控制权争夺战：Stripe与Adyen的支付及金融科技领域布局

22 August 2026 Payments & Fintech The Battle for Control Points ResearchAnalyst+49-69-910-61797 developments shaping the payments landscape and their implications for ourcoverage. This week, Stripe expanded further into Al infrastructure and FX, whilebanks took another step toward interoperable tokenized deposits.The commonthread is a widening battlefor control of commerce and money movement.ForAdyen, the developments reinforce the strategic relevance of merchantownershipandafocused,integratedplatform,althoughthenear-termearningsimplications are limited. For Wise, Stripe's expansion into FX introduces a moretangiblecompetitiveconsideration,particularlywithinWiseBusiness. AssociateDirectorof EquityResearch-Germany+49-69-910-31731 Research Analyst+49-69-910-13052 OpenRouter:Stripe Broadens, Adyen Stays Close to the MerchantStripe agreed this week to acquire OpenRouter, an Almodel gatewaythat helps ResearchAssociate businesses routeusageacrossmorethan400models fromover80providers.Therelationship itself is not new. OpenRouter was already using Stripe acrosspayments, invoicing, tax, and fraud, but ownership would take Stripe materiallyfurther upstream into the infrastructure used by Al-native businesses. Kunal GuptaResearch Associate The contrast with Adyen is becoming clearer. Stripe continues to widen itstechnologystack,whileAdyen'srecentexpansionremainscenteredonmerchantmonetization and the customerrelationship.Orb extends Adyen intobilling,whileTalon.One adds loyalty and promotions,but payments remain the connectinglayer. We see merit in that focus. Al may increasingly influence discovery andcustomer acquisition, but merchants retain strong incentives to control pricing,identity,loyalty,and transaction economics.Adyen therefore does not need tofollow Stripe into every layer of Al infrastructure to remain strategicallyimportant. Ourtake:OpenRoutersharpens the strategic divergence.Stripeis broadening itsinfrastructure stack,while Adyen is deepening its position around themerchantWe see Adyen's focus as well placed, the merchant remains a key control point asAl reshapes commerce. StripeFX:AMoreCredibleCompetitortoWiseBusiness Stripe also expanded its multi-currency capabilities this week, allowingbusinesses tomanage FX directly within Stripethrough broadermulti-currencysettlementand instant conversion.The clearest read-throughisto Wise Business.retain those funds, convert currencies, and pay out balances without movingmoneytoanotherprovider.ThatmakesStripeamorecrediblecompetitoracrossapart of the workflow currently served by Wise. IMPORTANT RESEARCHDISCLOSURESANDANALYST CERTIFICATIONS LOCATED INAPPENDIX1.Deutsche Bank doesand seeksto do business with companies covered in its research reports. Thus, investors should be aware that the firm may have a conflict ofinterest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report as only a single factor in making theirinvestmentdecision. manyyears around local payment railsand cross-border money movement,withbroader geographic and currency coverage. Stripe is not recreating thatinfrastructure. Its advantage is distribution and workflow ownership: the funds arealready within the Stripe ecosystem.That lowers friction for the merchant andallows Stripe to bundle FX into an existing relationship rather than compete solelyon the underlying cross-border product. capabilities available to platforms and their underlying merchants. However, WisePlatform remains the broader infrastructure proposition,embedding Wise'scross-bordernetworkintobanks and otherenterprises. Ourtake:Stripeisbecoming a morecrediblecompetitorwherepayments and FXconverge within the same business workflow. Wise retains the strongerunderlying cross-border proposition, but Stripe's ability to bundle FX around anexisting merchant relationship creates another reason for customers to remainwithin its ecosystem.Weseethis asan incremental competitiveconsideration forWise Business,ratherthan a directchallengeto Wise's networkadvantagetoday Tokenized Deposits:Banks BeginImprovingtheRailsHSBC and Standard Chartered this week completed the first live cross-border tokenized deposit transaction using Swift's blockchain-based ledger, connectingtokenized deposits issuedon two separate bank infrastructures.The significanceLlies less in the transaction itself than in the direction of travel. The debate aroundfasterandprogrammablecross-bordermoneyhasoftenfocusedonstablecoins,but banks areincreasinglytrying todeliver similarfunctionality through regulatedcommercial bank deposits. For Wise, this remains a much longer-term consideration than Stripe FX. Thetransaction ultimately continued to relyon existing settlement infrastructure andis currently more relevant to institutional and corporate treasury flows than toWise's coreconsumerand SMEvolumes.However,iftokenized depositsbecomeinteroperable across banks and jurisdictions,some of the friction supportingspecialist cross-borde