Author: David Penn

Lisa Pent of PentEdge on AI Governance in Community Banking and Financial Services

Lisa Pent of PentEdge on AI Governance in Community Banking and Financial Services
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CEO Interview, PentEdge, Speaker series

More and more credit unions and community banks are weighing the challenges and opportunities of deploying AI-powered solutions for their members and customers. Yet, while there is much attention paid to the technical details of integrating AI-based technologies into banking operations, there is often less focus on the critical issues of AI governance: the rules, policies, and processes that ensure that a given use of AI is safe, non-discriminatory, and transparent.

With this in mind, this week Finovate First-Timers interviews Lisa Pent, Founder and CEO of PentEdge. Founded in 2025 and headquartered in Albany, New York, PentEdge is the company behind AIMS (AI Monitoring & Governance System), a purpose-built SaaS platform that enables credit unions and community banks to govern AI operations confidently.

AIMS provides financial institutions with “AI with Guardrails”, a framework that automates AI inventory, vendor risk assessment, regulatory mapping, and board-ready reporting, transforming complex compliance requirements into a streamlined process. PentEdge made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego, demonstrating this technology.

In this conversation, Pent talks about the predicament that many financial institutions find themselves in when deploying AI solutions without recognizing the myriad risks involved and how to mitigate them. She also discusses the unique challenges that credit unions, community banks, and other smaller firms face when embracing AI compared to their larger rivals. Last, Pent explains how PentEdge’s technology helps these companies manage AI vendor relationships better and more accurately assess risk.

What problem does PentEdge solve and who does it solve it for?

Lisa Pent: Most community banks and credit unions are already using AI. Very few of them know where, how much, or who owns the risk.

That is because AI almost never arrives through a deliberate build decision at an institution this size. It arrives through vendors. The core processor adds an intelligent feature. The fraud platform turns on a model. Marketing signs up for a writing assistant on a corporate card. Nobody stood up an AI program, and yet the institution now carries the risk and the examination exposure.

The consequences are not hypothetical. Earlier this year, a publicly traded community bank disclosed in a securities filing that an employee had uploaded customer information to an AI tool the institution had not authorized. That gap, between what an institution believes it is using and what its people are using, is exactly what we built PentEdge to close.

Our customers are community banks, credit unions, and adjacent regulated firms such as insurers, RIAs, and asset managers. Their supervisory expectations are similar to those on the largest banks. Specific requirements often scale with asset size, but the expectation that you know what AI you are running, and can show how you govern it, does not. AIMS™, our AI Monitoring and Governance platform, gives them a defensible AI inventory, a risk score for every tool, and reporting their board and their examiners can rely on.

How does PentEdge solve this problem better than other companies?

Pent: Two things set us apart: the catalog and the scoring model.

The catalog is the asset. We maintain a research catalog of AI tools and the vendors that supply them, built around the technology community financial institutions genuinely use. When an institution tells us which vendors it works with, we can identify the AI inside those relationships rather than asking a compliance officer to figure it out from vendor marketing pages. And because vendors turn AI features on continuously, we monitor the catalog for change, so the inventory does not go stale.

The scoring model is the second piece, and it is aligned to the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, which is the closest thing this industry has to a common language for AI risk. Our AI Risk Score™ separates what we know from what only the institution knows. PentEdge supplies the inherent risk score, combining a tool’s exposure profile with the nature of the AI itself. The institution scores its own controls and mitigants. The result is a residual score that reflects that specific institution rather than an industry average.

The alternatives fall into two camps: enterprise governance platforms scoped and priced for the largest banks, and consultants who deliver a thoughtful, point-in-time document that is out of date within a quarter. Neither serves the roughly 9,000 institutions that make up most American banks and credit unions.

Who are PentEdge’s primary customers? How do you reach them?

Pent: Our market is every US bank outside the top 25 and every US credit union, roughly 9,000 institutions, plus adjacent regulated firms in insurance and asset management. Within those institutions, our buyers are chief risk officers, chief compliance officers, CIOs, and, in smaller shops, the CEO directly. The common thread is not asset size. It is that nobody in the building has “AI risk” in their job description.

We reach them four ways. First, direct outreach to named institutions, which is still the most productive channel we have. Second, associations, which remain the trusted intermediary in this market in a way they are not in most other industries. Third, in-person events, where community bankers and credit union executives compare notes candidly. We were at FinovateSpring and IBANYS this year, and we will be exhibiting at GoWest MAXX in Denver in October. Fourth, education. I publish a weekly newsletter, At the Helm, along with white papers and practical guidance on AI governance for institutions of this size.

Most engagements start with our 48-Hour AI Risk Assessment, a short, concrete look at what AI an institution is already exposed to. It is a low-friction way to see the problem clearly before committing to the full platform.

Can you tell us about a favorite implementation, deployment, or partnership experience? What made it special?

Pent: My honest answer is that every implementation is my favorite, and that is not a dodge. It is the point.

We decided early that AIMS™ would not require integration with the core. We do not touch endpoints. There is no agent to install, no data pipeline, and no security review of a connection into their environment, because there is no connection. The institution gives us a list of its vendors, an Excel file is perfectly fine, and the platform generates a scored AI inventory automatically.

And the output is not a raw list. From day one, that same inventory produces examiner-ready and board-ready reports at the click of a button, so nobody must rebuild it in a spreadsheet the night before a meeting.

So, the moment I look forward to is the same every time, and it comes within days or hours rather than months. We put an institution’s own scored inventory in front of the people responsible for it, and the conversation stops being abstract. They are looking at their own list, sorted by risk, deciding what to handle first.

What in your background gave you the confidence to respond to this challenge?

Pent: Thirty years of standing on both sides of this problem.

I started in community banking and spent the first half of my career in credit risk on Wall Street, including building a credit risk business from scratch at Helaba that grew past $12 billion in assets, and running a group at Fuji Bank. That work taught me what regulators are looking for, and more usefully, what they are looking for when they ask a question that sounds like it is about something else.

The second half was technology. I spent a decade at Thomson Reuters building SaaS products for financial institutions, then moved into senior leadership at Cognizant. That is where I learned how software gets adopted inside a bank, which is a different discipline entirely from knowing what the software should do.

Alongside that, I have served on boards, and I founded WomenExecs on Boards (WEoB), which put me in the room for a lot of oversight conversations. Board members are being asked about AI right now and most of them have no instrument to answer with.

So when community institutions started telling me they had no idea what AI they were running, I recognized all three problems at once: the risk problem, the product problem, and the governance problem. That combination is uncommon, and it is what gave me the confidence to build PentEdge.

Does AI governance bring unique challenges for smaller, community financial institutions, above and beyond the challenges of deploying AI in general?

Pent: Yes, and the difference is structural rather than a matter of degree. It starts with vendor management.

Community institutions run on vendors, and the volume is enormous relative to headcount. It is not unusual to find one vendor relationship for every one or two employees. Every one carries a contract, a due diligence file, a risk rating, and an annual review. That workload already outstrips the people assigned to it, before AI enters the conversation.

Then AI arrives, and the instinct is to treat it as one more vendor category. It cannot be managed that way. Traditional vendor management is periodic by design: you onboard, you diligence, you review once a year. AI does not hold still for a year. A vendor can turn on an AI feature in a routine release with no contract amendment and no meaningful notice, so the tool you assessed in January can carry a different risk profile by June. An annual questionnaire will never catch that.

The nature of the risk is different too. A traditional vendor review asks about uptime, financial condition, and business continuity. AI raises questions about what data leaves the institution, how decisions affecting members and customers are made, and whether anyone can explain them afterward.

What we hope to do is broader than AI alone. If an institution can see its full vendor stack clearly, with the AI inside it identified and scored, it gains something it has never had: efficiency in that stack (cost efficiency included) and transparency into where the risk truly sits.

You demoed at FinovateSpring in May of this year. How was the experience?

Pent: It has been our highlight of 2026 so far.

The format does something for a founder that no internal exercise can replicate. A few minutes, live, on stage, with nothing to hide behind. You either show what the product does, or you do not, and preparing for that clarified our own thinking about AIMS™ more than any planning session had.

What I did not fully anticipate was the momentum. The interest was tremendous on the day itself, and it did not stop when we left the stage. The conversations continued through the rest of the event and then kept going in the weeks afterward, and a meaningful part of what we are working on now traces back to that room.

What struck me most was the consistency of the reaction. Nobody argued the premise. Not one person suggested that AI governance is a large-institution problem or a future problem. The questions were all operational: where do we start, what does the inventory look like, how do I explain this to my board. For a founder, that is the best possible signal. You would far rather spend your time answering how than defending why.

I would recommend it to any founder selling into this market, both for the discipline the stage imposes and for the honest, unfiltered feedback you get in the hallway afterward.

What are your goals for PentEdge over the balance of 2026 and into next year?

Pent: Three priorities.

First, make the entry point easier. We recently introduced AIMS™ Manifest, a self-serve tier that gives an institution full access to our AI tool catalog with its own holdings flagged inside it, along with continuous change monitoring. No institution should have to buy the whole platform to answer the first question: what is our AI risk profile?

Second, deepen the catalog. It is the core of what we sell and the reason a subscription earns its renewal. Through the rest of this year, we are expanding coverage and keeping the mapping between tools and governance expectations current as both sides move.

Third, and this is where we are heading next, we want to be the go-to firm helping community financial institutions optimize their vendor stack, creating both cost efficiency and operational efficiency. That is above and beyond what most consulting firms do in this space, which is renegotiate contracts. Renegotiation is worth doing, but it treats the stack as fixed. Once an institution can see every vendor, every tool inside those vendors, and the risk attached to each, it can ask sharper questions: what is redundant, what is unused, and what is carrying risk out of proportion to the value it delivers.

Into 2027, the goal is straightforward. When an examiner asks a credit union what AI it uses, or a board asks its CEO, the answer should be a one-click report rather than a research project. And when that same CEO asks whether the institution is getting full value from everything it buys, and what risk it is carrying to get it, that should come from the same place.

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ANNA Money Acquires Business Data Group, UK Business Forums

ANNA Money Acquires Business Data Group, UK Business Forums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, ANNA, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • ANNA Money has acquired Business Data Group (BDG) and UK Business Forums (UKBF) as part of its goal of building an AI-powered operating system for small business founders and owners.
  • BDG is a leading, UK-based independent company formation platform. UKBF is a 160,000-member, online community of small business owners, freelancers, and other professionals.
  • Founded in 2017 and headquartered in London, ANNA made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin.

AI-powered, all-in-one business account ANNA Money has acquired Business Data Group (BDG) and UK Business Forums (UKBF). The move represents the latest effort by ANNA to build an AI-powered operating system to help founders start, manage, and scale their businesses. By acquiring BDG, ANNA will be able to leverage the firm’s formation agents to support startups from formation to the day-to-day tasks of successfully running a business. The acquisition of UKBF will allow ANNA to continue to invest in the UKBF community and bring its business management tools to more small business owners to help them run their businesses more efficiently.

“ANNA isn’t going to compete with formation agents,” the company noted on its LinkedIn page. “We’re here to help them win. ANNA’s success is tied to the success of the businesses we help get started. So instead of competing with the independent agents who rely on BDG’s eFiling platform, we’re investing in the technology, automation, and tools that strengthen their positions.”

BDG is an independent company formation platform based in the UK. The firm offers eFiling and the Partner Program used by thousands of formation agents and their clients every year. Formation agents are professional service providers that help founders and businesses register and incorporate new companies with the appropriate government entities. UKBF is a 160,000-member, online business community and discussion forum where small business owners, founders, freelancers, and other professionals share insights and concerns about running their businesses.

ANNA’s goal is to help small businesses take advantage of current agentic AI capabilities to raise invoices, follow up on overdue payments, calculate and file taxes, and more now, with the aim of expanding capabilities to help small business owners communicate better with their customers, manage suppliers, and conduct a growing volume of the day-to-day tasks involved in running a business “over time” in what the company called “ANNA 3.0.”

“Bringing BDG and UKBF into ANNA is an important step towards that future,” ANNA Money Co-founder and Co-CEO Eduard Panteleev said. “Company formation is where every business journey begins, and BDG’s network means we can now support many more entrepreneurs from day one, with technology that grows alongside them.”

ANNA made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin. At the conference, the UK-based company showed how its tax and VAT accounting solution manages self-assessment and VAT returns by automatically categorizing and reconciling expenses, and calculating VAT and tax in real time at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated accountant. ANNA completes and submits both tax and VAT returns to HMRC with the support of a certified accountant.

ANNA began 2026 with a fresh capital infusion of £10 million in growth debt from Flashpoint Ventures. The funding helped the firm accelerate the scaling of its Auto Accountant solution designed to help small businesses in the UK meet the new regulatory requirements of the country’s Making Tax Digital mandate. “This funding gives us the firepower to scale at exactly the right moment,” Panteleev said. “As Making Tax Digital for self-assessment comes into force for around 850,000 self-employed people and landlords next year, demand for smart, automated accounting is accelerating fast.”

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Marqeta and zerohash Enable Stablecoin Spending on International Card Networks

Marqeta and zerohash Enable Stablecoin Spending on International Card Networks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Marqeta
  • Card issuing platform Marqeta has announced a partnership with digital asset infrastructure provider zerohash.
  • The collaboration will integrate zerohash’s stablecoin infrastructure into Marqeta’s card issuing capabilities to enable companies to offer stablecoin payments to their customers without having to rebuild their core systems.
  • A Finovate alum since 2016, Marqeta is headquartered in Oakland, California.

Card issuing platform Marqeta and digital asset infrastructure provider zerohash have teamed up to enable Marqeta customers to embed stablecoin payments directly into both new and existing financial products. The integration of zerohash’s stablecoin infrastructure into Marqeta’s card issuing capabilities means organizations will benefit from the ability to offer stablecoin payments to customers without having to rebuild core systems or accept additional regulatory burdens.

“Our customers are building the next generation of financial products, and that requires new ways to manage and move money,” Marqeta Interim Chief Product Officer Anthony Peculic said. “By integrating with zerohash, we will be able to give our customers a full solution to deliver multinational and stablecoin-backed card programs that meet the needs of their users, while also being compliant and ready for global scale.”

Courtesy of the collaboration, Marqeta customers will be able to spend their digital dollars at tens of millions of merchants around the world using a standard payment card, with merchants paid in fiat currency. Marqeta will manage card issuance, acceptance, and bank and network relationships. zerohash will provide the underlying infrastructure that supports custody, compliance, and liquidity for on-chain money custody and movement.

The partnership between the two companies comes at a time when stablecoin adoption is accelerating throughout financial services. In February of this year, for example, stablecoin monthly transaction volumes reached $7.2 trillion, topping the ACH network’s $6.8 trillion for the first time. zerohash saw its own transaction volume grow 6.9x year-over-year in 2025, with transaction frequency up more than 2x. Having partnered with crypto companies to power debit card offerings in the US and Europe that enable spending in fiat currency based on crypto holdings, Marqeta will now be able to expand its capabilities to enable crypto and non-crypto companies to make stablecoin-based payments a part of their offering.

“Compatibility between stablecoins and traditional payment networks is a critical unlock for users’ onchain money, while also opening new opportunities for traditional businesses through stablecoin-backed cards,” zerohash CEO and Founder Edward Woodford said. “zerohash’s role is to abstract the complexity behind the scenes so stablecoins can be leveraged as a seamless part of everyday payments and money movement.”

A cryptocurrency, stablecoin, and tokenized asset infrastructure provider, zerohash offers an API and an embeddable dev kit that enables innovators to launch solutions for cross-border payments, commerce, trading, payroll, remittance, tokenization, and on/off-ramps. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and founded in 2017, zerohash serves fintechs, marketplaces, banks, brokerages, trading platforms, and more with regulated crypto trading and staking, real-time stablecoin payments, and tokenized financial products. The company supports more than 100 different assets, has more than seven million end customers, and a global regulatory footprint across the European Union, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, and the US. The firm also operates regulated entities in 51 US jurisdictions.

A Finovate alum since 2016, Marqeta debuted at our developer conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. The Oakland, California-based fintech offers card issuing, including virtual cards and tokenization, as well as processing and settlement services with Just-in-Time (JIT) funding and dynamic spend controls. Marqeta’s solutions enable businesses to transform real-time data into personalized, optimized solutions to enhance consumer loyalty, capital efficiency, and more. Processing nearly $400 billion in annual payment volume in 2025, Marqeta operates in more than 40 countries around the world.

Marqeta’s partnership announcement with zerohash comes as the firm reports that it has expanded its collaboration with fellow Finovate alum Expensify. The spend management software platform is leveraging Marqeta’s card issuing platform to bring its solution to customers in the UK and EU.

“Businesses across Europe are seeking expense management tools that are simple, automated, and designed to save them time and money,” Expensify Chief Strategy Officer Daniel Vidal said. “Through our expanded partnership with Marqeta, we’re able to bring our proven corporate card capabilities to Europe, delivering the same high-quality spend management solutions our US customers rely on to businesses of any size across the region.”

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INETCO Unveils Fraud Investigation Solution BullzAI

INETCO Unveils Fraud Investigation Solution BullzAI
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, INETCO Systems
  • Transaction monitoring and fraud prevention company INETCO unveiled its fraud investigation tool, BullzAI Investigate.
  • A module within INETCO’s BullzAI fraud prevention platform, BullzAI Investigate uses agentic AI to scale fraud prevention operations, reduce false positives, and help prioritize high-risk cases.
  • INETCO made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015. The Vancouver, Canada-based company was founded in 1984.

Real-time transaction monitoring and payment fraud prevention solutions provider INETCO has launched its new fraud investigation tool, BullzAI Investigate. The new, AI-assisted solution leverages specialized agents to compile transaction data, analyze behavioral patterns, and triage incoming alerts. BullzAI Investigate then steers analysts toward the highest-risk cases and produces explainable, auditable risk scores for each recommendation.

Running on a proprietary small language model that is deployed inside the client’s own system, BullzAI Investigate keeps sensitive data on premises. The solution also uses analyst feedback to refine and improve system performance via a supervised machine-learning cycle. The company noted that the new module is designed to reduce false positives and the amount of manual effort required to analyze large volumes of fragmented transaction data. This enables fraud teams to focus on higher-priority threats.

“INETCO BullzAI Investigate gives banks and payment service providers an intelligent way to scale the productivity of their fraud operations, reduce false positives, and prioritize high-risk cases,” INETCO Chief Technology Officer Ugan Naidoo said. “Agentic AI automates the heavy lifting by collating transactions, triaging alerts, and delivering explainable risk scores that support faster, more transparent decisions. Rather than replacing analysts, INETCO BullzAI Investigate serves as an intelligent partner that works continuously behind the scenes, allowing fraud teams to investigate more effectively while human oversight remains firmly in control.”

INETCO BullzAI Investigate has shortened fraud investigation times from as much as 30 minutes to as little as 20 seconds in early deployments. The company also reported a 97% to 99% reduction in investigation time, reviews that were up to 90 times faster, and recommendation precision of approximately 95%.

The new offering adds to INETCO BullzAI, the company’s cyber fraud prevention platform launched in September 2021. When initially unveiled, the platform was notable for its ability to detect and block fraudulent payment transactions in milliseconds before they complete and without interrupting legitimate payments. The platform was most recently deployed by Saudi Arabian fintech solutions provider Alhamrani Universal in December via INETCO’s global partner, Stanchion Payments.

“INETCO BullzAI gives us real-time visibility across thousands of self-service and digital payment transactions—revealing which financial institutions and merchants are active, how transactions are performing and where suspicious behaviors or anomalies occur,” Alhamrani Universal Chief Operations Officer Mario Rouhana said. “By understanding the behavioral patterns of every user, terminal, and device, we can scale our business with confidence, respond instantly to emerging threats and reinforce the trust our customers, partners, and regulators place in Alhamrani Universal as a leader in secure digital transformation.”

Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and founded in 1984, INETCO made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015. Today, the firm monitors more than 100 billion transactions a year, serving financial institutions and payment service providers around the world with end-to-end, secure payment visibility, adaptive modeling, and real-time fraud prevention.

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2026 Finovate Awards Finalists Announced!

2026 Finovate Awards Finalists Announced!
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Awards

After days (weeks!) of deliberation, the finalists for the 2026 Finovate Awards have been chosen. The shortlist is now on its way to our panel of esteemed industry judges who are tasked with picking this year’s winners in more than 30 categories ranging from alternative investing and lending to financial inclusion and payments!

“This year’s field of nominees was excellent, making for an incredibly competitive process,” Finovate VP and Director of Fintech Strategy Greg Palmer said. “It made for some difficult decisions for our judges as we had to decide who to advance, but it says great things about the current state of our industry. It’s exciting to see so much strong work being done across so many different areas within fintech, and congratulations to our finalists for rising to the top of the pile!”

Check out this year’s Finovate Award finalists.

The Finovate Awards showcase the financial institutions, fintechs, and founders who are driving fintech innovation today. Now in its eighth year, the Finovate Awards celebrate the diversity of stakeholders in the fintech ecosystem and provide a forum for these companies and individuals to make the case for the positive impact their innovations are bringing to our industry.

Coming up!

Now that the finalists have been selected, our team of judges will spend the next few weeks reviewing and choosing the winners in each of our 30+ award categories. The winners will be announced on September 10 at FinovateFall in New York City.

Questions about the Finovate Awards? Reach out at [email protected].

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Buckzy Payments and FinXP Enable Cross-Border Payments for Businesses

Buckzy Payments and FinXP Enable Cross-Border Payments for Businesses
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Buckzy Payments
  • Cross-border payments and embedded finance platform Buckzy Payments announced a strategic partnership with European payment infrastructure provider FinXP.
  • The partnership will enable Buckzy clients to access direct SEPA payment capabilities from FinXP. FinXP customers will benefit from Buckzy’s global banking network and stablecoin infrastructure.
  • Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Buckzy Payments made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019 in New York.

Real-time cross-border payment network Buckzy Payments has forged a strategic partnership with European payments and banking service provider FinXP. The partnership is designed to enable businesses operating internationally to access European and international payment capabilities by combining FinXP’s regulated European infrastructure—including euro accounts and SEPA payment capabilities—with Buckzy’s real-time international payment network and stablecoin infrastructure.

The partnership will enable eligible Buckzy clients to access FinXP’s direct SEPA payment capabilities, while FinXP’s clients will benefit from Buckzy’s international banking network and stablecoin infrastructure. This bolsters FinXP’s existing cross-border payment capabilities and extends its reach across additional markets and currencies.

“Europe is a critical market for our clients and an important part of any global payments proposition,” Buckzy Payments CEO Abdul Naushad said. “FinXP brings direct SEPA access, regulatory expertise, and a strong understanding of complex payment requirements. This partnership enhances Buckzy’s ability to provide clients with an integrated route into European accounts and SEPA Instant Payments, while extending the international reach available to FinXP clients.”

The partnership will help customers of both companies manage European accounts, collections, and payouts; extend their reach to new international markets and currencies; reduce reliance on disconnected providers; and enhance payment visibility, reconciliation, and operational efficiency. The two fintechs will initially connect European account and SEPA capabilities with Buckzy’s international cross-border payments infrastructure. Buckzy and FinXP also announced plans to explore potential opportunities in automated account provisioning, embedded payment services, multi-currency payment flows, and API-led financial infrastructure.

“Buckzy and FinXP share a common objective: to make international payments simpler, faster, and more accessible for businesses,” FinXP Co-founder and CEO Jens Podewski said. “Buckzy brings strong global payment connectivity and modern API infrastructure, while FinXP contributes regulated European account and payment capabilities. By combining these strengths, we can offer clients a more complete solution across Europe and international markets.”

FinXP offers IBAN accounts, card issuing, SEPA Direct Debit, clearing services, payout solutions, and an omnichannel payment gateway to enable its customers to make and receive payments in whatever form they prefer. A licensed Electronic Money Institution authorized by the Malta Financial Services Authority and a specialist in the B2B payments space, the company began 2026 with news of its partnership with B2B financial services platform ONE.io. FinXP helped the London-based firm build a new Euro account solution as well as launch its USD payment platform. Founded in 2014, FinXP processes €4 billion annually.

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Buckzy Payments made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019. At the conference, the company demonstrated its money transfer ecosystem that enables users to send and receive money in real time. The solution supports bank-to-bank transfers, international bill payments, digital wallet transfers, top-ups, and more. Serving financial institutions, fintechs, e-commerce marketplaces, and multinational companies, Buckzy is a registered money services business with FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada). The company was founded in 2018.

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Socure Launches Remote Verifier, Wins Multi- Million Identity Proofing Contract

Socure Launches Remote Verifier, Wins Multi- Million Identity Proofing Contract
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Socure
  • Identity verification and risk intelligence firm Socure launched its Remote Verifier solution this week.
  • Available within the company’s RiskOS platform, Remote Verifier supports human agents when verifying identities for the small percentage of the population that cannot be accurately verified using traditional methods.
  • Socure most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2017. Johnny Ayers is Founder and CEO.

Trust infrastructure provider for global identity and risk intelligence, Socure, has unveiled its Remote Verifier. The new offering, available in Socure’s RiskOS platform, is designed for individuals who do not initially pass Socure’s verification process, do not want to use automated systems, or require a manual option to verify their identity. While Socure notes that this is a relatively small population—the company believes fewer than 1% of all individuals will require Remote Verifier—the solution nevertheless helps organizations accurately and efficiently verify every identity presented. Remote Verifier provides human agents with uploaded identity documents, explanations for why the initial check failed, real-time Socure fraud intelligence signals and risk indicators, relevant attributes, and other verification insights to make efficient, evidence-based decisions that reduce friction and ensure compliance.

“Socure’s new Remote Verifier gives human reviewers the data and insights needed to make high-confidence identity decisions while limiting the friction felt by individuals accessing critical government services,” Socure Head of Public Sector Jordan Burris said. “This new integration ensures that live agents are not reviewing documents in isolation or using basic video conference software but are operating with the full context of Socure’s AI-driven fraud detection and identity intelligence. Ultimately, Socure is enabling public sector organizations to make smarter decisions that safeguard program integrity and prevent fraud, all while delivering an improved customer experience.”

RiskOS (Risk Operating System) is Socure’s AI-native decisioning and orchestration platform for identity verification, fraud prevention, risk management, and compliance. The platform integrates multiple data sources, enables real-time identity verification, fraud detection, and risk assessment workflows, and covers the full spectrum from identity verification to transaction monitoring, credit underwriting, and KYB solutions. Within RiskOS, Remote Verifier will enable teams to add remote identity document verification capabilities alongside the platform’s existing identity verification, fraud detection, and risk assessment tools.

“Socure has been a trusted partner for many years and a critical part of our ecosystem as we modernize loan and grant programs across the federal government,” Allocore CEO Bill Webner said. “Together, we’ve helped transform critical federal systems—blocking hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent activity each month while improving access for legitimate applicants. As we expand this partnership to support efforts to unify and modernize lending and grant programs, integrating Socure’s Remote Verifier into our turnkey IAL2 solution, including closing and notary capabilities, will deliver even greater value to our federal customers.”

Allocore is a leading provider of modern technology solutions for government lending, grants, investment management, and fraud prevention. The company’s platform helps federal agencies streamline operations, meet regulatory compliance obligations, and leverage automation, data intelligence, and AI-driven innovation to deliver better outcomes for customers.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York, Socure most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2017. The company specializes in digital identity verification, compliance, and fraud prevention, leveraging AI and machine learning to achieve high accuracy, automation, and capture rates. With more than 3,000 customers, Socure works with 19 of the 20 top US banks, 13 of the 15 top US credit card issuers, 4 of the top 5 social networks, and 600 leading fintechs. Johnny Ayers is Founder and CEO.

Socure’s new product announcement comes just days after the company reported securing a five-year, $163 million contract with Login.gov. Login.gov acts as a single, secure account to facilitate access to a variety of government services. Serving as subcontractor for Xcelerate Solutions, a defense and national security company, Socure will help deliver an identity verification solution that provides a continuous view of identity, including real-time identity resolution, attribute validation, fraud detection, behavioral analytics, and digital intelligence. The partnership will be especially helpful in enhancing the government’s remote identity verification capabilities.

“Organized networks and nation-state actors are deploying advanced techniques to exploit identity infrastructure at a speed that legacy systems cannot match, and an adaptive data-driven approach is the only credible way to stay ahead,” Socure Head of Public Sector Jordan Burris said. “The good news is we can do that without creating new barriers for the Americans who depend on these services, and that is exactly what we set out to achieve with Xcelerate.”

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3 Reasons Why Stripe Will Acquire PayPal (and 3 Why It Won’t)

3 Reasons Why Stripe Will Acquire PayPal (and 3 Why It Won’t)
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: List series, Mergers & Acquisitions, PayPal

Stripe has teamed up with private equity firm Advent International to acquire PayPal. Stripe and Advent are offering $60.50 per share in a deal that would value the payments firm at more than $53 billion. The acquisition would give Stripe and Advent each a 50% stake in the company and the offer, which is currently under consideration by the PayPal board, is supported by $50 billion in committed bank financing.

The acquisition would be a major development in e-commerce and payments, creating an entity with approximately $3.7 trillion in annual processing volume. But the deal isn’t done yet. Here’s a look at three reasons why the Stripe acquisition will (or should) go through, followed by three reasons why it won’t (or shouldn’t).

Deal!

Solid Strategic and Financial Sense

It’s easy to see why Stripe might want to do the deal. The acquisition would provide access to more than 430 million consumer accounts, as well as popular consumer-facing solutions like Venmo and PayPal Wallet. This would represent a major addition to Stripe’s current, merchant-focused business model. For its part, PayPal would gain access to Stripe’s modern technology infrastructure and merchant relationships. Combined, the company would process approximately $3.7 trillion a year.

PayPal’s Poor Position

PayPal is in an interesting position. The company’s stock is far off its pandemic highs, and the business itself faces slowing growth and intensifying competition from both fintech and Big Tech. Additionally, the company just appointed a new CEO in March who will be under pressure to make things happen. While there is some concern that the current offering price is too low (more about that in the “No Deal” section), the offer of $60.50 provides a premium of 28% over the stock’s price, pre-announcement. For some shareholders, this might be attractive enough to want to see the deal go through.

Private Equity Piloting the Mission

One potentially underrated aspect of this proposed acquisition is the participation of private equity firm Advent International. Working with Stripe as a 50/50 partner, Advent will be well-positioned to help navigate regulatory challenges and complex financial transactions—including managing divestitures if required. It also means that, should it be necessary to raise the bid (more on that below), Advent will be there to potentially provide additional capital. It is true that a deal of this size is larger than anything Advent has been involved with in its 42-year history. Nevertheless, the firm’s expertise, experience—and the sizable commitment of billions in equity capital—are meaningful factors in favor of the deal.

No Deal!

Antitrust

The biggest danger to the deal is regulatory. Combined, Stripe and PayPal would be a dominant digital payments player with an estimated $3.7 trillion in annual processing volume. While the Trump administration is likely to be far more permissive with regard to big mergers than the Biden administration was, a move of this size would still draw exceptional amounts of scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, as well as from regulators in the European Union. There’s also the potential that regulators might require conditions on the deal that would make the acquisition less strategically valuable.

Culture Clash

I’m old enough to remember when PayPal was the scrappy, technology-first company that was helping drive the emerging industry of e-commerce. Today, however, PayPal is a huge legacy firm with upwards of 25,000 employees, significant technical debt, complex infrastructure, and a well-established corporate culture. Incorporating PayPal’s legacy systems and operational complexity could prove to be more of a burden than a boon for a company like Stripe that still sees itself largely as an agile, engineering-driven firm.

Valuation

One concern is that the current price on offer of $60.50 per share is too low. Analysts have given PayPal a “sum-of-the-parts” valuation of anywhere from $46 to $80 per share, which suggests that the price on the table is in the lower-to-middle range. Observers such as prominent investor Michael Burry (of The Big Short fame) have said that “the bid will have to rise” (note that Burry is an investor in PayPal). William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey doubted that PayPal’s new CEO would accept “what could be viewed as a low-ball offer.”

Another possibility is that other buyers appear. JPMorgan Chase is one potential acquirer that has been mentioned by some. It is also possible that Stripe determines that it would rather try to purchase specific assets from PayPal (such as Braintree or Venmo) instead of acquiring the entire firm.

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Glia and Alloy Labs Unveil Banking AI Strategic Annual Planning Kit

Glia and Alloy Labs Unveil Banking AI Strategic Annual Planning Kit
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alloy, Alumni News, Glia
  • Banking AI platform Glia and financial services consortium Alloy Labs have jointly released their 2026-2027 Banking AI Strategic Annual Planning Kit.
  • The planning kit is a cross-functional blueprint that gives leaders at banks and credit unions guidance on deploying banking-specific AI solutions.
  • Glia is a multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner. Alloy Labs most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2022.

Banking AI platform Glia and financial services consortium Alloy Labs have teamed up to jointly release their 2026-2027 Banking AI Strategic Annual Planning Kit. The new resource is a cross-functional blueprint that provides leadership teams with clear governance templates, an enterprise-wide roadmap, and strategies to deploy banking-specific AI. The goal is to help organizations avoid the kind of security and compliance risks that many institutions face when using industry-agnostic AI solutions.

“This is the first planning cycle where AI strategy and bank strategy are in the same conversation,” Alloy Labs CEO Jason Henrichs said. “Boards are approving budgets for technology that moves faster than any planning process built to contain it—and institutions treating that as a line item rather than a set of strategic choices will spend 2027 explaining why the spend never reached the bottom line.”

The planning kit comes as a sizable number of regional and community financial institutions are reporting challenges when it comes to realizing some of the benefits of AI-enabled technology. Glia’s statement on the partnership noted that 80% of institutions have said that early adoption of AI has “failed to improve their bottom line.” The blueprint provided by Glia and Alloy Labs is designed to help leaders transform their investments in AI—increasingly the top technology budget item for banks and credit unions—into lower operating costs, higher loan and deposit growth, and greater account holder retention.

“We’ve sat in rooms full of bank technology leaders and asked how many have a single AI agent in production,” Henrichs added. “Silence. These aren’t laggards. They have board mandates and completed pilots. What’s missing is the bridge from experiment to strategy, and that’s a planning problem, not a technology one. We built this kit with Glia to close that gap. Glia was the right partner because they’ve done the production-scale work in banking that most AI vendors only put in slide decks.”

Designed as a practical workbook, the kit covers a variety of core topics including how to leverage conversational, automated, outbound voice and SMS outreach to boost loan and deposit volumes, and key parameters for evaluating cybersecurity architectures and regulatory compliance factors to defend against hallucinations, data leaks, and vendor sprawl. The kit also articulates a Centralized Product Ownership Model for C-suite leadership, a Three-Phase Roadmap to facilitate smooth scaling that does not interfere with existing workflows, and a practical framework for launching a Universal Banker model that supports and elevates the entire workforce.

“As the 2027 planning cycle begins, banks and credit unions are facing a perfect storm,” Glia CEO and Co-Founder Dan Michaeli said. “Financial institutions are trying to protect their core deposits, keep the next generation from moving their inheritance away, and somehow find growth in a flat market. Throw in talent shortages, compliance headaches, and rising fraud, and the old strategic planning playbook just won’t cut it. We built this resource because executives don’t need more AI hype. They need a practical blueprint to prioritize their efforts to handle all these pressures at once.”

A consortium of more than 90 community and midsize banks, Alloy Labs spans 46 states and nearly $500 billion in combined assets. The alliance works with banks and credit unions, collaborating to share insights, explore emerging trends, and unlock new opportunities for growth. Viewed as a single entity, Alloy Labs is a top 10 bank, which gives it the scale to work with larger providers and provide a scaling path to startup partners. Jason Henrichs is CEO.

A multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner, Glia most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2021. The company’s Banking AI Operating System serves as a central intelligence layer that sits on top of existing tech stacks, activating an AI workforce of specialized agents that draw from banking data, interaction history, and integrated systems of record. These AI agents automate workflows across voice and digital channels to lower operational costs, boost efficiency, and streamline the customer experience. More than 700 banks and credit unions rely on Glia’s technology.

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

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BIL Suisse Renews Strategic Partnership with Avaloq

BIL Suisse Renews Strategic Partnership with Avaloq
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Avaloq
  • Wealthtech platform Avaloq and Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL Suisse) renewed their strategic partnership this week. The two entities have worked together for more than ten years.
  • Avaloq and BIL Suisse noted that the next phase of the collaboration will emphasize joint innovation and enhanced client-based services for customers in the Swiss market.
  • Founded in 1985, Avaloq won Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2018 in Hong Kong.

Wealth management technology platform Avaloq and Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL Suisse) renewed their strategic partnership this week. BIL Suisse has leveraged Avaloq’s platform and banking operations service for more than ten years and noted in a statement that the “next phase of collaboration” with the Zurich-based fintech will focus on joint innovation and enhanced client-focused services for the Swiss market.

Going forward, BIL Suisse will continue to rely on Avaloq for its core banking system, which is delivered in a SaaS model. Avaloq manages both the system and infrastructure, including regulatory updates, enabling the bank to scale efficiently while maintaining operational stability and compliance. BIL Suisse and Avaloq will also work together on joint innovations to facilitate BIL Suisse’s secure integration with third-party services. This will involve fortifying both the financial institution’s KYC processes and data connectivity to ensure effective risk management and seamless data integration.

BIL Suisse will also continue to use Avaloq’s Banking Operations service for its high levels of straight-through-processing (STP), enhancing back-office efficiency, reducing manual intervention, and providing embedded risk and compliance controls.

“For more than 40 years, BIL Suisse has served the Swiss market with a deep commitment to tailored service and a boutique approach inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit of our people,” BIL Suisse Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel Tobias Kamber said. “Avaloq has been a key partner on this journey, providing the technology that streamlines and enhances our front-, middle-, and back-office operations. We value this long-standing collaboration and the important role it plays in our digital transformation, helping us deliver the seamless, high-quality experience our clients expect.”

A boutique private bank, BIL Suisse provides bespoke wealth management, advisory, investment, and lending services. The institution serves high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, family businesses, and professional intermediaries around the world. Founded in 1985, the institution is a subsidiary of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg SA, the oldest private bank in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

“This renewal builds on a partnership that has enhanced BIL Suisse’s operations over many years,” Avaloq Managing Director for Switzerland and Liechtenstein Christian Haux said. “Looking ahead, we will work closely with BIL Suisse to advance the bank’s digital transformation, delivering higher levels of automation and supporting a high-quality client experience. We thank BIL Suisse for its continued trust and look forward to continuing to serve as their partner for core banking and back-office operations.”

Founded in 1985, Avaloq won Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2018. The company provides wealth management technology and services for financial institutions worldwide. This includes private banks, wealth managers, investment managers, and retail and neobanks. Avaloq’s platform covers the entire value chain from the front to the back office, helping clients achieve straight-through processing rates of up to 99%, increase revenue per adviser by as much as 10%, and enable firms to expand into new markets in as little as six months. Acquired by Japan’s NEC Corporation in 2020, Avaloq today has more than 175 clients around the world on its platform, including Deutsche Bank, Barclays, and HSBC.

Photo by Robert Ruggiero on Unsplash

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Entrust Datacard, Expensify, Fintech Rundown, Qolo

Today is Bastille Day in France, which is also celebrating a World Cup semi-finals match against neighbor and rival Spain. We’ve got one eye on the pitch and the other on the latest fintech headlines. Be sure to check back here at Finovate’s Fintech Rundown all week long for updates!

Digital banking

Flex, a private banking platform for high-net-worth business owners, raises $70 million in funding.

ConnectOne Bank is building on nCino’s Agentic Operating System.

Corning Credit Union replaces weeks-long data requests with self-service search using Tursio.

Shoreline Hometown Credit Union launches Mahalo Banking’s Thoughtful Banking platform.

Stablecoins

Velocity, a stablecoin treasury and settlement platform, secures $38 million in Series A funding.

Stablecoin payment infrastructure company Confirmo unveils Subscribe, recuring payments solution for enterprise billing.

Business financial management

Business spend management innovator Expensify launches consolidated travel billing.

Digital identity

Identity-centric security specialist Entrust launches agentic AI trust accelerator to help businesses and integration partners build an identity and trust infrastructure for autonomous AI projects.

Wealth management

UK-based digital wealth management platform Moneybox announces plans for a secondary share sale at a £800 million valuation.

Payments

Financial software and technology company CSI is acquiring modern treasury solutions and payments infrastructure firm Qolo.

Branch expands earned wage access with new flex model and direct delivery options.

Shift4 and Global Blue launch Shift4 One, an all-in-one payment and tax free shopping solution.

LLM banking

Grasshopper now listed in Anthropic’s MCP directory.

Photo by Yiwen on Unsplash

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TAPP Engine and Envestnet Team Up for Goals-Based Investing

TAPP Engine and Envestnet Team Up for Goals-Based Investing
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Envestnet, TAPP Engine
  • Wealthech solutions provider TAPP Engine has teamed up with wealth management and financial planning platform Envestnet.
  • Courtesy of the partnership, TAPP Engine will integrate Envestnet’s ActivePassive ETF model portfolios into its digital investing platform.
  • TAPP Engine made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025. Envestnet most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2021 in New York.

Embedded wealthtech solutions provider TAPP Engine will offer Envestnet’s ActivePassive ETF model portfolios as part of a new partnership announced late last week. TAPP Engine will integrate these portfolios into its digital investing platform to enable credit unions and banks to offer a more customized, goals-based investing experience to their members and customers.

TAPP Engine currently offers self-directed brokerage accounts, goals-based automated investing, fractional share investing, commission-free equity trading, digital account opening and onboarding, single sign-on (SSO) integration with digital banking platforms, integrated custody and clearing services, as well as investor education and financial wellness tools and resources. Integrating Envestnet’s portfolios will provide greater personalization, enhance the overall digital investing experience, and enable TAPP Engine to bring innovative wealth management solutions to more community financial institutions.

“Our mission has always been to help financial institutions deliver modern digital wealth experiences that strengthen member relationships and support long-term financial wellness,” President of TAPP Engine Securities and TAPP Engine Advisors Mark Guglielmo said. “Working with Envestnet allows us to help credit unions and community banks deliver a more customized, goals-based investing experience that keeps the member’s financial journey connected to the institution they trust most.”

The partnership between Envestnet and TAPP Engine comes at a time of growing consumer expectations when it comes to digital investing: namely, that digital investing should be as straightforward and seamless as online banking. Making Envestnet’s ETF portfolios available through TAPP Engine’s platform will enable community financial institutions to deliver the kind of customized digital investing experience that supports financial wellness and drives long-term engagement.

Envestnet’s ActivePassive ETF portfolios are a hybrid investment product that combines both active and passive ETF management strategies into a single portfolio framework. This framework includes passive components such as low-cost, index-tracking ETFs to provide core market exposure along with active components in the form of actively managed ETFs that pursue outperformance via strategic selection and market timing. These portfolios are popular among many investors because they combine the stability and predictability of core holdings with the potential for outperformance and the ability to navigate market volatility.

“For decades, Envestnet has helped shape how advisors think about combining active and passive investing to build better portfolios,” Group Head of Investment Management at Envestnet Erik Preus said. “This collaboration brings that investment discipline to TAPP Engine, giving credit unions and community banks access to institutional-quality ETF portfolios grounded in rigorous research and disciplined portfolio construction. It reflects our belief that sophisticated investment capabilities should be accessible to more institutions and, ultimately, to more investors.”

An alum of both Finovate and our developer conference, FinDEVr, Envestnet made its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2021 in New York. The company’s adaptive platform offers interconnected wealth management and financial planning solutions, as well as access to model portfolios, tax management, and high-net-worth consulting. Envestnet has $7 trillion in platform assets and its technology is used by more than a third of all financial advisors across leading banks, wealth managers, brokerages, and RIAs.

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts, TAPP Engine made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025. At the conference, the wealthtech firm demonstrated how its platform enables financial institutions to embed modern wealth solutions directly into their offerings. TAPP Engine’s turnkey microservices infrastructure solutions include end-to-end wealth management services for investing, cash management, custody, and clearing. The company’s platform supports multi-custodian integrations across equities, ETFs, options, and tokenized assets. Tosin Osunsanya is Founder and CEO.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

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