DOJ Visa Antitrust Case; Bunq Seeks OCC Charter; Fireblocks’ Acquisition

Third quarter GDP growth beats expectations. Job growth remains sluggish. DOJ continues Biden-era Visa antitrust case. Mercury and Bunq seek OCC charters. Apple Card finds a new home. Klarna and Shift 4 announce stablecoin initiatives. Fireblocks acquires TRES Finance.

Our President, Founder and CEO, Gilles Gade, reflects on our 2025 achievements, the people who made them possible, and the bright road ahead in his Year End Letter.

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Job Growth Remains Sluggish

In the third quarter, the U.S. economy grew at an unexpectedly strong rate of 4.3% on an annualized basis. That significantly exceeded analysts’ estimates. However, the major drivers were increased spending on healthcare and data center infrastructure. Outside of the massive growth of AI-related spending, business investment slowed. A weakening dollar and higher tariffs contributed to slowing imports.

Meanwhile, hiring remains sluggish. ADP data shows that private-sector payrolls increased by just 41,000 in December, though that marked a welcome rebound from net losses in November. The report was weaker than the 50,000 increase analysts expected. As of November, job openings fell to their lowest level in a year, suggesting that employers are reluctant to increase headcount amid macro uncertainty. Available positions dropped to 7.15Mn in November from a downwardly revised 7.45Mn in October. Upper-income consumers continue to disproportionately power the economy. For example, despite a challenging environment for automakers, new car sales are expected to have increased in 2025 over the year prior, with households earning $150,000 or more driving 43% of new car sales.

DOJ Pursues Visa Antitrust Case

While Visa and Mastercard’s merchant class action suit has reached a settlement (sort of), Visa still faces other headaches. The Department of Justice appears to be eager to pursue an antitrust case against the card network giant over its debit card practices. The case was brought in September 2024, during the Biden administration, but a filing last month related to discovery in the case suggests current DOJ leadership is full steam ahead. Federal prosecutors are seeking a faster discovery process, with Visa arguing for a more extended timeline. In its argument to the court, DOJ attorneys argued, “The United States remains willing to coordinate with the private plaintiffs on discovery matters to the extent such coordination is feasible and practical, but such coordination should not delay this case: the United States has brought this action challenging Visa’s monopolistic conduct on behalf of the American people and has a sovereign interest in moving the matter forward expeditiously.” A trial date has not yet been set and will be influenced by the discovery schedule. Both sides are expected to update the court later this week.

Mercury, Bunq Seek OCC Charters

With the bank chartering window seemingly thrown wide open, more companies are seeking to form de novos. While many of the applications to date have been to form OCC national trust banks, recent weeks have seen multiple applicants for full-service bank charters. Shortly before the holiday break, business banking startup Mercury announced it had applied for a national bank charter. Mercury primarily focuses on VC-backed companies and startups, though it previously sought to serve a wider swath of firms around the globe, before running into regulatory issues. As part of its push for a charter, Mercury has made a number of hires with banking experience. The company appointed the former CFO of SoFi Bank, Jon Auxier, as chief banking officer of the company and president and CEO of the proposed bank. Mercury founder and CEO Immad Akhund commented on the application, saying, “Becoming an FDIC-insured national bank aligns with our long-term vision and will allow Mercury to deliver a better customer experience at scale.”

And, last week, Dutch startup bank Bunq announced it is also seeking an OCC national bank charter. It’s the company’s second attempt, after withdrawing a previous application filed in 2023. The company secured a broker-dealer license last October, which it described as part of a pathway to becoming a fully-chartered bank in the U.S. Bunq already holds a charter in its home country of the Netherlands. Bunq says that it intends to “focus on digital nomads and global citizens with ties to both Europe and the States.” The company plans to “launch its services starting in US metropolitan areas with large expat communities; the places where its users live, work, and move the most.”

JPMorgan Chase Lands Apple Card Deal

At long last, the Apple Card has found a new home: JPMorgan Chase. The card program was once the tip of the spear of Goldman Sachs’ efforts to build a cobrand credit card business. But when Goldman reversed course and began slowly dismantling its consumer efforts, Apple Card became something of an orphan looking for a new home. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal has taken more than a year to come together. As part of the transaction, Goldman will offload about $20Bn in consumer card balances, though at more than a $1Bn discount, owing to the high exposure to subprime consumers and a higher-than-average delinquency rate. JPMorgan also plans to offer Apple savings accounts, presumably in a similar fashion to how the current Apple/Goldman accounts work. Cardholders with existing accounts will have to decide whether to keep their existing savings account at Goldman or move their balances to JPMorgan.

Klarna, Shift4 Announce Stablecoin Initiatives

Stablecoin mania continues. Towards the end of last year, buy now pay later giant Klarna and payments processor Shift4 both announced stablecoin-related initiatives. Klarna said that it is working on an initiative with Coinbase to allow the company to raise funding via stablecoins. According to the news release, Klarna’s goal is “to raise short-term funding from institutional investors denominated in USDC utilizing Coinbase’s digitally native infrastructure.” Meanwhile, Shift4 said that its newly announced stablecoin platform will enable merchants to settle transactions using digital assets outside of normal banking hours.

Fireblocks Acquires TRES Finance

Fireblocks, a blockchain infrastructure company, is buying crypto accounting platform TRES Finance. Fireblocks paid $130Mn in a cash-and-stock deal, according to reporting from Fortune. The deal makes the second acquisition for Fireblocks in three months. TRES Finance’s platform helps CFOs and accountants at firms with significant holdings spread across various crypto wallets and platforms to track and monitor cryptocurrency flows and their asset holdings. That capability complements Fireblocks’ core function of enabling firms to hold and move digital assets.