Deals and funding
Acquisitions, portfolio sales, funding rounds, IPOs, securitizations and forward-flow agreements.
24 items in 13 issues, Oct 24, 2026 to Nov 8, 2026, newest first. Each item links to the issue it ran in, where its sources are listed.
Related: Regulation and policyAffirmCharters and sponsor banksPayments and networksOppFiBlock (Afterpay, Cash App)AI and agentic commerceFraud and underwriting
November 2026
- Sun, Nov 8 · The long read: The charter rush, as Democrats take the Senate
Buying a bank stalls. The other route, buying an existing bank, has run into resistance. Twenty state and District attorneys general asked regulators in July to deny charters and deals to fintechs with a "history of predatory lending or risky practices." Enova dropped its Grasshopper bid in September, saying the process "is susceptible to political pressure," and OppFi withdrew its BNC applications on Nov. 3 while keeping the merger agreement in effect.
Read in the issue → - Sun, Nov 8 · Company spotlight: Affirm
Funding. Funding capacity reached $31.7 billion, up from $26.6 billion a year earlier, and Affirm closed three asset-backed deals totaling about $1.7 billion, including its first five-year ABS. O'Hare said more than 70% of its funding is fixed rate.
Read in the issue → - Sun, Nov 8 · Company spotlight: Affirm
Correction. Friday's and Saturday's issues incorrectly said Affirm's loan terms run under 98 days. On the Nov. 5 call, Levchin said the average term is still "very, very short" and that Affirm can deal with any overexposure it takes on today in less than 90 days.
Read in the issue → - Sun, Nov 8 · Company spotlight: Affirm, part 2
Winter. In January, Affirm applied for its own bank and signed an exclusive deal with Fiserv to put Affirm installments on debit cards issued by Fiserv's bank and credit union clients. The December quarter brought GMV of $13.8 billion, up 36%, and 3.7 million cardholders.
Read in the issue → - Sun, Nov 8 · Company spotlight: Affirm, part 2
Summer. Canada's CPP Investments renewed its forward-flow commitment in June at $1.7 billion, expandable to $2.2 billion, and Affirm more than doubled its revolving credit facility to $675 million. Stripe opened Affirm to U.K. merchants, and in August Affirm named former CFO Michael Linford president alongside Libor Michalek.
Read in the issue → - Sat, Nov 7 · Interest earned
Correction. Correction, Nov. 9, 2026: This issue originally said Affirm's loan terms run under 98 days. On the Nov. 5 call, Levchin said the average term is still "very, very short" and that Affirm can deal with any overexposure it takes on today in less than 90 days.
Read in the issue → - Sat, Nov 7 · Interest earned
Charters, both ways. Sezzle applied in October for a national bank charter as Sezzle Bank, N.A., while OppFi withdrew its regulatory applications to buy Arizona's BNC National Bank, citing a "lack of clearly articulated standards," though its merger agreement remains in effect.
Read in the issue → - Fri, Nov 6 · Earnings
Affirm. Affirm shares fell more than 4% before the open even as it beat forecasts and raised its fiscal 2027 GMV outlook to more than $65.25 billion. Fiscal first-quarter GMV rose 33% to $14.4 billion and revenue reached $1.26 billion, but Truist flagged "concerns around the credit allowance" and a second-quarter GMV guide of $17.9 billion to $18.2 billion that it called "more conservative than usual." CEO Max Levchin called credit "job number zero" on the Nov. 5 call. Management tied the higher provisions to September approval and origination experiments kept on its balance sheet and said they are reserved appropriately. Levchin said a new transformer model could add 2 to 3 percentage points of approvals with essentially no added loss. Funding costs rose 27 basis points from the prior quarter, partly on seasonality, though more than 70% of on-balance-sheet funding is fixed rate and a recent ABS deal was more than four times oversubscribed. More than 80% of Affirm Card loans have historically been interest-bearing. About one million products in the Affirm app already carry brand-funded promotions, and Levchin expects 0% volume to grow in agentic commerce as Affirm builds APIs for shopping agents.
Read in the issue → - Fri, Nov 6 · Earnings
Correction. Correction, Nov. 9, 2026: This issue originally said Affirm's loan terms run under 98 days. On the Nov. 5 call, Levchin said the average term is still "very, very short" and that Affirm can deal with any overexposure it takes on today in less than 90 days.
Read in the issue → - Fri, Nov 6 · Banks & charters
Charter path. High-rate lenders seeking bank charters face a tougher road with Warren in line to chair Senate Banking. OppFi said its merger agreement remains in effect and it still wants a charter, but 20 attorneys general had argued the deals were attempts to sidestep state usury caps.
Read in the issue → - Fri, Nov 6 · Banks & charters
Deal window. Fernando Rivas, Wells Fargo's head of corporate and investment banking, said a "now or never" attitude will drive bank M&A through 2027, since a tougher FTC and DOJ "could very easily come back in [20]28." A UBS analyst wrote that the midterms are likely to "catalyze M&A."
Read in the issue → - Thu, Nov 5 · The big story: Block settles with the DOJ
The deal. Block will pay $764 million to settle Justice Department charges over Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering failures, net of $200 million in credit for earlier settlements, under a $964 million deal disclosed in its quarterly filing. Charges are deferred for three years and dropped if Block complies, and the company warned that losses could exceed the amount it has set aside.
Read in the issue → - Thu, Nov 5 · The big story: Block settles with the DOJ
A long tail. Cash App's compliance lapses have now cost Block more than $1 billion: the DOJ deal follows a $255 million settlement with the CFPB and 48 states in January 2025 and a $45 million deal with 46 states in July. Executives did not discuss the settlement on the earnings call.
Read in the issue → - Wed, Nov 4 · The big story: Democrats take Congress
Rate caps. A 10% card rate cap is back in play: bipartisan bills in both chambers would cap rates at 10%, average card APRs sit above 20%, nearly double a decade ago, and a May Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found 72% support for a one-year cap. The White House has backed away from the idea and JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon calls it an "economic disaster," but American Banker lists credit cards among the few areas where a narrow deal could ride on a must-pass bill.
Read in the issue → - Wed, Nov 4 · Earnings
Mastercard. Mastercard's U.S. gross dollar volume rose 6% to $867 billion in the third quarter, trailing 8% growth to $2.08 trillion outside the U.S. It also expanded its HDFC Bank partnership in India with a small-business deal that could add up to 3 million cards.
Read in the issue → - Tue, Nov 3 · Banks & charters
Old Glory. The FDIC amended its directive against Elmore City, Okla.-based Old Glory Bank after deeming it "adequately capitalized" in late October, up from "significantly undercapitalized" in August. A planned merger with a SPAC, meant to help it meet a 14% Tier 1 leverage ratio, fell apart this summer; limits on brokered deposits, capital distributions and material transactions remain until it stays adequately capitalized for four straight quarters.
Read in the issue → - Tue, Nov 3 · Fintech & funding
Bilt. Bilt, the rent-rewards card startup, agreed to acquire sports technology firm Lava for $300 million, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Read in the issue → - Mon, Nov 2 · Banks & charters
MDI contest. Triad Business Bank has made four competing offers for Durham-based M&F, a Black-owned bank, to derail its planned merger with Optus. M&F's board has rejected all four; shareholders vote on the Optus deal Wednesday, Nov 4.
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October 2026
- Sat, Oct 31 · Fintech & funding
Overwatch Data. Raised a $15M Series A led by Mouro Capital, with Visa Ventures and Capital One Ventures investing strategically, for AI-driven fraud and risk intelligence.
Read in the issue → - Thu, Oct 29 · Fintech & funding
Casap raises $56M. Casap, which builds dispute and chargeback software for banks and card issuers, raised $56M in convertible preferred stock led by Base10 Partners. Synchrony and Experian joined as new investors. Casap has now raised about $90M.
Read in the issue → - Tue, Oct 27 · Banks & charters
Bank M&A. HomeTrust Bancshares agreed on Oct 26 to acquire Virginia's Blue Ridge Bankshares for about $448M. That adds to a busy October for community-bank deals, with regulators speeding up merger reviews.
Read in the issue → - Mon, Oct 26 · Banks & charters
Charter & merger pipeline. Approvals are speeding up. Context: Sep 2026: the OCC conditionally approved charters for Mission Lane (credit-card bank) and Revolut. Avant and Block applied. The FDIC proposed faster merger reviews; it says average review time is down to 64 days in 2026 from 107.
Read in the issue → - Sun, Oct 25 · Cards & payments
Amex AI push. Amex is applying AI across servicing, operations and product. It is pursuing agentic commerce, where AI agents shop and check out, and has an AI-powered payroll product due in early 2027. It acquired AI firm Hyper earlier in 2026.
Read in the issue → - Sat, Oct 24 · BNPL & lending
Affirm + Sam's Club (Oct 22). Exclusive, multi-year pay-over-time deal on eligible purchases of $500+. It goes live on SamsClub.com in the coming weeks, with in-club rollout planned for 2027.
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