Author: David Penn

Bluefin Forges Strategic Partnership with Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen, ICIT, and Worldline

Bluefin Forges Strategic Partnership with Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen, ICIT, and Worldline
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Bluefin
  • Payment and data security company Bluefin has teamed up with Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen, ICIT, and Worldline to enhance payment and data security to All-in-One (AIO) payment devices.
  • The partnership will focus initially on serving businesses in Italy’s prosperous South Tyrol region.
  • Bluefin demonstrated its technology at Finovate’s developer’s conference, FinDEVR, in 2014.

Payment and data security innovator Bluefin announced a strategic partnership with Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen, ICIT, and Worldline. The partnership is designed to deliver enhanced payment and data security to All-In-One (AIO) payment devices throughout Italy’s South Tyrol region.

“At Bluefin, we are excited to collaborate with leading players and ISVs to deliver validated P2PE solutions across Europe and all global regions,” Bluefin SVP for Europe, Cheng Chieh Chen said. “Together with Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen, ICIT, and Worldline, we are committed to transforming the payment landscape in South Tyrol by delivering payment innovation, security, and enhanced customer experiences to this vibrant market.”

South Tyrol is Italy’s northernmost province—with Austria to the north and Switzerland to the west. With an official title of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano—South Tyrol, the province has a significant degree of self-governance and is among the wealthiest provinces in the EU, to say nothing of being the wealthiest province in Italy. Located in the Italian Alps mountain range, South Tyrol is a major regional tourist destination, and its growing hospitality and retail sectors make it an increasingly compelling environment for innovative payment solutions.

“As the main provider of banking services for Raiffeisen Banks in South Tyrol and as corporate banking experts, we are constantly trying to find new products and solutions to better meet the needs and requirements of our corporate clients and to optimize their work processes,” Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen General Director Simon Ladurner said. “Thanks to our partnership with Bluefin, ICIT, and Worldline we provide innovative and state-of-the-art payment systems to gastronomic businesses in South Tyrol. Thus, we contribute to the economic development of our province.”

Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen (officially known as Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen dell’Alto Adige) is headquartered in South Tyrol’s capital, Bolzano. The organization is the central banking institute for the 39 independent cooperative banks in the South Tyrolean Raiffeisen Group. The partnership, which also includes Independent Software Vendor (ISV) ICIT and payment services giant Worldline, will not only facilitate the rollout of AIO devices, but will also support future innovation in the unattended and e-commerce payment solutions space.

“This ISV partnership, in which Worldline is providing secure and robust payment processing services, will enhance the delivery of an expanded, competitive, and innovative payment offering tailored to the Italian market,” Worldline Head of SMB Central Sales Management Julia Rachor said. “Thanks to the partner’s combined international experience and local Italian expertise, merchants are ensured to receive payment solutions that effectively meet their needs.”

Founded in 2007, Bluefin introduced itself to Finovate audiences as part of our developers conference, FinDEVr in 2014. Today, the company has a network of more than 300 partners and secures more than 2.5 billion records a year. Bluefin serves 35,000 clients in 60 countries, protecting cardholder data, personally-identifiable information, and more. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. John Perry is CEO.

Photo by Francesco Ungaro

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InvestiFi Brings Digital Investing to Illiana Financial

InvestiFi Brings Digital Investing to Illiana Financial
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, CryptoFi, InvestiFi
  • Investing platform InvestiFi has announced a partnership with Illinois-based credit union Illiana Financial.
  • The partnership will enable Illiana Financial’s 25,000 members to access InvestiFi’s digital investing offerings via Illiana Financial’s online portal.
  • Founded in 2020, InvestiFi made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 as CryptoFi.

Digital investing platform InvestiFi has teamed up with Illiana Financial to bring new digital investing options to the credit union’s members—from directly within the institution’s online banking portal. The partnership will enable the credit union’s 25,000 members to trade and invest in more than 8,500 stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and more than 25 cryptocurrencies. Members will also be able to use the solution to create guided investment portfolios, and take advantage of financial educational resources to help them make better decisions on their investments.

“Investing shouldn’t be intimidating or complicated. Our platform is designed to remove traditional barriers and make investing accessible, informed, and safe,” InvestiFi CEO and Co-Founder Kian Sarreshteh said. “By embedding our solution into Illiana Financial’s online banking platform, we are enabling their members to seamlessly manage their finances and investments side-by-side, creating a holistic financial experience.” Sarreshteh cited research from Cornerstone Advisors that indicated that retail investors prefer to use platforms that are integrated within their banking apps, which Sarreshteh said “reflected a strong demand for convenience and trust in a single, unified interface.”

InvestiFi’s digital investing technology integrates into existing digital banking platforms to enable investors to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, funds, and cryptocurrencies directly from their checking accounts. This helps keep deposits inside the credit union’s or community bank’s ecosystem rather than going to an external party. In this way, InvestiFi helps credit unions and community banks deepen engagement with accountholders by becoming a more integral part of members’ financial lives for years to come.

“We are committed to supporting our members at every stage of their financial journey. Integrating InvestiFi’s investing solutions is a natural progression in how we serve our community, offering safe, secure, and straightforward ways for members to engage with the market,” Illiana Financial CEO Jim Henmuller said. “With this new digital investing partnership, we are confident the credit union will continue to innovate, providing modern tools that truly empower every member to take control of their financial futures.”

Illiana Financial was organized in 1936 by a small group of Illinois Bell Telephone Company workers. Today, the institution has four locations: Calumet City, Chicago Heights, Naperville, and Bourbonnais, and more than $278 million in total assets.

Launched in 2021 as CryptoFi—an embedded crypto trading solution for credit unions and community banks—the company pivoted in 2022 to develop a stocks, ETFs, and robo advisory offering in the wake of the FTX crisis. The company rebranded as InvestiFi in 2024, going live with three credit union partners. Picking up a fourth credit union partner later that year, the company also acquired a Broker Dealer, launched a wholly owned RIA, and introduced its stocks and ETFs product.

InvestiFi’s partnership with Illiana Financial comes shortly after the Chicago, Illinois-based fintech announced that it had teamed up with Ocala Community Credit Union (OCCU) to enable its 2,900 members in Central Florida to trade and hold cryptocurrencies. Serving Ocala, Belleview, Silver Springs, Anthony, Dunnellon, Marion Oaks, Ocklawaha, and Marion County, OCCU is InvestiFi’s first partner in Florida. Established in 1953, OCCU has total assets of $51 million.

“We are thrilled to have joined forces with InvestiFi to offer our members crypto investment directly from checking,” Ocala Community Credit Union CEO Steven Nazaruk said. “We are looking forward to rolling InvestiFi’s crypto solution out to our members as an investment tool for them and a way for OCCU to attract new members.”

Photo by energepic.com

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Two-Time Best of Show Winner Array Acquires Fellow Finovate Alum MoneyKit

Two-Time Best of Show Winner Array Acquires Fellow Finovate Alum MoneyKit
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Array, Mergers & Acquisitions, MoneyKit
  • Embedded software platform company Array has acquired data aggregation specialist MoneyKit. Terms were not disclosed.
  • The partnership will enable Array’s customers to benefit from deeper connectivity that will facilitate more dynamic customer experiences including personalized credit insights and intelligent subscription management.
  • Array won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2021 and again at FinovateSpring 2022. MoneyKit made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024.

Embedded software platform Array, which has twice won Finovate’s Best of Show award, announced its acquisition of data aggregation solutions company (and fellow Finovate alum) MoneyKit. Terms of the transaction were not immediately available.

“MoneyKit has built a trusted and secure foundation for financial connectivity in just a few years,” Array Founder and CEO Martin Toha said. “Combining their capabilities with Array’s embeddable financial security components unlocks a new era of intelligent, personalized, and privacy-first experiences for millions of consumers.”

Array offers an embeddable platform that provides fintechs, financial institutions, and digital brands with a variety of private-label fintech solutions. MoneyKit is a specialist in data aggregation and trusted financial connectivity infrastructure. Together, the two firms seek to deliver a range of secure, consumer-first financial experiences—from embedded credit monitoring to streamlined access to financial data—to help consumers improve and better manage their finances. Post-acquisition, Array customers will benefit from deeper connectivity courtesy of MoneyKit’s technology, enabling them to access more dynamic experiences including personalized credit insights, intelligent subscription management, and more.

“Joining Array allows us to scale our mission and bring powerful new capabilities to the ecosystem,” MoneyKit CTO Michael Del Monte said. “We’re excited to be a part of the next wave of tools that help consumers feel more secure, informed, and in control.”

Headquartered in New York, MoneyKit made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024. At the conference, the company demonstrated its MoneyKit Connect solution that leverages intelligent routing to enhance bank data aggregation. The technology makes real-time routing decisions based on its unique insights into the specific institution, time of day, and data products requested to ensure that the connection goes to the best possible underlying aggregator. MoneyKit was launched in 2021 by the serial founders who started both Cash App and Quovo.

Winning Best of Show in its appearances at FinovateFall 2021 and FinovateSpring 2022, Array most recently demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2023. The company’s platform helps financial institutions and financial service providers boost engagement and revenues by providing them with tools like anti-identity theft solution HelloPrivacy and an intelligent Subscription Manager that can be embedded in a matter of weeks.

Founded in 2020, Array is based in New York.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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Strength in Numbers: FinovateFall’s Power Panelists Talk AI, CX, and the Fight for Deposits

Strength in Numbers: FinovateFall’s Power Panelists Talk AI, CX, and the Fight for Deposits
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2025

There’s strength in numbers; at least that’s our theory when it comes to engaging with some of fintech’s thorniest challenges—from harnessing enabling technologies like AI to winning the battle for deposits at a time of economic and interest rate uncertainty.

As such, we’ve enlisted a cadre of fintech and financial services veterans who will team up to tackle these and other critical topics in our industry. FinovateFall’s Power Panels provide not only deep insights into the trends driving fintech today, but also offer a diverse range of experiences to help us understand how those same trends impact real businesses, real communities, and real people.

Here’s a sneak peek at what our FinovateFall Power Panels have in store next month.

FinovateFall comes to New York, September 8 through 10. Get your tickets. Book your room. And we’ll see you there!

Getting beyond the hype—how can financial services providers harness AI, GenAI, and Agentic AI to make money or save money?

Moderated by Jason Henrichs, CEO of Alloy Labs, this Power Panel will explore the true use cases for AI in financial services and investigate where the biggest opportunities are for banks, credit unions, and other financial services providers to leverage this technology to enhance personalization, make processes more efficient, and more.

Featuring Sam Kilmer, Managing Director, Cornerstone Advisors; Fred Campbell, General Partner, TRAC.vc; Sathish Muthukrishnan, Chief Information, Data, and Digital Officer, Ally Financial; Inwha Huh, Head of Innovation, Corporate & Investment Bank, Wells Fargo; and Assaf Baciu, President & Co-Founder, Persado.

Monday, September 8 at 4:35pm

As fraud threats continue to evolve & become a number one issue for the financial services industry, how can all the players collaborate to safeguard their customers’ assets & their company’s reputation? What role can RegTech, GenAI & digital identity play?

Moderated by Robin Weiss, Senior Technology Advisor, RLW Advisory LLC, this Power Panel will look at the ways that technology has empowered fraudsters and will discuss what new tools and technologies are available to help financial institutions protect themselves and their customers and members from financial crime. The panel will also consider the role of digital identity technology and innovations in biometric authentication in the fight against fraud.

Featuring Myrto Koimtzoglou, Chief Operations Officer, Farmers Insurance Federal Credit Union; Sadeque Ahmed, Executive Director, Product Management, JP Morgan; and Jas Randhawa, CEO & Managing Partner, StrategyBRIX.

Tuesday, September 9 at 4:40pm – General Session

As embedded finance expands beyond banking, making financial services available everywhere, how can financial institutions capture the opportunity which could generate over $100 billion in revenue?

Moderated by Phil Goldfeder, CEO, American Fintech Council (AFC), this Power Panel will discuss the booming embedded finance market and explore how it is expanding financial services beyond traditional banks. The panelists will talk about the challenge this represents for financial institutions and how they can leverage embedded finance themselves to better compete with rivals in and outside of the traditional financial services industry.

Featuring Rodrigo Suarez, Chief Banking Officer, Piermont Bank; Norah Coelho, Managing Director, Embedded Finance, JP Morgan; and Lauren McCollom, SVP, Head of Embedded Finance, Grasshopper Bank.

Wednesday, September 10 at 9:20am – General Session

The customer experience revolution—how can financial services providers compete in a hyper personalized world & meet customers at their point of need? What are the key lessons to learn from other industry verticals & from big tech companies about building customer trust?

Moderated by Rutger Van Faassen, CEO, Informationbanker, our customer experience Power Panel will examine what the contemporary banking customer wants out of their financial service experience and how AI is providing institutions with tools to bolster engagement, deepen personalization, and build loyalty and trust with their customers and members.

Featuring Shruti Patel, Chief Product Officer, Business Banking, US Bank; Sherry Graziano, Head of Digital and Care Center Banking, Truist Financial Corporation; and Terry O’Neil, Head of Connected Commerce, Retail Services, Citi.

Wednesday, September 10 at 10:15am – General Session

Balancing the balance sheet—with clients keeping their money in various pots, falling interest rates & a booming stock market, how can banks & credit unions win the battle for deposits especially as challenger banks now have deposits firmly in their sights?

Moderated by Penny Crosman, Executive Editor, Technology, American Banker, this panel gets down to the brass tacks of the banking and credit union business with a discussion on the importance of deposits. This conversation will feature insights on how banks and credit unions can do more to attract deposits, and how partnering with fintechs can be part of an effective strategy to grow deposits in the current environment.

Featuring Patricia Montesi, Founder & CEO, Qolo; Josh Williams, CBO & Head of Partnerships, Seattle Bank; Christopher Hollins, Head of Treasury Management, Sales, & Delivery, SVB, a Division of First Citizens Bank; and Mary Miklethum, Senior Vice President, US Bank.

Wednesday, September 10 at 2:00pm – General Session

From competition to collaboration—why now more than ever banks need to build strategic partnerships. How can banks measure the ROI & what do they need to know about the lifecycle of partnerships? What new partnership plays tell us about the unbundling & reassembling of financial services?

Moderated by Jason Mikula, Publisher, Fintech Business Weekly, our Power Panel on partnerships offers a new twist on the competition vs collaboration debate in fintech and financial services. The panelists will talk about the build, buy, or partner conundrum; the inherent risks in partnering; and their thoughts on what makes a partnership successful for both the fintech and the financial institution involved.

Featuring Ami Iceman, Chief Research and Digital Experience Officer, MSU Federal Credit Union; and Zakie Twainy, Digital Partnerships & Enterprise Innovation, BNY Mellon.

Wednesday, September 10 at 2:45pm – General Session

Coming to New York for FinovateFall next month, but haven’t decided where to stay? Have we got a deal for you!

Book your room at the New York Marriott Marquis today and take advantage of exclusive rates and rooms available only to FinovateFall attendees. Want an epic Times Square view? How about a corner room with king-sized accommodations? Maybe just a nice standard guest room to retreat to at the end of a long conference day? Rooms are going fast, so visit our FinovateFall hub and guarantee your stay now!

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Finovate Global Hong Kong: Funding for Stablecoins, Yields on Idle Capital, and More!

Finovate Global Hong Kong: Funding for Stablecoins, Yields on Idle Capital, and More!
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avaloq, Backbase, Finovate Global, PayPal, Temenos

This week’s edition of Finovate Global reviews the latest fintech news from Hong Kong.

RD Technologies raises $40 million in advance of stablecoin licensing

Hong Kong-based stablecoin infrastructure firm RD Technologies has secured $40 million in Series A2 funding. The round was jointly led by a consortium of both new and existing investors. Participating in the investment were ZA Global, China Harbour, Bright Venture, and Hivemind Capital. HSG, Eternal Digital, CMSC Partners, and Guotai Junan International Private Equity Fund were also involved in the funding. RD Technologies raised $40 million in a Series A1 round in September 2024.

The funding comes as Hong Kong’s stablecoin licensing regime takes effect. This regime provides a framework for stablecoin issuers, including the necessary licensing requirements as mandated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) for companies seeking to issue fiat-backed stablecoins. The new Stablecoins Ordinance also requires these firms to maintain proper reserve asset management, robust stabilization mechanisms, and the capacity to process redemption requests at par value under ordinary conditions. Companies also must comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) regulations as well as maintain obligatory risk management, disclosure, and auditing standards.

Founded in 2020, RD Technologies provides technology to help bridge the Web2 and Web3 worlds. An early advocate of stablecoins, RD Technologies drives responsible and sustainable innovation in digital finance via open networks, real-world use cases, and industry-wide collaborations. The company participated in the stablecoin sandbox launched by the HKMA earlier this year, and is developing HKDR, a stablecoin backed 1:1 by the Hong Kong Dollar, via its subsidiary RD InnoTech.

“We are thrilled with the passage of the Stablecoins Ordinance, which sets a clear and robust framework for the sustainable growth of Hong Kong’s virtual asset ecosystem as a global financial hub,” RD Technologies Rita Liu said earlier this year when the stablecoin legislation was passed. “As pioneers in the stablecoin space, with RD InnoTech Limited’s participation in the HKMA’s sandbox, we are dedicated to building trust by aligning with these regulations to deliver secure and innovative solutions for virtual asset trading, cross-border payments, and tokenization of real world assets.”

As part of the investment, RD Technologies and Hong Kong-based virtual bank ZA Bank inked a new partnership through which the two companies will investigate regulated stablecoin use cases in financial services.

Airwallex Launches Yield in Hong Kong

International payments and business financial platform Airwallex has introduced its Airwallex Yield solution in Hong Kong. Airwallex Yield is designed to enhance treasury management by enabling businesses to earn returns on their suplus funds held in multi-currency accounts. There are no lock-up periods with Airwallex Yield, which provides access to highly rated money market funds such as those managed by firms like Fullerton Fund Management and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The launch of the new solution, which also went live in Singapore recently, makes Airwallex the first global payments institution to secure a Securities and Future Commission (SFC) license for asset management services in Hong Kong. Yield currently enables companies to generate returns of up to 3.97% on multi-currency balances via discretionary portfolio management services. Airwallex also has partnered with JP Morgan Asset Management to leverage short-duration money market funds in order to provide liquid returns without minimum lock-up periods. Launched in Australia in the fall of 2023, Yield reached more than $67.3 million in funds under management.

“We’re excited to announce the full launch of Airwallex Yield to businesses in Hong Kong,” Airwallex Asia-Pacific General Manager Arnold Chan said. “We’ve seen growing demand from businesses looking for more effective ways to maximize the value of their capital. In today’s dynamic market environment, businesses are actively seeking ways to make their capital work harder. Airwallex Yield gives them a seamless and flexible way to earn returns on their balances, all from within the Airwallex platform. We’re not just looking to help businesses make the most of their surplus balances—we also want to encourage them to bring new funds to Airwallex because of the value Yield provides.”

Chocolate Finance, WeBank, Syfe Announce Hong Kong Entry and Expansion

A number of fintechs have announced plans to enter or expand their presence in Hong Kong of late.

First, Singapore-based Chocolate Finance has secured regulatory approval to being operations in Hong Kong. The news comes as the savings app announced that it has added $19.4 million in Series A+ funding to its coffers courtesy of a round led by Nikko Asset Management. The round also featured participation from existing investors Peak XV, Prosus, and Saison Capital, along with company founder Walter de Oude. Along with the funding news, Chocolate Finance announced a limited time Double Referral Program from July 22 to August 31, offering additional rewards and limited-edition merchandise.

Founded in 2022, Chocolate Finance delivers returns of up to 3% on savers’ first ($15,500) SGD 20k, 2.7% on the next ($23,250) SGD 30k, and 2.7% on any additional amount.

Next up, Chinese digital bank WeBank has won approval to set up its Hong Kong subsidiary, which will manage the institution’s overseas operations there and offer services to businesses covered by the Belt and Road Initiative.

WeBank was launched in 2014 by Tencent in partnership with a handful of other Chinese companies. The financial institution is the largest online-only lender in China, and is one of the world’s largest unicorns with a valuation of $32.4 billion (235 billion yuan).

WeBank’s Hong Kong subsidiary is expected to investigate potential opportunities in fintech such as real-world asset tokenization. The firm will also be a part of Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s “architecture community” for Project Ensemble, the HKMA’s wholesale central bank digital currency initiative.

Lastly, Chocolate Finance isn’t the only Asian company leveraging the occasion of a recent funding to announce increased engagement with Hong Kong. Singapore-based digital wealth platform Syfe recently announced that its $80 million Series C round in June will help fuel the firm’s regional expansion, including further inroads into Hong Kong.

“This fund raise comes at an exciting time as we grow our presence across the region and expand our offerings,” Syfe Founder and CEO Dhruv Arora said. “In our markets of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia, nearly half of all adults are in the ‘mass affluent’ segment, meaning those who have between a few hundred to a few million dollars in investable assets, and this segment is growing fast. As a platform built in the region, for the region, we have a deep understanding of what these investors need. We’re in a great position to serve them with personalized, accessible, and high-quality wealth management at scale.”

Syfe will use the capital, which includes an all-equity C2 round of $53 million, in part to fuel its expansion in Hong Kong. In a statement, the company noted that its business in Hong Kong has “doubled in size” since the beginning of the year. Syfe currently has more than $10 billion in assets under management as of end-of-year 2024 and has raised a total of $132 million in funding. The company was founded in 2019.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Orange Money and BaaS fintech JUMO have teamed up to offer credit services in Africa.
  • MoneyBadger and Peach Payments partnered to make it easier for merchants to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
  • Forbes looked at the connection between African mobile money service, M-Pesa, and Western-based services such as Venmo and PayPal.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Libyan Islamic Bank partnered with Backbase to modernize its consumer banking operations.
  • Israel-based tax preparation platform April raised $38 million in Series B funding.
  • Egypt’s Midbank announced the completion of its core banking migration with Temenos.

Central and Southern Asia

  • India’s Esaf Bank turned to SugarCRM for relationship management.
  • TBC Uzbekistan Fintech earned a spot on the CNBC and Statista roster of the world’s top fintech companies, the first Uzbek company to do so.
  • Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services acquired Indian fintech startup Rio.Money.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazilian financial infrastructure firm QI Tech secured $63 million in a Series B extension round.
  • PitchBook looked at seven fintech startups driving digital banking in Mexico.
  • Payment solutions provider Boku was granted a Payment Institution license from the Central Bank of Brazil.

Asia-Pacific

Photo by Florian Wehde on Unsplash

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SRM Teams Up with Cooperative Credit Union Association

SRM Teams Up with Cooperative Credit Union Association
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, SRM Technologies
  • Independent financial services advisory firm SRM has announced a strategic partnership with the Cooperative Credit Union Association (CCUA).
  • The partnership will enable CCUA’s member credit unions to access SRM’s complete portfolio of advisory solutions for sourcing and payments, as well as for corporate and technology strategy.
  • Headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, SRM made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023 in New York.

The Cooperative Credit Union Association (CCUA) and advisory firm SRM have forged a strategic partnership that will grant CCUA member credit unions preferred access to SRM’s complete portfolio of advisory solutions.

“Our collaboration with CCUA is rooted in a common goal: driving meaningful results for credit unions through insight-led advisory and technology solutions,” SRM Chief Growth Officer Stephen Johnston said. “SRM’s expertise aims to unlock new opportunities in payments, sourcing, technology, and member experience for the CCUA’s member credit unions.”

SRM’s advisory solutions portfolio includes sourcing advisory, with analysis, benchmarking, vendor selection/RFP management, vendor contract negotiations, and other strategic sourcing plans; payments advisory, covering commercial, consumer, and instant payments, credit/debit card portfolio optimization, fraud prevention, product development, and market expansion; corporate advisory, including strategic planning, digital strategy, mergers & acquisitions, AI enablement, organizational design, compliance and risk, policy development, research, and analytics; and technology advisory, including core processing and digital banking strategy, migration and integration services, project management, and expert staff augmentation.

The company offers SRM Boost Programs that provide a strategic growth platform for onboarding new members, cross-selling and card optimization, and fueling new membership growth. As part of the strategic partnership, SRM will also facilitate seasonal roundtables for CCUA’s member organizations and will be featured at CCUA events to help credit union leaders engage with SRM’s team of experts.

“Ensuring access to SRM’s proven advisory capabilities strengthens CCUA member credit unions’ position in contract negotiations, payments innovation, and technology transformation,” CCUA EVP and Chief Operating Officer Melissa Pomeroy said. “This partnership directly supports credit unions’ commitment to deliver exceptional member service and financial performance.”

The Cooperative Credit Union Association is a leading regional trade organization representing nearly 200 credit unions across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Delaware, and Rhode Island. Combined, the Association’s member credit unions manage more than $75 billion in assets and serve more than five million members. Founded in 2015, the Association is headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

An independent advisory company specializing in payments, sourcing, operating strategies, and technology, SRM serves clients ranging in size from credit unions and community banks to international financial services firms. Returning more than $10 billion in value to more than 1,000 clients since inception in 1992, SRM is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023 in New York.

Photo by Gabriel Tovar on Unsplash

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Streamly Snapshot: Faster Closings and Smarter Decisions—AI-powered Lending Delivered by Tavant

Streamly Snapshot: Faster Closings and Smarter Decisions—AI-powered Lending Delivered by Tavant
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Streamly, Tavant

How can enabling technologies like traditional and generative AI, as well as automation, help solve major pain points in the mortgage industry? Can challenges like high costs and lengthy processing times be alleviated by technological innovation?

Mohammad Rashid is Senior Vice President and Head of Innovation at Tavant. In this week’s Streamly interview, we talk with him about how AI and automation can streamline the mortgage application process by eliminating manual tasks and reducing the overall amount of human involvement. Rashid also discusses some of the challenges that financial institutions encounter when adopting new technologies like AI, and the integrated, unified platforms for lenders that Tavant creates.

“This industry has two of the biggest problems plaguing any industry: armies of people that address rivers of paper. Whenever you have a mortgage application you have hundreds of digital (documents) that (are) flowing through the application process. And you have hundreds of people behind the scenes who are looking at that paper, extracting data from that paper, and trying to decision as fast as possible for that loan. That has a lot of side effects.”

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Tavant provides AI-powered fintech solutions that help businesses become more agile, optimize costs, and benefit from continuous innovation. The company’s AI-powered agents, predictive intelligence, and scalable machine learning models help firms move beyond conventional automation to intelligent, adaptive, and outcome-driven processes. Businesses working with Tavant have reported a 54% increase in speed to market, a 45% reduction in costs, and a 33% improvement in productivity. Tavant’s AI solutions power one in three mortgage loans in the US, with 3.5 million lending applications and 33 million lending transactions enabled.

Rashid has been a part of Tavant for more than two decades. Starting as VP of Lending and Capital Markets in 2003, Rashid was honored with the Housing Wire Vanguard Award in 2017. The Award recognizes leaders in fintech whose work is helping transform the lending business for the better.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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Darwinium Launches AI Tools to Identify Adversarial Fraud

Darwinium Launches AI Tools to Identify Adversarial Fraud
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Darwinium, ThreatMetrix
  • Cyberfraud prevention company Darwinium launched a pair of new agentic AI solutions this week.
  • The new agents—Beagle and Copilot—enable red-teaming simulations and AI-assisted remediation to help financial companies enhance their fraud defenses.
  • Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Darwinium made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023 in London.

San Francisco, California-based security and fraud prevention firm Darwinium unveiled new tools to help organizations deal with the challenge of adversarial attacks, detect hidden vulnerabilities, and enhance overall fraud defense. This week, Darwinium launched a pair of AI agents—Beagle and Copilot—to give companies their own autonomous AI capabilities to combat those AI agents deployed by fraudsters.

“Consumers are using AI agents to shop faster. Fraudsters are using them to bypass defenses at scale,” Darwinium CEO and Co-Founder Alisdair Faulkner said. “The challenge isn’t detecting bots anymore, it’s distinguishing AI agents acting on behalf of good users versus malicious automation. Solving that problem requires a platform that speaks the same language: agentic AI.”

Beagle enables firms to conduct AI agent red-teaming to detect blind spots in their fraud defenses. Beagle simulates complex adversarial behavior, which enables fraud prevention teams to test their detection and mitigation strategies. Beagle generates realistic user profiles, spoofed devices, geolocation variance, and other tactics to emulate synthetic identities. The technology simulates a variety of attacks, including credential stuffing, behavioral mimicry, captcha solving, and more, and integrates directly into Darwinium’s architecture to provide real-time detection and responses.

Darwinium’s Copilot acts as an intelligent assistant that supports an organization’s remediation strategy, decision optimization, and platform interaction. The technology streamlines fraud team queries for different types of fraud detection circumstances such as “users who exhibit bot-like activity or are creating synthetic accounts.” Once these users are identified, Copilot can then conduct fraud investigation recommendations and offer remediation strategies. The solution automates the feedback process from detection to decisioning to business impact, making Copilot especially helpful in high-scale environments.

The new offering from Darwinium comes as fraudsters are becoming increasingly effective at exploiting AI bots for nefarious purposes. Because of this, as Faulkner noted in a recent thought leadership piece for Dark Reading, it is all the more important for security and fraud teams to focus on and discern the intent of AI agents rather than the mere presence of these entities. Legitimate agents, Faulkner explained, tend to act in ways that resemble trusted user behaviors and patterns. AI agents that are malicious, on the other hand, conduct themselves in identifiable ways—such as skipping normal browsing steps to access high-value endpoints (like login and checkout) or generating a sudden high volume of API calls. In Faulkner’s estimation, technologies such as Beagle and Copilot help institutions and their fraud teams move from “What is this AI agent doing?” to “Why is this AI agent doing this?”

Launched in 2021 by the co-founding team that built and scaled ThreatMetrix, Darwinium made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. The company raised $18 million in funding in the fall of 2023 in a Series A round led by U.S. Venture Partners.

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Uprise Teams Up with HoneyBook to Bring Tax Planning to Small Business Owners

Uprise Teams Up with HoneyBook to Bring Tax Planning to Small Business Owners
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Uprise
  • Embedded financial advisory platform Uprise has teamed up with business management platform HoneyBook.
  • The partnership will enable HoneyBook to offer financial and tax planning advisory to its users, which include independent creatives as well as small business owners.
  • Founded in 2021, Uprise made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023 in New York.

Uprise, a startup that offers an AI-powered platform that empowers financial services companies to embed personalized, actionable financial advisory into their products and services, has announced a new partnership. The San Francisco, California-based company has teamed up with HoneyBook to enable the firm to offer financial and tax planning advisory to its user base of independent creatives, small business owners, and more.

“Excited to announce we’ve partnered with HoneyBook to offer personalized financial and tax planning to their users,” Uprise noted on its LinkedIn page, “helping independent creatives, consultants, and business owners stay ahead of the biggest changes that impact their bottom line.”

The partnership will enable HoneyBook users to access tax and financial guidance from a Certified Financial Planner who is both a small business specialist and supported by smart technology. This helps set HoneyBook apart from traditional financial advisory services, which tend to cater to high net worth individuals, feature significant costs, and often lack small business expertise.

The announcement comes as recently passed legislation in Washington brings changes to the way that many small businesses manage their taxes and expands eligibility for a variety of programs and credits. “If your company supports small business owners and wants to help them take advantage of complex tax and legal shifts like this—let’s talk,” Uprise wrote.

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Uprise made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023 in New York. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its technology helps banks, credit unions, insurance providers, fintechs, and more embed personalized, actionable financial advisory services into their offerings. Uprise combines human financial expertise with AI to offer comprehensive financial plans and advice at a fraction of what a traditional financial advisor would cost. Jessica Chen Riolfi is Co-Founder and CEO.

HoneyBook is a business management platform for small businesses. The platform supports a wide variety of business operations including lead capture, client communication management, contract management, and payments. The solution also leverages AI—embedded throughout—that enables users to derive actionable insights and leverage automation to streamline processes. Founded in 2013, HoneyBook has powered more than 25 million client relationships and processed more than $12 billion in transactions. Earlier this month, the company announced enhancements to its client portal to provide full branding control, easier access to proposals and important sites, the ability to share client task lists, and more.

Photo by Braden Collum on Unsplash

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Japan’s Zerobank Design Factory to Power New Digital Bank for MUFG

Japan’s Zerobank Design Factory to Power New Digital Bank for MUFG
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, Zero Bank Design Factory

MUFG’s new digital bank will feature the cloud-based banking system developed and operated by Zerobank Design Factory (ZDF), a subsidiary and the technological development arm of Fukuoka Financial Group (FFG). The announcement was made by Minna Bank, a fellow subsidiary of FFG that runs on ZDF’s core banking technology. In collaboration with Accenture and operating on the Google Cloud, the MUFG deployment will be the first time Zerobank Design Factory will see its solution used by an organization outside of FFG.

“Since its inception (Minna Bank) has accumulated and updated its technologies and expertise related to systems, functionalities, and design required for a digital bank,” Minna Bank and ZDF President and CEO Kenichi Nagayoshi said. “As a result, we believe that the recent first external provision of our system marks a valuable milestone. Moving forward, we hope to contribute, even if just a little, to the development of the digital banking market both domestically and internationally through the provision of this system.”

Japan’s first digital bank, Minna Bank was founded in 2021 and currently boasts 1.3 million accounts. The name means “a bank for everyone” and the institution posits that its mission is to “deliver valuable connections to everyone.” In 2022, ZDF announced that it would offer its technology to both local and international financial institutions. Non-financial organizations looking to add banking services are also eligible to deploy the system.

The MUFG deployment is designed to meet the need for faster management speed, greater efficiency, and lower costs. Banking systems that leverage multi-cloud, microservice architecture, DevSecOps, and other advanced technologies offer an effective way to meet these goals. The core banking system designed by ZDF offers a modular design capable of partial integration with existing systems to give banks, non-bank financial institutions, and non-financial entities a range of versatile applications to better serve customers and clients.

“Our collaboration with Minna Bank reinforces that cloud-based technology can deliver flexibility, speed, and reliability for core systems within global banks,” Google Cloud Global Managing Director, Regulated Industries, Toby Brown said. “Minna Bank’s use of Google Cloud’s advanced technologies—like Google Kubernetes Engine for elastic scale, Spanner for global data consistency, and Vertex AI for intelligent insights—is a blueprint for accelerating digital transformation far beyond banking, enabling industries from retail to mobility to seamlessly embed financial services and create new value for their customers.”

A wholly-owned subsidiary of FFG, ZDF is the system development company that built Minna Bank’s core system. ZDF is also a pioneer in cloud banking, having been among the first developers in Japan to build a core banking system on a public cloud. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023.

The largest regional financial group in Japan, FFG was established in 2007. FFG’s network covers the entire Kyushu region, which is home to more than 10% of the country’s population and includes cities such as Fukuoka and Nagasaki.

Photo by Tayawee Supan on Unsplash

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Sage Acquires Expense Management Platform Fyle

Sage Acquires Expense Management Platform Fyle
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Fyle, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Finance ERP provider Sage has acquired Delaware-based expense management platform Fyle. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
  • Fyle’s technology will enable Sage to offer additional tools that leverage AI to automate workflows in accounting, finance, human resources, and payroll operations.
  • Founded in 2016, Fyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023 in New York.

Expense management platform Fyle has agreed to be acquired by finance ERP provider Sage. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Our mission has always been to make expense management intuitive—so that our users never have to actively think about the task in any meaningful way, and so that their finance departments have the data transparency and assurance they need during close,” Fyle CEO and Co-Founder Yashwanth Madhusudan said. “As a longtime partner of Sage, we know the company shares our focus on delivering great software experiences, and we are excited about the collective impact we can have.”

The acquisition will enable Sage to add further AI-powered tools to simplify and automate financial workflows in accounting, finance, HR, and payroll operations. Fyle provides accounting and finance teams with real-time notifications on transaction data and enables end users to submit and reconcile expenses with a simple text. With more than 150 employees, the Delaware-based company has 1,600 direct customers in the US and thousands more via white-label agreements.

Post-acquisition, Fyle will continue to integrate with third-party accounting and financial systems. The technology is already integrated with Sage Intacct and Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate, with a broader rollout throughout North America “and beyond” to follow.

“In 2025, financial leaders are expected to play much more strategic roles than ever before and are looking for every way to get a high-performance edge. We know expense management is a key workflow for finance. Fyle streamlines and automates the entire process, further simplifying SMB finances with AI. I look forward to working as one team to create real and immediate impact for our customers,” Sage EVP Financials and ERP, Dan Miller said.

UK-based Sage provides software and services to help small and medium-sized companies conduct and enhance their payroll, human resources, and financial operations. Among the company’s flagship solutions, its Sage Intacct solution provides cloud accounting and financial software management for medium-sized businesses, while the company’s Sage 50 Accounts provides similar accounting, inventory, and payments management for smaller firms.

Founded in 2016, Fyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its technology integrates with text messaging, email (including Gmail and Outlook), and meeting platforms like Slack and MS Teams to give companies and employees a unique and user-friendly way to submit and manage expenses. The technology instantly codes and categorizes expense data and syncs the data with commonly used ERPs such as Sage Intacct, NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, and Xero.

Photo by Paulina S. 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: 10x Banking, Fintech Rundown, Intuit, MasterCard, Nubank

The first month of Q3 is in the books, “Crypto Week” was declared in the US last week, and corporate earnings reports are dominating the conversation on Wall Street.

To start off the week of fintech news here on Finovate’s Fintech Rundown, we have word of new C-suite appointments, collaborations in payments and fraud prevention, as well as new solutions for identity protection.

Fraud prevention

Risk management company EverC announces collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Appdome launches customer identity protection solution for mobile apps, IDAnchor.

Mastercard introduces A2A Protect in the UK to help defend consumers against account-to-account payment fraud.

Digital banking

Finovate Best of Show winner 10x Banking introduces new Chief Revenue Officer Tom Bentley.

Nubank appoints Ethan Eismann as its first Chief Design Officer.

Crypto

Blockchain startup Bitzero secures $25 million for its sustainable blockchain and HighPerformance Compute (HPC) data centers.

African paytech Peach Payments and South African crypto payments solution provider MoneyBadger team up to bring crypto payments to South African merchants.

Cyber risk management firm DynaRisk secures $4.7 million in funding.

FIS partners with Circle to unlock stablecoin money movement functionality for financial institution customers.

Payments

dLocal and RizRemit partner to enhance the cross-border remittance process across both Africa and Asia.

Deutsche Bank’s Merchant Solutions business to integrate Wero as a payments option.

Square launches data driven cash advances in the UK.

Lending

iBusiness Funding announces expanded collaboration with Intuit to expand SBA loan access through QuickBooks Capital.

Digital identity

authID launched its digital identity platform, Identity Exchange (IDX), in partnership with NEC Networks and System Integration Corporation.

Photo by Tunafish on Unsplash

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