Fintech and UX News Summer 2025: From State-Backed Stablecoins to Emotional Banking

The summer of 2025 has been a hot one in the world of fintech: the state of Wyoming made history with its own stablecoin, while major corporations like Mastercard and Stripe deployed the next generation of artificial intelligence to combat fraud and revolutionize the user experience. The global payments infrastructure is showing signs of an impending transformation thanks to international instant payment systems, and award-winning applications are proving that outstanding UX is no longer a luxury, but the foundation of trust. In our summary, we have gathered the most important news and innovations.

 

Revolut partners with EPI to integrate Wero digital wallet

In June 2025, Revolut announced its partnership with the European Payments Initiative (EPI) to incorporate the Wero digital wallet into its app. This collaboration will initially provide Revolut customers in France, Belgium, and Germany with access to Wero's instant, free, and secure account-to-account payment services. The move supports EPI's goal of creating a unified, sovereign European payment solution to compete with global tech giants and enhances Revolut's local payment offerings.

Wyoming makes history with the USA's first state-issued stablecoin

In August 2025, the state of Wyoming launched a stablecoin named FRNT, which is the United States' first state-issued digital currency. This move is a milestone, as it creates a government-backed alternative to stablecoins issued by private companies (like Circle or Tether). FRNT aims to set a new standard for regulatory compliance and transparency. For users, this can significantly reduce perceived risk, which could accelerate the broader adoption of blockchain-based finance and pave the way for revolutionizing government services (e.g., tax refunds, subsidies).

Mastercard launches an AI-powered studio to revolutionize payment card design

On July 24, 2025, Mastercard launched the AI Card Design Studio, the first artificial intelligence-based card design platform from a major payment network. The tool allows card-issuing banks and financial institutions to create unique, brand-compliant card designs in minutes instead of weeks. The platform is accessible through the Mastercard Connect interface and drastically simplifies the previously slow and expensive design process. Mastercard plans to allow end-users and small businesses to design their own cards in the future, bringing a new level of hyper-personalization to the market.

The Bank for International Settlements is building a global instant payment network

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is advancing the "Nexus Project," an initiative aimed at building a global network of real-time payment systems. Instead of creating an entirely new system, Nexus connects existing national instant payment systems (such as India's UPI or Singapore's PayNow) through a standardized protocol. The project's goal is to make an international transfer as cheap, fast, and simple as a domestic one. In the summer of 2025, significant progress was made in connecting Asian systems, bringing the vision of seamless, global money flow closer.

Stripe introduces the world's first AI foundation model specialized for payments

In May 2025, Stripe announced the creation of the world's first artificial intelligence foundation model specifically specialized for payments. The model has been trained on tens of billions of transactions and is capable of detecting subtle signals that previous, specialized models could not. The technology has brought immediate, tangible results: overnight, it increased the detection of card-testing fraud attacks by 64%. For users, this means fewer falsely declined transactions, more effective fraud protection, and ultimately, higher revenue.

Visa and FIS partner to help smaller banks catch up digitally

In June 2025, Visa and FIS announced an extension of their strategic partnership aimed at making the most modern payment solutions more accessible to small and medium-sized financial institutions. Through the agreement, FIS clients will gain access to turnkey Visa tools such as e-commerce fraud prevention, a digital marketing campaign manager, and the ability to provision branded digital cards directly to wallets. The partnership aims to "level the technology playing field," allowing regional and community banks to compete with larger issuers and fintech companies.

Survey: 96% of users are satisfied, fintech is more trusted than traditional banks

The Financial Technology Association's June 2025 "State of Fintech" survey showed overwhelming user satisfaction with fintech services. 96% of consumers and 98% of small businesses reported high satisfaction. 79% of consumers and 95% of SMBs said fintech meets their needs better than traditional banks. The survey confirmed that user-friendly design is a top priority (for 56% of consumers and 57% of SMBs), underscoring that excellent UX is the primary driver of fintech adoption and success.

 

Industry experts say AI-based fraud prevention and instant payments are the future

According to Edgar, Dunn & Co.'s 2025 "Advanced Payments" survey, which summarized the opinions of 100 leading payment professionals, the industry is clearly moving towards intelligent and instant solutions. 85% of respondents see the primary role of artificial intelligence in risk management and fraud detection. Additionally, 68% expect instant payments to soon become the default due to consumer expectations. In terms of security, the importance of biometric authentication (e.g., fingerprint, facial recognition) was emphasized by 63% of experts as a key element in increasing user trust.

AWS wins the 2025 UX Design Award with its AI-powered financial platform

Amazon Web Services' (AWS) internal financial platform, Uno, has won the prestigious UX Design Award 2025. The platform revolutionizes corporate financial analysis by unifying 27 separate software tools into a single, customizable interface. Uno's main innovation is its generative AI-based query engine, which allows users to ask complex database questions in simple, natural language. This solution drastically speeds up decision-making and democratizes data access for non-technical professionals. The award recognizes the platform's elegance, innovation, and measurable business impact.

Mauritian telecommunication company's super app wins German Design Award

Mauritius Telecom's my.t money application won the German Design Award 2025 in the "Excellent Communications Design" category. The application (designed by UXDA) evolved from a simple mobile payment tool into a comprehensive financial and lifestyle super app that integrates over 200 different services on a single platform. The award-winning design successfully solves the biggest challenge of super apps: transforming a multitude of features into a clean, personalized, and emotionally engaging user experience. The project aimed to modernize the entire country's digital ecosystem and position the telecommunications company as a future digital bank.

Global payments giant launches its own stablecoin on the Solana blockchain

Fiserv, a global payment services provider, announced in June 2025 the launch of its own dollar-pegged stablecoin, FIUSD, on the Solana blockchain. This move signals the entry of major institutional players into the digital asset market, bridging the gap between cryptocurrencies and the traditional banking system. Fiserv plans to integrate the stablecoin into its banking and payment platforms by the end of the year. The goal is to enable faster, on-chain settlement for clients, which could revolutionize the speed and efficiency of financial transactions.

The fintech market revives: investments hit a two-year high in 2025

After the volatility of 2022-2023, funding in the fintech sector is showing a significant recovery in 2025. In the first quarter of the year, global investments grew by 18% to exceed $10 billion, marking a two-year high. The summer months further strengthened the trend, with several large funding rounds in August, for example, generative AI startup Cohere announced a $500 million investment. Investor focus has shifted towards mature companies with proven business models, especially in the areas of AI-based technologies and infrastructure development.

New financial app connects your spending to your emotions

Among the 2025 UX Design Awards shortlist, a particularly innovative concept called Pebbl has emerged. This personal finance application uniquely visualizes the connection between a user's spending habits and their emotional state. Instead of just showing numbers and graphs, Pebbl offers emotional insights and AI-driven guidance. The goal is to achieve a deeper, psychological level of financial well-being, helping users make more conscious and emotionally grounded financial decisions.