Nubank Seeks OCC Charter; Fiserv Acquires StoneCastle; OpenAI and Stripe Partner

Employment outlook worsens. Gen Xers still struggle with student debt. Nubank files for OCC charter. Acting Chair Hill gets nom for permanent gig. Wealthfront plans IPO. Fiserv acquires StoneCastle. OpenAI and Stripe team up for agentic commerce. Revolut rolls out high-yield savings.

Financial services are moving into the platforms where people already spend their time — social feeds. In our latest piece, Adam Goller, Cross River's Head of Fintech Banking, explains how the next generation of financial services will unfold inside the social platforms we’re already using, and why choosing a technology-first banking partner is critical for businesses navigating this shift.

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U.S. Employment Outlook Is Increasingly Gloomy

The employment picture is continuing to worsen, a new ADP payroll report suggests. The data show the U.S. economy lost about 32,000 private-sector jobs in September. That’s a significant deterioration from a revised loss of 3,000 jobs in August. A poll of economists by the Wall Street Journal had expected an increase of 45,000 jobs last month. It’s worth noting that ADP’s data does not include government-sector workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics report, which incorporates a wider set of workers and was due to be released on Friday, was delayed to the shutdown of the federal government. Between the federal shutdown and the arrival of the “deferred resignation” date for government employees who took voluntary buyouts under the DOGE initiative in the early days of the Trump administration, the picture for October, including public-sector workers, could look even worse.

Meanwhile, many Gen Xers, getting ever closer to retirement, are still struggling with student loan debt. The more than six million borrowers aged 50 to 61 are carrying the highest average balance of any age cohort, at $47,857. The debt burden has made it difficult for many to save adequately for retirement and has also colored their view on the utility of a college education, if getting one requires taking on a substantial amount of debt.

Nubank Files for OCC Charter      

Publicly traded online-only Nubank, which is a fully chartered bank in its home market of Brazil, has filed for a U.S. bank charter, the company announced last week. Specifically, Nubank filed with the OCC for a national bank charter. The company’s announcement explained, “Pursuing a U.S. national bank charter positions Nubank to unlock new possibilities within the U.S. financial landscape.” According to the news release, Nubank intends to “eventually” offering deposit accounts, credit cards, lending, and digital asset custody. Nubank currently operates in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Nubank cofounder Cristina Junqueira commented on the company’s application, saying, “Nubank's purpose continues to be to positively impact people's lives by offering best-in-class digital financial services. While there's work ahead, we believe that by working closely with regulators, we will soon be in a position to expand our offering to the broader U.S. market.”

Hill Nominated For Permanent Role as FDIC Chair

President Trump has nominated current acting Chairman of the FDIC, Travis Hill, to permanently hold the position. Hill joined the FDIC board as vice chair in 2023 and stepped into the role of acting Chairman after Martin Gruenberg’s resignation in January. Under Hill’s leadership, the FDIC has sought to roll back what Hill describes as “problematic proposals from the past three years,” including plans to tighten brokered deposit rules in the wake of the collapse of middleware platform Synapse. Hill’s nomination still needs to go through the Senate confirmation process, though, as a fairly conventional pick, his nomination seems unlikely to garner significant pushback from Democrats.

Cash Advance For Gig Workers Ualett Secures New Debt Facility

Ualett, which offers cash advances to ride share and delivery drivers, has inked a new $150MM debt facility with long-term partner Thiele Capital Management. With the debt funding secured, Ualett intends to expand its cash advance offerings to new industries, customer segments, and geographies. Since launching in 2018, the company has accrued over 450,000 users across the U.S. Founder and CEO Ricky Michel Presbot said of the new debt funding, “With this facility, we’re accelerating our ability to reach more workers, offer more products, and reinforce what makes Ualett different: trust, transparency, and technology purpose-built for the gig economy.”

Wealthfront Preps IPO

Wealthfront, one of the trailblazers in the “roboadvisory” space, is set to IPO. And the company, which boasts 1.3MM customers and $88.2Bn in assets under management, is actually profitable. It pulled in $194.4MM in net income on $308.9MM in revenue in its FY2025. The IPO looks to be a happy ending of sorts after the company’s 2022 $1.4Bn acquisition by Swiss bank UBS was called off at the 11th hour, amid the cratering fintech market.

Fiserv Acquires StoneCastle

Banking and payments tech giant has sealed a deal to acquire deposit aggregator StoneCastle. Fiserv is positioning the acquisition as bolstering its planned FIUSD stablecoin, as it brings with it access to billions of dollars in institutional deposits. According to the deal announcement, StoneCastle works with more than 1,000 community banks and credit unions. Fiserv COO Takis Georgakopoulos commented on the deal, saying, “We believe this further sets Fiserv apart in core banking by enabling institutions to custody cash supporting FIUSD stablecoins, while unlocking new value and accelerating innovation across the financial ecosystem.” Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

OpenAI and Stripe Team Up for Agentic Commerce

OpenAI is teaming up with Stripe to power payments for agentic commerce. For now, the capability is limited to merchants on popular ecommerce site Etsy, with plans to extend it to the over one million merchants who use Shopify. The capability leverages the Agentic Commerce Protocol, a new standard co-developed by OpenAI and Stripe. OpenAI commented on the launch in a blog post, saying, “This marks the next step in agentic commerce, where ChatGPT doesn’t just help you find what to buy, it also helps you buy it. For shoppers, it’s seamless: go from chat to checkout in just a few taps. For sellers, it’s a new way to reach hundreds of millions of people while keeping full control of their payments, systems, and customer relationships.”

Revolut Announces 5.5% APY Savings Offering with Cross River

Revolut is looking to attract savers with a new, top-of-market 5.5% APY high-yield savings offering, but there’s a catch. The higher rate is only available for “Metal” tier users, which requires a $16.99 per month paid subscription. Otherwise, the rate is 4% APY. Revolut partners with Cross River for the savings feature. Revolut also partners with Lead Bank, which issues the company’s prepaid cards. Revolut has previously suggested it would apply for a U.S. bank charter, though it has yet to do so. Sid Jajodia, who leads Revolut’s U.S. business, said, “Even though we don’t have an application in process or anything right now, we periodically — every quarter, every six months — meet with the regulators to tell them where Revolut is in its journey.”