Monoup news digest: main updates from fintech industry

Friday news from Monoup is on air, and today we're covering the biggest stories of the week in more detail. Several major announcements shook the industry this week — their impact on the future of payments is what this issue is all about.

The SWIFT payment network isn't going anywhere — in fact, it has significantly accelerated its overhaul. The long-standing complaints from users have been high fees and slow transfers. While low fees still aren't on the table, work on speed has already begun. SWIFT plans to roll out faster transfers within the coming months — for some countries, within a single minute — which is dramatically faster than the standard 3–5 days. How this will work and why now — read on.

Tether, meanwhile, has also turned its attention to longstanding gaps in its operations, most notably, the absence of audited reporting that would disclose information about its reserves. Transparency around a company's liquidity is fundamental to trust from both regulators and everyday users, yet for years Tether has avoided scrutiny and refused to disclose it. This, naturally, fueled controversy and speculation that USDT might be an inflated token with nothing real backing it, and that the company could vanish at any moment.

We dig into both stories in detail today.

Tether to undergo a full reserve audit

Tether has hired a Big Four accounting firm to conduct a full financial audit of its reserves. This will be the first time in the company's history, and based on the announcement, it will cover all the key questions.

Tether's lack of transparency has been a recurring obstacle in its operations on international markets. It's worth noting that governments and users aren't simply trying to peek into the company's pockets — the question of whether all circulating USDT tokens are fully backed is a legitimate one. With approximately $184 billion in USDT currently in circulation globally, what actually stands behind those tokens remains unclear. Whether the company could cover the full amount in the event of a mass withdrawal is an open question.

When asked, Tether has typically responded vaguely, saying its funds are primarily held in U.S. government bonds, gold, and “other assets.” These “other assets” often raise the most questions — their nature is opaque and their liquidity is unknown. USDC, as primary competitor, takes the opposite approach: it maintains an open disclosure policy and regularly publishes attestations confirming that all issued tokens are fully backed. Overseeing this contrast, institutional investors are increasingly inclined to trust USDC's stability — despite its lower market cap and later launch date. USDT, all this time, has been trying to have it both ways: serving as a stablecoin for everyday users in jurisdictions with limited banking access and weak local currencies, while also operating at scale in regulated markets like the U.S. and EU.

But that approach is increasingly running into hard reality, as those countries tighten their grip and push for stronger crypto regulation. Although Tether has already moved toward diversification with a separate token for the U.S. and investments in a European token, parent company still needs to meet a certain level of compliance. Which is why, most likely, skipping the audit is simply no longer an option for the company.

At the same time, Tether did not name which firm will be conducting the audit, only hinting that it's one of the four. That immediately sparked criticism about unnecessary conspiracy and doubts about the company's genuine willingness to play by the rules.

Worldpay joins Wero

Payment processor Worldpay has joined the European Payments Initiative (the organization behind Wero) and will soon begin offering the wallet to its merchants. Rollout is already well underway, with the first merchants set to gain access within a couple of months.

The partnership between a payment processor of this scale and EPI is a significant step not just for Worldpay in terms of expanding its payment offering, but arguably more so in the other direction. The way things stand, it seems like Wero needs Worldpay far more than the other way around. Despite a successful launch in Germany, France, and Belgium, Wero's reach still can't compare to Visa and Mastercard — and a major provider like Worldpay can immediately deliver critical processing volume and promote the method.

Worth noting that Worldpay portfolio spans over one million merchants across 146 countries. That's exactly the kind of scale that can meaningfully boost Wero recognition in a short period of time.

SWIFT promises instant payments

Transfers that used to take one to five days will soon be processed in under a minute — provided the necessary infrastructure exists in the country. That was the announcement that shacked fintech when SWIFT committed to making this a reality by June for major corridors. These will include payment routes to Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Germany, India, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The changes go beyond speed. Fee transparency is also on the agenda, where previously the cost of a transfer was something of a surprise (accumulating along the way) with no way to know upfront how much the recipient would actually receive. Now the final amount will be disclosed before making payment including all fees and charges. SWIFT also plans to eliminate the concept of banking day, processing transfers 24/7 and 365 days a year, rather than 9-to-6 on weekdays only. Institutional clients will have access to API integrations and cloud-based solutions to minimize data entry errors.

Taken together, this marks a genuinely landmark update for a system that has been long overdue for one. For years, SWIFT was synonymous with expensive, slow, and unreliable payments — on top of manual processing by bank managers during business hours, clients also had to deal with high fees and complications along the way. Correspondent banks could hold up transfers for days while seeking additional information, pushing processing times to 5–10 days. Money crept through the international banking system as if no one was in any hurry.

But today's world no longer tolerates that kind of approach: China's CIPS and stablecoins have emerged as real threats to SWIFT, thus these upgrades are driven by the fear of losing market share. Part of the world is already moving away from the U.S. dollar and SWIFT, turning to local instant payment systems and direct conversions between own local currencies. That dynamic leaves no room for complacency and it's possible that in the coming years we'll see instant SWIFT available everywhere. For now, the significant speed improvements are expected in regions where instant payment rails already exist; elsewhere, the trend is the same, but multi-day processing times remain.

That's the news we've gathered for you this week. Stay connected with Monoup on Telegram to always be the first to know, and check out our reviews and in-depth articles on the website under MonoTalks.