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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Digital businesses in the modern era span geography, product types, and regulatory regimes, making the process of verifying identities and assessing risk difficult. Today, we’re highlighting a conversation that digs into how platforms can assess risk at scale by embedding identity and risk intelligence into a single workflow.
At FinovateFall earlier this year, I spoke with Kate Young, Marketing Manager at Middesk, a company specializing in identity verification and onboarding automation. During our conversation, Kate discussed identity and onboarding challenges, how platforms distinguish legitimate enterprises from fraudulent ones, and the importance of embedding risk intelligence and KYB tools into the onboarding and lending processes. The interview touches on real-world use cases, ROI metrics, and what it takes to move from spreadsheets to APIs.
“There’s still this… trust gap between all of the businesses and the changes that they make both legitimately and illegitimately and the understanding of those financial institutions of those businesses. So there’s a wide gap between that business identity data and financial institutions being able to trust it…. We can actually bring that [gap] much closer and financial institutions can get much closer to trusting those businesses and saying yes to them more confidently and honestly growing their portfolio with those businesses once they truly trust who they are.”
Founded in 2018, Middesk’s identity and business verification platform provides APIs for verifying B2B customers, reducing fraud risk, and automating underwriting. With features such as entity resolution, beneficial-owner monitoring, and embedded data flows, Middesk enables platforms to streamline onboarding, reduce fraud, and scale reliably by offering up-to-date, verified data about their business users and clients.
Walmart’s OnePay digital banking platform is partnering with DriveWealth to launch OnePay Invest, giving users access to stock and ETF trading within their existing app.
Since acquiring fintechs Even and ONE, Walmart has built OnePay into a full-service app offering savings, credit-building, BNPL, and now investing.
Integrating DriveWealth’s brokerage-as-a-service APIs, OnePay lowers the barrier to entry for first-time investors and strengthens Walmart’s bid to become a one-stop financial hub for everyday consumers.
Digital trading and brokerage company DriveWealth scored a partnership this week with Walmart’s digital banking platform OnePay, which will leverage DriveWealth’s brokerage-as-a-service offering to launch OnePay Invest.
Walmart launched OnePay in January 2021 through a partnership with Ribbit Capital. In January 2022, Walmart expanded OnePay’s capabilities by acquiring two fintech platforms, Even and ONE, which helped Walmart create a more comprehensive financial services app. Since then, Walmart has been actively building up OnePay to compete with top fintech startups by adding features such as a high-yield savings account, credit-building tools, and BNPL capabilities.
DriveWealth will give OnePay users a new way to invest in stocks and ETFs. OnePay Invest will offer users access to trading tools within the same mobile app they already use to save, spend, and borrow.
“OnePay puts everyday money decisions in one place. By embedding DriveWealth’s investing technology directly into that experience, we are giving millions of Americans simple, reliable access to invest where they already save and spend,” said DriveWealth CEO Naureen Hassan. “This partnership moves our shared mission forward: make investing available to anyone, anywhere.”
Many OnePay customers may be new to investing, and embedding DriveWealth’s tools directly into the OnePay app lowers the barrier to entry. By enabling users to explore stock and ETF investing within the same platform they already use to manage savings, spending, and borrowing, OnePay creates a simple on-ramp to wealth building.
The move also helps OnePay differentiate itself from competitors such as Chime and Dave, which both cater to similar underbanked populations but have yet to integrate investing capabilities. In combining everyday money management with access to the markets, OnePay is positioning itself as an all-in-one financial hub for the mass-market consumer.
Today’s partnership isn’t Walmart’s first attempt this month to bolster the capabilities of OnePay. On October 3, the company announced plans to offer crypto trading and custody in its mobile app, allowing users to buy, hold, and trade Bitcoin and Ether.
DriveWealth was founded in 2012 to allow third parties to enable access to US equities, fixed income, and other asset classes through scalable, compliant solutions via its suite of APIs. Earlier this year, the New York-based company teamed up with Moment Technology to make fixed-income investing more accessible to a broader range of investors.
Barclays’ US consumer banking subsidiary, Barclays Bank Delaware, is acquiring Best Egg for $800 million.
Barclays aims to use the purchase to diversify its US consumer business and strengthen its presence in unsecured lending.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026.
Barclays‘ US consumer banking subsidiary, Barclays Bank Delaware, unveiled plans this week to expand its US footprint, acquiring personal loan origination company Best Egg. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026 for $800 million.
Best Egg offers a direct-to-consumer personal loan origination platform that specializes in lending to prime borrowers. Since it was founded in 2013, the Delaware-based company has facilitated over $40 billion in personal loans to more than two million customers. By the end of this year, Best Egg will have facilitated more than $7 billion in personal loan originations.
Best Egg currently services approximately $11 billion in personal loans which are funded through structures such as securitization programs and forward flow arrangements provided by a range of alternative asset managers. The company generates fee-based income from its loan origination and servicing activities.
Best Egg CEO Paul Ricci said the acquisition marks a major milestone in the company’s mission to help consumers achieve financial confidence through modern lending products. “At Best Egg, we are driven by a mission to empower people with financial confidence and flexibility through our suite of lending products and financial health tools,” said Ricci. “Joining forces with Barclays marks a pivotal moment in our journey—one that amplifies our ability to reach even more people through innovative lending solutions that truly make a difference. This transaction is a testament to the strength of the incredible business we’ve built over the past 12 years, our talented team, and the trust we’ve earned from our customers. Together with Barclays, we’re excited to accelerate our growth and continue shaping the future of consumer finance in ways that are both meaningful and impactful.”
Barclays’ US Consumer Bank will leverage Best Egg’s digital and risk capabilities to enhance its credit card business that provides unsecured personal lending to customers by partnering with co-brand card partner programs. Buying Best Egg provides the bank an on-ramp into a well-established lending platform with proven underwriting and distribution capabilities. It also signals Barclays’ intent to diversify beyond credit cards and move into unsecured lending.
Barclays Group Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan described the acquisition as a key growth opportunity within the bank’s long-term US strategy. “The deep and sophisticated US consumer finance market offers rich prospects for growth at Barclays,” said Venkatakrishnan. “The transaction will strengthen our US Consumer Bank and offers an exciting opportunity to significantly bolster our capabilities in personal lending.”
Once the acquisition is complete, Barclays plans to leverage this same model while retaining a small portion of Best Egg’s new lending flow on its balance sheet.
Denny Nealon, CEO of Barclays US Consumer Bank, said the move supports the company’s broader goal of diversification and scale in US retail banking. “This acquisition represents a significant step forward in our strategy to grow and diversify our US consumer banking business,” said Nealon. “As a leader in the personal loans market, Best Egg gives us the ability to reach more US consumers through a proven platform that has been successful for over a decade. We look forward to welcoming Best Egg’s customers as well as its talented and experienced management team and colleagues upon closing in 2026.”
Digital payment solutions company Thredd has teamed up with lending and credit platform LoanPro this week. The UK-based company will leverage LoanPro’s credit platform to underpin its new suite of credit solutions, which will allow it to deliver full-stack embedded issuing and processing capabilities.
Thredd was founded in 2007 and offers real-time card issuing and processing capabilities to help clients personalize and differentiate their credit offerings. Integrating LoanPro’s composable credit infrastructure into its offerings will help Thredd expand further into the credit and lending space, enabling clients to launch and manage credit programs with greater flexibility and speed.
Commenting on the partnership, Thredd CEO Jim McCarthy emphasized the growing importance of credit-led innovation in embedded finance. “Credit-based value propositions drive not only more opportunities for both B2B and B2C verticals, but also generate more revenue for issuers, fintechs, and enterprises,” said McCarthy. “LoanPro’s platform solves much of the inherent complexity in providing truly differentiated credit, allowing us to offer our clients the tools to build sticky, profitable credit products, while maintaining compliance and operational efficiency.”
Founded in 2016, LoanPro has helped 600+ lenders launch 2,000 unique credit programs, upgrading their borrower, agent, and back-office operations. The Utah-based company’s composable architecture, built on a modern lending core, allows lenders to enhance their origination, servicing, payments, and collections operations.
LoanPro Co-Founder and CEO Rhett Roberts said that the partnership combines the strengths of both companies to accelerate how credit products are designed and deployed. “There is a massive opportunity to launch credit products in the U.S. and globally in a way that truly meets consumers and businesses where they are,” Roberts said. “The future of finance is personalized. Thredd brings together the entire ecosystem needed to launch revolving credit products, and with LoanPro’s modern, composable platform, clients can personalize and differentiate their offerings at scale in a way that drives share of wallet. We’re proud to support Thredd’s vision for global credit innovation.”
The partnership highlights how embedded finance providers are converging around full-stack, credit-enabled platforms. As banks, non-banks, and fintechs continue to embed lending and credit capabilities into their platforms, partnerships like this one blur the lines between payment processing, issuing, and credit management. Teaming up with LoanPro will place Thredd at the intersection of modern card issuing and next-generation credit infrastructure.
LoanPro has participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr 2021, and demoed its loan management system at FinovateSpring 2021.
As AI agents begin transacting on behalf of users, traditional payment and identity models fall short of providing the trust these systems require.
Prove is introducing its Verified Agent solution that links verified identity, intent, payment credentials, and consent through a cryptographically backed chain of custody for every autonomous transaction.
By replacing weak verification methods with multi-factor authentication and cryptographic proof, Prove aims to make agentic commerce safe enough to scale globally.
There has been plenty of hype around agentic commerce this fall, but many of the announcements surrounding agentic shopping and payments have leap-frogged an important issue: agent identity verification.
Digital identity company Prove is helping to solve this issue today with its new launch, the Prove Verified Agent, which aims to provide a trust and verification layer for autonomous agents acting on behalf of consumers and businesses. The new Verified Agent tool works by creating an end-to-end chain of custody that links verified identity, intent, payment credentials, and consent backed by cryptographic proof.
Agentic commerce, which could add more than $1 trillion in annual economic value, is different from the traditional four-party payment model that leverages legacy rails and identity verification. These models were not designed to allow AI agents to act on behalf of users, and agentic commerce can’t scale on traditional identity rails.
Recognizing that agentic commerce depends on verified trust between humans and machines, Prove’s leadership emphasized how identity must sit at the heart of this new ecosystem. “The vision and benefits of agentic commerce cannot be realized without trust,” said Prove CEO Rodger Desai. “Our foundational principle has always been to enable secure transactions by verifying identity and consent without friction. That approach positions Prove to lead in the agentic economy. Our platform is purpose-built for a future where bots act on our behalf, with identity that is native to every transaction and built on frontier identity principles.”
Prove’s Verified Agent offers a new trust framework that is built on the Prove Identity Graph, creating a cryptographically backed “chain of custody” for every autonomous transaction. The system begins by anchoring a verified digital identity to real-world attributes—such as phone numbers, national IDs, and payment credentials—tying each agent’s actions to a legitimate individual or business.
After tying the verified person or entity to an attribute, Prove issues signed digital credentials to authorized agents. These credentials enable agents to transact on behalf of their users, while counterparties can instantly verify their authenticity using cryptographic checks. Every identity and transaction is cross-referenced against a live registry of agent publishers, relying parties, merchants, payment networks, and CDNs to filter out unverified automation. Once verified, agents are authorized to act on behalf of a verified individual or entity, and Prove maintains the link between verified identity, intent, payment credentials, and consent.
To further protect users, Prove’s Verified Agent replaces text-based verification and one-time passwords with multi-factor authentication and session-level authorization limits, reducing phishing attempts and ensuring that each agent operates strictly within a user’s explicit consent. Additionally, every interaction is completely auditable. The interactions among agents, merchants, and users are co-signed by both user and merchant keys to provide cryptographic evidence for dispute resolution, chargeback protection, and regulatory reporting.
By creating this trust, Prove anticipates that it will enable global ecosystems to participate in the agentic economy without fear of identity violations.
The final week of October is always a little extra spooky, as it signals that the start of the holiday season is just days away. The week also generally brings an onslaught of company announcements, as organizations rush to publish their latest news before audiences become distracted by the holidays. Here is some of the biggest news from this week so far. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!
Payments
Mastercard and CitibringCiti Flex Pay Installments to more retailers at checkout.
Worldpayunveils AI-powered 3D Secure optimization service to increase payment approvals.
PayQuickerannouncesFlex, a business-ready stablecoin alternative for global payouts.
Bold.orgpartners with Wildfire to launch first debit card rewards program for purchases on AI platforms.
PayNearMeenhancesPayXM with the rollout of AI-powered Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA).
Modern Treasury announced its first acquisition, purchasing stablecoin and fiat payments company Beam to expand its real-time money movement capabilities.
The deal unifies fiat and stablecoin rails under Modern Treasury’s single API and will support RTP, FedNow, ACH, wires, Push-to-Card, and stablecoin payments while streamlining compliance through built-in KYC, KYB, and AML.
By combining Beam’s stablecoin technology with Modern Treasury’s scale, the company is positioning itself as a bridge between traditional and blockchain payments.
Payment operations platform Modern Treasury marked its first acquisition today. The San Francisco-based company announced this week it has purchased payments company Beam for an undisclosed amount.
Modern Treasury plans to use Beam, which offers both stablecoin and fiat payments capabilities for customers like Sling Money, to broaden its own money movement platform to include both traditional and stablecoin settlement rails.
Beam was founded in 2022 and has since processed more than $350 million in payments across the globe that have enabled small and medium-sized businesses to manage their cross-border operations. The company has raised $7 million and is backed by investors including Archetype, Castle Island Ventures, Arca, A*, and Soma.
“Instant payments and stablecoins are the future of money movement,” said Modern Treasury Co-founder and CEO Matt Marcus. “Beam has proven traction delivering real-time payments for stablecoin-native payment flows. Modern Treasury has processed hundreds of billions of dollars on our platform. Together, we’re creating the best infrastructure to move money instantly—without the delays and limitations of banks or card-first payment providers.”
Modern Treasury will support real-time payments via stablecoins, Push-to-Card, and traditional rails like RTP, FedNow, ACH, and wires. The company simplifies the application with its single API that handles compliance elements such as KYC, KYB, and AML, which allows it to replace six months of onboarding and compliance work with just a few API calls.
“Beam was founded on the belief that stablecoins can play a major role in the future of payments, but to make that real, you need scale, regulatory strength, and trusted infrastructure,” said Beam Founder and CEO Dan Mottice. “By joining forces, we’re accelerating that vision. Beam’s stablecoin and fiat orchestration capabilities will be woven directly into Modern Treasury’s platform to unlock instant pay-ins and payouts, FX efficiency, and next-generation liquidity management, all within a trusted enterprise-grade system.”
Mottice, who previously led Visa’s crypto settlement products and Visa Direct Payouts, is joining Modern Treasury as Head of Beam as part of today’s deal.
Modern Treasury’s acquisition of Beam is a great example of how stablecoins are not only becoming mainstream, but they are also becoming a key way for organizations to differentiate themselves in the enterprise payments space.
As stablecoins gain regulatory clarity and businesses demand faster, always-on settlement, Modern Treasury is positioning itself as the connective tissue between fiat and blockchain rails. Because it brings both traditional and stablecoin payments under one API and compliance framework, Modern Treasury sets itself apart in the crowded global money movement space.
Splitit and DXC Technology are partnering to bring AI-powered, card-linked installment payments to banks using DXC’s Hogan core banking platform, enabling personalized BNPL functionality directly from existing cards and accounts.
The collaboration will help banks reclaim BNPL market share by eliminating friction while giving institutions the flexibility to originate installment loans on their own books or through Splitit.
DXC’s bank clients will be able to embed installment capabilities within their own traditional banking infrastructure, helping them modernize, retain customer relationships, and compete on flexibility and user experience.
Georgia-based BNPL solutions provider Splititannounced it is collaborating with DXC Technology (DXC) to help banks compete on BNPL.
DXC Technology and Splitit have joined forces to bring card-linked installment payments to banks using DXC’s Hogan core banking platform. The integration enables banks to offer personalized, AI-powered installment plans at checkout or post-purchase, both online and in person, using cards and accounts customers already trust.
Hogan supports more than 300 million accounts across 40+ major banks with $5 trillion in deposits. By partnering with Splitit, banks can compete directly with BNPL providers while avoiding the friction of new account openings and serving customers who prefer to pay with debit. The collaboration aims to help banks reclaim market share lost to traditional BNPL players and deliver the flexibility today’s consumers expect.
“For decades, Hogan has been the backbone of the world’s largest banks. This partnership with Splitit shows how that foundation can now be used to create new revenue streams at the point of sale,” said DXC Global Head and General Manager of Financial Services Sandeep Bhanote. “By normalizing installment capabilities across existing accounts, we’re enabling issuers to modernize their offerings without replacing their core—and empowering consumers with flexible payments that use the cards they already trust.”
The benefits of the partnership extend beyond simply providing more payment options for end users. Banks will be able to deploy branded installment offers that appear natively at checkout or within the bank’s online banking portal. Additionally, partnering with Splitit will help DXC offer its bank clients the choice to originate the installments directly on their books or to have Splitit originate the installments.
“BNPL players have disintermediated banks by offering transactional lending at the merchant checkout. This partnership resets the playing field,” said Splitit CEO Nandan Sheth. “Together with DXC, we’re empowering banks to compete head-on with BNPL providers by bringing installments directly into existing bank accounts or issued debit cards. With DXC’s access to over 300 million bank accounts through its core banking platform, our joint technology gives financial institutions a seamless, low-lift way to automatically deliver installment functionality to existing customers. This innovation enables banks to maintain greater control of their customer relationships and attract new younger customers.”
Splitit was founded in 2012, went public in 2019, and went private again in 2023 after it was acquired by Motive Partners. The company seeks to simplify flexible payments, launching a partner program called the Agentic Commerce Partner Program earlier this month. The new initiative will allow autonomous shopping agents to make payments using card-linked installments.
While BNPL has fallen off the list of top trends in the past few years, its use has not dropped. The installment payment solution market is set to grow from $2.23 billion in 2024 to $3.44 billion by 2031, with 72% of merchants saying that they prefer card-linked installments for their simplicity and reach.
By embedding installment functionality into existing cards and core systems, DXC can help banks compete on flexibility without sacrificing customer relationships to third-party fintechs. As BNPL grows, the next wave of BNPL innovation isn’t about new entrants, but about how legacy infrastructure adapts to meet changing consumer expectations.
Finzly launched Agentic Galaxy, a new addition to its Galaxy suite that embeds deployable AI agents into the core of payments and operations.
The platform’s built-in AI modules automate payment processing, enhance compliance through human-in-the-loop oversight, and reduce complexity by integrating intelligence natively rather than bolting it on.
Finzly’s move reflects the broader rise of agentic and generative AI, as financial institutions adopt the same kind of intelligent automation and personalization transforming consumer shopping experiences.
Banking-as-a-Service provider Finzly announced it is adding to its Galaxy suite. The North Carolina-based company is launchingAgentic Galaxy to offer deployable AI agents that help banks bring ideas to market faster, simplify their operations, and deliver seamless customer experiences.
The new tool will leverage Finzly’s suite of specialized AI modules that offer payment processing intelligence, automate workflows, and enhance user experiences. Agentic Galaxy’s AI-powered agents help streamline operations and enable financial institutions to offer new services that integrate human-in-the-loop oversight, ensuring compliance. And because the AI agents are integrated into the product instead of being bolted on, there is less complexity and it is easier for firms to measure efficiency gains.
“Finzly’s approach to agentic AI goes beyond surface-level automation—it focuses on how intelligence can live deep within the core of payments and operations and enable new forms of modernization,” said Datos Insights Strategic Advisor, Commercial Banking & Payments Practice Gilles Ubaghs. “These are the kind of capabilities that help banks move from a defensive and reactive positioning to a more proactive form of continuous evolution.”
The AI agents can help complete tasks, resolve exceptions, and make informed decisions faster. “With agentic AI built into payments and operations,” explained Finzly Founder and CEO Booshan Rengachari, “banks can operate at speed with confidence, maintain strong governance, and focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences.”
The new tool is designed for firms looking to replace legacy systems. Agentic Galaxy offers an intelligent payment-processing core that supports multiple rails. The platform can also help non-banks in search of smarter, faster payment operations and virtual accounts.
Finzly’s flagship offering, Finzly OS, enables clients to launch a modern bank from scratch. The company’s API connects to all US payment rails, including Fed ACH, Fedwire, RTP, SWIFT, and FedNow. Founded in 2012 under the name SwapsTech, Finzly is a two-time Best of Show winner and has built its reputation on unifying payment systems and digital banking capabilities into a single, intelligent operating system for financial institutions.
This launch comes at a time when generative and agentic AI are reshaping how value is created across financial services. A recent report from Adobe for Business highlighted that traffic from Gen AI-powered tools to retail sites spiked by 4,700% year-over-year by July 2025, and that AI-driven visits are now far more engaged than traditional ones. Finzly’s new tool in its Agentic Galaxy suite aligns with this shift because it embeds AI agents into the payments and operations core, which enables banks and fintechs to act with the same agility and intention that consumer brands are exercising when they plug AI into discovery, recommendation, and checkout flows.
Generative AI-powered shopping has been gaining steam in the latter half of this year and is shaping up to be one of the top trends as we move into 2026. The availability and convenience of Gen AI tools are shifting consumers’ shopping habits away from traditional browser-based shopping as these new tools become more deeply embedded in the shopping experience.
Adobe for Business published a report earlier this year that shows momentum in the use of generative AI-powered chat services. The report, which surveyed more than 5,000 US individuals, aimed to complement a study conducted during the 2024 holiday shopping season that examined consumers’ usage of Gen AI-powered chat services and browsers.
There are six standout findings from the report that exemplify the shift in consumers’ habits.
Generative AI traffic to retail sites exploded
Adobe found that the first surge during the 2024 holiday season reached a growth of 1,300% year-over-year. Following this, the recent data shows that traffic from Gen AI-powered chat tools and browsers has continued to accelerate, reaching a 4,700% year-over-year increase as of July 2025. AI-driven visits now represent a meaningful and fast-growing share of retail shopping and research activity.
Over one-third of US consumers have used AI for shopping
According to Adobe’s 5,000-person survey, 38% of consumers have used generative AI at some point during their shopping process, while 52% plan to do so this year. Shoppers are most commonly using it for product research (53%), recommendations (40%), finding deals (36%), creating shopping lists (30%), and gift ideas (30%).
AI shoppers are more engaged and informed
Consumers that arrive at a website from AI-powered sources spend 32% more time per visit, view 10% more pages, and have a 27% lower bounce rate than those coming from traditional sources such as search, social media, and email. Shoppers using Gen AI also report an increase in satisfaction, with 85% of users saying that AI improved their shopping experience and 73% now rely on it as their primary product research tool. Overall, shoppers using Gen AI tools are more engaged than shoppers using traditional ecommerce methods.
Conversions still lag
While consumers are increasingly using Gen AI tools for browsing, many stop there and fail to actually make the purchase. In fact, Adobe’s study showed that AI-driven traffic is still 23% less likely to convert than traditional traffic. This figure has actually shown a bit of improvement over the past few months. The study showed that conversion rates were 49% lower in January 2025 and 38% lower in April 2025. This suggests that consumers increasingly trust AI-powered recommendations enough to complete purchases directly.
Revenue-per-visit from AI sources is catching up to non-AI visits
When it comes down to dollar figures, it turns out that Gen AI-powered shopping isn’t as valuable, though that is quickly changing. Adobe’s study found that AI-driven revenue-per-visit rose 84% from January 2025 to July 2025. While AI-driven visits were worth 97% less than non-AI visits in July 2024, they were only 27% less than a non-AI visit a year later. This indicates shoppers are moving from using AI purely for research to actually buying through AI-driven paths.
Mobile is fueling AI-driven shopping growth
According to the study, in July 2025, 26% of AI-driven retail traffic came from mobile. This is up by 8 percentage points from 18% six months earlier. Adobe expects mobile AI use to further close the conversion gap, given consumers’ tendency toward more impulse-driven shopping on phones.
All of these statistics paint a picture of what we can expect to happen to ecommerce in the next few years. As consumers increasingly turn to their preferred Gen AI tool when they start their shopping journey, we’re witnessing the early stages of a new kind of marketplace. In ecommerce 2.0, we’ll see discovery, recommendation, and payment converge within a single interface. Competition in this new frontier will no longer be about who owns the checkout. Rather, it will centralize around who owns the conversation that leads there. As the 2025 holiday shopping season picks up, expect to see fintechs, retailers, and payment providers racing to claim their spot in the Gen AI shopping ecosystem.
TrueLayer plans to acquire Sweden-based Zimpler, expanding its footprint in the Nordics and strengthening its position in Europe’s growing pay-by-bank sector.
The deal combines TrueLayer’s European network with Zimpler’s Nordic expertise and Swish integration, creating a strong alternative to traditional card payments.
The acquisition highlights the rise of account-to-account payments in the debt-averse Nordic region, where pay-by-bank adoption already leads the world.
UK open banking platform TrueLayerunveiled today that it will acquire Sweden-based pay-by-bank company Zimpler. The financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
TrueLayer will leverage Zimpler’s strong standing in the Nordic market to expand its network and expertise. The purchase will support TrueLayer’s mission to build a payments alternative in Europe, which will in turn create competition and increase value for customers.
“We’re not just expanding our footprint in the Nordics—we’re combining talent, technology, and scale to accelerate Pay by Bank adoption across the continent,” said TrueLayer Co-Founder and CEO Francesco Simoneschi.
Zimpler was founded in 2012 with a mission to democratize payments and enable growth for businesses across industries and markets. The company connects businesses with over 350 million customer bank accounts across more than 25 markets.
“Joining forces with TrueLayer is a fantastic opportunity to build the leading Pay by Bank provider in Europe,” said Zimpler CEO Johan Strand. “TrueLayer has a proven track record of innovation and a powerful network. Our combined strengths will allow us to offer an even more compelling proposition to the market. Joining TrueLayer will enable us to reach new heights and drive the next wave of growth in the industry. At the same time, we remain firmly anchored in Sweden, with our local license and expertise ensuring continuity for our customers.”
Europe, specifically the Nordic region, has some of the highest adoption rates of account-to-account payments in the world. The debt-averse culture of the Nordics leads to low credit card usage. Only around 35% to 45% of Swedish adults have an active credit card. Because of this, pay-by-bank is widely adopted and accepted.
By acquiring Zimpler, TrueLayer will strengthen its pan-European network to more than 20 million users and will add coverage across key markets such as Sweden, Finland, and will add A2A capabilities through the Swish payment rail integration. This significantly strengthens TrueLayer’s pan-European network, accelerating the shift to smarter, safer, and more cost-effective payments.
TrueLayer’s acquisition of Zimpler consolidates pay-by-bank in Europe. As open banking matures, scale and network coverage are two key differentiators. Combining TrueLayer’s European reach with Zimpler’s Nordic expertise, plus its connectivity to Swedish mobile banking app Swish, the partnership creates a strong alternative to traditional card networks.
“I am excited to welcome the Zimpler team to TrueLayer,” said Simoneschi. “We’ve long admired their progress, and we’re excited to add such an incredible group of builders and payment experts to the TrueLayer team. We’re not just expanding our footprint in the Nordics—we’re combining talent, technology, and scale to accelerate Pay by Bank adoption across the continent, and further strengthening Pay by Bank as a force of disruption that is changing how the world pays.”
If you’ve been paying attention to the open banking conversation in the US, you are aware that it is currently on the cusp of a major shift. In July, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a surprise motion to pause the legal battle over its Section 1033 data access rule. The Bureau then announced its plans to rewrite the rule altogether, and initiated a call for public comments.
The purpose of Section 1033 is to align principles on how consumers access and share their financial data. The rule essentially stands as the legal backbone of open banking in the US. For its part, the CFPB’s role is to define the technical and legal framework behind the mechanics of consumer data access. The Bureau is tasked with creating standards for data access, consent, and security.
The public comment period ends tomorrow, October 21, but writing a new rule will likely be anything but smooth. Aside from the various viewpoints from opposing stakeholders, which complicates the CFPB’s effort to write a fair ruling for all parties, there is now another wrinkle in the story. Last week, White House budget director Russell Vought said on a podcast that he wants to close down the CFPB. If the CFPB were indeed dismantled, would open banking stall or survive?
When the public comments period ends tomorrow, the CFPB will begin drafting the new open banking proposal. Further complicating the matter, the rewrite is unfolding alongside ongoing litigation over the original rule. The Financial Technology Association (FTA) is defending the rule in court after the Trump administration moved to overturn it back in May. In September it argued against an effort by the Bank Policy Institute to keep the rule on hold indefinitely, saying that big banks are trying to limit how much authority the CFPB has over open banking in hopes of shaping what the new version of the rule will look like.
Between the drafting of the new rule and all of the litigation, the next six-to-twelve months are pivotal in steering the open banking conversation. And yet, even as the rule is being rewritten and argued over in court, a much bigger question looms: what happens if the CFPB itself disappears? If Vought’s comments are correct and the CFPB is indeed completely dismantled there are a few likely scenarios of what may happen moving forward:
Regulatory limbo
With no agency to finalize or enforce 1033, the rule could be delayed or stalled indefinitely. This delay would slow technological adoption and would make open banking once again driven by the market, instead of regulation.
In fact, for years, banks and fintechs have been building API-based data-sharing frameworks and forming independent networks such as FDX, which unifies the financial industry around a common standard for the secure and convenient access of permissioned consumer and business data.
In the absence of regulatory guardrails, however, big banks could set the terms of data access and possibly introduce unreasonable fees or restrictive policies. Additionally, smaller fintechs could be squeezed out, which would ultimately reduce consumer choice. As a result, the US would have a more industry-controlled version of open banking instead of a consumer-centric model.
Reassignment
The authority to shape, finalize, and enforce 1033 could shift to other agencies such as the FCC or OCC. Swapping agencies, however, may create jurisdictional confusion since neither agency has a direct consumer-data mandate. This confusion may lead to slower adoption and reduced technological innovation.
If federal leadership falters, however, individual states may step in to organize their own regulations. States like California or New York may end up writing their own data-sharing laws. This would result in a patchwork of regulations, increasing compliance costs and complexity, especially for new fintechs seeking to compete. In theory, Congress could pass national open banking legislation, but bipartisan agreement on financial regulation (or any regulation) is rare.
Wiping out the CFPB will not wipe out the underlying law, Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. However, even though the law would continue to stand on its own two feet, the rulemaking, enforcement, and coordination around the law could be thrown into disarray. If the rulemaking is stalled for too long, it is likely that we will see individual states take matters into their own hands.
