Payment Expert’s Fintech Unwrapped delivers the latest developing news that has shaped the sector over the course of the last week.
This week, US Bank has launched a new subscription solution designed for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are seeking faster, more cost-effective domestic and international money transfers.
Also this week, Monzo and ClearScore have launched a new digital lending solution, Alipay is working with AI agents to assist e-commerce businesses, PayPal’s PYUSD is available on a new blockchain, and Payhawk achieved a rare feat through the use of AI.
US Bank delivers instant payments to small businesses
On 8 July,US Bank announced the launch of Enhanced Payments, a new solution to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to move money quicker via instant payment rails.
The solution enables SMEs to complete international money transfers digitally through the US’ ACH and instant payment rails, for same day transfers with lower transaction fees and multiple payment options embedded within the US Bank online banking app.
Enhanced Payments is priced at $25 per-month. Domestic money transfers cost $16 per transaction for subscribers, compared to $30 per transaction for non-subscribers using online banking.
Alongside Enhanced Payments, US Bank is also rolling out a series of new features for its online banking business users, such as transaction limits tailored to growing SMEs and tools to help owners choose their preferred money movement options.
Shruti Patel, Chief Product Officer for Business Banking at US Bank, said: “By integrating advanced money movement capabilities directly into online banking, we’re helping clients move money quickly and conveniently. This solution not only saves time and reduces costs, but it also gives business owners the flexibility and clarity they need to manage payments with confidence as they grow.”
Monzo is consolidating the digital lending experience
Monzo has partnered with ClearScore to roll out a new automated debt consolidation tool that aims to make the lending experience more seamless.
Announced on LinkedIn by Luke Enock, Head of Borrowing at Monzo, the tool streamlines the traditional lending process by removing the need to directly contact the lender. The process consolidates the contact, balance checking and the settlement into a single loan that can be automatically sent to the user’s online account.
ClearScore’s Clearer technology powers the process, which automates debt repayments and automatically pays off existing debts.
“Monzo is offering customers a new way to bring their borrowing together into a single loan. We’ll automatically find and settle a customer’s existing borrowing directly with lenders, through ClearScore’s Clearer technology,” said Enock.
“For customers, that means less admin and confidence that the loan is being used to pay down what they already owe.”
Alipay ‘Taps’ AI agents for agentic commerce business insights
Alipay enhanced itsTap! service to now support agentic commerce for online businesses that use Alipay’s range of e-wallets.
The service adopts the ‘Xiaoyu’ AI agent for Alipay Tap! devices as merchants can talk to the agent to receive analysis of their operations and insights for improving their reach to consumers.
Xiaoyu also offers a range of capabilities, including product marketing, membership management and integration with Taobao Instant Commerce for merchants operating within the network. The AI agent is also designed for developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) to integrate SaaS agents and other business operation skills.
Agentic commerce is gaining momentum in China, according to Alipay, as transactions processed through Alipay AI Pay surpassed 300 million as of May 2026.
In June 2026, Alipay also launched a major AI agent upgrade, enabling users to find services more easily and execute daily tasks via AI.
PayPal PYUSD stablecoin just expanded its reach
PayPal’s PYUSD is now natively issued on the Polygon blockchain which enables businesses to directly access the stablecoin directly through PayPal wallets and ramps.
PYUSD is available on Polygon’s payment infrastructure, Open Money Stack, to allow businesses to accept money via card or bank while using PYUSD to then be converted into their preferred local currency via a single transaction.
PayPal’s stablecoin is also issued by Paxos and regulatory compliant with the US’ GENIUS Act.
Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, said: “Bringing PYUSD natively into the Open Money Stack means a business can take money in, move it across borders, and cash it out in one integration, with compliance built in.
“When a federally regulated stablecoin is available on infrastructure that already moves money at scale, businesses stop asking whether stablecoin payments are ready and start asking what they can build with them.”
Payhawk crosses uncharted $100m ARR with AI automation
Payhawk has achieved Centaur status after surpassing $100m in annualised recurring revenue (ARR), becoming one of 250 private software companies to do so.
Payhawk has achieved this by investing in autonomous AI agent products and operations over the last 24 months to transform into an AI-native company.
The company revealed this AI overhaul has seen ARR per full-time employee increase 75% year-over-year to $238,000. Automation has led to 76% of Payhawk support requests handled and resolved by agents, with the sales team generating 159% more net-new business with a 10% smaller headcount.
Hristo Borisov, Co-Founder & CEO at Payhawk, said: “Crossing $100m ARR is proof that a category-defining, AI-native finance platform can be built in Europe and scaled to the world from here.
“What I’m proudest of is how efficiently we got here. We’ve turned roughly $120m of net cash burned since founding into $100m of ARR – a lifetime burn multiple of about 1.2x – while deploying only about half the capital we’ve raised. AI now does real work across the company, and it’s the engine behind our growth.”
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