Fintech Weekly Digest: 8/27 – Ripple & Circle Back Tazapay; Wyoming Stablecoin First; Bank AI Push

Welcome to this week’s edition of ONSEC Fintech Cyber Weekly, brought to you by the ONSEC team. It’s been a dynamic week in fintech, cybersecurity, and financial innovation. We saw major moves in cross-border payments and stablecoin networks, big banks doubling down on AI and cloud services, and robust funding fueling fintech growth in emerging markets. Meanwhile, high-profile data breaches and critical vulnerabilities kept defenders busy as regulators pushed new cyber policies. Here’s what mattered most this week.

Trends & Innovation

• Tazapay secures Ripple & Circle funding – Cross-border stablecoins ( Aug 27, 2025). Singapore-based Tazapay (a cross-border payments platform processing about $10B in annual volume) announced strategic Series B backing from Ripple and Circle. The investment, led by Peak XV and others, will help Tazapay expand its infrastructure for local collections and payouts in 70+ markets. Its platform already integrates cards, wallets, virtual accounts and stablecoin settlement, and the new capital will accelerate rollouts of fast, compliant payment rails in emerging economies. Source: PR Newswire.
• Finastra partners with Circle – Stablecoin settlement (Aug 27, 2025) . Finastra will connect its Global PAYplus (GPP) payment hub (handling ~$5 trillion in daily cross-border flows) to Circle’s USDC stablecoin network The cloud-based integration lets banks optionally settle international transfers via Circle’s USDC rails even when instructions remain in fiat, reducing reliance on traditional correspondent chains and speeding up settlement without rebuilding legacy systems. Source: PR Newswire.
• AND Global closes $21.4M Series B – Inclusive lending ( Aug 20, 2025) . Mongolia’s AND Global (a fintech for SME and unbanked lending) raised $21.4 million in a Series B led by the IFC (World Bank) and AEON Financial. The funding will expand AND Global’s AI-driven credit and digital lending solutions across Southeast Asia, aligning with IFC’s inclusion goals. With this round, AND Global becomes the first Mongolian company to reach a Series B, furthering its mission to bridge the financial inclusion gap for small businesses and underserved communities. Source: Financial IT.
• India’s Kiwi raises $23M – UPI credit cards ( Aug 26, 2025) . Indian payments startup Kiwi secured about $23 million in a Series B round (its first funding since a $13M Series A). Kiwi issues virtual RuPay credit cards that work over UPI (India’s instant-payments network) via partnerships with Axis Bank and NPCI. The capital will accelerate adoption of “credit on UPI,” enabling consumers to make UPI payments using credit lines instead of debit or cash. This innovation supports RBI and NPCI efforts to expand digital credit in the rapidly growing Indian payments market. Source: The Paypers.
• Banks double down on AI and cloud (Aug 20–27, 2025) . Leading banks are accelerating tech adoption. Bank of America’s Erica virtual assistant reached a milestone of 3 billion client interactions and nearly 50 million users since 2018, highlighting the scale of generative AI in banking. Meanwhile, Spain’s Santander teamed with OpenAI to become “AI-native,” rolling out ChatGPT Enterprise to ~15,000 employees (targeting 30,000 by year-end). In Asia, Malaysia’s Maybank inked a RM1 billion ($236 million) multi-year deal with Microsoft to adopt Azure cloud and Microsoft 365 Copilot, deploying the platform across its 44,000 staff. These moves aim to boost productivity, data-driven decision-making, and customer service with advanced AI tools. Sources:, FinTech Futures.

Security & Cyber Threat

• UK moves to ban ransomware payments  (Aug 26, 2025 ). The UK government released proposals to “smash the cyber criminal business model” by outlawing ransomware payments by public sector and critical infrastructure organizationscfc.com. Public bodies (NHS, schools, utilities, etc.) would be forbidden from paying ransoms. Any organization (including private firms) would be required to consult authorities before paying and to report incidents within 72 hourscfc.com. These changes (expected to become law) aim to deter attacks and encourage better preparedness. Organizations are already enhancing backups and incident response planning in anticipation. Source: CFC.com
• BetterBank DeFi Exploit (27 Aug 2025) – Web3 banking protocol BetterBank was hacked, with attackers exploiting its rewards smart contract. Up to $1–5 million was illicitly minted in “rogue” bonus tokens before the protocol team paused operations and covered losses from reserves. Source: Crypto Politan
• CIRO Cybersecurity Incident (18 Aug 2025) – Canada’s Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) detected a cyber threat on Aug 11 and proactively shut down systems. Investigators later found that personal data of some member firms and registered employees had likely been exposed. CIRO said critical market surveillance functions were preserved and pledged to notify affected individuals. Source: Ciro
• CA DFPI Cyber Incident Reporting (Aug 2025) – California’s Dept. of Financial Protection & Innovation released a Cybersecurity Incident Report form and urged all licensed fintechs to report cyber incidents promptly. This encourages timely disclosure of breaches and aims to improve the state’s ability to monitor and respond to incidents in fintech and banking. Source: dfpi.ca
• Dutch Regulator Fines Bunq (26 Aug 2025) – The Dutch central bank fined neobank Bunq €2.6 million for “serious deficiencies” in its anti-money-laundering (AML) controls during Jan 2021–May 2022. (The fine notice noted gaps in Bunq’s KYC and transaction monitoring; Bunq disputes the findings.) Although AML-focused, the enforcement highlights regulators’ growing scrutiny of fintechs’ operational controls, including those related to cybersecurity risk management. Source: Fintech Futures

Product & Platform Launches

• Higlobe & Coins.ph launch stablecoin payment rail for U.S.–Philippines transfers (August 20, 2025). Higlobe and Philippines-based fintech Coins.ph introduced the first stablecoin-powered payment rail enabling users to send money between the U.S. and the Philippines with guaranteed lowest cost. This innovation provides faster, cheaper remittance options using stablecoins. Source: Business Wire
• Aether Holdings expands Alpha Edge Media with six new fintech newsletters (August 27, 2025). Aether Holdings (NASDAQ: ATHR) broadened its Alpha Edge Media platform by launching six new newsletters—SentimenTrader, Alpha Edge Digest, The Russell Report, IPO Stream, Altcoin Investing, and StockCastr. These publications span equities, IPOs, small-caps, crypto, and digital assets, serving both as investor content and as data feeds for AI-driven investment tools at Aether Labs. Source: StockTitan
• Wyoming issues U.S.’s first public entity–backed stablecoin (“FRNT”) ( August 20, 2025)
  The U.S. state of Wyoming launched Frontier Stable Token (FRNT)—the country’s first fiat-backed, fully reserved stablecoin issued by a government entity. This is a milestone in public-sector fintech innovation, opening pathways for digital currency use in government-led financial infrastructure. Source: Global Government Fintech
• Ryt Bank goes live in Malaysia with AI-powered banking features ( August 26, 2025)
  Malaysia unveiled Ryt Bank, an AI-native digital bank powered by its own large language model (Ryt AI). It offers multilingual conversational banking (English and Bahasa Malaysia), biometric authentication, and real-time fraud protection—aiming to enhance accessibility and personalization across diverse Malaysian communities. Source: The Paypers

Final Words

This week underscored three major themes. First, stablecoins are moving firmly into mainstream finance – from Ripple and Circle backing Tazapay to Finastra embedding USDC and Wyoming launching the U.S.’s first state-issued stablecoin. Second, financial institutions are accelerating their AI and digital transformation agendas – with Bank of America’s Erica crossing 3 billion interactions, Santander deploying ChatGPT Enterprise at scale, and Maybank partnering with Microsoft to enhance productivity and client services. Third, cybersecurity and regulation remain in the spotlight – from DeFi exploits and regulator fines to new disclosure mandates in California and proposals in the UK to outlaw ransom payments, authorities and attackers alike are reshaping the fintech security landscape.