• Cross River Bank will provide the regulated banking infrastructure behind X Money, X’s new embedded financial services offering.
• X Money will bring FDIC-insured, interest-bearing accounts, a Visa debit card, and peer-to-peer payment capabilities directly into the social media platform.
• The launch advances Elon Musk’s “everything app” vision and will test whether US consumers are willing to use a social platform as a primary financial interface.

Cross River Bank, a bank and banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider, announced today that it will power X Money, the financial services capability in X (formerly Twitter).

Through the partnership, X will embed FDIC-insured, interest-bearing accounts, a Visa debit card, and broader payment capabilities directly into its social media platform. Cross River will power the financial capabilities through its regulated infrastructure and access to payment rails.

“With Cross River providing the banking backbone and X connecting users across the United States, the collaboration represents a new standard for money movement, combining compliance, speed, and scale in a way that meets the needs of today’s digital-first consumers,” the company said in a statement. “By enabling seamless, in-app finance, this will unlock a future where financial services live within the platforms that consumers already use every day.”

Founded in 2008, Cross River offers scalable, embedded payments, cards, lending, and crypto solutions to businesses and consumers. The bank is known for its API-driven banking core and regulatory expertise. Because it owns its infrastructure, Cross River eliminates the risk and compliance gaps that come with bringing on third-party systems.

X selected Cross River because of its ability to handle payments quickly and at scale, enabling it to support new financial products and features.

This follows years of promises from X owner Elon Musk to turn X into “the everything app.” Adding embedded accounts, debit cards, and peer-to-peer payments moves that ambition beyond social media content and into financial services. It also gives X a way to deepen engagement by allowing users to store, spend, and transfer money without leaving the platform.

The launch of X Money will be a good test of whether US consumers are ready to treat a social media app as a primary financial interface. If it is successful and its users willingly adopt it as a payments platform, X will have access to valuable transaction data and can create new opportunities around commerce, creator payouts, subscriptions, and other financial products such as lending. It would also put the platform in more direct competition with digital wallets and challenger banks. Cross River’s role is critical because it gives X the regulated banking and payments infrastructure needed to pursue that vision without becoming a bank itself.

Photo by SHVETS production

• The OCC conditionally approved Upstart to establish a branchless, full-service national bank just four months after the company applied.
• The charter would let Upstart originate loans nationwide, accept FDIC-insured deposits, and reduce its reliance on third-party banking partners while preserving its existing loan-purchaser network.
• The approval reflects growing fintech interest in bank charters, but the OCC’s rejection of Wise’s application shows that regulatory approval is still far from guaranteed.

Lending marketplace Upstart has been granted conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Upstart Bank. The news comes four months after Upstart submitted its initial application.

Upstart is pursuing a de novo bank charter—a license to establish a newly formed, full-service national bank—and will accept the accompanying bank holding company oversight. The charter will allow Upstart to reduce operational complexity as well as reliance on third party partners.

“Conditional approval from the OCC is an important milestone for Upstart Bank and we will continue to work with the OCC, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve on the remaining steps,” said Upstart Co-Founder and CEO Paul Gu. “Upstart Bank will allow us to lower the cost of lending and bring our full product offering to all 50 states, advancing our mission to radically reduce the cost and complexity of credit for all Americans.”

While the newly formed bank will be headquartered in Delaware, it will not have any physical branches. The new charter will allow it to originate loans to all US consumers and accept FDIC insured deposits. Upstart emphasized that the new bank is intended to complement its existing funding model instead of replace it. Banks, credit unions, and institutional investors are expected to continue purchasing the vast majority of loans originated on the Upstart platform.

California-based Upstart was founded in 2012 and leverages AI to price credit and automate the borrowing process. The company closed its IPO in 2020 and is currently traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker UPST with a market capitalization of $2.67 billion.

Upstart’s conditional approval comes as bank charter activity is accelerating under a more fintech-friendly regulatory environment. At the same time, regulators are demonstrating that approvals are far from automatic. Just one day after Upstart’s announcement, the OCC rejected Wise’s application for a national trust bank charter, underscoring that applicants must still satisfy supervisory and compliance expectations.

Photo by Erik Mclean

• Chime has launched Chime Invest, allowing users to trade stocks and ETFs commission-free or choose an Atomic Invest-managed portfolio.
• The new feature aims to lower investing barriers with no account minimums and management fees ranging from 0% to 0.25%, depending on membership tier.
• Chime Invest strengthens Chime’s push to become a broader financial platform and reflects fintech’s wider shift toward rebundling banking, investing, lending, and other services in one app.

Digital bank Chime is giving its users one more reason to spend more time in its app with the launch of Chime Invest, a new investment capability. With the new investing tool, users can buy stocks and ETFs commission-free or use an expert-managed portfolio option.

The managed accounts are managed by Atomic Invest, an SEC-registered investment adviser that offers users a diversified portfolio personalized to their goals and risk profile with up to $500,000 of protection by SIPC. For Chime Prime members, the managed accounts do not require balance minimums or charge management fees. Chime Plus members face a 0.10% annual management fee, while all other Chime members are charged 0.25% for the managed portfolio option.

According to a Gallup Economy and Personal Finance survey, around 40% of Americans report that they do not own any stock. Chime anticipates that its new investing feature will lower barriers to entry in investing by not requiring an account minimum and by offering a managed portfolio option for those who may be intimidated to make trades on their own.

“The hardest part of investing is often getting started and sticking with it,” said Chime CEO and Co-founder Chris Britt. “Millions of people already trust Chime with their money every day. By bringing investing into the app they already know and love, we’re making it easier to turn saving into investing and investing into long-term wealth.”

The average Chime member opens the app five times a day and makes approximately 50 transactions each month. Adding investing tools within its app will not only make it easy for users to begin investing, but it also gives existing investors another reason to keep their financial activity within the Chime ecosystem instead of turning to a third-party brokerage.

Chime was founded in 2012 and is well known in fintech for offering tools and services that cater to lower-to-middle income consumers. The challenger bank offers an earned wage access tool that allows users to receive their paycheck up to two days earlier when they set up direct deposit, a credit-building tool, and a feature that will spot users up to $200 to avoid account overdrafts. The fintech has three membership tiers with varying benefits based on the direct deposit amount.

The addition of Chime Invest is another example of how fintechs are rebundling multiple services into singular apps to become more comprehensive financial platforms. Instead of competing solely on checking accounts or payments, companies are increasingly layering on adjacent services such as investing, lending, insurance, financial planning, and even mobile telco plans to deepen customer relationships and increase lifetime value.

For traditional banks, the rebundling trend increases competition by demonstrating that consumers increasingly expect everyday banking and long-term wealth-building tools to coexist within a single digital experience. For fintechs, it underscores that customer engagement is becoming more valuable than customer acquisition as a competitive advantage.

Chime Invest will be generally available to members in the coming weeks.

• Walmart-backed OnePay has partnered with Upgrade to launch personal loans ranging from $1,000 to $50,000 directly within the OnePay app.
• OnePay will use existing customer data to streamline applications and underwriting, potentially extending same-day offers to eligible users.
• The partnership advances OnePay’s super app ambitions while giving Upgrade access to a larger customer base and highlighting fintech’s broader rebundling trend.

Walmart-backed digital banking platform OnePay is getting an upgrade this week. The New York-based company has teamed up with alternative lender and fellow digital banking platform Upgrade to launch Personal Loans, bringing a new element into its banking app.

With the new Personal Loans product, OnePay will allow eligible borrowers to apply for a loan ranging from $1,000 to $50,000, receive and accept an offer with APRs ranging from 7.74% to 35.99%, and pay back their loan within the OnePay app. The company sees the new product as a significant step forward in its mission to make everyday financial services simpler, more accessible, and more useful.

“Getting access to credit in America today is harder than it should be,” said OnePay CEO Omer Ismail. “It’s never been more important to give consumers access to financing that’s simple, transparent, and meets them where they already are—and we’re excited to partner with Upgrade to introduce another financing option for our customers with OnePay Personal Loans.”

Because it can leverage information customers have already shared, OnePay can reduce repetitive entry during the application process, minimizing friction. Additionally, because OnePay is able to leverage customer information such as their average daily balance, overdraft occurrences, and spending habits for underwriting purposes, it is able to extend financing offers as soon as the same day to some of its active customers.

OnePay has tapped San Francisco-based Upgrade for the lending infrastructure and expertise, offering it the ability to offer larger-dollar lending directly within its app. Founded in 2017, Upgrade offers checking and savings accounts, personal loans, credit cards, and rewards programs that focus on low fees and responsible credit usage to help consumers improve their financial lives. With more than 7.5 million customers, Upgrade has facilitated over $42 billion in credit with tools such as its Upgrade Card, which encourages customers to pay off balances quickly and avoid revolving debt and build credit responsibly.

“Our personal loans offer consumers the breathing room they need to get on the best financial path,” said Upgrade CEO and Co-founder Renaud Laplanche. “We’re proud that this partnership makes that resource more accessible to millions of OnePay customers.”

The addition of a personal lending product is a major step for OnePay, which has been building out its banking super app since it was founded in 2021. By embedding unsecured lending directly into its app, OnePay is evolving beyond a digital wallet and deposit platform into a more comprehensive financial services hub. The partnership is another example of recent rebundling efforts in fintech. Rather than building every product in-house, digital banking providers are increasingly partnering with specialized fintechs to quickly expand their offerings.

For Upgrade, the deal opens the door to OnePay’s growing customer base, while OnePay gains proven lending infrastructure and underwriting expertise without taking on the complexity of developing it internally. As competition among digital banking platforms intensifies, strategic partnerships like this one are becoming an increasingly common way to deepen customer relationships and increase engagement.