Data, analytics, and technology company Equifax unveiled Credit Abuse Risk, a new solution to help lenders fight first-party fraud. The new offering leverages machine learning to identify common first-party fraud tactics such as credit washing and loan stacking. News of Equifax’s Credit Abuse Risk predictive model comes on the heels of the launch of the company’s Synthetic Identity Risk tool. The solution empowers institutions to identify when fraudsters are using fake identities to set up credit accounts and obtain loans. A new offering from international data, analytics, and technology company Equifax will help protect lenders from first-party fraud. Credit Abuse Risk is a new predictive model that leverages FCRA-regulated data to spot fraud tactics such as credit washing and loan stacking. The model will help lenders make more confident lending decisions. “By focusing on application behavior in real time, Credit Abuse Risk quickly helps to reduce the potential for fraud and related costs,” Equifax Chief Product Officer for US Information Solutions Felipe Castillo said. “This supports a more confident lending environment and helps keep credit available for consumers.” In a world of phishing and deepfakes, first-party fraud is a type of financial crime that often goes overlooked in conversations about fraud prevention. First-party fraud, unlike third-party fraud, involves fraud committed by the actual customer or account holder rather than by an external party impersonating someone else. Credit Abuse Risk is designed to detect two specific forms of first-party fraud: loan stacking, in which an individual applies for multiple loans in a short period of time with no intention of repaying the debt, and credit washing, in which an individual attempts to remove accurate but negative information from their credit report. Credit Abuse Risk identifies the behaviors associated with these types of fraud during prequalification, account origination, or portfolio review, enabling lenders to adjust loan terms based on FCRA-compliant insights. Powered by machine learning, Credit Abuse Risk offers enhanced insights derived from behavioral indicators that detect atypical credit activity, and provides targeted decisioning that addresses the lifecycle of fraud. Credit Abuse Risk features comprehensive portfolio protection covering all credit tiers and actionable intelligence that empowers lenders to make real-time, regulated decisions on credit terms. This includes FCRA-compliant scoring with adverse action reason codes to ensure transparency in the event of application denials, restrictive credit term modifications, and related actions. Credit Abuse Risk is part of Equifax’s suite of fraud solutions and works alongside the company’s Synthetic Identity Risk tools. Introduced earlier this month, Equifax’s Synthetic Identity Risk uses machine learning algorithms to detect fraud patterns—such as those related to synthetic identity fraud—that are often difficult to spot using traditional methods. Synthetic identity fraud occurs when a fraudster combines aspects of a real identity with fake data to create a new, fictitious identity. The fraudster then uses these fictitious identities to open credit accounts and secure loans on which they eventually stop making payments. The fact that these synthetic identities often include real data and appear in mostly legitimate means that these frauds can be difficult to detect and can persist for long periods of time. Equifax estimates that charge-offs per known synthetic identity cost companies on average $13,000. “Synthetic identity fraud is a rapidly growing threat impacting the consumer lending ecosystem,” Castillo said. “With Synthetic Identity Risk, Equifax strengthens lenders’ fraud defenses, helping them to uncover hidden risks and ultimately shift from reactive loss recovery to proactive prevention. In doing so, they not only reduce their financial losses but they (also) safeguard and build long-term trust with their legitimate customers.” Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Equifax made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2011 in New York. The company’s differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology help financial institutions, companies, employers, and public agencies make better decisions with more confidence. Along with Experian and TransUnion, Equifax runs one of the three major credit reporting agencies in the US, has nearly 15,000 employees around the globe, and operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Equifax is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker EFX and has a market capitalization of $24 billion. Photo by Growtika on Unsplash The post Equifax Unveils Credit Abuse Risk to Combat First-Party Fraud appeared first on Finovate.       

The countdown is on! FinovateEurope 2026 lands in London on February 10 through 11 at the InterContinental O2 in London, and the global fintech community is gearing up for one of the year’s most engaging events. The two-day conference will feature more than 1,000 senior decision-makers, including bankers, investors, founders, and fintech leaders as they uncover what’s next in fintech and banking. You’ll see over 20 live demos of cutting-edge technology with 100+ expert speakers offering insights that go well beyond buzzwords. If you already have your ticket (if you don’t, there’s still time to register), here’s how to make the most of your days on-site: Download the ConnectMe app and create your profile to start networking, set your schedule, and view the agenda. The invitation-only Leaders+ and Impact+ sessions begin on February 9 at 6:00 pm. Registration and networking begins at 8:15 am on February 10 and the day concludes with the Best of Show announcement during the evening cocktail reception, which starts at 4:30 pm. Breakfast and networking begins at 8:15 am on February 11 and the day concludes with the Investor All Stars panel, which wraps up at 4:30 pm. Bring your badge each day. You’ll need it for entry! Plan your travel time to the venue, especially if you’re commuting or taking public transport. Dress code? Business casual to business formal. Be comfortable, but ready to make an impression. Need help? Stop by the registration desk or find a Finovate team member for assistance. Follow #FinovateEurope on LinkedIn and Twitter for live updates and key takeaways. Whether your goal is to track early fintech trends, forge new partnerships, or benchmark your strategy against peers, FinovateEurope delivers. With elite networking, live product insights, and industry-shaping conversations all under one roof, this conference promises to kick off 2026 with fresh ideas and real momentum. See you in London! The post FinovateEurope 2026 Is Almost Here: What You Need to Know Before You Go appeared first on Finovate.      Related StoriesFinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 5FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 4FinovateEurope 2026: Innovation, Regulation, and Transformation in the AI Era 

Varo raised $123.9 million in a Series G round led by Warburg Pincus and Coliseum Capital. The bank will use the investment to scale its chartered banking and lending platform. Alice Milligan, former chief marketing officer at Morgan Stanley, and Kevin Watters, former division chief executive officer at JPMorgan, have joined Varo’s Board of Directors. Digital challenger bank Varo landed $123.9 million in financing this week. The Series G round, which boosts Varo’s total funding to $1.1 billion, was led by existing investor Warburg Pincus and new investor Coliseum Capital Management. Also contributing to today’s investment are existing investors such as Northview. For new investor Coliseum Capital Management, the appeal lies in Varo’s ability to use its charter to compete with incumbent banks while expanding its product depth. “We are thrilled to join Warburg Pincus as long-term, collaborative partners, and support Varo’s work to expand its customer value proposition and to further differentiate from traditional banks,” said Coliseum Capital Management co-founder and Managing Partner Chris Shackelton. “We believe Varo is building a resilient and scalable platform from which to capitalize on a significant market share opportunity.” Varo was founded in 2017 and secured a bank charter three years later. The fintech’s banking platform brings digital-first bank tools, from money management to lending, credit building, and savings accounts and tools. Varo offers two lending products, Varo Advance and Varo Line of Credit, which together generated $547 million in volume last year. The bank’s lending tools are powered by the company’s machine learning models that supplement traditional credit data, allowing the bank to lend to non-traditional borrowers. As part of today’s announcement, Varo disclosed that Alice Milligan, former chief marketing officer at Morgan Stanley, and Kevin Watters, former division chief executive officer at JPMorgan, have joined its Board of Directors. From a governance and operating perspective, Varo’s board sees the company’s combination of regulated banking discipline and modern technology as a key differentiator in a crowded challenger market. “Varo has built something rare: a technology-first customer experience paired with the governance and risk discipline required of a nationally chartered bank,” said Varo Bank Board of Directors Alice Milligan and Kevin Watters. Watters reports that Varo will use today’s funds to support the company’s next phase of growth by scaling its lending and banking platform. “This combination of new capital, Coliseum’s partnership, and experienced banking leaders joining our board, is propelling Varo into its next phase of growth,” said Varo Bank CEO Gavin Michael. “We remain focused on operating with discipline and delivering meaningful impact for our customers.” US-based Varo is one of the few true challenger banks that operate with their own bank charter, a structural advantage that gives it direct control over deposits, lending, customers, and unit economics. But a charter alone does not guarantee scale. Varo is still small when compared to competitors such as Chime, which operates under a sponsor banking model and has tens of millions of users. And while SoFi is Varo’s closest chartered competitor, the gap between the two is widening. SoFi recently reported record Q4 2025 results, including $1 billion in net revenue, $174 million in net income, and one million new members added in a single quarter. As bank charters increasingly become table stakes in the challenger banking field, Varo will need to focus on scaling by differentiating its offerings and channels to reach new markets, especially as international players like Nubank, which just received regulatory approval to operate in the US, bring their customer-winning strategies to the US. Photo by Landiva Weber The post Varo Raises $123.9 Million to Scale its Lending and Banking Platform appeared first on Finovate.       

Welcome to the first week of February! Both FinovateEurope and Valentine’s Day are just around the corner, and there’s lots to love about this week’s fintech news headlines. Below, we’ve aggregated the top news in fintech for the week. We’ll continue to add more announcements as the week progresses. Payments Verisave launches credit card processing fee optimization program for professional services firms. NCR Atleos and Heart of England Co-operative extend relationship to enhance financial inclusion. STAR Financial Bank partners with CorServ to meet demand for enhanced commercial credit cards. Wealth management Envestnet appoints Jonathan Linstra as Chief Growth Officer (CGO).  Arcesium acquires Limina to deliver a unified front-to-back investment platform. Back office tools HuLoop and Ceto partner to advance adaptive work optimization for financial institutions. Embedded lending Affirm expands buy now pay later network with Expedia. Digital banking OnePay names Patrick O’Connell Chief Financial Officer. Photo by Monstera Production The post Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News appeared first on Finovate.       

Payoneer is expanding local collection capabilities across Indonesia and in the Mexican Peso. The investments aim to scale infrastructure and capabilities that support Payoneer’s global payments and commerce ambitions. With nearly 2 million customers, Payoneer aims to offer further improved local access and cross-border payment efficiency through 2026. Global payments company Payoneer made moves to help companies doing business in Indonesia and Mexico this week. The New York-based company expanded its global payment platform in Indonesia and enhanced local collection services in Mexico. The new capabilities aim to help customers transact and receive funds from local buyers and ecommerce platforms. Payoneer anticipates its platform will facilitate the funds faster and at a lower cost, ultimately helping businesses tap into new, global markets. In Indonesia, Payoneer will help small businesses collect funds from local businesses. The company aims to offer more control over foreign exchange management while providing increased access to a trade in the largest ecommerce market in Southeast Asia. For global businesses looking to collect funds in the Mexican Peso, Payoneer has expanded its collection services in that currency. With the expansion, the company is aiming to reduce friction for global sellers who need to collect funds across multiple channels, supporting shifting international demand. “Global trade is dynamic—reshaping in response to macro factors and trade policy,” said Payoneer SVP of Treasury and Payment Services Derek Green. “For over 20 years, Payoneer has supported and enabled our customers’ global ambitions. By expanding our capabilities in critical markets like Mexico and Indonesia, we continue to empower our customers as they look to expand into fast-growing markets, leveraging our ecommerce marketplace ecosystem to enable access to customer demand on Amazon Mexico, Walmart, Mercado Libre, and Shopee.” Payoneer was founded in 2005 to help SMBs transact, do business, and grow globally. The company’s global financial stack helps remove barriers and simplify cross-border commerce to make it easier for businesses to connect to the global economy, pay, get paid, manage their funds across multiple currencies, and grow their businesses. The new capabilities launched this week add to Payoneer’s existing local collection infrastructure across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. In today’s announcement, Payoneer disclosed that it plans to expand local collection capabilities in other high-growth markets in Latin America and Asia Pacific later this year to support its almost 2 million customers.  The post Payoneer Expands Services in Indonesia and Mexico appeared first on Finovate.       

Nubank has received conditional approval from the US OCC to form a national bank, marking a major regulatory milestone as it begins the setup phase for entering the US market. Unlike past challenger bank attempts, Nubank enters the US from a position of strength, with more than 127 million customers, strong engagement, and $783 million in quarterly net income. Regulators require Nubank to fully fund the bank within 12 months and begin operations within 18 months. Brazil-based digital bank Nubank (also known as Nu) just achieved a long-standing goal. The fintech received conditional approval from the US OCC for the formation of a de novo national bank, Nubank, N.A. Announcing the approval, Nu Founder and CEO David Vélez framed the move as a strategic validation of the company’s long-held belief in digital-first banking. “This approval isn’t just an expansion of our operation; it’s an opportunity to prove our thesis that a digital-first, customer-centric model is the future of financial services globally,” said Vélez. “While we remain fully focused on our core markets in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, this step allows us to build the next generation of banking in the United States.” The conditional approval, granted about four months after Nu initially submitted its application, places the company in the early setup stage of forming a US national bank. During this period, Nu must meet a series of requirements set by the OCC and secure additional approvals from the FDIC and the Federal Reserve. Regulators also require the company to fully fund the bank within 12 months and begin operations within 18 months. After Nu receives full regulatory approval for a national bank charter, it will operate under a comprehensive federal framework that allows it to launch deposit accounts, credit cards, lending, and digital asset custody. Nu plans to establish strategic hubs in Miami, San Francisco, Northern Virginia, and the North Carolina Research Triangle. Cristina Junqueira, Nu’s co-founder and CEO of its emerging US business, highlighted the regulatory milestone as a step toward establishing credibility and competitiveness in a crowded market. “Receiving federal approval for a national bank charter is a significant step in our journey to becoming a solid, compliant, and competitive regulated institution in the US,” said Junqueira. “We look forward to delivering the transparent, efficient financial experiences already trusted by more than 127 million customers around the world to our future customers in the US.” Founded in 2013, Nu has operated in its home country of Brazil as a fully regulated financial institution since 2016 and announced that it plans to obtain its full banking license this year. The fintech also operates in Colombia and has an expansion plan in Mexico, where it is waiting on approval from the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores to organize as a banking institution. While international expansion efforts have been slow, the company’s customer acquisition growth has not. With more than 127 million customers, Nu is known throughout fintech for its high customer engagement level, reaching an activity rate exceeding 83%. In the third quarter of last year, the fintech reached a record revenue of $4.2 billion, which represents a 39% year-over-year growth. It’s important to note that Nu’s entrance into the US market will likely succeed where other challenger banks have failed. Monzo, N26, and Bunq have all tried and failed to secure a US license from the OCC, while Revolut still does not have a US banking license, either. The difference is that Nu is massively profitable with relatively low customer costs. The company reported $783 million in net income in the last quarter alone. For Nu, which caters to a largely Hispanic customer base, the US is full of opportunity. There are more than 65 million Hispanics living in the US, many of whom are left out of traditional banks in the US due to high fees, limited access to credit, and legacy onboarding models that fail to reflect their financial realities. Nu’s success in Latin America has been built on designing for inclusion at scale. The fintech boasts transparent pricing, an intuitive digital experience, and unique underwriting. Bringing this successful model to the US while navigating one of the world’s most demanding regulatory environments, would be a huge win for Nu, and perhaps could serve as a model for other overseas challengers seeking to launch in the US. Photo by Steppe Walker The post Nubank Lands US Regulatory Approval appeared first on Finovate.       

Core banking platform 10x Banking has teamed up with Australian asset manager and lender Remara. Remara will use 10x Banking’s core banking platform to bring new lending and investment solutions to market faster. Headquartered in London, 10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. Cloud-native core banking platform 10x Banking announced a partnership with Australian asset manager and alternative lender Remara. The firm will leverage 10x Banking’s core banking platform to launch new mortgage, commercial lending, term investment, and novated lease products faster. The Sydney-based firm sought a partner that could support the unique financial products Remara offers to its clients. The company highlighted 10x Banking’s API-first and event-driven architecture, which will enable Remara to bring new products to market quickly and give the company the control it needs to differentiate its offerings. The new core banking platform will also support Remara as it scales across Australia and the Southeast Asian region. The company noted in its partnership statement that the APAC core banking market is expected to grow by more than 10% CAGR through 2032. “Remara’s decision to select 10x reflects both the maturity of Australia’s alternative lending scene and the broader shift towards next-generation core technology in the region,” 10x Banking Founder and CEO Antony Jenkins said. “We’re committed to supporting innovative financial providers that make banking better for everyone. Our partnership with Remara is the latest proof point that cloud-native platforms deliver real differentiation and tangible value, both to businesses and end users. This is our ninth ANZ client, underlying the impact our local strategy is having for new and established players.” Headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Remara is an alternative asset manager that offers specialty finance, middle-market lending, and tactical credit strategies that are not typically available to investors via banks or traditional brokers. Remara offers at-call, 6-month, and 12-month cash management funds; investment grade, high-yield, and credit income funds; as well as a real estate fund that provides exposure to small and medium scale developments. Founded in 2019, Remara has more than $3 billion AUD in assets under management. “10x Banking’s platform puts us in the driving seat for product and delivery flexibility, letting Remara go to market faster with innovative, specialist lending solutions that really meet our customers’ needs,” Remara Managing Partner Andrew McVeigh said. “Australia’s financial services sector is modernizing fast, and being able to offer something different to the market is vital. With 10x, we can do that, building on a best-of-breed core foundation and executing on our vision for growth.” 10x Banking was founded in 2016, and won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. The company’s technology enables banks to deploy next-generation core banking solutions via a cloud-native, SaaS core banking platform. This empowers firms to deliver new products, services, and customer experiences to customers—both retail and corporate—faster and with less cost. 10x Banking’s partnership announcement with Remara comes a little over a month after the company reported that it was working with Audax Financial Technology to help banks in Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East scale new digital products and services and modernize their core banking systems. Photo by Johnny Bhalla on Unsplash The post 10x Banking Inks Partnership with Alternative Asset Manager Remara appeared first on Finovate.       

As FinovateEurope returns to London on February 10 and 11, the spotlight on the second day of the conference shifts from demos to deep discussion. On February 11, FinovateEurope’s Industry Stages run in parallel with one another, giving attendees the opportunity to dive into strategic conversations shaping financial services in 2026. This year’s event features five Industry Stages: Artificial Intelligence; Banking, Regulation & Risk; Customer Experience; Lending; and Payments. Each stage is designed to offer banking and fintech leaders more than just theory. The sessions focus on what’s working in practice, what’s breaking under the pressure of new technology and regulations, and what institutions need to rethink about their current operations. Artificial Intelligence: from pilots to production The AI stage will feature discussions on one of the biggest challenges facing financial institutions today: moving beyond experimentation. The sessions will explore lessons learned from early AI agent pilots, governance frameworks to combat “shadow AI”, and how banks can scale AI responsibly. Highlights include a keynote from Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, who will speak about the realities of implementing AI in production. The stage will also host panels tackling ROI, data readiness, and responsible AI as a competitive necessity. Customer Experience: personalization without losing the human touch On the Customer Experience stage, the conversation moves past buzzwords to focus on execution. Sessions will examine how open data enables hyper-personalization, why mindset can be the biggest challenge, and how banks can retain empathy while scaling. A standout power panel brings together leaders from J.P. Morgan, Invesco, and PolyAI to explore what banks can learn from other industries as customer expectations are being reset by the evolution of enabling technologies. Payments: instant, intelligent, and under threat Payments are quickly evolving across the globe, especially with new regulations such as PSD3 and new capabilities and enabling technologies such as instant payments, stablecoins, and cross-border modernization. Panels will focus on how data-centricity and AI can unlock growth while strengthening security, especially as fraud losses and cyber threats keep rising. Banking, regulation & risk: resilience in a volatile world Regulatory pressure and operational resilience will be the center of the conversation on this stage, where discussions will span DORA, dispute management, and the risks embedded in cloud and AI adoption. These sessions are especially relevant for banks navigating complex vendor ecosystems while being asked to do more, faster, and with greater accountability. Lending: capturing the embedded opportunity The Lending stage will look at how banks can reclaim growth by meeting unmet needs, especially in small business and embedded lending. Panelists will explore how AI is reshaping credit decisioning, how regulation is evolving, and where incumbents can realistically compete with fintech challengers. Together, these five Industry Stages on February 11 will offer a concentrated look at the decisions that will define banking’s next chapter. If you register for FinovateEurope before January 30, you can still save £300. The post Beyond the Demos: The Industry Stage Conversations Driving FinovateEurope 2026 appeared first on Finovate.       

This year, FinovateEurope 2026 is bringing a new addition to our annual showcase of innovative fintech. Our invitation-only Impact+ event, held on Monday, 9 February, is a unique opportunity for investors to meet and network with fintech startups that have developed solutions for a variety of challenges currently facing banks, financial services providers, and their customers and members. As part of the program, the evening will feature a series of four-minute pitches from eight startups selected in collaboration with London & Partners, Fintech Sandbox, and other leading startup specialists. “I’m delighted to unveil the Impact+ Founders & Funders program at FinovateEurope 2026,” Heather Stowell, Finovate VP and Director of Demos, said. “The eight startups pitching to investors as part of the February 9 session are presenting cutting-edge ideas and technologies from across fintech and finserv. It’s inspiring to see this level of innovation from such young companies and exciting to foresee the connections coming up for them with investors.” Exclusively for investors and startups, Impact+ takes place Monday, 9 February—the evening before FinovateEurope 2026 begins in earnest. The program starts at 6pm and ends with a networking and drinks reception beginning at 7:15pm. Anna Tsiganchuk – CEO & Co-Founder, Aleta Index A product leader with a foundation in design, a passion for AI innovation, and a track record of building and scaling impactful solutions, Tsiganchuk is CEO and Co-Founder of Aleta Index. Aleta Index is an AI-powered platform that analyzes alternative data sets including news and social media to expose bias and source credibility to enable business analysts and researchers to make better decisions and develop more accurate machine-learning driven prediction models. Founded in 2024, Aleta Index is headquartered in London. Filiberto Tasca – CEO & Co-Founder, Aurea Hub With a strong conviction that the third internet revolution of Web 3.0, decentralized finance (DeFi), and the metaverse will have a significant impact on every aspect of society, Tasca is CEO and Co-Founder of Aurea Hub. Aurea is the EU-native B2B infrastructure for on-chain finance. The company offers a white-label, fully-compliant Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) platform that serves as a neutral technological bridge to empower banks, fintechs, and merchants to integrate digital assets and stablecoins into their existing applications. Barak Katz—CEO & Founder, DotzLink An alum of Tel Aviv University and Harvard Business School with more than a decade of Chief Executive experience, Katz is founder and CEO of DotzLink. DotzLink is creating a financial protection platform designed to fight the growing challenge of scams and financial abuse. The company’s AI-powered technology provides real-time detection, proactive protection, and actionable insights to help seniors and families stay safe and financially secure. Founded in 2025, DotzLink is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. Máté Jendrolovics—CEO & Founder, Intuitech With a background as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Head of Digital at Hungary’s Gránit Bank, Jendrolovics is CEO and founder of Intuitech, an Agentic AI and digital solutions provider for companies in the financial industry. Intuitech is a 200+ member, full-stack development and AI services studio—launched in 2018—that empowers banks, insurers, consultancies, and other firms to reach their digital potential, from customer applications and automated platforms to sophisticated back-office and AI solutions. The company is based in Budapest, Hungary. Joshua Ojo—CEO & Founder, Ndewo Finance An innovator with a background in mathematics and a strong passion for using technology to solve business challenges, Ojo is CEO and founder of Ndewo Finance. Ndewo Finance offers a platform for “credit invisibles”—people with significant gaps in their credit files. The company leverages alternative data sources such as home credit history and transactional data to enable underbanked and unbanked individuals to access financial and non-financial services such as rents, mortgages, student loans, credit cards, retail financing, and more. Ndewo Finance is based in Manchester, UK. Rukayyat Kolawole—CEO & Co-Founder, PaceUP Invest Dedicated to breaking barriers and reshaping financial empowerment, Kolawole is CEO and Co-Founder of Wealthtech PaceUp Invest. PaceUp Invest is a B2B and B2C hyperpersonalized wealth technology platform that leverages AI, behavioral science, inclusive cultural context, and human expertise to drive financial wellness. The platform offers multilingual guidance and integrates seamlessly with banks, corporations, insurers, and digital financial apps. Headquartered in Mannheim, Germany, PaceUp Invest was founded in 2020. Savannah Price—Founder & CEO, Serene A FinTech London Rising Star for 2025, Price is Founder and CEO of Serene, the infrastructure for financial care, that empowers banks, lenders, and fintechs to provide customers with better financial outcomes. Serene combines behavioral insights, predictive intelligence, and financial data to detect early indications of vulnerability, fraud, or potential distress. This enables financial institutions to do more than just identify risk, but also to understand, predict, and prevent it. Headquartered in London, UK, Serene was founded in 2023. Mariana Barona—CEO & Co-Founder, Synthera AI With a background as an analyst at Goldman Sachs and an education from the University of Cambridge, Barona is CEO and Co-Founder of Synthera AI. Headquartered in London, Synthera AI generates synthetic yield curves, equities, FX prices, and other financial instruments to enable professional investors to test their portfolios on realistic but unseen market scenarios using generative AI. The company’s synthetic data redefines portfolio analysis with AI-driven dynamic scenario testing, predictive analytics, and deep portfolio insights. Photo by Ben Wicks on Unsplash The post IMPACT+ Showcases Early-Stage Fintech Innovation at FinovateEurope 2026 appeared first on Finovate.       

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 10. Register today using this link and save 20%. FINTRAC TRAC by FINTRAC is the governance layer for regulated analytics – making calculations auditable, repeatable, and self-documenting by default. Features Includes a governed execution layer compatible with modern analytics architectures Embeds auditability, repeatability, and documentation directly into execution Eliminates manual processes and controls Who’s it for? Any financial institution that has to execute models and calculations in a highly governed fashion to meet regulatory or internal governance requirements. MyPocketSkill MyPocketSkill is an AI-infused platform helping Gen Z earn, save, and learn about money. Supported by PocketAI, their award winning platform helps 13 – 25 year olds become more financially capable. Features Adaptive Personalized Impactful Who’s it for? Financial institutions looking to appeal to Gen Z customers. Syntex Syntex is a digital onboarding portal for account opening and lending that pre-qualifies clients, shortens onboarding to less than two days, supports Reg B compliance, and increases deposits by 40%. Features Client self-serve intake reduces onboarding from 30–45 days to 2–3 days Delivers a 40% increase in conversion rates and deposits Provides Reg B tracking of application completeness and decision timelines Who’s it for? Small banks, community banks, and credit unions. The post FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 5 appeared first on Finovate.      Related StoriesFinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 4FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 3FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 2 

AML compliance platform Dotfile has teamed up with stablecoin issuance platform Bastion to provide onboarding and risk management for stablecoin programs. The partnership will deliver comprehensive verification, AI-powered compliance screening, and the ability to adapt to local jurisdictions and multiple regulatory regimes. Headquartered in Paris, France and founded in 2021, Dotfile made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. AI-powered AML compliance platform Dotfile has forged a partnership with Bastion to provide onboarding and risk management for enterprise-grade stablecoin programs. Bastion, which powers secure and compliant stablecoin issuance, wallets, on/off ramps, cards, and yield products for financial institutions, will benefit from a comprehensive verification platform with AI-powered compliance and the ability to adapt to multiple regulatory contexts. “Bastion’s enterprise focus demands flexible, auditable onboarding that scales,” Dotfile Founder and CEO, Vasco Alexandre, said. “Together, we’re enabling a compliant path from treasury to consumer rollouts.” As stablecoins are maturing into enterprise-grade financial instruments, a greater range of companies and brands are exploring ways to use their own branded stablecoins for operations such as treasury management and consumer payments. In order for them to do so safely and compliantly, these firms will need modern KYC capabilities to ensure an engaging user experience as well as meet regulatory requirements. The partnership between Dotfile and Bastion will deliver an all-in-one solution for the safe and secure onboarding of institutions (KYB) as well as individuals (KYC). The platform leverages AI to automate sanctions and PEP screening, document verifications, and risk assessments. It also ensures compliance with local regulatory requirements with bank-level due diligence across jurisdictions. “Bastion has been hyper-focused on compliance and ensuring we operate under the highest level of regulation as we work to bring stablecoin implementation to life for some of the world’s largest enterprises,” Bastion Chief Risk & Compliance Officer Rohan Kohli said. “Partners like Dotfile help us meet those standards in a scalable and efficient way.” Bastion builds regulated stablecoin infrastructure for modern money movement. Businesses around the world leverage Bastion’s technology to issue, orchestrate, convert, transfer, and scale white-label stablecoins. Founded in 2023, Bastion recently announced a partnership with Sony Bank to power the Japanese financial institution’s stablecoin program infrastructure. Nassim Eddequiouaq is Bastion’s co-founder and CEO. Headquartered in Paris, France, Dotfile was founded in 2021. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024, demonstrating how its platform enables businesses to streamline verification and onboarding, automatically evaluate risk profiles, and manage risk in real-time. Dotfile’s technology increases productivity, reduces operational costs, and accelerates customer onboarding processes. Photo by Clément Dellandrea on Unsplash The post Dotfile Teams Up with Bastion to Boost Risk Management for Stablecoin Programs appeared first on Finovate.       

One of the biggest challenges for financial institutions, large and small, is core modernization and digital transformation. Whether to facilitate automation to streamline workflows or to deploy new products and services faster, modernization and transformation are key to ensuring that banks and financial institutions can grow revenues, expand into new markets, and meet regulatory obligations with regard to security and privacy for customers. At FinovateEurope 2026 next month, five fintechs will demonstrate how their innovations are helping banks and financial institutions transform their systems and operations to boost productivity and lower costs. From AI-driven automation that delivers seamless deployment of new solutions to AI-powered learning technologies that keep employee skills up to date, these companies are leveraging enabling technologies to make banks better. FinovateEurope 2026 will take place at London’s InterContinental O2 on February 10 and 11. Tickets are available now. Visit our FinovateEurope hub today and take advantage of big early-bird savings! R34DY R34DY empowers banks and other financial institutions with AI-driven automation for seamless integration and rapid deployment of solutions. The company’s ABLEMENTS solution enables rapid AI transformation, allowing banks to deliver new offerings faster, lower IT costs, and achieve competitive differentiation via context-aware modernization. Headquartered in Budapest, Hungary, R34DY was founded in 2019. Tweezr Tweezr helps businesses grow and transform by accelerating time-to-market (TTM) and boosting developer productivity for both legacy-system maintenance and modernization. The company’s technology serves as an AI-powered surgical code assistant that identifies exactly where changes are needed across tens of millions of lines of code without breaking critical functionality. Founded in 2024, Tweezr is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. Outsampler Outsampler helps asset managers better interact with their data and models. With its AI conversational agents that turn complex time-series and tabular data into natural language dialogue, Outsampler’s technology boosts research productivity by 40%, enabling portfolio managers to focus on high-value client engagement. Headquartered in Berkeley, California, the company was founded in 2025. mAI Edge mAI Edge transforms the challenges of external creative production into internal marketing infrastructure. The company’s BrandOS is a brand operating system for banks and financial services companies that enables them to create streamlined branded content at scale with consistency across every channel. mAI Edge was founded in 2025. Skill Studio AI Skill Studio AI offers AI-driven training that accelerates compliance readiness from weeks to minutes, reduces trading costs by 95%, and scales internationally with support for 180 languages. The company’s technology transforms training documents into engaging, AI-powered learning experiences that boost learner engagement and help keep workforce skills up to date. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Skill Studio AI was founded in 2025. Why Banks Should Care For banks and financial institutions that are still on the path toward modernization and digital transformation, the rise of technologies such as AI offers a major opportunity to streamline operations, reduce costs, and offer a much wider range of products and services. Partnering with innovative companies that specialize in working with banks and financial services companies will enable FIs to integrate new technologies at their own pace and for the preferred use cases that matter most to themselves and their customers. At the same time, the solutions offered by these fintechs remind us that transformation is not just about legacy cores and systems. True modernization in financial services also involves using enabling technologies to make it easier for front- and back-office workforces, including developers and technical talent, to meet increasingly complex responsibilities. From ever-changing regulations to ever-evolving customer expectations, these fintechs are putting new technologies to work in support of people as well as processes. Photo by Pixabay The post Five Fintechs Delivering Core Modernization, AI Transformation, and Productivity appeared first on Finovate.       

ThetaRay has launched Ray, an Agentic AI investigation suite designed to help banks automate and standardize transaction monitoring investigations amid rising alert volumes and regulatory scrutiny. The platform targets growing regulatory demands from frameworks such as the EU’s AMLR and FinCEN’s AML/CFT directives by delivering faster, more consistent, and audit-ready investigations with traceable, explainable AI. Ray helps firms create compliance-critical workflows and scale AML operations without relying on manual processes or increasing headcount. Financial crime detection company ThetaRay has launched a new set of tools to help firms keep up with evolving regulations in the face of advanced fraud. Called Ray, the new Agentic AI investigation suite aims to help banks conduct transaction monitoring investigations. Ray is embedded into ThetaRay’s Investigation Center, an Agentic investigation suite designed for banks, fintechs, and payments platforms balancing high alert volumes with rising regulatory demands. Ray combines autonomous investigations with on-demand analyst support. The fintech anticipates Ray will ultimately help banks reduce the time it takes to resolve cases and create more consistency in investigations that span internal teams and jurisdictions. ThetaRay created Ray to autonomously handle the full investigation by validating the geolocation, analyzing patterns, and scanning adverse media to prepare a structured, audit-ready case-file document. The launch is strategic and comes at a time when regulators across the globe are raising their expectations for investigative quality and documentation. The EU’s new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) and AML Authority framework require stronger due diligence, more rigorous monitoring and record-keeping, and consistent compliance controls across jurisdictions. In the US, FinCEN’s AML and Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) directives require transparent, evidence-based investigations and Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) narratives. “This is an incredibly important moment for us and for the industry,” said ThetaRay CEO Brad Levy. “I couldn’t be more energized by the opportunity to tackle one of the biggest challenges in financial crime compliance. Our mission is simple: to help make global markets more modern and secure for all. The future will be shaped by people who care and by megatechs and specialized fintechs working closely together to raise the bar for transparency, accountability, and lasting trust.” However, as regulators require higher investigative quality, documentation, and more defensible decisions, alert volumes continue to rise and place a strain on investigation teams, requiring manual data gathering. “Financial institutions are moving beyond experimentation toward real, production-grade use of Agentic AI in compliance-critical environments,” said Microsoft Global Head of AI Strategy and GTM for Payments and Banking Tyler Pichach. “Platforms like Ray demonstrate how Agentic AI, when deployed on a secure and governed cloud like Microsoft Azure, can help banks modernize complex investigation workflows while meeting regulatory expectations for transparency, control, and trust.” With Ray, firms can prepare for this increased strain by using it to automate evidence collection, behavioral and counterparty analysis, open-source checks, and document review and narrative generation. Built and deployed on Microsoft Azure, Ray offers an on-demand AI assistant that supports questions from analysts and deeper exploration. “Manual investigations inevitably vary from analyst to analyst. Ray introduces a consistent reasoning framework across the entire operation, reducing subjectivity, and ensuring that each case, no matter who handles it, stands up to scrutiny,” said ThetaRay Regulatory Affairs Manager David Shapiro. “Most importantly, Ray was built so that every decision is traceable back to evidence. In a regulatory environment that demands transparency, AI explainability is the foundation.” As regulators require more defensible, consistent, and transparent investigations, financial institutions are under pressure to modernize workflows that rely on manual analysis and fragmented tools. By embedding Agentic AI directly into the investigation process, ThetaRay is positioning Ray amid the next generation of AML operations in which regulators require speed, consistency, and explainability. Founded in 2013, ThetaRay offers transaction monitoring, transaction and customer screening, and customer risk assessment suites to help firms fight financial crime. The Israel-based company helps its 100+ institutional clients leverage AI to monitor 15 billion transactions valued at $20 trillion on an annual basis. Photo by cottonbro studio The post ThetaRay Launches Ray, An Agentic AI Investigation Suite  appeared first on Finovate.       

India-based fintech Intellect Design Arena introduced its AI-first payments platform, Intellect Payments, this week. The announcement is part of the firm’s continued expansion into the US. The new offering will help banks and financial institutions take advantage of a US real-time payments market that analysts expect to be worth $2 billion by 2030. Intellect Design Arena made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025. The company was founded in 1993 and serves more than 500 customers in 60+ countries. Intellect Design Arena has launched its AI-first payments platform, Intellect Payments. Part of the Indian company’s US market expansion, the new offering integrates with existing core systems, channels, and operations to allow for incremental modernization rather than large-scale replacement. The technology relies on a low-code/no-code composable framework, making it easy to quickly deploy new payment rails as institutions scale. Intellect Design Arena’s Purple Fabric AI intelligently validates and enriches payments before they enter the flow, using real-time anomaly detection and exception prediction as transactions route, execute, and settle via a centralized control plane. “Banks face a binary choice: lead the payment transformation or risk becoming outpaced by competitors,” Intellect Design Arena’s Manish Maakan said. Maakan is Executive President & Group Chief Revenue Officer and CEO of Wholesale Banking. “As real-time payments scale, incremental upgrades are no longer sufficient. Banks need AI-first payment platforms designed specifically for the realities of regulated banking—platforms that combine speed, resilience, and operational intelligence without adding complexity. American banks need partners who understand their infrastructure, their competitive pressures, and their growth ambitions. That is exactly what we are focused on delivering in the US market.” Intellect Payments is built on eMACH.ai principles—eMACH.ai is the company’s comprehensive, composable, and contextual open finance platform, launched in 2023—and purpose-built Pay9 architecture. The platform’s AI models work at pre- and in-flight decision points to support anomaly detection, exception prediction, and operational decisioning. The new solution delivers a single orchestration layer across major US payment networks, including TCH RTP, FedNow, ACH, Fedwire, and SWIFT. Intellect Design Arena’s offering comes at a time when banks and other financial institutions are pursuing opportunities arising from the growth of instant payments. Analysts estimate that real-time payments in the US could reach $2 billion by 2030, with an annual growth rate of 40%. And while a sizable number of businesses have indicated an interest in instant payments—with a growing minority of them willing to switch banks to secure this functionality—many banks, nearly two-thirds of them according to analysts, have yet to join instant payment networks. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Chennai, India, Intellect Design Arena made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025. At the conference, the company demonstrated its no-code platform that empowers banks to quickly build and launch role-based digital journeys for corporate customers. Intellect Design Arena’s suite of solutions ranges from wholesale and consumer banking, treasury, capital markets, and insurance to help banks and other financial institutions modernize their operations, lower costs, and remain competitive. With 500+ customers in more than 60 countries, Intellect Design Arena counts six out of the top 10 North American banks, five out of the top 15 Middle Eastern banks, seven out of the top 10 Southeast Asia and ANZ banks, nine of the top 10 European banks, and 13 out of the top 15 Indian banks among its clients. Intellect Design Arena’s new product and US expansion announcement comes just days after the company announced a multi-year partnership with Canada-based, independent mutual fund dealer and national MGA Carte Financial Group. The partnership will integrate Intellect Design Arena’s Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) platform—powered by Purple Fabric—into Carte’s regulatory, onboarding, and governance workflows. This will enhance speed, transparency, and accuracy. “Securing this flagship partnership with Carte Financial Group is a defining win for Intellect as we expand our footprint across North America, specifically into Canada,” said Banesh Prabhu, CEO of IntellectAI; Insurance, Wealth & Capital Markets, a division of Intellect Design Arena. “This milestone reflects our strong alignment with Carte’s vision of transforming compliance into a strategic advantage and showcases the confidence they have placed in our technology and approach.” Photo by General Kenobi The post Intellect Design Arena Unveils AI-First Payments Platform Amid Expansion to the US appeared first on Finovate.       

Fiserv and Affirm are bringing BNPL to debit cards, enabling banks and credit unions to offer pay-over-time capabilities through existing debit programs without building new lending infrastructure. Offering BNPL with bank-issued debit cards shifts installment lending from the merchant checkout to bank-owned channels, allowing financial institutions to retain customer relationships, data, and engagement within their own apps and card programs. The model positions banks as the primary gateway for flexible payments, placing BNPL distribution within core payments infrastructure. Core banking platform and payments player Fiserv is bringing buy now, pay later (BNPL) capabilities to its debit cards. The Wisconsin-based company is collaborating with Affirm to bring pay-over-time capabilities to its debit card programs, empowering Fiserv clients, including community banks and credit unions, to offer their end customers flexible payment options without having to build new lending products. According to Fiserv, the move is designed to help smaller financial institutions compete more effectively while keeping customer relationships anchored to their own debit products. “Community and regional banks and credit unions want to meet evolving consumer expectations around greater flexibility in how they pay for purchases all the while building a strong relationship with their primary financial institution,” said Fiserv Head of Card Services Erik Wichita. “This partnership gives our clients a practical, scalable way to offer such payment flexibility through their existing debit products—helping them compete effectively, deepen customer and member relationships, and drive top-of-wallet engagement with their products.” Today’s announcement comes four years after Affirm and Fiserv first teamed up, integrating Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout to Fiserv’s Carat global commerce hub. The move allowed merchants using Carat to offer BNPL to their shoppers. Adding pay-over-time capabilities to debit cards instead of just offering the option at the point-of-sale moves the payment from a merchant-led experience to a bank-centric one. Instead of being offered only at checkout with participating retailers, debit-based BNPL allows shoppers to access installment payments across a wider range of purchases and merchants, using their preferred payment card. For banks and credit unions, this model retains the customer relationship, data, and engagement within their own debit programs and mobile apps. Affirm, for its part, sees the partnership as a way to bring pay-over-time options directly into the primary banking relationship, rather than positioning BNPL as a standalone checkout experience. “Millions of consumers depend on their local financial institutions, including for their top-of-wallet debit cards,” said Affirm CRO Wayne Pommen. “By partnering with Fiserv, we’re helping these institutions offer transparent pay-over-time options so customers can get the flexibility they need from the banks and credit unions they already depend on, rather than having to look elsewhere. We’re excited to enable this co-branded offering for Fiserv’s partners, allowing them to natively offer Affirm’s flexible payments through their existing debit cards.” Fiserv and Affirm are aiming to make an easy transition for banks by managing all of the technical aspects, including real-time underwriting, loan origination, and funding. As a further benefit, consumers can use Affirm anywhere their debit cards are accepted. Additionally, Affirm’s 420,000 merchant partners give cardholders access to custom financing offers. The companies are enabling banks and credit unions to participate in BNPL economics without giving up customer ownership to third-party point-of-sale providers. This could reshape how flexible payments are delivered and position banks as the primary gateway for installment lending. Fiserv has been involved in the payments space since it was founded in 1984. The company serves merchants, banks, and fintechs with payments tools, customer analytics, and fraud prevention technology. Fiserv is publicly listed on the NYSE under the ticker FI and has a market capitalization of $35.39 billion. Photo by Marek Piwnicki The post Fiserv Brings BNPL Capabilities to Debit Cards with Affirm appeared first on Finovate.       

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 10. Register today using this link and save 20%. Elephant Elephant by Pipl delivers identity intelligence and fraud signals to help businesses verify users, detect risk, and make confident decisions across onboarding, payments, and compliance. Features Identity resolution (fully GDPR compliant) Actionable fraud and trust signals Faster, more accurate onboarding decisions Who’s it for? Banks, fintech lenders, payment providers, marketplaces, and digital platforms. Opentech Opentech’s OpenPay for Merchants (O4M) brings Buy Now, Pay Later into merchant-owned journeys, turning checkout into a new distribution channel for bank consumer credit. Features Offers merchant touchpoints as a consumer credit distribution channel Delivers a pre-qualified customer base for consumer credit offers Provides access to detailed spending data Who’s it for? Banks and institutions offering consumer credit. Card issuers willing to offer payments products embedded into digital assets of merchants. Sea.dev Sea.dev automates business underwriting workflows, eliminating copy-paste and document collection so that credit analysts can focus on higher-value analysis, faster decisions, and growth. Features Embeds underwriting-grade AI capabilities straight into existing workflows Enables expert teams with human-in-the-loop control Offers full auditability Who’s it for? Business lenders and loan origination systems. The post FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 4 appeared first on Finovate.      Related StoriesFinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 3FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 2FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 1 

What trends are driving fintech innovation in the UK and Europe as 2026 begins? With FinovateEurope 2026 kicking off in just two weeks, we are showcasing some of the major themes in banking and financial services that will be addressed—on the demo stage as well as through our keynote addresses, fireside chats, and panel discussions—when the conference begins on Tuesday, 10 February. From agentic AI to post-quantum cryptography, the enabling technologies of today are transforming banking and financial services. Making the most of these innovations to better serve customers, create new revenue streams, and successfully compete in an ever-more complex marketplace is the goal of every banker and financial services professional. Come see the solutions for yourself this year at FinovateEurope 2026. Innovations in Verification, Fraud Prevention, and Workflow Automation From the demo stage, expect to see a range of innovations in identity verification and fraud prevention. With the proliferation of technologies ranging from faster payments to agentic AI to digital assets, ensuring that consumers and businesses are able to engage in these services safely has become increasingly important. Additionally, with technologies like AI empowering a new generation of fraudsters and financial criminals, a wide range of innovators are developing solutions that target specific vulnerabilities and attack vectors with continuous surveillance and defense. Also among the top trends reflected in the demoing companies at this year’s FinovateEurope are innovations in embedded finance and open finance. As paths toward unlocking new revenue streams and deepening customer engagement, both embedded finance and open finance offer financial institutions unique opportunities and are increasingly supported by regulatory guidance in both the UK and across Europe. Another area where we will see a great deal of innovation this year at FinovateEurope is in workflow automation and system modernization. A number of companies will be demoing solutions that do everything from enhancing developer productivity to accelerating compliance readiness to managing complex models and calculations for banks and other financial institutions. The sheer variety of startups in this space—many of them hailing from Eastern and Central European nations—is a testament to the range of challenges that fintech is capable of solving. It also speaks well of the number of technologists from outside of fintech that are turning their talents toward problems in banking and financial services. Modernization and Transformation in the Age of AI Many of the same themes from the live demos will also be manifest on the plenary stage. With regard to modernization, for example, FinovateEurope will examine the ways that fintech, AI, and the cloud could help transform legacy banking. The conference will also look at the challenge of modernizing legacy authentication, specifically by moving to technologies like post-quantum cryptography (PQC) that are designed to secure systems against threats from quantum computers. To the problem of fraud and financial crime, speakers will discuss the use of network APIs to fight scams and how banks and fintechs can work together to meet the unique cybersecurity challenges of the AI age. Accomplishing all of this while avoiding additional friction for the user is a top theme and chief concern for banks and financial services companies alike. Other key themes such as personalization, open banking, and open finance will also be topics of discussion at this year’s conference. Both in the context of wealth management and retail banking, open data promises not only more engaging, personalized experiences for customers, but also provides financial institutions with better, more data-driven decision-making; more efficient operations; and better risk management. Unsurprisingly, AI continues to be a main theme in any conversation on technology, banking, and financial services. FinovateEurope’s keynotes and special addresses will investigate issues such as how generative AI is shaping the future of mobile banking as well as the rise of agentic AI and the challenge of “nonhuman customers” such as AI-powered bots and agents. Other presentations will discuss the EU’s AI Act and its implications for banks and financial services providers, as well as “lessons learned” from tech giants like Google, Meta, and Microsoft and their AI innovation journeys. It is fair to say that innovations in AI continue to drive what’s possible in fintech, and the number of mainstage special addresses at FinovateEurope covering different use cases and applications of AI reflect this fact. Indeed, for another year, FinovateEurope is featuring an industry stage dedicated specifically to applications of AI for banking and financial services. But while AI is a clearly major force in technological innovation, it is just one of a number of technologies—along with open finance/banking/data, embedded finance, and DeFi—that continues to transform fintech. FinovateEurope 2026 comes to London’s Intercontinental O2, 10 February through 11 February. Tickets to the conference are on sale now. Register today to save your spot at the first big fintech event of the year! Photo by Samuel Sweet The post FinovateEurope 2026: Innovation, Regulation, and Transformation in the AI Era appeared first on Finovate.      Related StoriesFinovateEurope 2026: Meet the Keynotes!FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 3FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 2 

Kast has launched Kast Earn, a yield-bearing cash management feature that uses Gauntlet’s institutional-grade DeFi vaults to generate variable APY (currently 4%–9%) on user deposits. User funds are deployed via onchain lending strategies and actively managed using quantitative risk models, with earnings accruing continuously and remaining liquid through Kast’s spending account. The move positions Kast in direct competition with banks and money market funds. Stablecoin-based challenger bank Kast is making its stablecoin banking platform more enticing this week. The company is launching Kast Earn, a tool that allows accountholders to earn yield on funds in their account. Powered by Gauntlet, Kast Earn will employ users’ deposits for onchain lending, allowing users to earn yield on fiat funds in their account. Founded in 2018, Gauntlet offers an automated risk platform with institutional-grade vaults that enable decentralized finance to provide risk-adjusted yields at scale. Kast said it partnered with Gauntlet because of its experience building quantitative decentralized finance strategies. When a user deposits US dollars, their funds go into the Gauntlet USD Alpha vault, which is designed to generate sustainable yield by prioritizing long-term, risk-adjusted returns and proactively adapting as markets change. This vault has $73.8 million in total value locked, or TVL (roughly equivalent to assets under management). Once a user deposits funds, their capital is distributed across a diversified set of established digital lending markets and actively managed using quantitative risk and performance models developed by Gauntlet. The yield compounds continuously through Vault Share tokens, and the users’ earnings are reflected in the rising value of their shares. Accountholders can cash in on their shares at any time by transferring funds back to their KAST spending account. While the rate of return is variable, the vault currently offers a variable APY between 4% and 9%. Founded in 2024, Kast bridges traditional finance and decentralized finance by offering a digital money app where users can deposit cash, USDC/T, and crypto. It also allows users to spend their crypto like cash with its Solana payment cards that are accepted at more than 150 million merchants and ATMs and in over 160 countries. In 2025, Kast evolved from a simple solution to spend stablecoins into a full-fledged global money app. Last year alone, the company launched MOVE cashback, KAST Convert, USD virtual accounts, global bank transfers, and KAST Tags to add more bank-like functionality. By offering yield-bearing cash management, Kast is placing itself in competition with banks and money market funds. By embedding onchain lending and quantitative risk management directly into a consumer-facing banking app, Kast is testing whether DeFi-based yield products can be delivered with the simplicity, liquidity, and trust. If users are able to trust Kast’s offerings as much as those from their traditional financial institutions, offerings like Kast Earn could change how both challenger banks and incumbents think about generating returns on customer balances in a stablecoin-driven financial system. The post Stablecoin Rails Company Kast Pays Stablecoin Yield with Gauntlet’s Vault appeared first on Finovate.       

The final week of the first month of the year has arrived. Partnerships in payments, embedded finance, and DeFi are among the top headlines in fintech as the week begins. And with FinovateEurope only two weeks away, we’ve got our eye on interesting developments like JPMorgan Chase’s acquisition of UK-based WealthOS. Be sure to check Finovate’s Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest updates! Payments Global payments infrastructure platform Mercuryo teams up with Visa to provide crypto-to-fiat off-ramping via Visa’s real-time payments platform, Visa Direct. European payment service provider and acquirer Finby partners with the European Payments Initiative (EPI) to support the pan-European digital wallet, Wero. Embedded finance Embedded finance platform Treasury Prime inks partnerships with i3i Bank and Coastal. DeFi Core banking vendor DXC Technology partners with Ripple to embed digital asset custody and RLUSD stablecoin into its core. KAST, a financial platform built on stablecoin rails, unveils its stablecoin yield product, KAST Pay. Digital banking Barclays and FactSet announce multiyear strategic agreement. Wealth management JPMorgan Chse acquires UK-based pensions and wealth technology platform WealthOS. Wealth creation platform Vennre secures $9.6 million in pre-Series A funding. Wealth management platform Pave Finance integrates with Fidelity. Credit, data, and analytics ClearScore joins the mortgage industry with its acquisition of Acre Platforms. Photo by Khwanchai Phanthong The post Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News appeared first on Finovate.       

PayPal has acquired Cymbio to accelerate its push into agentic commerce, adding marketplace and drop-ship automation capabilities that help merchants sell across AI-driven channels like Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity. The deal builds on an existing partnership between the two players, which first teamed up in October 2025. The acquisition reinforces PayPal’s broader ambitions in agentic commerce. PayPal just acquired drop-ship and marketplace automation platform Cymbio for an undisclosed amount. The move fits with PayPal’s push into agentic commerce, as Cymbio’s payment orchestration platform helps brands sell across agentic channels, including Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close later this year, were undisclosed. PayPal’s acquisition comes three months after PayPal first partnered with Cymbio to launch agentic commerce services, a suite of solutions to help merchants attract customers in an AI-powered commerce environment. “PayPal has established itself as a leading commerce partner for merchants looking to sell within top AI platforms,” said PayPal Executive Vice President and General Manager of Small Business and Financial Services Michelle Gill. “Acquiring Cymbio’s technology and team will enhance our agentic commerce capabilities and accelerate the expansion to more of our merchants. By making their product catalogs discoverable on AI surfaces, merchants can increase sales while expanding product choice to the millions of consumers shopping on AI platforms today.” Cymbio was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv. The company’s marketplace and social commerce automation platform facilitates collaboration between brands and retailers by automating processes such as product listing, inventory management, pricing, order fulfillment, and returns. Cymbio connects to 800 brands’ and retailers’ internal systems to enable strong collaborations that can be scaled quickly. The company has raised $35 million from investors including PayPal Ventures, and counts Balmain, Reebok, Abercrombie & Fitch, New Balance, Steve Madden, and Fabletics among its customers. Once the deal is finalized, PayPal will use Cymbio to power Store Sync, one of PayPal’s agentic commerce services that allows merchants’ product data to be discoverable within AI channels. Store Sync drops orders to merchants’ existing fulfillment and management systems. The system allows the merchant to remain the merchant of record and retain customer relationships and control over their brand. As a pioneer in fintech, PayPal is seeking to be an early mover in agentic commerce as well. In late 2025, the company rolled out agentic commerce services to help merchants connect product catalogs and checkout experiences to AI platforms like Perplexity. PayPal has also collaborated with AI ecosystem partners such as OpenAI to support instant checkout via the Agentic Commerce Protocol. It is clear that the company is seeking a top spot in the agentic commerce battlefield. Photo by Julio Lopez The post PayPal Acquires Cymbio for Agentic Commerce Capabilities appeared first on Finovate.