Advisory Insights

May 2025

  • The Storyline

Capital One Financial received final regulatory approvals from the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for its $35.3 billion acquisition of Discover Financial Services in April 2025 after clearing a Department of Justice antitrust review earlier. The deal, expected to close on May 18, will create the nation’s eighth-largest bank and position Capital One as a major competitor to payment networks like Visa and Mastercard. In another major consolidation move, Global Payments announced a three-way transaction, agreeing to acquire Worldpay from GTCR and FIS for $24.25 billion while simultaneously divesting its Issuer Solutions business to FIS for $13.5 billion. The complex deal will sharpen Global Payments’ focus on merchant services while FIS solidifies its offerings around services to financial institutions. Meanwhile, Stripe applied for a Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank charter in Georgia as part of its strategy to reduce reliance on partner banks for payment processing. If approved, Stripe could obtain this banking license by the third quarter of 2025, enhancing its ability to directly serve merchants with expanded financial offerings. 

Adding to the wave of strategic mergers, Grasshopper Bancorp completed the merger of its subsidiary, Grasshopper Bank, with Auto Club Trust, a subsidiary of The Auto Club Group. This partnership positions Grasshopper Bank as the exclusive provider of depository and lending solutions to over 13 million AAA members across 14 states, significantly expanding its customer reach. Competition among payment networks remains fierce, with Visa reportedly offering Apple $100 million to switch from Mastercard as the issuing network for the Apple Card. 

On the fundraising front, Plaid completed a $575 million secondary sale at a $6.1 billion valuation led by Franklin Templeton with participation from Fidelity Management and Research, BlackRock, and other major investors. While this represents a decrease from its 2021 valuation, it marks an increase from recent secondary trading levels. Other notable funding rounds included Rain, an earned wage access provider, raising a $75 million Series B to expand its services, and Hawk securing $56 million as banks adopt its AI solutions to combat financial crime.

In the digital assets space, Bridge and Visa launched a stablecoin card issuing product, allowing developers using Bridge to programmatically issue stablecoin-linked Visa cards in multiple countries through a single API integration. Bridge also collaborated with Dakota to integrate stablecoin flows into wallets, giving users full control over their assets without relying on third-party issuers. Circle has hired JPMorgan and Citi to lead its planned IPO with plans to publicly file by late April. The company is targeting a valuation between $4-5 billion in what would be one of the largest crypto-related public offerings since Coinbase. Major crypto firms, including Circle, BitGo, Coinbase, and Paxos are reportedly preparing to apply for U.S. banking licenses to gain regulatory clarity and expand their services within the traditional financial system. Binance partnered with Worldpay to integrate Apple Pay and Google Pay into its fiat onramp ecosystem, making crypto purchases more accessible to everyday users.

In a significant acquisition in the crypto space, Ripple Labs agreed to acquire prime brokerage firm Hidden Road for $1.25 billion in one of the largest deals in the digital asset space. The acquisition aims to integrate Hidden Road’s post-trade operations into the XRP Ledger, enhancing Ripple’s position in institutional decentralized finance. Bitcoin life insurance firm Meanwhile raised a $40 million Series A led by Framework and Fulgur Ventures, highlighting continued investor interest in specialized crypto applications. Furthering the institutional adoption trend, exchange provider ICE partnered with Circle to explore use cases for its USDC stablecoin, focusing on improving settlement and liquidity in financial markets, while Fidelity Investments expanded its crypto offerings by launching an IRA that allows investments into cryptocurrencies.

Cross-industry collaboration intensified this month as payment and banking players formed strategic alliances to enhance their market reach. MoneyGram partnered with Plaid to enable U.S. customers to authenticate their bank accounts for faster and more secure domestic and cross-border payments. BNPL services expanded their reach as Klarna forged partnerships with Fiserv’s Clover and eBay, bringing installment loans to merchants across the U.S. Ingo Payments tapped Marqeta to power its embedded banking platform, while Yieldstreet and Upgrade joined forces to expand access to consumer credit investing. Flex acquired Maza for $40 million. Meanwhile, Intuit announced it would integrate Deserve’s co-branded card technology platformand team to accelerate innovation in money movement products, and is also acquiring HR platform GoCo. Pipe acquired Glean.ai, further building out its capabilities in the accounts receivable space.

  • Network Spotlight

This month we sat down with Sara Weed, partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson Dunn and Co-Chair of the Fintech and Digital Assets Practice Group. 

Tell us a little about yourself and your firm.

I have worked in financial services and now fintech for nearly twenty years, first in policy in the wake of the financial crisis, then in-house with IBM’s Financial Services Group, and later to the North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks where I joined as a staff attorney and left as Director and Counsel of Non-Depository Supervision. I have been in private practice for the last ten years and moved to Gibson Dunn with my partner Jason Cabral just over two years ago. Our goal is help great companies build enduring fintech products that can be offered seamlessly around the globe. I absolutely love what I do and am fortunate to work with an incredible team of super talented lawyers. When I’m not solving the puzzle that is fintech, I like to spend time with my family — my spouse of twenty years this June, our three daughters (16, 12, and 10), and our three rescue pups — and this time of year can often be found on the sidelines at a soccer game in the DMV. In the offseason, I am coaching the toughest group of fourth grade girls to ever play basketball.

As the Co-Chair of the Fintech and Digital Assets Practice Group, what are the key areas your team focuses on within the evolving fintech landscape?

Our team has a blended regulatory and transactional fintech practice that supports companies throughout their life cycles. We go where our client need us, whether that is product development; regulatory strategy, including chartering, licensure, and partnerships; support specific to supervisory examinations and other regulatory inquiries; regulatory diligence incidental to acquisitions, investments, and exit events; and defense of regulatory enforcement actions. These days we are doing a lot of product development work and companion strategy work, including advising clients on the formation of national trust banks and state trust companies to support a range of business models, which has been really gratifying.

What do you see as the most significant regulatory development impacting fintech companies today?

That’s a really tough question. Many say that bank partnerships are under fire. While it is true that some banks and fintechs have been criticized for the way that they structured certain product offerings, I do not think those matters stand for the proposition that banks cannot offer services in coordination with fintechs. In fact, I think quite the opposite is true — there have never been more opportunities for banks and fintechs to join forces to deliver regulated products. Working with banks to build payments programs that can withstand regulatory criticism is another part of our work that really excites me.

How can people get a hold of you?

Email (sweed@gibsondunn.com) is usually the best way to track me down. I also love connecting on LinkedIn.

One personal question: What were your grandparents’ professions, and how do you think their work shaped your story?

My maternal grandfather, Tony, was born to Italian immigrants who did not speak much English. He always had a gift for connecting with people, I expect, in part, because he had to translate for his parents from a young age. He never went to college but instead worked his way up from an entry-level position as an errand boy to an executive in the manufacturing company where he ultimately retired. He worked two jobs as a young man and never took a sick day in his 45+ years of working. He always told me that he had to work harder than his peers because he didn’t have an education and always wanted me to have that advantage. Finding ways to connect with people is tremendously important to my work (and frankly something I really enjoy), so definitely credit him with that.

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