GDP Growing Again; Ramp Worth $22.5Bn; Chase Partners with Coinbase

U.S. GDP grew in Q2. Fed holds rates steady. CFPB says it’ll develop a new open banking rule. Ramp now worth $22.5Bn. Pagaya closes $500Mn ABS deal. Salient, april, Wingspan, and Trovata all announce funding. JPMorgan Chase pushes back on open banking, inks direct deal with Coinbase.

Cross River's leadership team had a mid-year check in, evaluating their 2025 fintech trends predictions from January. Check out the recap for the webinar recording and some key insights.

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U.S. Economy Growing Again

After shrinking 0.5% in the first quarter, the U.S. economy is growing again. Per the Commerce Department’s report last week, GDP expanded at a 3% annualized rate in the second quarter. Taken together, this means the economy grew just 1.2% in the first half of the year, a marked slowdown from the 2.5% pace in the first half of 2024. Both quarters in the first half of 2025 were impacted by sharp swings in trade, as businesses struggle to navigate President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs in a way that minimizes their costs.

Meanwhile, the Fed held interest rates steady last week, with the Federal Open Markets Committee voting 9-2 in favor of keeping rates where they are. Governors Bowman and Waller voted against the decision and in favor of a 0.25 point rate cut. Fed Chair Powell, facing an onslaught of demands that he lower rates and calls for his resignation from Republican policymakers, said rates are in the right place, given the continued uncertainty around the potential impacts of tariffs on inflation and employment. “There are many, many uncertainties left to resolve. It doesn’t feel like we are very close to the end of that process,” Powell told reporters last week.

CFPB Says It’s Working on a New Open Banking Rule

In a surprising move, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has asked a court to put the case against it, brought by a small Kentucky Bank, the Kentucky Bankers Association, and the Bank Policy Institute, on hold. The move is surprising, because the CFPB had functionally abandoned the defense of its open banking rule in the case, agreeing that it viewed the open banking rule’s prohibition on charging fees as illegal under part 1033 of Dodd-Frank and that aspects of the rulemaking process were arbitrary and capricious, in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act. In its filing in the case last week, the Bureau asked the judge to stay the case, saying it intends to formulate a new open banking rule on an “accelerated” time frame. The CFPB plans to put out an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking within the next three weeks, its filing in the case said. The latest twist comes after news that JPMorgan Chase intends to begin charging third-parties for accessing consumer data touched off a firestorm, leading trade associations like the Financial Technology Association and the American Fintech Council to send a letter directly to President Trump, urging him and his administration to rethink the situation.

Ramp Raises $500Mn, One Month After Raising $200Mn

Ramp, now describing itself as an “AI finance app,” raised another $500Mn last week. The financing, an extension of the company’s Series E round, was led by Iconiq, with participation from D1 Capital Partners and Founders Fund. The latest financing values Ramp at $22.5Bn, which is a marked increase of $6.5Bn from a month ago, when the company raised $200Mn. Ramp said the additional funding will go towards hiring experts and building infrastructure for Ramp’s AI agents, the company’s cofounder and CEO Eric Glyman said.

Pagaya Closes $500Mn ABS Deal

Second-look lending network Pagaya announced the closing of a $500Mn asset-backed securitization deal last week. The deal was upsized from an initial target of $400Mn, due to strong demand, and marks the fifth ABS deal backed by assets Pagaya originated through its network of lending partners. The offering was rated AAA by Kroll Bond Rating Agency. Pagaya’s head of capital markets, Sahil Chandiramani, remarked, “From personal loans to auto and POS, our capital markets platform is delivering consistent access to diversified funding at scale. This latest PAID transaction demonstrates the depth of investor appetite and the power of our network to deliver high-performing, repeatable securitizations across asset classes.”

Funding Round Up: Salient, April, Wingspan, Trovata

Ramp isn’t the only fintech that announced new funding recently. Salient, a loan servicing startup, announced its $60Mn Series A. The round was by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Y Combinator, Matrix Partners, and Michael Ovitz. Per Axios, the round valued the startup at $350Mn. Salient’s platform helps lenders automate loan servicing needs, including related to customer service, collections, and compliance monitoring.

Embedded tax platform april announced it has closed an additional $38Mn in funding last week. The Series B round was led by QED Investors, with participation from Team8 and Nyca Partners. In addition to its self-service offering, april has expanded to offer “pro-assisted” and “pro-led” tax preparation and filing services. Raj Doshi, april’s president and COO, explained the importance of embedding tax capabilities to meet users where they are, saying, “For too long, tax has been disconnected from clients’ primary financial relationships. april’s technology enables our partners to incorporate tax planning and filing as part of their broader offering to deliver truly holistic solutions.”

Contractor payroll platform Wingspan announced it has raised a $24Mn Series B, bringing its total equity raised to date to $54Mn. The round was led by Touring Capita, with participation from Distributed Ventures, Long Journey, Andreessen Horowitz, and Company Ventures. Wingspan facilitates payroll services for contractors, including billing, verification, and tax compliance.

And last but not least, multibank cash management platform Trovata announced a $9Mn Series B extension and that it has acquired ATOM, an “enterprise Treasury Management System” developed by Financial Services Corporation. Trovata plans to integrate the acquisition into its existing cloud-native platform. The $9Mn funding extension included new investors State Street Corporation and PNC Financial Services Group.

JPMorgan Chase Pushes Back on Open Banking, Partners with Coinbase

Megabank JPMorgan Chase has been making waves lately. After reigniting the open banking fight with news it intends to charge data aggregators for access, the bank went on the PR offensive. Chase claims fintech apps are flooding its systems with “unnecessary” data requests that aren’t tied to a specific consumer request. Of about 1.9Bn API calls, Chase claims only 13% were initiated by a customer for a specific transaction. Still, the positioning may be a bit misleading, as many popular services consumers sign up for, like budgeting or overdraft avoidance apps, depend on being able to monitor users’ bank accounts on a day-to-day basis in the background.

Meanwhile, despite JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s antipathy towards crypto, the bank is aggressively moving to embrace some corners of the crypto ecosystem. In the latest development, Chase struck a deal with Coinbase to enable Chase customers to directly link their bank account to their Coinbase crypto wallet. Coinbase users will also be able to, for the first time, fund their accounts with a Chase credit card, a use case many credit card issuers have historically blanched at. The bank account/wallet integration is expected to go live sometime next year, a JPMorgan Chase spokesperson said.