacy page.
Rent fintech Flex applies for ILC charter
Flex, a rent fintech company, has applied for an Industrial Loan Company charter with Jeff Berkson as proposed CEO. The lender will operate nationally through digital channels from the Salt Lake City area.
3 Data points that are resetting expectations for AI, treasury, and payments
OpenAI's Codex completed only 26.2 percent of real-world work assignments in UC Berkeley's agent study. The top-performing AI system succeeded in just one out of four tasks tested.
Oportun Deploys AI to Help Consumers Save for Recurring Expenses
An AI-powered feature automatically identifies routine bills and sets aside money for upcoming payments like rent, car payments, and utilities. The Smart Bills feature analyzes members' financial habits to help them save for recurring expenses.
Apple Leasing Program to Replace iPhone Upgrade
Apple is discontinuing its iPhone Upgrade Program and replacing it with a new leasing offering called Apple Upgrade launching July 28. Existing iPhone Upgrade Program members can continue their current agreements temporarily, though the company will stop accepting new enrollments to the old program.
Happen’s Digital Banking Push Helps Deposits Jump 18%
Happen Bank's deposits reached $10.8 billion, representing an 18% year-over-year increase. The bank expanded its digital offerings through LevelUp checking and related products to attract depositors.
Upstart Receives Conditional OCC Approval for Bank Charter
Upstart received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a nationally chartered bank called Upstart Bank, N.A. The approval followed an application the company submitted in March 2020.
Cross River to Power Elon Musk’s X Money
Cross River Bank will provide FDIC-insured accounts, interest-bearing deposits, and Visa debit card services for X Money, a financial platform embedded within X. The partnership enables users to access payment capabilities and debit cards directly through the social media platform.
The Stablecoin Sandwich Is Missing the Trust Layer
A stablecoin transaction model converts fiat currency into stablecoins, transfers them across a blockchain network, then converts back to fiat for cross-border payments. The article argues this sandwich approach lacks an essential trust layer needed for the process to function reliably.
DeepSeek Reportedly Suspends Funding Round Ahead of IPO
DeepSeek suspended its second funding round ahead of a planned initial public offering. The pause followed viral comments about American-Chinese AI competition attributed to the company's founder.
Robinhood Eyes Crypto.com to Expand Role on Prediction Market Stage
Robinhood is negotiating with Crypto.com to expand its prediction market operations beyond existing partnerships with companies like Kalshi. The talks represent an effort to secure additional betting contract suppliers for Robinhood's prediction platform.
Tech Giants’ $724 Billion AI Bill Sparks Investor Worry
Tech giants are spending heavily on artificial intelligence infrastructure, with concerns emerging about the return on these investments. Alphabet reported an 82% increase in cloud computing revenue, but investors remain worried about the company's artificial intelligence spending levels.
Tech Titans Slash 140K Jobs as AI Spending Soars
Tech companies eliminated approximately 140,000 jobs this year while increasing artificial intelligence spending to record levels. These layoffs represent more than one-third of all announced U.S. job cuts for the year.
BitMart Becomes 2nd Crypto Exchange to Close in 3 Days
BitMart announced it is closing its trading platform following an evaluation of operating conditions and market environment. This is the second cryptocurrency exchange to announce closure within three days.
EU’s New MiCA Rules Could Mean More Crypto Mergers
The Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) rules took effect in Europe, creating new compliance costs for cryptocurrency companies operating in the region. These increased regulatory expenses are expected to drive consolidation through mergers as companies seek to distribute costs across larger combined entities.
Card Delinquencies Creep Up as Consumers Rely More on Credit
Card delinquencies increased in June while charge-offs declined at major banks including American Express, Synchrony, and Capital One. The Credit Pulse report tracked monthly delinquency and charge-off rates across seven financial institutions.
Ant’s $1.2 Billion A Round Tops This Weeks Fundings and Acquisitions
Ant Group raised $1.2 billion in a Series A round to expand its global payments and financial services operations. The Alibaba-backed fintech company is positioning itself for a potential future initial public offering.