Airwallex has partnered with Affirm to enable merchants in 35 countries to offer BNPL options to eligible US customers at checkout. Airwallex merchants can add Affirm without an additional integration, giving shoppers access to interest-free and longer-term installment payment options. The partnership expands Affirm’s distribution while helping Airwallex merchants offer more competitive checkout experiences and potentially boost conversion and transaction sizes. Global payments platform Airwallex has teamed up with flexible payments company Affirm to allow merchants in 35 countries to provide flexible payment options at checkout to their eligible US customers. Without additional integration, merchants can bring Affirm’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) capabilities, allowing shoppers to choose a payment schedule that works best for their cashflow at the point of sale. Among Affirm’s flexible financing options are four interest-free installments or monthly installments of up to 24 months. Affirm will not charge late fees and shows shoppers what they will pay upfront. In addition to bringing flexibility to end customers, Affirm’s tools also bring benefits to merchants. The relaxed payment terms often support higher conversion and larger transactions. Merchants on Airwallex can offer Affirm payments seamlessly. Airwallex now supports more than 160 payment methods across the world. “Merchants choose Airwallex to maximize local payment options for shoppers around the world, otherwise, they’re leaving conversion on the table,” said Airwallex VP of Financial and Strategic Partnerships Jason Gottlieb. “We’re thrilled to partner with Affirm and provide its familiar and transparent payment options to help our international merchants drive more US sales.” Adding Affirm helps merchants compete with other point-of-sale checkout experiences by bringing more payment options into the checkout flow. And because accessing Affirm through Airwallex doesn’t require an additional integration, it reduces the complexity for merchants looking to modernize their payments experience. For Affirm, the partnership offers another avenue for distribution. Partnerships with platforms like Airwallex allow the BNPL provider to reach large groups of merchants through technology they already use, rather than establishing a standalone relationship with each merchant. Affirm has pursued a similar strategy through partnerships with payment providers including Worldpay and Fiserv, expanding the number of places consumers can encounter its financing options. Founded in 2015, Airwallex holds 85+ regulatory licenses and permits across 50 markets that enable customers to operate in 200+ countries and regions and support multi-currency checkout at scale. The Singapore-based company helps more than 676,000 businesses worldwide manage their financial operations and build and monetize their own financial products. Photo by Kindel Media The post Airwallex Taps Affirm for BNPL appeared first on Finovate.       

FinovateFall is just three weeks away! This year’s event features three industry stages: AI and Innovation, The Future of Money, and Customer Experience and Trust. Each stage is designed to offer banking and fintech leaders insight into 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. AI and Innovation Artificial intelligence has moved beyond experimentation. The conversations at FinovateFall will focus on what comes next, such as transitioning from AI copilots to semi-autonomous agents, measuring the ROI of AI projects, and examining where investments are still falling short. Sessions will explore enterprise-scale AI development, practical approaches to modernizing legacy technology, the rise of agentic commerce, and the front-office opportunities that promise the greatest competitive advantage. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of where AI is creating real business value today and where the next wave of innovation is headed. The Future of Money Stablecoins, AI agents, and data-driven lending are reshaping how money moves and how financial decisions are made. This stage explores the technologies and strategies that will define the next generation of financial services, from the growing role of stablecoins in banking and payments to AI-powered financial decision-making and precision lending. Industry leaders will also examine how payment strategies are evolving amid increasing competitive and regulatory pressure. Attendees will walk away with practical insight into where financial institutions should focus their investments as the infrastructure of money continues to change. Customer Experience and Trust Delivering exceptional customer experiences increasingly depends on earning and maintaining trust. Sessions in this stagea will explore how financial institutions can use personalization and AI to create more relevant customer journeys while strengthening security, reducing fraud, and building lasting customer confidence. The discussions on this industry stage will examine experience transformation, digital identity, financial crime prevention, and how banks can turn trust into a competitive advantage while maintaining growth. Together, these three industry stages on Friday, September 11 will offer a concentrated look at the moves that will define banking’s next chapter. If you register for FinovateFall before August 21, you can still save up to $400. The post FinovateFall 2026 Beyond the Demos: Check Out the Industry Stage Highlights appeared first on Finovate.      Related StoriesFinovateFall 2026: My Top Five Agenda PicksFinovateFall 2026 Agenda Revealed!FinovateFall 2025: AI, Fraud Prevention, and the Art of What’s Possible 

Most folks in banking and financial services do not enjoy talking about fraud and financial crime. This is not surprising. When it comes to fraud, there is rarely “good news.” Instead, it’s usually a matter of “no news” vs “bad news,” In this world, many can’t help but feel as if the “good news” is that the “bad news” hasn’t happened—yet. While keynotes and industry stages dedicated to fraud and financial crime will be limited at FinovateFall 2026 next month, the world looks quite different from the demo stage, where a dozen companies will be showcasing their latest innovations to help banks, credit unions, and other organizations monitor their processes in real time, detect fraud before it causes emotional or financial damage, and provide procedures and strategies to help avoid similar attacks in the future. In other words, just because we don’t always hear C-suite executives from banks and financial services companies talking about fraud, do not for a moment believe that fraud and financial crime are anything but top of mind. Today, in our latest FinovateFall 2026 preview post, we’re introducing you to these 12 fintech innovators that will be demonstrating their fraud prevention solutions live on stage on September 9 and 10. Coynitt Coynitt is a remittance and community savings platform built for Canada’s African diaspora that leverages the blockchain to settle international remittances in five seconds or less. Coynitt offers trustless, on-chain ROSCA savings circles with instant smart contract payouts. The platform features AI-routed payments, open-source smart contracts, and on-chain transparency to enable every contribution to be visible to every member. Darwinium Darwinium is an AI-powered fraud prevention platform that combines continuous monitoring with real-time decisioning to enable fraud teams to identify and respond to fraud attacks ranging from account takeover and API abuse to scams and mule activity. The company’s technology has delivered a 50% reduction in fraud and a 40% reduction in operational costs. Distinguishing trusted behavior from risky behavior—in both humans and AI agents—Darwinium provides fraud defense from the first interaction through high-risk actions and payments. Illuma A leader in voice security solutions for banks and other financial institutions, Illuma offers a voice authentication and fraud prevention solution, IllumaSHIELD, that replaces knowledge-based authentication practices with a seamless and secure, real-time voice authentication solution that enhances the caller experience, improves operational efficiency, and prevents fraud in contact centers. Kita Technologies Kita offers an AI-powered lending operations and credit assessment platform that transforms borrower documents into fraud-checked underwriting signals. Kita enables lenders to transition from scattered borrower documents and manual workflows to consistent, decision-ready credit analysis that keeps final decision-making in human hands. The platform’s trio of AI agents—Kita Capture, AI Credit Officer, and AI Underwriter—provides end-to-end underwriting for every kind of lending, from microfinance to SME lending and commercial loans. Loquat Loquat provides seamless KYC, KYB, fast onboarding, virtual cards, automated lending, back-office lifecycle management, and CALM Portal for credit unions and community banks. The firm’s Loquat IQ leverages an institution’s data to deliver contextual insights that drive strategic and operational success. McCarthy Hatch McCarthy Hatch is a regtech firm that helps financial institutions identify regulatory risks. The company’s FSAi is an AI-powered analytics platform that detects systemic consumer harm patterns in financial services by analyzing customer complaints. FSAi delivers real-time monitoring of risk exposure and enables strategic, proactive measures to significantly reduce compliance spending. Omnisient Omnisient offers a privacy-preserving data collaboration platform that enables financial services companies to access consumer behavior data directly from retailers and consumer brands. The company’s solution leverages secure collaboration and AI-driven analytics to empower businesses to build predictive models and data products to help them find and better serve future customers across industries. Radar Radar, a location infrastructure and intelligence software development firm, offers solutions to help organizations fight fraud, optimize operations, and engage customers at scale. Radar’s platform consists of three solutions: Protect, to stop fraud and verify user location; Optimize, which tracks pickups, deliveries, and field operations with real-time visibility; and Engage, which helps firms reach the right user at the right moment wherever they are. RangersAI RangersAI leverages real-time guidance, in-context education, and trusted digital interactions to help consumers avoid scams. The company’s ScamRanger solution is a customer-facing scam education platform that provides alerts and guidance for suspicious messages, helping stop scams before the emotional manipulation—and financial damage—begins. Saris AI Saris AI builds and launches AI agents to automate back-office workflows for credit unions and banks. The company’s technology automates 90% of lending, compliance, and operations tasks, and enables banks and credit unions to scale without adding headcount. Saris AI’s solution can be integrated directly into existing cores and LOS platforms, and requires no change management. Veritus An AI communications platform for financial services, Veritus deploys voice and text agents that manage loan servicing and collections at scale. The company’s technology drives application conversions, re-engaging abandoned applications via intelligent outbound calls, SMS, and chat, and boosts collections with proactive outreach to borrowers in early arrears with empathetic, compliant, contextual conversations. Winnow Winnow is a regtech platform that provides regulatory compliance solutions for legal and financial services firms. The company integrates modern AI technologies with practical compliance tools to offer prompt-driven compliance survey creation, intelligent chat-based legal research, and on-demand reference chart and compliance checklist generation. Why Banks Should Care Bank executives do not need to be reminded—much less informed—about the challenges of fraud and the costs of financial crime. In survey after survey, fraud, especially AI-powered fraud, is among the most frequently cited concerns by not only those who run and manage financial institutions, but also their customers and members. And it’s worth noting that the challenges to effective fraud fighting are not exclusively technical; as more than one financial crime expert has said, the human being, not the technology, is often the weakest link in the chain of defense. That said, there are many challenges facing bank and credit union executives when it comes to enhancing their financial crime prevention efforts: from data management and legacy technology issues to budgetary constraints and limited availability of technical talent and expertise. And these are the problems that fintechs such as the ones showcased here—and coming to the FinovateFall 2026 demo stage in September—have dedicated themselves to solving for banks, credit unions, their customers, and their members. Photo by Sasun Bughdaryan on Unsplash The post 12 Fintechs Innovating in Fraud, Risk, Compliance, and Trust Infrastructure appeared first on Finovate.       

AI-powered operating system for wealth management Zeplyn announced a new integration with Schwab Advisor Center to automate account opening and meeting preparation workflows. The integration follows the company’s launch of a new platform capability, Advisor Coaching, that gives wealth management advisors actionable feedback on their client interactions. Headquartered in New York and founded in 2023, Zeplyn made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025. Zeplyn, an AI operating system for wealth management, announced a new integration with Schwab Advisor Center that expands the reach of Zeplyn Agent Nexus into two key workflows for wealth managers: account opening and meeting preparation. The integration enables advisors to open Schwab Advisor Services accounts in seconds, leveraging AI agents to automatically complete Schwab’s digital account-opening workflows while incorporating live Schwab holdings and transactions into Zeplyn’s AI-powered client briefs. “Schwab Advisor Center is one of the most important platforms in wealth management, and we’re excited to bring the power of Zeplyn Agent Nexus into that ecosystem,” Zeplyn Co-founder and CEO Era Jain said. “This integration is a step toward a new way of working. By combining Schwab data with the intelligence firms already have, we’re enabling AI to complete work that has traditionally remained manual, giving advisors more time to focus on their clients.” In a statement, Zeplyn noted that account opening and meeting preparation are two of the most time-consuming workflows in wealth management. Advisors are often required to source meeting notes, CRM records, documents, planning software, and custodian platforms to gather the information they need before they can act. In contrast, Zeplyn’s new integration eliminates many of these manual steps. Advisors can direct Zeplyn’s agents to open a Schwab account, gather client data across meetings, emails, CRM records, and documents, initiate the digital account open workflow, automatically complete all relevant data fields, and deliver a finished draft for human review and submission. Early pilots of the integration revealed that Not-In-Good-Order (NIGO) submissions were reduced by approximately 80%. The integration also boosts Zeplyn’s AI-powered meeting preparation capabilities by incorporating live Schwab holdings and transactions into already-assembled client intelligence. This means that advisors can secure a complete, up-to-date view of every client’s holdings without having to collect the data manually across multiple systems and platforms. Here, early pilots revealed that advisors saved more than 12 hours a week with AI-powered meeting prep. Zeplyn’s integration with Schwab comes less than a month after the company announced the launch of its Advisor Coaching capability. Advisor Coaching automatically evaluates, scores, and delivers actionable feedback on every client and prospect meeting an advisor has. The goal of the solution is to help wealth management teams deliver a consistent, quality experience for every client. The technology rates each client meeting against the company’s success criteria and provides contextual advice and suggestions to help advisors better serve their clients. As part of the Advisor Coaching capability, firm managers can use Ask Zeplyn to access company-wide performance reports to identify patterns that might be otherwise difficult or time-consuming to find. “Wealth management firms have always known that consistent advisor performance drives client trust and retention, but they’ve never had a scalable way to measure it,” Jain said. “Advisor Coaching gives firm leaders the same level of visibility into client conversations that top sales organizations have had into their pipelines for years: objective, firm-wide, and available on demand. For an enterprise with hundreds of advisors, that’s the difference between hoping standards are being met and knowing they are.” Founded in 2023 and headquartered in New York, Zeplyn made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Zeplyn Meeting Assistant: a compliant and secure agentic AI technology that captures client interactions via video, in-person, and telephone, accurately converting them into structured data in real time. Zeplyn Meeting Assistant also automates data entry into CRMs and powers other operations such as auto-drafting personalized emails, summarizing data into client recaps, and surfacing client and advisory trends and insights. Photo by Yan Krukau from Pexels The post Zeplyn Launches Agentic Account-Opening Workflow in Partnership with Schwab appeared first on Finovate.       

Earned wage access platform provider Veep Software announced that AltaOne Federal Credit Union has launched its AnyTimePay offering. AnyTimePay provides employees with access to earned wages before their scheduled payday. The product launch comes at the same time that AltaOne Federal Credit Union announced a strategic investment in the Florida-based fintech. Veep Software was founded in 2019. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025 in New York. Veep Software announced that AltaOne Federal Credit Union has gone live with Veep’s AnyTimePay offering, an earned wage access solution that gives members access to their earned wages before their scheduled payday. AltaOne FCU’s launch of AnyTimePay comes at the same time that the California-based financial institution announced a strategic investment in Veep. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. Veep’s AnyTimePay platform is the company’s composable infrastructure layer for AI-driven, risk-aligned pay access. Built to support institutional deployment, governance, and scale, AnyTimePay combines structured controls, monitoring, and configurable deployment options to enable credit unions and other institutions to deliver modern earned wage access securely and responsibly. AnyTimePay uses AI to analyze member behavior and assess risk to help prevent over-advancement while encouraging responsible use of the service. AnyTimePay helps members enhance their financial security, improve money management, increase engagement with their credit union, and reduce the temptation to resort to high-cost, payday lending alternatives. “AltaOne is exactly the kind of forward-thinking financial institution we built AnyTimePay for,” Veep CEO Drew Hyatt said. “They understand that the future of financial wellness is not just about offering more products. It is about showing up at the right moment, when members need access to liquidity and support. Their commitment to improving member financial well-being, combined with their decision to invest in Veep, is a powerful endorsement of both our technology and our mission.” Veep notes that earned wage access is only a starting point for users of the platform. The platform architecture supports the integration of additional financial capabilities through its modular infrastructure, shared governance and policy frameworks, and reusable AI-driven decisioning. “At AltaOne, we are always looking for innovative ways to strengthen the financial well-being of our members,” AltaOne CEO Stephanie Sievers said. “Too often, financial stress is not about whether someone is responsible; it is about whether the timing of their income matches the timing of their obligations. A bill may be due today, while a paycheck arrives several days later. AnyTimePay helps members bridge that gap responsibly by giving them access to wages they have already earned. We believe this solution can reduce financial stress and help our members avoid costly alternatives.” AltaOne FCU is headquartered in Ridgecrest, California, a community located in the high desert of Southern California, directly adjacent to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. The financial institution was founded in 1947 as the NOTS Employees Federal Credit Union and today serves members in Kern, Inyo, Mono, and northern San Bernardino counties. AltaOne FCU has 58,000+ members and assets of more than $950 million. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, and founded in 2019, Veep Software made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2025 in New York. At the conference, the company showed how its AI-driven, risk and wellness scoring platform assesses customer financial health and risk and enables real-time access to earned wages. The technology can be embedded directly into digital banking platforms to help community banks and credit unions boost deposit growth and enhance financial wellness for their customers and members. Interested in companies developing innovative new solutions for credit unions and their members? Check out our latest look at the Credit Union Spotlight, coming to FinovateFall 2026 next month in New York! Photo by Blue Arauz from Pexels The post AltaOne FCU Launches Veep Software’s AnyTimePay Solution appeared first on Finovate.       

Micronotes has rebranded as Eligen after selling its Cross-Sell digital engagement business to embedded fintech provider Array. Eligen will focus on helping banks and credit unions use credit bureau data to identify qualified borrowers and deliver personalized, prescreened credit offers. The company aims to help banks grow loan portfolios by automating borrower targeting and using post-campaign analytics to improve future campaigns. Digital engagement solutions provider Micronotes is revamping for the new era of fintech this week. The Massachusetts-based company has relaunched as Eligen after selling off its Cross-Sell business to Array. The new brand will help lenders proactively identify consumers who already meet certain credit criteria and send them a firm offer of credit. In the long term, Eligen plans to bring in additional data and expand offer types. Unlike traditional marketing campaigns that target consumers based on broad characteristics, Eligen uses credit bureau data to identify consumers who meet a lender’s specific credit criteria. For example, the platform may identify a consumer who holds an auto loan with another lender at a higher interest rate than the bank or credit union can offer. Eligen can then calculate the potential savings and help the institution send the consumer a personalized, prescreened offer to refinance the loan. The approach allows financial institutions to target borrowers who are more likely to qualify for the products being offered, while automating much of the work involved in identifying prospects and executing campaigns. Eligen also provides post-campaign analytics that lenders can use to measure results and refine subsequent campaigns. “Community institutions are sitting on a structural advantage—trust, rates, and local presence—but losing on speed and targeting,” said Eligen CEO Joe Heller. “Focusing our efforts means our clients get a better acquisition engine that uses post-campaign analytics to improve over time. This allows them to compete regardless of institution size.” As part of the change, Eligen will no longer operate the Cross-Sell tool, a predictive digital engagement and marketing tool that allowed banks to conduct conversational “interviews” within online banking platforms to help financial institutions identify sales opportunities, measure customer satisfaction, and pitch relevant financial products. Cross-Sell has been sold to embedded fintech products provider Array. Eligen was originally founded as Micronotes in 2008 to help financial institutions use their data to better engage their customers, foster involvement, and ultimately build new revenue. Under the new brand, the company noted that much of the operation will continue as it did when the company operated as Micronotes. The company’s employees, client contracts, and Experian partnership will all remain unchanged. As Eligen, the company will double down on its focus on using credit bureau data to help banks automate campaigns using targeted offers and actionable post-campaign analytics to grow their loan portfolios. Photo by AI25.Studio Studio The post Micronotes Offloads Cross-Sell Business, Relaunches as Eligen appeared first on Finovate.       

At a time of unprecedented competition and growing demand for more responsive, more personalized services, how are credit unions evolving to not only keep the members they have engaged, but also to grow and build their membership ranks? What are the most innovative fintech companies in the industry doing to help credit unions keep pace with digital transformation efforts, take advantage of innovations such as embedded finance, and make the most of investments in AI and cybersecurity? FinovateFall 2026’s Credit Union Spotlight is an invite-only opportunity for credit union professionals and the fintech innovators who support them to network and discuss the challenges that credit unions are facing today. The spotlight will also showcase new solutions dedicated to helping credit unions meet those challenges: from growing memberships and deposits to launching new services powered by enabling technologies like AI. The Credit Union Spotlight begins with an exclusive networking breakfast and coffee with your peers and colleagues in the credit union industry to facilitate dedicated conversations and networking. Next, a specially curated selection of fintechs will provide brief introductions and join assigned tables to discuss their solutions. After each conversation and discussion, the companies will rotate to a new table to ensure that every attendee has the opportunity to engage with our fintech innovators. Credit unions and fintechs are encouraged to follow up afterwards or arrange to meet during later networking breaks during the conference. As Finovate VP and Informa Director of Fintech Strategy Greg Palmer noted on the importance of the Credit Union Spotlight: “A lot of fintech innovators are building solutions specifically with credit unions in mind; on the flip side, more and more CUs are looking to fintech companies to help them modernize and grow. The Credit Union Spotlight is a place for both sides to come together to share ideas, discuss new innovations, and talk candidly about where and how to deploy fintech to the greatest effect.” Space at the Credit Union Spotlight is limited and only employees of credit unions are eligible to attend. To be a part of this exclusive session, reach out to session coordinator Rianne.Thompson@informa.com to save your spot on the guest list. And if you’re a fintech building solutions for credit unions and their members, the Credit Union Spotlight could be a great opportunity to showcase your innovation directly to credit union executives. Reach out to us at sponsor@finovate.com to learn more. Interested in hearing more insights from credit union leaders? Check out our roster of credit union executives who will be speaking on our main and industry stages at FinovateFall 2026 next month. Wednesday, September 9 Sherry Wu, Chief Technology Officer, University of Michigan Credit Union, will share her insights on our Power Panel: Agentic AI Will Be Revolutionary—As AI Moves from Theory to Pilots, What Are the Opportunities? How FIs are Using AI to Make or Save Money. 5:15 pm—5:45 pm. Thursday, September 10 Ben Maxim, Chief Digital Strategy & Innovation Officer, MSU Federal Credit Union, will join our Expert Debate: Show Me the Money—Proven AI Use Cases That Delivered ROI in 12 Months. 10:45 am—11:20 am. Friday, September 11 Ning Duong, President and CEO, Financial Center First Credit Union, will share her insights as part of our Power Panel on our Customer Experience & Trust stage: Customer-Centric Banking & Experience Transformation—From Product Led to Life-Stage, Personalized, AI-Enabled Engagement. 11:25 am—11:55 am. Darius Wise, President and CEO, Red Rocks Credit Union, will join our Power Panel: Distribution Wars—Deposits, Embedded Finance & Platform Economics. How Can Banks and Credit Unions Acquire, Retain, and Monetize Customers in a Fragmented Ecosystem? 2:10 pm—2:40 pm. Ami Iceman Haueter, Chief Research and Digital Experience Officer, MSU Federal Credit Union, will be a part of our Power Panel: Bank—Fintech Partnerships: From Competition to Collaboration & Co-Creation. 2:55 pm—3:25 pm. The post Credit Union Spotlight Returns to FinovateFall 2026 appeared first on Finovate.       

Wealth management firm True Potential has partnered with financial data infrastructure firm Origo, joining the company’s Integration Hub. Joining the Integration Hub will put automated, daily investment and pension valuations directly into the existing workflows of financial advisers on True Potential’s platform. Headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK and founded in 2007, True Potential made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2014. UK-based wealth management company True Potential has teamed up with Origo, a financial data infrastructure company that specializes in wealth management and pension schemes. True Potential will join the firm’s Integration Hub, giving advisers the ability to access automated, data-rich, daily valuations from multiple providers directly in their current workflows. “For today’s advisers, choosing a back-office partner is about making a decision on where they want to be in five years and how to remove some of the obstacles that stand between them and their clients,” True Potential Adviser Services CEO Gregg Lang said. “Manual valuation requests are exactly that kind of obstacle—time-consuming, error-prone, and entirely avoidable. Our partnership with Origo, along with existing processes, will give advisers even more time to focus on what they do best—giving brilliant advice—and is the latest in a series of investments True Potential has made in the tools that allow advisers to run better businesses, serve more clients and grow with confidence.” The Origo Integration Hub is a popular option for financial services providers, platforms, and adviser technology ecosystems, providing a single connection that delivers automated valuation data directly into existing workflows. By standardizing and routing everything from account opening, trading instructions and transaction histories to pension and investment valuations and remuneration data, the Integration Hub removes administrative complexity by eliminating the need for multiple point-to-point integrations. Currently live and available to True Potential’s Directly Authorized advisers, the new service can be activated on an opt-in basis by advisers at no additional cost and requiring no new processes or procedures. “Advisers should not have to contend with fragmented, manual processes to access something as fundamental as valuation data,” Origo CEO Anthony Rafferty said. “We are delighted to welcome True Potential to the Origo Integration Hub, marking another important step forward as our network grows to more than 65 connected organizations across the industry.” Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, Origo helps financial services companies improve performance, become more efficient, and reduce integration costs while enhancing financial outcomes for customers. The company’s Integration Hub delivers faster connections between advisers’ software systems, platforms, and providers—which can then share data between different parties connected to the Hub. The result is improved and simplified integrations between organizations and trading partners, as well as an extended market reach that helps smaller firms compete with larger ones. Origo also offers transfer services and tracking, asset migration, and mortality screening. A Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateFall 2014, True Potential was founded in 2007. The company combines personal financial advice and leading technology to offer advisers a hybrid advice approach to helping people reach their financial goals. True Potential offers tax, savings, inheritance, and investment advice services as well as ISAs, pensions, and cash savings services. True Potential began the year with an announcement that its True Potential Investments division had appointed Amundi as a strategic investment solutions partner for its Growth-Aligned fund management team. The partnership will include the provision of bespoke index-level funds for True Potential’s Growth-Aligned fund, streamlining portfolio construction and enabling greater client transparency. “Delivering exceptional client outcomes is our number one focus, so we are always looking at how we can evolve and improve our investment strategy to deliver those outcomes,” True Potential Investments Chief Executive Officer Jeff Casson said. “This appointment is a strategic move that demonstrates our agile approach to investment management and will allow us to build on the top quartile investment performance we already deliver for our thousands of clients.” Photo by Kamil on Unsplash The post True Potential Joins Origo’s Integration Hub, Giving Advisers Greater Access to Valuation Data appeared first on Finovate.       

Between last week’s announcement that it now allows parents to send money to their kids on Google Wallet and today’s press release stating that it has added Venmo as a payment option on Google Play, it appears that Google is rethinking payments. Here’s a look at the top fintech news headlines for this week. We’ll continue to add more announcements as the week progresses. Fraud and security EDGE partners with Socure to help lenders catch AI-driven fraud earlier. Navan partners with DataVisor to strengthen real-time fraud protection. iDenfy adds BankID Norway to its identity verification platform for the Norwegian market. Credit cards and payments Bilt expands Bilt OS for hospitality to include tools for travel advisors. Lending and mortgages nCino releases Mortgage MCP to allow lenders to connect AI agents directly to the nCino mortgage suite. Photo by Christina Morillo The post Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News appeared first on Finovate.       

This week’s edition of Finovate Global highlights recent fintech announcements from the countries of the Caribbean. Belize Bank Inks Digital Modernization Partnership with Backbase The biggest bank in Belize is also among the first financial institution in the Caribbean to embrace a full retail and business digital banking stack in addition to AI-powered lending and onboarding. Belize Bank Limited announced this week that it has partnered with Backbase in a major, six-year partnership to implement the company’s AI-native banking OS. The financial institution, with more than $1 billion in total assets and the nation’s largest branch network, had sought a platform that would scale with its growing operations and provide consistently high-quality digital experiences across its customer base. Deploying Backbase’s AI-native Banking OS for both retail and business banking will enable Belize Bank to replace fragmented workflows with self-service, accelerated digital onboarding, and unified cash-flow visibility for business customers. Importantly, Backbase’s Banking OS sits above Belize Bank’s existing banking core, leveraging Backbase’s Connectivity Layer (Grand Central) to provide seamless integration with the bank’s existing systems. “Belize Bank is exactly the kind of institution Backbase was built for—a market leader that takes its responsibility to customers seriously and wants technology that matches that ambition,” Backbase CEO Jouk Pleiter said. “Embarking on this comprehensive modernization across retail, SME and digital lending is a true reflection of the strategic discipline of the team at Belize Bank. We are proud to partner with them to architect the financial backbone of Belize’s future economy.” Belize Bank Limited is both the country’s oldest and largest financial institution. The full-service commercial bank holds approximately 43% of the nation’s total banking assets and serves 100,000 retail and business banking clients. Headquartered in Belize City, Belize Bank was founded in 1987. “Our strategic partnership with Backbase represents a transformative step toward delivering a new era of banking—one that is seamless, intelligent, personalized, and built around the evolving needs of our customers,” Belize Bank Limited Executive Chairman Filippo Alario said. “By combining Backbase’s innovation with Belize Bank’s commitment to excellence and customer-first vision, we are laying the foundation for a future where digital banking goes beyond transactions—creating more meaningful connections, empowering our customers, and transforming the way Belizeans experience banking.” Four-time Finovate Best of Show winner Backbase was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Amsterdam. The company’s AI-native Banking OS transforms fragmented banking operations and workflows into a unified frontline in which customers, employees, and AI agents work as one across digital channels, front-office, and operations. More than 120 leading banks around the world use Backbase’s technology solutions across verticals ranging from retail, small business, commercial, and private banking to wealth management. Creditinfo Group Acquires EveryData Group to Boost Caribbean Presence UK-based Creditinfo Group has completed its acquisition of EveryData Group, a data, analytics, and software company operating in the Caribbean. The acquisition is the culmination of a long-term partnership between the two firms, and will enable Creditinfo Group to bring advanced technology and new data solutions to financial institutions and consumers throughout the region. The greater technology integration and shared infrastructure across Creditinfo Group’s global network will also benefit customers of both firms. “This acquisition reinforces our commitment to helping build stronger financial ecosystems around the world,” Satty Saha, Group CEO at Creditinfo Group, said. “EveryData has built an impressive business with a strong reputation across the Caribbean, and together we are well positioned to bring greater innovation and value to customers throughout the region. By combining our global expertise with EveryData’s deep local knowledge, we can accelerate the delivery of new products and technologies that improve access to finance and support economic growth.” The transaction fortifies Creditinfo Group’s international presence, specifically in the Caribbean, adding primary credit bureau operations across Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) of St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla, and Montserrat. The company noted that it will continue investing in technology, talent, and innovation throughout the region, helping leaders and professionals in financial institutions make better decisions while promoting financial inclusion and sustainable economic development. Barbados Launches Instant Payment System BiMPay Launched by the Central Bank of Barbados, a new instant payment scheme BiMPay is now available to individuals and businesses in the country. The new system operates 24/7, on weekends and public holidays, enabling users to send and receive money in seconds. BiMPay, according to officials, will help modernize the country’s financial system by making payments faster, more efficient, and more convenient. The first transaction on BiMPay was conducted by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, who sent money to a local vendor. “A modern economy needs a modern payment system,” Central Bank Governor Kevin Greenidge said. “People need to be able to send money quickly. Businesses need to be able to receive funds and have them available to spend. Vendors want to get their funds and access their money immediately. We need a space to innovate, to compete, and to build the fintech industry that needs to be built.” The launch of BiMPay comes after months of testing with financial institutions and other stakeholders. Currently, six commercial banks and the country’s three largest credit unions are connected to the BiMPay system. Seven institutions are also linked to the BiMPay e-wallet, which enables users to make payments, request funds, and complete transactions using phone numbers, email addresses, or QR codes. Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world. Middle East and Northern Africa Israel-based payments and loyalty platform Nayax teamed up with mark-to-market credit and structured finance infrastructure company Zaria Systems. One Zero, a digital bank based in Egypt, announced a new initiative to allow customers to use the AI agent of choice to receive financial information. PayPal and stc pay Bahrain launched a cross border transfer service. Central and Southern Asia Indian fintech Cred has raised $900 million in Series H funding from Meta. Pakistan-based fintech group Abhi announced plans to launch an IPO of its microfinance bank. HonestAI inked a Memorandum of Understanding with Mongolian financial IT company Nubisoft. Latin America and the Caribbean Creditinfo Group aquired EveryData Group to boost its presence throughout the Caribbean Grupo Cibest acquired 100% of Colombian fintech Avista Colombia. Belize Bank announced a new six-year partnership with Backbase to modernize its digital banking operations. Asia-Pacific Malaysian fintech and digital bank Boost launched its agentic AI banking platform. South Korean fintech KSNet signed a memorandum of understanding with the Solana Foundation to jointly build next-generation digital asset payment infrastructure. VNExpress looked at the evolution of Vietnam’s digital asset industry. Sub-Saharan Africa Pan-African payments firm Moment secured $22 million in Series A funding. Africa-based fintech PalmPay has begun preparations for a Hong Kong IPO. Yellow Card, a stablecoin infrastructure company founded in Nigeria and currently based in Atlanta, Georgia, raised $40 million. Central and Eastern Europe Lithuanian regtech solution provider iDenfy has added Czech Bank iD to its verification platform. Wealth management platform FNZ announced plans to sell its German FNZ Bank business to Advent. Cryptocurrency platform Bybit obtained an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license in Austria. Photo by Jamie Tudor on Unsplash The post Finovate Global Caribbean: Instant Payments, Digital Banking, and Credit Analytics appeared first on Finovate.       

FinovateFall 2026 is just over a month away. Coming to New York’s Marriott Marquis Times Square, from September 9 through 11, this year’s FinovateFall conference will feature both the familiar—in the form of our signature, seven-minute live fintech demos and standout keynote addresses—and the new, as represented by initiatives ranging from our Credit Union Spotlight to our Executive Debates to our special IMPACT Funders and Founders event. With so much on offer, it can be easy to miss or overlook a session, panel, or address. To this end, we’re going to spend the next few weeks highlighting some of the presentations we think you won’t want to miss. Today, we look at some of the mainstage addresses on the agenda across all three days of the conference. Special Address: If You Already Own the AI, Then Why Are You Still Shopping Featuring Melissa Solis, CEO of Inbenta, this presentation will discuss why most customer experience AI fails on the basics and how to tell apart a vendor that actually delivers from one that just demos. Solis also will offer a framework for auditing your customer experience against what you actually need rather than simply what you are being sold. Headquartered in Texas, Inbenta offers an agentic AI platform, Encore, that serves financial services, e-commerce, healthcare, and travel with more than 98% accuracy, near-zero hallucinations, full auditability, and more than 850 integrations to help avoid vendor lock-in. Wednesday, September 9: 10:10 am—10:25 am Special Address: Introducing Madison—Agentic Workbench for Banks This session, led by Siva Surendira, Founder and CEO of Lyzr AI, will show how Architect by Lyzr enables business users to describe a problem and get a working, governed AI agent in minutes. Surendira will also explain how thousands of those AI agents provide leadership with a live, crowdsourced view of where automation ROI truly lives. Lyzr is a category leader in agentic AI infrastructure. The company’s technology powers the internal AI platforms of firms including Accenture and Prophet. Wednesday, September 9: 3:15 pm—3:30 pm Special Address: Trust at the Speed of AI In this special address, Charlie Schilling, CEO of Macabacus, explains why trust rather than caution is what unlocks AI’s full value in finance: trust that the model being built is accurate, trust that the data is consistent across the pitch, and trust that every piece of content is on brand. Based in New York, Macabacus is a productivity and brand compliance suite for investment banks, private equity, venture capital, financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams, and consulting firms. Thursday, September 10: 9:25 am—9:40 am Quick Fire Keynote: Fraud in the Age of AI. How to Respond When the Attacker Has Better Tools Than You Senior Director, Global Banking and Payments Intelligence for JD Power, Jennifer White, will share her insights on the challenges faced by banks, credit unions, financial services providers, their members and customers when it comes to the rise of AI-powered fraud and financial crime. White will discuss how fraud and financial crime are being increasingly globalized and industrialized, and how defenses against these threats must evolve in order to keep individuals and systems safe. JD Power is a leader in business-critical data and intelligence that supports automated decision-making. The company’s proprietary data, advanced analytics, and deep industry expertise supply lenders, insurers, original equipment manufacturers, and other firms with guidance and intelligence about customer interactions with their brands, products, and services. Thursday, September 10: 4:55 pm—5:05 pm Out of the Box Keynote Address: AI-Enhanced CX to Create Trust and Loyalty Jon Lakefish, Founder of the Lakefish Group, will deliver a practical guide to all the AI tools currently available to help enhance the customer experience and how to make the most of them. Lakefish will also host a special hands-on, interactive session in the afternoon (1:10 pm—2:00 pm) in which he will walk participants through real scenarios so they can experience firsthand how AI can save time and money, while enhancing decision-making. Lakefish Group provides speaking and hands-on workshops, as well as consulting and training, to help businesses take advantage of modern, practical AI tools to enhance their marketing and branding initiatives. Friday, September 11: 9:50 am—10:20 am FinovateFall 2026 comes to the Marriott Marquis Times Square, September 9—11. Save up to $400 when you book your ticket by August 21. The post FinovateFall 2026: My Top Five Agenda Picks appeared first on Finovate.      Related StoriesFinovateFall 2026 Agenda Revealed!FinovateFall 2025: AI, Fraud Prevention, and the Art of What’s PossibleFinovateFall 2025 Best of Show Winners Announced 

AI transformation specialist Tavant is integrating its TOUCHLESS AI mortgage automation platform with the Empower loan origination solution (LOS) from Dark Matter Technologies. The integration is designed to reduce workflow fragmentation and manual handoffs, support faster decision-making, and a more connected loan manufacturing process. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and founded in 2000, Tavant most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego. AI transformation specialist Tavant announced the integration of its TOUCHLESS AI mortgage automation platform with Dark Matter Technologies’ Empower loan origination solution (LOS). The integration brings Tavant’s AI-driven automation capabilities to the Empower ecosystem, enabling lenders to streamline underwriting, accelerate cycle times, boost loan quality, and deliver Tavant’s exception-based, data-driven, loan decisioning technology to Empower LOS users. “Tavant is focused on helping lenders transform mortgage operations with classical, generative, and agentic AI-based automation that delivers measurable efficiency, higher levels of operational productivity, and a far better borrower experience,” Tavant Head of Fintech Products Mohammad Rashid said. “Our integration with Dark Matter extends that vision by augmenting the Empower LOS with TOUCHLESS automation capabilities, making it easier for lenders to adopt agentic workflows, exception-based processing, and automated underwriting and decisioning.” The integration enables lenders to automate key stages of the mortgage lifecycle, including loan setup, document classification, data extraction and intelligent comprehension, processing, underwriting, conditions management, and pre-close quality checks. The solution provides lenders reduced cost per loan, automation of repetitive and time-intensive tasks, improved data accuracy and consistency. This is thanks to standardized, AI-powered automation and the ability to scale loan production without significant increases in headcount. The partnership between Tavant and Dark Matter will also be a boon for borrowers, who will benefit from faster approvals, fewer requests for documentation, and a more predictable and transparent lending timeline. “We designed Empower as an open platform so partners can connect their best ideas directly to our lenders,” Dark Matter CEO Vikas Rao explained. “Tavant’s TOUCHLESS integration is a strong example of the innovation an open platform makes possible, giving lenders more ways to automate and close faster.” Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and founded in 2023, Dark Matter offers an integrated platform for modern mortgage operations that combines its Empower LOS, next-generation automation, and powerful servicing capabilities to streamline and simplify the lending lifecycle. In addition to Empower LOS and its loan servicing solution Elevate, Dark Matter also offers Exchange: a connected partner marketplace for compliant, secure integrated access to a range of service providers, and Aiva, which provides AI-powered automation for documents, income, asset, and post-close quality control. Tavant made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2017 and most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego. At the conference, the Santa Clara, California-based company demonstrated its LO.ai solution, an AI-powered platform that enhances loan officer productivity and borrower empowerment. LO.ai integrates generative AI, voice-enabled conversational AI, and advanced data security measures to lower costs, increase lead conversion, and guarantee compliance with industry regulations. Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash The post Tavant Integrates with Dark Matter’s Empower LOS appeared first on Finovate.       

Lending has always depended on a financial institution’s ability to assess risk, make informed decisions, and deliver capital efficiently. But many of the systems supporting that process remain slow, fragmented, and heavily manual. Commercial lenders still spend days gathering documents and spreading financials, while consumers and small businesses increasingly expect faster decisions, flexible payment options, and seamless digital experiences. The companies demoing at FinovateFall 2026, taking place on September 9 through 11 in New York, are approaching these challenges from several angles. Some are using AI to accelerate underwriting and automate operational work. Others are embedding financing and flexible payment options directly into digital banking, helping institutions identify household opportunities, or rebuilding commercial lending around borrower self-service. Together, these five companies demonstrate how smarter technology can help financial institutions improve speed, efficiency, and access to financing. ALoan ALoan uses AI to automate commercial underwriting and help lenders move from borrower documents to a completed credit memo in less than 30 minutes. The platform spreads financial information from tax returns, bank statements, and borrower financials, applies the lender’s credit policies, and links each figure and conclusion back to its original source. By automating document collection, financial spreading, and credit memo preparation, ALoan enables commercial lending teams to increase throughput and reach term sheets faster without adding staff or replacing existing systems. Clockout Clockout helps banks and credit unions embed financial wellness and liquidity tools into their customer experiences. The platform is designed to increase direct deposit relationships, generate new fee revenue, and strengthen customer engagement by providing users with more ways to manage short-term financial needs. For financial institutions seeking to deepen primary account relationships, Clockout offers a way to combine financing access with broader financial wellness. equipifi equipifi enables banks and credit unions to offer Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) and flexible payment options directly within their digital banking platforms. Its technology allows financial institutions to present personalized purchasing power and financing offers based on customer behavior and purchase intent, including through real-time mobile notifications. By bringing BNPL inside the banking relationship, equipifi helps financial institutions participate more directly at the point of sale rather than ceding that interaction to third-party providers. OptimaFI OptimaFI’s Household Insights platform gives community banks and credit unions a household-level view of customer accounts and performance. The platform benchmarks institutional data against more than 14 billion private peer data points and provides segment-level recommendations related to growth and risk. Because it does not require a core integration, financial institutions can begin using the platform in a matter of days to identify opportunities across deposits, lending, and broader household relationships. QuickFi QuickFi offers an end-to-end digital platform for commercial equipment financing that allows borrowers to self-serve from application through final payment. The company replaces manual, paper-heavy lending processes with a digital experience that can deliver financing decisions and documentation in minutes, 24 hours a day. QuickFi helps banks and equipment manufacturers serve small business borrowers more efficiently while reducing the staffing and operating costs associated with traditional commercial lending models. Why banks should care Speed has become a competitive advantage in lending. Borrowers are less willing to wait weeks for a credit decision when another provider can deliver an answer in hours or minutes. At the same time, banks and credit unions are under pressure to grow loan portfolios without proportionally increasing headcount or operational expense. Technologies that automate underwriting, document collection, reconciliation, and servicing can help institutions make faster decisions while preserving the judgment and oversight required for responsible lending. The definition of lending is also expanding. Flexible payments, embedded financing, household intelligence, and digital self-service are blurring the lines between traditional loans, payments, and financial wellness. Financial institutions that treat these capabilities as part of a broader customer relationship may be better positioned to capture more borrowing activity, deepen engagement, and compete with nonbank providers. The companies demonstrating at FinovateFall 2026 show how institutions can modernize both the front-end borrower experience and the operational infrastructure that supports the lending process. Photo by Monstera Production The post Five Fintechs Creating Smarter Lending, Credit, and Financing Tools appeared first on Finovate.       

Core banking platform 10x Banking has raised £40 million ($53.8 million) in funding from AshGrove Capital. The UK-based fintech will use the capital to drive sales and go-to-market activity. The investment comes in the wake of the pair of major announcements from 10x Banking: becoming EBITDA-positive and topping the 10 million live account milestone. Based in London, 10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. Antony Jenkins is Founder, Chair, and CEO. SaaS core banking platform 10x Banking has secured £40 million ($53.8 million) from AshGrove Capital. The funding will fuel the UK-based fintech’s sales and go-to-market efforts and comes as the company reports becoming EBITDA-positive and surpassing the 10 million live account milestone. Additionally, in the last 12 months, 10x Banking has onboarded 10+ new financial institutions and boosted annual recurring revenue (ARR) by more than 30%. In the company’s statement, the firm underscored that its recent positive financial outcomes are the result of growing demand from financial institutions seeking to modernize legacy infrastructure, drive continuous product innovation, or develop the data and flexibility necessary to support AI-enabled banking. “Financial institutions have a clear ambition to innovate, but many remain constrained by infrastructure that was not built for real-time, digital banking,” 10x Banking Founder, Chair, and CEO Antony Jenkins said. “We created 10x to remove those constraints, enabling financial institutions to launch products faster, serve customers in real time, and compete more effectively. Our platform is now proving its value at significant scale. AshGrove’s investment is a strong endorsement of the progress we have made and will help us meet growing demand from banks around the world.” 10x Banking offers a cloud-native, core banking platform that enables banks to deliver new hyper-personalized products, services, and experiences to both retail and corporate customers faster, more efficiently, and more cost-effectively. The platform processes more than 10,000 transactions per second and runs at 99.99% uptime. Leveraging fourth-generation core banking, 10x Banking features a microservices architecture, real-time data screening, an API-first design, and a managed core that allows banks to configure rather than rebuild for each new offering. “10x Banking has built one of the most compelling technology platforms in core banking today,” AshGrove Capital Co-founder and Managing Partner Phil Fretwell said. “Delivering a cloud-native platform at enterprise scale is exceptionally difficult, yet 10x has already proven its capabilities across millions of live accounts and with some of the world’s leading financial institutions. We believe the company is well positioned to benefit from powerful industry tailwinds as banks continue replacing legacy systems with more flexible, real-time, and AI-ready infrastructure.” 10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023 in London. At the event, the company demonstrated its 10x SuperCore Cards solution that enables banks to create a card proposition in minutes using the 10x Bank Manager interface. The technology empowers financial institutions to build and launch an enterprise-grade, full-stack, functional cards business solution in as little as 12 weeks. Founded in 2016, 10x Banking counts leading financial institutions such as Westpac and Chase UK among its customers. Photo by Aron Van de Pol on Unsplash The post 10x Banking Raises £40 Million from AshGrove Capital appeared first on Finovate.       

Credit union members and community banking customers readily trust their credit unions and community banks with their capital when it comes to saving and borrowing. But what about investing? In most instances, those same members and customers will seek out other institutions and businesses when it comes to investing for the future and managing their wealth. What if credit unions and community banks instead could keep those members and customers by catering to their investing and wealth management needs? How might this positively impact customer and member relationships and deepen engagement? This week, our Finovate First-Timers series features Ariel Leachman, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Bluum Finance. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California and founded in 2025, Bluum Finance offers a unified platform for embedded wealth management and investing, providing brokerage and AI-powered advisory infrastructure via APIs. The company combines multi-asset, multi-market brokerage, custody, and reporting in a single integration, enabling credit unions, banks, and fintechs to offer seamless investing experiences for their members and customers. Bluum Finance made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego. Co-founder Ope Sonusi is CEO. In our conversation, Leachman discusses the opportunity that credit unions and community banks have by integrating investing and wealth management capabilities directly into their existing platforms. Leachman also explains how Bluum Finance streamlines the process for smaller financial institutions, delivering access to a range of asset classes and international markets via a single API. Finally, she shares her thoughts on what it will take to make cross-border investing as easy and commonplace as cross-border payments. What problem does Bluum Finance solve and who does it solve it for? Ariel Leachman: Credit unions, community financial institutions, and consumer fintechs have built strong relationships with their customers. The challenge is that when those customers are ready to start investing and building wealth, they often have to leave for another platform. Bluum enables fintechs and financial institutions to launch investing and wealth management directly within their existing platform, enabling them to expand their offering, generate new revenue, and strengthen customer relationships. How does Bluum solve this problem better than other companies? Leachman: Many embedded investing platforms focus primarily on trade execution. We take a broader approach by combining multi-asset investing, AI-powered wealth management, and the underlying brokerage infrastructure in a single platform. Rather than having to stitch together brokerage, custody, compliance, reporting, and portfolio guidance from multiple providers, our partners can launch through one API while we manage much of the complexity behind the scenes. Our platform also supports a range of asset classes and international markets, giving financial institutions a single platform to help their customers build diversified investment portfolios. Who are Bluum’s primary customers and how do you reach them? Leachman: Our primary customers are consumer fintechs, community banks, and credit unions that want to add investing and wealth management to their existing product offering without the high cost and operational lift of building a brokerage platform from scratch. Most of these institutions already have strong customer relationships and are looking for practical ways to expand their offering while keeping the experience simple for both their teams and customers. We primarily reach them through direct relationships, strategic partnerships, and industry events like Finovate. Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology, or a particularly valuable partnership experience? Leachman: One of the most rewarding parts of building Bluum has been working with financial institutions that genuinely want to help their customers build long-term wealth. Credit unions, in particular, have earned a tremendous amount of trust within their communities. Helping them extend that relationship beyond everyday banking into investing feels especially meaningful because it allows more people to access wealth-building tools through an institution they already know and trust. What in your background gave you the confidence to respond to this challenge? Leachman: As co-founders, we’ve spent years working in financial services and technology before launching Bluum. My co-founder, Ope Sonusi, spent his career building fintech platforms for US and international markets, and I spent my career in investment banking and private equity, building deep expertise in capital markets, investment products, and financial institutions. As we spent more time speaking with financial institutions and fintechs, one thing became clear: many wanted to offer investing, but the infrastructure required to do it was too costly and complex. That insight became the foundation for building a platform like Bluum Finance. You demoed at FinovateSpring in May of this year. How was the experience? Leachman: FinovateSpring was a great experience. It gave us the opportunity to demo the Bluum platform and engage directly with credit unions, community financial institutions, fintechs, and industry leaders to better understand their priorities around investing, wealth management, and member engagement. The event reinforced our view that embedded investing and wealth management are becoming essential components of the modern digital banking experience, and that financial institutions are looking for simple, compliant solutions they can bring to market quickly. You have talked about the opportunities in frontier and emerging markets and how the challenge is making cross-border investing as seamless as cross-border payments. Can you elaborate on this idea? Leachman: Cross-border payments have become dramatically easier over the past decade. Today, a financial institution can enable cross-border payments through a single integration without having to build the underlying infrastructure. Cross-border investing hasn’t evolved in the same way. Offering investment access across markets still requires coordinating brokers, custody providers, regulatory requirements, and reporting, which creates a lot of complexity. Our goal is to simplify that experience so financial institutions can offer access to both US and international markets without having to manage the high cost and onerous operational lift themselves. We believe the next evolution of financial services will make cross-border investing as seamless and accessible across global markets. What are your goals for Bluum Finance over the balance of 2026 and into next year? Leachman: We are focused on growing our partnerships with financial institutions, consumer fintechs, and credit unions. We’ve seen strong interest from institutions that want to offer investing but don’t want to build and operate the infrastructure themselves, so we’re focused on helping more partners bring those capabilities to market. We’re also excited about expanding the range of investment opportunities available through Bluum, including private markets and digital assets. Photo by PiggyBank on Unsplash The post Ariel Leachman of Bluum Finance on the Rise of Embedded Investing appeared first on Finovate.       

Connect Credit Union, a Florida-based financial institution with $103 million in assets, has partnered with smart financial calculator builder, Appli. Appli’s AI-powered calculators are designed to turn passive visitors into active financial consumers by enabling them to assess loan opportunities, calculate property values in real-time, plan for retirement, and more. Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Cedar Hills, Utah, Appli made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025 in New York. Florida-based Connect Credit Union has teamed up with Appli, builder of AI-powered smart financial calculators, to provide members with a new, interactive way to learn about their lending options, assess how best to save for future goals, and identify optimal savings instruments. “Connect’s members are digitally savvy, and they expect that from every part of their credit union experience now, not just online banking,” Appli CEO Tim Pranger said. “Rolling this out right after their website relaunch means members will see it as part of one connected upgrade, not a separate tool bolted on later.” Appli’s AI-powered smart financial calculators are designed to convert passive visitors into active financial consumers. Embedded in websites, mobile banking apps, and across marketing campaigns, Appli’s solutions deliver real-time, personalized experiences that boost consumer confidence and drive conversions, giving financial institutions the ability to guide customers and members through major loan and savings decisions. The credit union will use Appli’s calculators for auto loans, personal loans, mortgages, and balance transfers. Scheduled to go live with the new offering in September, Connect Credit Union anticipates introducing smart calculators for other products over time. The partnership comes in the wake of the credit union’s website relaunch of its website, making the calculators part of the institution’s brand refresh. “Financial decisions can feel overwhelming, particularly when members are trying to determine what fits comfortably within their budgets,” Connect Credit Union EVP/COO Cynthia Ryan said. “Appli gives our members an easy, interactive way to explore financial scenarios, better understand their options, and make decisions with greater confidence. This partnership allows us to combine the convenience of technology with the personal service and trusted guidance our members expect from Connect Credit Union.” Connect Credit Union serves employees of the State of Florida, retirees of the Florida Department of Transportation, and those who live and work in Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, De Soto, Glades, Okeechobee, and Charlotte counties in south and central Florida. Founded in 1962, the financial institution has $103 million in assets and offers services and products including auto loans, mortgages, home equity and personal loans, debit and credit cards, as well as savings, checking, and money market accounts. Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Cedar Hills, Utah, Appli made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Smart Financial Calculators and its newest loan lead generation platform. Appli’s technology is designed to capture high-intent shoppers, convert interest into action, and provide financial institutions with data-driven insights to help them grow deposits, increase loan volume, and secure long-term revenue growth. Interested in companies that are developing innovative solutions for credit unions and their members? FinovateFall 2026 will feature a special credit union spotlight and networking session on Tuesday, September 8. Learn more about this unique, invite-only opportunity. Photo by Roman on Unsplash The post Connect Credit Union Turns to Appli for AI-Powered Smart Financial Calculators appeared first on Finovate.       

When we announced IMPACT Funders & Founders, we described it as a new kind of event designed to bring together fintech founders and the investors backing the next generation of fintech in a setting built for meaningful conversations, targeted networking, and real fundraising opportunities. Now, we’re excited to share our speaker lineup. The inaugural IMPACT event, taking place alongside FinovateFall on September 11 in New York City, features venture capitalists, startup founders, corporate investors, accelerators, and ecosystem builders who are actively shaping fintech’s next chapter. Rather than focusing on broad industry trends alone, these speakers will tackle the practical questions founders and investors face every day, such as raising capital, scaling a company, navigating exits, leveraging AI, embedded finance, and the changing venture landscape. Learn from investors writing today’s checks Whether you’re raising your first institutional round or preparing for growth-stage funding, one of the biggest advantages of IMPACT is direct access to active investors. The speaker roster includes partners from venture capital firms, private equity firms, and strategic investors who are evaluating fintech opportunities every day. They’ll discuss what they’re looking for in founders, how investment priorities are evolving, and where they see the greatest opportunities in today’s market. Hear from founders who’ve been there Building a fintech company is about far more than securing funding. IMPACT speakers include founders who have navigated product launches, customer acquisition, regulatory hurdles, hiring, scaling, and fundraising firsthand. Expect candid conversations about the realities of building a fintech company, including the lessons learned from both successes and setbacks. Gain practical insights from fintech operators Alongside founders and investors, the program features experienced executives from banks, fintechs, and industry organizations who understand what it takes to bring new financial products to market. Sessions will explore topics including: AI and emerging technologies Go-to-market strategy Customer acquisition and growth Bank partnerships Regulatory considerations Fundraising strategy Scaling operations Explore the full speaker lineup The IMPACT speaker roster continues to grow as additional investors, founders, and industry leaders are announced, but here is a taste of who you can expect to see on stage. Browse the complete speaker lineup to see who will be joining us in New York. If you’re looking to connect with the people funding and building the future of fintech, there’s still time to register. Photo by Clint Patterson on Unsplash The post Meet the Investors, Founders, and Operators Taking the Stage at Our IMPACT Funders & Founders Event appeared first on Finovate.       

Digital payments giant Visa has agreed to acquire fraud and financial crime prevention platform BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash. The acquisition will add to Visa’s existing cyber, fraud, risk, and security solutions and provide greater defense against newer threats including account takeover and money mule fraud. BioCatch was founded in 2011. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2014 in New York. Visa has inked a definitive agreement to acquire behavioral and device intelligence innovator BioCatch. Visa will purchase the company from funds advised by Permira and other shareholders for $2.4 billion in cash. The move will add to Visa’s current array of cyber, fraud, risk, and security solutions and is expected to be especially helpful in managing threats such as account takeovers, scams, money mules, and application fraud. Subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of all relevant regulatory approvals, the acquisition is expected to close by the end of Visa’s fiscal Q2 of 2027. “Real-time insights into customer intent continue to grow increasingly essential for institutions to establish trust within digital banking sessions,” BioCatch CEO Gadi Mazor said. “For more than a decade, we’ve demonstrated behavior’s unique ability to distinguish the criminal from the legitimate. In the last couple of years, we’ve shown how real-time intelligence-sharing networks between our customers can amplify the power of our behavioral intelligence further still. Together with Visa, we’re even better positioned to advance our mission of making the world a safer place to transact and protect consumers from financial crime.” BioCatch offers AI and machine learning-based solutions that analyze thousands of application, behavioral, device, and network signals such as keystrokes and mouse activity, touch gestures, and device handling. This enables BioCatch’s technology to detect fraud and distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent users in real time. BioCatch’s models provide continuous monitoring to assess user intent and identify signs of potential coercion or manipulation throughout the digital banking session. More than 350 financial institutions around the world leverage BioCatch’s technology to protect 760+ million users from fraud and financial crime. Visa’s acquisition of BioCatch comes at a time when AI, biometrics, identity, cyber defense, and fraud prevention are converging. To this point, in addition to this week’s transaction, Visa has launched its Visa Vulnerability Agentic Harness solution, an open-source, AI security tool to help customers spot and mitigate vulnerabilities at scale. Visa noted in a statement that, over the last five years, the company has invested more than $13 billion in technology and infrastructure to secure its payments ecosystem and drive fraud rates lower. “Account takeovers and scams cost the global economy over $1 trillion annually and AI is enabling these attacks at unprecedented scale,” Visa’s president of value-added services Andrew Torre said. “BioCatch will help our clients stop fraud before it reaches the point of payment. This acquisition is part of our strategy to help clients prevent cyber threats upstream, building trust into every transaction.” Founded in 2011 and headquartered in New York, BioCatch made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2014. In the years since then, the company has grown into a major financial crime prevention platform analyzing 18 billion user sessions per month and protecting 1.7 billion devices. In 2025 alone, BioCatch assessed more than $17 trillion in transactions and prevented $4 billion in fraud. Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash The post Visa Acquires Behavioral Biometrics Innovator BioCatch for $2.4 Billion appeared first on Finovate.       

August is off to an auspicious start in the fintech world, with news of acquisitions in behavioral biometrics and regtech, and good news for a pair of firms seeking approval to initiate digital asset operations in New York and the UK, respectively. Be sure to swing by Finovate’s Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest updates and fintech headlines! Wealth management Asset and wealth management software specialist ZILO launches its digital transfer agency platform, integration mutual fund administration with digital asset capabilities. Payments London-based financial services provider Teya unveils new payments card machine. Fraud prevention Visa agrees to acquire behavioral biometrics company BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash. Bank of America to acquire UK-based information security firm MDSec Consulting. Digital assets Circle secures limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). Robinhood receives authorization from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to offer cryptocurrency services in the country. Capital markets tokenization platform Licuido announces strategic investment from Ripple. Unlimit Crypto, a division of financial infrastructure company Unlimit, secures a Crypto-Asset Service Provider license from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. Regtech Enterprise financial controls and reconciliation automation company AutoRek acquires UK-based compliance platform Grath. Credit unions Appli, maker of AI-powered smart financial calculators, inks partnership with Florida-based Connect Credit Union. Photo by Christina & Peter from Pexels The post Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News appeared first on Finovate.       

InvestiFi raised $20 million in a strategic funding round led largely by credit unions and fintech investors to expand its embedded investing platform for community financial institutions. Community banks and credit unions are increasingly competing with fintechs like Robinhood, Wealthfront, Betterment, and Coinbase for the primary customer relationship, making embedded investing a key retention strategy. The investor lineup signals strong industry confidence that integrated wealth management tools will be critical for smaller financial institutions to remain competitive with digital-first providers. Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) InvestiFi has landed $20 million in a funding round led by Vibe Credit Union, with participation from BankTech Ventures, ICCU (Idaho Central Credit Union), Navari (formerly CUSG), United Financial Credit Union, Coastal Credit Union, Mid Minnesota Credit Union, Truity Credit Union, and Southpoint Credit Union. “What makes this raise especially meaningful is that so much of it comes directly from the consumer-focused financial institutions and strategic partners who use our platform every day,” said InvestiFi CEO and Founder Kian Sarreshteh. “They aren’t just customers — they’re believers in our mission to democratize investing and to make sure community financial institutions can compete and win in this space.” InvestiFi plans to use today’s funds to scale its platform and increase adoption among credit union members and community bank customers. Specifically, the organization’s goal is to help these smaller financial institutions retain and gain back deposits from the 43% of Millennial and Gen Z users who have transitioned to third-party investment platforms because they felt that their credit union or community bank didn’t offer adequate investing options. While community banks and credit unions used to compete against each other and larger banks, this is no longer the case. Fintechs like Robinhood, Wealthfront, Betterment, and Coinbase have become commonplace among users. And because these fintech options are increasingly offering savings tools, checking accounts, and even credit cards, there is also increased competition for the primary customer relationship. InvestiFi’s tools that allow community banks and credit unions to embed investing tools directly within their website or app will help retain primacy. The makeup of the investor base is perhaps as noteworthy as its size. With many of InvestiFi’s own credit union customers participating, the raise shows how community financial institutions are increasingly investing in fintech infrastructure they view as essential to remaining competitive with larger banks and digital-first financial providers. “For generations, credit unions have earned trust by helping members save, borrow, and achieve their financial goals,” said Vibe Credit Union Chief Operations and Strategy Officer Jeff Pascoe. “The next chapter is helping them build wealth through that same trusted partnership. As a credit union, we believe we have a responsibility to invest in innovations that strengthen not only our own members’ experience, but the future of the credit union movement itself. InvestiFi helps make that future possible.” InvestiFi, which enables credit unions and community banks to offer digital investing directly within online banking, was founded in 2020. The organization helps its 60 financial institution clients offer tools like fractional investing, guided investing, IRAs, cryptocurrency trading, and stablecoins. Interested in hearing more about specialized tools for community banks or credit unions? Register for FinovateFall and enroll in the Credit Union Spotlight or the Community Bank Spotlight to get a dedicated networking space where you can share best practices, talk through common challenges, and discover innovative solutions designed for you. Photo by RDNE Stock project The post CUSO InvestiFi Raises $20 Million to Help Community Banks and Credit Unions Retain Deposits appeared first on Finovate.