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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
FinovateEurope 2025 kicks off this week at the Intercontinental O2 in London. Learn more about the conferences’s keynote speakers, power panels, demoing companies and more in our pre-show briefing.
In the meanwhile, here’s a look at some of the news making fintech headlines as the week begins. Be sure to check back all week long for more updates.
Payments
Backbase and MeaWalletteam up to bring advanced tokenization solutions to Australia and New Zealand.
Payments orchestration platform Yunopartners with Invest Qatar to as the company opens its new Middle East headquarters in the country.
Digital banking
Digital banking experience systems provider Plumeryannounces partnership with African digital identity verification provider, Smile ID.
Live Oak Bank has enhanced its commercial and small business banking services by partnering with Finzly for its Fedwire solution.
Finzly’s technology enables 100% straight-through processing (STP) and will help ensure the bank is compliant with upcoming ISO 20022 regulations.
Finzly is a two-time Finovate Best of Show award winner. The company most recently demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2022 in San Francisco.
Payment and financial solutions provider Finzly announced this week that Live Oak Bank has enhanced its commercial and small business banking services by implementing Finzly’s Fedwire solution. The deployment enables 100% straight-through processing (STP) and facilitates the bank’s compliance with upcoming ISO 20022 compliance requirements ahead of schedule.
Fedwire is a real-time electronic funds transfer system operated by the Federal Reserve Banks, enabling financial institutions to send and receive money. It is the main network in the US used by businesses and government agencies for large and/or time-critical payments. ISO 20022 refers to a new message format that will be adopted by the Fedwire Funds Service on July 14, 2025, four months later than the initial deadline of March 10 established in June 2022. The goal of the new format is to enhance the quality of financial messaging, facilitate cross-border payments, and reduce manual processing.
Finzly’s Fedwire solution provides instant settlement, real-time visibility, and complete automation for Fedwire payments. The technology leverages Finzly’s pre-wired, tested, and certified connections to the Fed to keep banks and other financial institutions a step ahead when it comes to implementing Fedwire, complying with ISO 20022 standards, and launching new value-added services. Banks benefit from not only faster settlements, streamlined payments, and automation of key tasks, but also from the ability to seamlessly support multiple cores. This enables banks to process transactions across multiple core systems while integrating with digital banking, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and fraud monitoring via open APIs.
“This partnership with Finzly gives our payment infrastructure the flexibility to adapt to customers’ needs, while also allowing us to streamline operations for our internal teams,” Mark Moroz, Live Oak Bank Head of Deposits and Payments, said. “With 100% STP in Fedwire processing and seamless multi-core integration, we are positioned to set new benchmarks in speed, efficiency, and customer experience.”
Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, Live Oak Bank is a cloud-based digital bank that serves small businesses throughout the US. One of the largest SBA 7(a) lenders by dollar volume, Live Oak Bank initially specialized in providing financing for niche businesses such as veterinarians and dentists. Today, Live Oak Bank has more than $12 billion in assets as of Q4 2024 and is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker LOB. Founded in 2008, Live Oak Bank has a market capitalization of $1.49 billion.
“We are proud to partner with Live Oak, a bank led by visionary leaders, offering modern, connected banking services for its customers,” Finzly founder and CEO Booshan Rengachari said. “Our partners at Live Oak Bank are committed to delivering the best solutions without compromise. We are excited to support them in this mission.”
Two-time Finovate Best of Show winner Finzly most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateSpring 2022 in San Francisco. At the conference, the North Carolina-based fintech showed how its bank operating system, FinzlyOS, enables organizations to quickly launch a modern, new digital bank from scratch. The bank featured direct connections to all payment networks, including ACH, wires, RTP, FedNow, and Swift, as well as a multi-currency general ledger, low-code customer-onboarding forms, online experiences, and more.
Live Oak Bank is only the latest partnership announced by Finzly this year. In February, the company reported that San Antonio, Texas-based Vantage Bank had chosen its unified payment hub to consolidate and future-proof its payment infrastructure. A family-owned community financial institution with a commitment to innovation and a strong focus on international services, Vantage Bank has $4.5 billion in assets. Also, at the beginning of the year, Wings Credit Union, Minnesota’s largest credit union with more than $9.3 billion in assets, announced that it was going live on Finzly’s Fedwire platform.
Digital investment platform Scalable Capital has teamed up with BlackRock to make it easier for investors in Germany to add private equity investments to their portfolios.
The partnership will make Scalable Capital the first digital investment platform to enable investors to participate in the BlackRock Private Equity Fund.
Headquartered in Germany, Scalable Capital made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.
A new partnership with BlackRock will enable Scalable Capital to offer its customers in Germany access to alternative investments, including in private equity. The new offering will provide access to investments in companies that are not listed on stock exchanges, giving non-professional investors the benefit of potentially higher returns and greater diversification previously available only to a few.
“For decades, investing in private companies was reserved for institutions and the ultra-wealthy,” Scalable Capital CMO Maximilian Meyer wrote on LinkedIn this week. “Not anymore. Scalable Capital is making Private Equity accessible – in partnership with BlackRock.”
Scalable Capital will be the first digital investment platform to offer access to the BlackRock Private Equity Fund. The fund consists of co-investments in which majority stakes in private companies around the world are acquired together with a network of private equity managers. The fund differs from many other private equity funds insofar as it is an open-end fund, rather than closed-end. This, among other things, enables investors to redeem invested capital more regularly than they would with a closed-end fund. Further, returns and dividends are reinvested by the fund, which can provide greater compound interest and higher returns over time.
A minimum one-off investment of €10,000 is required to invest in the BlackRock Private Equity Fund but, after that commitment is made, investors can use the fund as part of a savings plan. To support access to the new asset class, Scalable Capital has enhanced its platform with a fully digitized suitability check, a two-week revocation option for purchase orders, and a comprehensive range of information to help investors make informed investment decisions.
The partnership between Scalable Capital and BlackRock comes at a time when the demand for private equity is growing. Especially for investors with a longer time horizon, private equity investment can provide both portfolio diversification as well as high return potential. In its partnership announcement, Scalable Capital noted that private equity has produced nearly 15% annual growth in US dollars over the past 20 years, outperforming the MSCI World Index. The company noted additionally that compared to a traditional portfolio with an asset mix of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, the inclusion of up to 20% in private market investment can provide a superior risk/reward profile as well.
“As alternative investments such as private equity are becoming increasingly relevant for participation in economic growth, we now make them accessible to investors,” Julius Weller, Vice President Broker at Scalable Capital, said. “With the expansion of our investment platform to include this segment, clients gain access to the high return potential of private companies. We also achieve the favourable terms and simple handling for private equity that Scalable Capital is known for.”
Scalable Capital made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016 in London. In the years since then, the Munich, Germany-based company has become a leading digital investment platform in Europe. More than €27 billion is held on Scalable Capital’s platform by more than one million customers.
BlackRock is a leading provider of investment, advisory, and risk management solutions. The company is also the world’s largest asset manager with $11.5 trillion in assets under management, $40 billion of which are in alternative assets. Founded in 1988, BlackRock is headquartered in New York.
Last week, we introduced you to a handful of special addresses taking place at FinovateEurope 2025, 25-26 February in London at the Intercontinental O2. This week, we’re sharing another four special addresses covering a range of topics from open source innovation and the rise of digital assets to leveraging the cloud and the power of process intelligence.
To learn more about what’s coming at FinovateEurope next week, visit our FinovateEurope hub today. And if you haven’t bought your ticket, there’s no time like the present to register and save your seat.
Supercharging financial services with Open Source & MySQL
Featuring Jim Gallagher (LinkedIn), Oracle MySQL Alliances & Channels Manager for UK and Ireland, this special address will discuss how MySQL powers cutting-edge solutions that drive transformation across financial services. Gallagher will show how open source collaboration is fueling new standards, enhancing security, reducing costs, and accelerating growth.
Founded in 1977 and currently headquartered in Austin, Texas, Oracle is a cloud technology company that provides businesses and organizations with the computing infrastructure and software they need to innovate, boost efficiency, and become more effective. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure provides higher performance, security, and cost savings.
Digital assets: Ready for take off
Featuring Nick Kerigan (LinkedIn), Managing Director, Head of Innovation, Swift, this special address will help financial services companies make the most out of the growth in the digital asset market, which is forecast to grow up to $15 trillion by 2030. Kerigan will discuss recent developments in digital assets and currencies worldwide and share insights from Swift’s 2025 live trials that are helping facilitate transaction interchangeability on its network for both current and new forms of value.
A member-owned cooperative, Swift is a leading provider of secure financial messaging services. Swift’s messaging platform, products, and services connect more than 11,000 banking and securities organizations, market infrastructures, and corporate customers in 200+ countries and territories.
Trends, challenges, and strategic imperatives — is hybrid cloud the way forward for business leaders?
Featuring Waheed Mahmood (LinkedIn), Financial Services Lead, and Matt Armstrong (LinkedIn), Solution Director, Financial Services, with Rackspace Technology, this special address will examine how IT leaders optimize workloads, build resilience, and drive the next wave of digital transformation. The discussion will leverage insights from a Rackspace Technology survey of more than 1,400 global tech leaders on the importance of futureproofing through adaptability and flexibility.
San Antonio, Texas-based Rackspace Technology is an end-to-end, hybrid, multicloud, and AI solutions company. The firm designs, builds, and operates customer cloud environments across all major technology platforms, regardless of both technology stack and deployment model.
Become the adaptive bank – thrive on change with process intelligence
Featuring Joaquim Nogueira (LinkedIn), Industry Principal for Banking, Celonis, this special address will discuss how process intelligence gives companies a living, moving, digital twin of their entire value chain. Nogueira will also explain how, with a decade of process improvement knowledge and AI, process intelligence shows companies where value is hiding, and enables teams and technologies to capture it.
Munich, Germany-based Celonis has helped more than 1,000 of the world’s largest companies realize value across the top, bottom, and green line. The company’s Process Intelligence Platform leverages the data companies already have and use, and presents them with a living digital twin of their end-to-end processes. The platform is system-agnostic, bias-free, and provides all parties with a common language for understanding and enhancing processes.
How can banks and financial services providers ensure that their loyalty programs are in sync with consumer behaviors and preferences? What is a loyalty ecosystem and how can financial institutions benefit from being a part of one?
We caught up with Becky Hill, President of Vanson Technology Services and former Senior Vice President of Loyalty at U.S. Bank. In our extended conversation – in partnership with William Mills – we discuss the power of loyalty in fostering long-term relationships and better customer engagement in financial services.
We also discuss loyalty when it comes to relationships between companies and their employees, and how engagement and sales incentive programs can help them retain top talent and develop greater organizational resilience.
Founded in 1997, Vanson Technology Services specializes in technology and software solutions for loyalty, channel incentive, and employee engagement programs. The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company offers capabilities in points earning technology, fulfillment catalog management, email communications, site and data management, customer service and support, reporting, and more.
Tell us more about your professional experience. What were some of your major accomplishments and career highlights while working at U.S. Bank?
Becky Hill: Before joining Vanson Technology Services last summer, I spent most of my career in U.S. Bank’s payments division. Initially, I supported the credit card acquisition strategy for the bank’s consumer and small business programs. This gave me a solid understanding of the credit card profit and loss (P&L), which helped me gain insights into what drives consumer behavior and how to capture their interest. I learned that people expect banks to simplify complexities for them and that offers need to clearly show their value and benefits.
Later, my responsibilities included managing all aspects of the bank’s Rewards platform for internal and co-branded credit card programs that included a variety of cards like Cash+, FlexPerks, Fidelity and Harley-Davidson. I would partner with program managers to support acquisition, attrition, benefit, and redemption strategies to keep the bank’s cards top-of-wallet.
Why is it important to shape your loyalty programs around consumer behaviors and preferences?
Hill: Understanding consumer behavior is key to designing effective loyalty programs because people value convenience and consistency. Loyalty programs work best when they’re simple and easy to navigate, especially when it comes to redeeming rewards. Over the years, these programs have become more sophisticated but keeping them clear and straightforward is still the key to success.
How would you define a loyalty ecosystem?
Hill: A loyalty ecosystem brings together programs, technology, and partnerships to engage and reward customers and employees. It’s about simplifying the process while delivering meaningful value. For Vanson, this means offering an easily configurable rewards platform that helps companies transform their incentive programs into formal campaigns that drive employee motivation, enhance performance and longevity, and build brand loyalty. We believe a successful loyalty ecosystem is built on understanding behavior and providing clear, flexible incentives. It’s not just about rewards — it’s about fostering long-term relationships through transparency, simplicity, and thoughtful execution.
How can financial institutions be part of the loyalty ecosystem?
Hill: Financial institutions can play a key role in the loyalty ecosystem by partnering with loyalty platform providers to offer their clients Prepaid Rewards cards. These cards give consumers the flexibility to spend as they choose, while financial institutions can capitalize on revenue opportunities, such as interchange fees.
How is this ecosystem evolving in the near future?
Hill: Technology is always evolving, and loyalty programs will continue to focus on streamlining the end user experience for ease and convenience. Loyalty platforms will need to be flexible and have the capabilities to provide a variety of offerings from redemptions selection, gamification, educational lessons, experiences, and personalized communication strategy. Customer-centricity will continue to be a big part of the loyalty program technology evolution, especially as the industry starts to utilize AI-driven analytics to engage members.
Let’s talk about within companies. What does an effective employee and sales incentive program entail?
Hill: An effective employee engagement and sales incentive program requires the right technology. The technology should be straightforward, flexible, and tailored to support the specific needs of the program. It should be easy to implement, quick to deploy, and designed to drive engagement and performance without unnecessary complexity. Vanson offers a technology platform with configurable tools that provides self-administer options to drive results.
Equally important is having the right partner. A good partner provides valuable support throughout the journey, helping companies configure rewards to fit their unique needs and assisting with add-ons like developing email campaigns and enhancing engagement strategies. Together, the right technology and partnership can create a successful program.
Why should a company consider offering employee engagement and sales incentive programs?
Hill: Offering employee engagement and sales incentive programs is critical for retaining top talent and ensuring the resilience of your organization. People are motivated by more than just salary — they value recognition, work-life balance, and meaningful benefits. Incentive programs don’t have to be complex; even simple, day-to-day recognition can go a long way. It’s about creating a program that works for all employees, not just a select few. However, implementing these programs requires a cultural shift within the organization, combining both a change in mindset and the right technology to support it. Focusing on your employees’ needs and making them feel valued is key to long-term success.
You joined Vanson Technology Services less than a year ago. What tips and guidance can you provide other professionals who are transitioning industries?
Hill: I’ve had the unique opportunity to work on both the client side and now the vendor side of Loyalty programs across multiple industries. Being on this side — with firsthand knowledge of client expectations — has pushed me to think differently about what we deliver and how we meet client expectations. It’s also opened the door to more strategic conversations, like helping other loyalty companies within CORA Group’s portfolio expand into new verticals. At the end of the day, it’s about maintaining strong networks and staying open-minded to new opportunities.
What is your biggest piece of professional advice?
Hill: Always stay true to yourself and uphold your integrity. Take the time to identify the key decision-makers and those who truly understand what’s happening within your organization. Knowing who can make decisions and offer support is crucial — otherwise, you risk getting caught in unnecessary red tape. Building strong relationships and trust with your peers is essential, as effective leadership relies on the two-way flow of information. Above all, remain focused on what will move the business forward.
Partnerships and collaborations in the payments space lead fintech headlines at the beginning of this holiday-shortened week. Be sure to check Finovate’s Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest updates in fintech and financial services.
Payments
Account-to-account (A2A) payment infrastructure provider Token.ioteams up with payment orchestrator Fabrick.
InComm Payments collaborates with Mastercard to offer Mastercard “Give Hope” gift cards in support of the American Red Cross.
This year at FinovateEurope 2025, our 32 demoing companies represent a baker’s dozen of countries from around the world. Of the 32 companies, nine are headquartered in the UK, and seven of them are making their Finovate debuts this year.
Last year, FinovateEurope featured companies from 15 different countries. This year, we’re thrilled to see a similarly diverse group. Here’s where the rest of our FinovateEurope 2025 demoing companies are based.
FinovateEurope is right around the corner: 25-26 February at the Intercontinental O2 in London. Friday, 14 February is the last day to take advantage of big, early-bird savings on the price of your ticket. If you haven’t registered yet, visit our FinovateEurope hub today and save your seat!
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Tabby, a financial services and shopping app in MENA, announced a $160 million Series E funding round that brought the company’s valuation to $3.3 billion.
Qatar-based Islamic financial institution Al Rayan Bank partnered with financial software application provider Finastra to launch its new Islamic core banking solution.
Israel fintech BitStock raised $400,000 in seed funding.
Central and Southern Asia
The Banker featured Golomt Bank and the rise of open banking in Mongolia.
Indian digital payments firm ToneTag secured $78 million in new funding.
Rippleteamed up with Portuguese currency exchange provider Unicâmbio to support cross-border payments between Portugal and Brazil.
Brazilian payments and banking technology provider Dock introduced new Chief Technology Officer Thiago Teixeira.
Latin American global collections firm Takenos launched its Spicy Card, enabled by Pomelo, in Argentina.
Asia-Pacific
Malaysian Earned Wage Access (EWA) specialist Payd raised $400,000 in an extension of its seed funding round.
New Zealand’s Inland Revenue service issued a Request for Information (RFI) as part of an effort to influence the growth of open banking in the country.
Bangladesh-based commercial bank Trust Bank teamed up with TerraPay to help students pay tuition fees.
South African fintech Stitch acquired ExiPay, a company that enables brick-and-mortar stores to securely accept in-person payments via point-of-sale (POS) terminals.
Advanced Television looked at the evolution of South African fintech marketing.
Central and Eastern Europe
Berlin-based invoicing and payables automation management platform Monite unveiled iFrame solution to help SMB platforms deliver financial products and services.
ION Commodities and tax compliance automation company Avalara have forged a strategic partnership.
The partnership will integrate ION Commodities’ commodity management platform with Avalara’s AvaTax for Energy tax engine solution.
Headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, Avalara made its Finovate debut in 2015 at FinDEVr Silicon Valley.
Energy and commodity management solutions provider ION Commodities and tax compliance automation innovator Avalaraannounced a strategic partnership this week. ION Commodities has joined Avalara’s Partner Program to standardize integration of its technology with Avalara’s AvaTax for Energy tax engine solution.
“Tax compliance is one of the most onerous factors impacting energy and commodities enterprises, and their ability to scale and operate efficiently,” Avalara Vice President and General Manager Steve Lacoff said. “Our partnership with ION gives mutual customers in these sectors a greatly simplified path to compliance automation, with reduced compliance risk, and greater operational efficiency.”
Avalara’s AvaTax for Energy tax engine solution helps firms manage the complexities of tax compliance in energy trading and logistics. The energy markets typically feature complex and dynamic tax rates and rules across multiple jurisdictions. Keeping pace with regulatory requirements — including monthly filing requirements — is operationally costly. What’s worse is that attempts to shortcut these costs “can lead to tax errors and risk significant fines and penalties,” Avalara noted in a recent whitepaper, Fuel Tax Compliance Best Practices.
AvaTax for Energy calculates energy excise taxes for firms ranging from the smallest fuel distributors, energy traders, and mobile refuelers to the largest oil, gas, and chemical companies. The integration between Avalara’s compliance automation and ION Commodities’ commodity management platform will give energy companies an automated, scalable tax compliance solution that improves accuracy, reduces reliance on manual processes, and enables real-time tax calculation.
“Collaborating with Avalara aligns with our mission to deliver comprehensive, integrated solutions for the energy and commodities industry,” ION Corporates CEO Sunil Biswas said. “This partnership enhances our offering with advanced tax compliance capabilities, empowering our community to navigate the complexities of tax regulations with confidence.”
With more than 1,200 clients, ION Commodities provides data-driven energy and commodities trading and risk management solutions across the supply chain. The company’s Energy Trade and Risk Management (ETRM) and Commodity Trading and Risk Management (CTRM) solutions give customers real-time risk analytics and reporting and automate critical business processes to enable faster, more informed decisions. Headquartered in New York, ION Commodities is a division of London-based financial data and software company ION Group.
Avalara introduced itself to Finovate audiences in 2015 as part of Finovate’s developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. Headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, and founded in 2004, Avalara offers automated tax compliance solutions that boost efficiency and accuracy, streamlining the experience for customers and simplifying tax management for businesses. According to a study by Forrester Consulting, Avalara customers have benefitted from a 90% increase in tax research efficiency, a 50% reduction in time spent on exemption certificate management, an 85% increase in audit preparation efficiency, and an 85% reduction in time spent managing tax returns. Scott McFarlane is co-founder and CEO.
If you are a subscriber to Finovate Weekly, our LinkedIn-based newsletter of top stories from the Finovate blog, then you’ve already heard the news. But if not, then we’re thrilled to share it with you right here today: FinovateEurope2025 will feature a full, 32-company roster at our upcoming fintech conference in London, on 25-26 February.
“Our FinovateEurope conference will feature a diverse lineup of startup companies,” Finovate VP and Demo Director Heather Stowell said. “A key commonality among them is AI. But expect to see a number of different AI and automation use cases nested within core banking, wealth management, payments, fraud, and compliance.”
Finovate’s signature, live fintech demonstrations continue to be a much-imitated hallmark of Finovate conferences. With only seven minutes at their disposal and a hard and fast “no videos, no slides” rule, Finovate’s live demos are a unique opportunity for innovative fintechs and financial services companies to show — not tell — our audience of professionals exactly how their innovations help banks and other businesses solve critical problems, grow revenues, and access new markets and customers.
“This is an exciting year for demos at Finovate,” Stowell added. “Over 80% of the FinovateEurope demoing companies are less than five years old and are demoing at Finovate for the first time. We’re looking forward to seeing their latest innovations live on stage.”
To learn more about the companies that will be demoing at FinovateEurope this month, Finovate’s Sneak Peek series is a great place to start. Find out about the challenges being solved, key features, what businesses stand to benefit from their innovations, and more.
This Friday is your last chance to take advantage of early-bird savings of up to£200.00 when you register to attend FinovateEurope. Don’t delay! Visit our FinovateEurope hub today and save your spot!
Financial compliance software company Fenergo has teamed up with PwC.
The partnership is designed to bring AI-powered CLM and KYC solutions to more financial institutions around the world.
Fenergo made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2012. PwC won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021.
Fenergo and PwC have announced a new partnership that will help put Fenergo’s AI-powered Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) and Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions in the hands of more financial institutions. The combination of PwC’s financial crime expertise with Fenergo’s AI-powered CLM technology into a single offering will make it easier for financial institutions to digitally transform their financial crime operations.
Fenergo’s Global VP for Partnerships and Alliances Matt Edwards said that the collaboration between the two firms will “deliver an optimum target operating model for CLM.” Edwards added that the solution “empowers financial institutions to efficiently mitigate financial crime risk while driving growth and efficiency gains.”
Fenergo’s CLM helps ensure that financial services firms realize tangible benefits and return on investment from the digital transformation of their client management and compliance processes. The platform provides faster client onboarding, including streamlined onboarding for low-to-medium risk clients; improved operational efficiencies with fewer touchpoints; policy-driven accurate risk assessments aligned with regulatory requirements; and a reduced total cost of ownership thanks to advanced API integrations.
Complementing Fenergo’s CLM technology are PwC’s Target Operating Model design, end-to-end customer experience journey mapping, operational readiness, data migration, systems integration, and business change management.
PwC Partner Mark Hunter highlighted Fenergo’s technology as “uniquely positioned to serve mid-market to large multinational organizations.” Hunter praised the company’s platform for its “scale, flexibility, and advanced capabilities” that help institutions better manage complex regulatory environments and large volumes of transactions.
A UK-based multinational assurance, advisory, and tax services provider, PwC counts more than 85% of the Global Fortune 500 companies as its clients. PwC maintains offices in 152 countries and reported gross revenues of more than $55 billion for the year ending 30 June 2024. The company participated in Finovate’s developer conference, FinDEVr SiliconValley 2016, and won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2021 for a demonstration of Customer Link, its customer data platform that helps institutions build better, more personalized experiences.
Dublin, Ireland-based Fenergo made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2012. The company offers simplified client and product onboarding, automated AML and KYC due diligence, and a centralized CLM platform that helps financial institutions, asset management, and fintechs manage customers throughout the entire client lifecycle.
Fenergo’s partnership news with PwC comes a few days after the company announced the launch of its all-in-one KYC, onboarding, and trade request management platform for businesses in the energy and commodities sector. The new Trader Request Portal combines KYC, onboarding, and trade request management capabilities.
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to suspend nearly all activities.
The demand came in the form of an email from newly appointed Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought.
The CFPB was launched in 2011 as part of a sweeping set of reforms enacted in the wake of the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2008.
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to immediately suspend nearly all activities, according to a report from the Associated Press. The demand comes one week after President Trump removed the director of the CFPB, Rohit Chopra. The bureau, founded in the summer of 2011 via Title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act, has been a target of conservatives for years. Even Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, has weighed in on the CFPB, claiming that the goal of the administration is to fully “delete” the bureau.
This is not the first time the CFPB has been told to stand down since President Trump was inaugurated. Within days of being named acting director of the bureau, Scott Bessent ordered employees to stop all bureau activities, settlement enforcement actions, and involvement in legal cases.
The latest directive to the CFPB came from newly appointed director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought late last week. The order demands that the CFPB cease work on proposed regulations and suspend the effective dates of rules that have been finalized but are not yet fully in force. Vought also ordered the bureau to stop any investigative activity — including new probes — and to end its supervision and examination efforts. The new director has even pursued the bureau’s funding, stating that the CFPB cannot withdraw its next round of funding from the Federal Reserve, which Vought referred to as “excessive.”
Further, the CFPB’s headquarters in Washington will be closed from February 10 through February 14, with workers and contractors expected to “work remotely unless instructed otherwise,” Vought indicated in an email to employees over the weekend.
So, what can the CFPB do, if anything? At this point, the bureau can still hear consumer complaints, even if it is no longer empowered to examine issues or launch investigations. Additionally, Vought’s order has been interpreted as forbidding the CFPB from engaging with companies it regulates, as well as with consumer advocates and similar outside organizations.
The CFPB has sued Capital One as recently as last month, claiming that the company had misled customers about its high-interest savings accounts, resulting in more than $2 billion in lost interest payments. Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren — who first conceived of the idea of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — decried the decision to suspend the CFPB’s activities, saying that Vought was “giving big banks and giant corporations the green light to scam families.” Of late Warren has suggested that there might be common ground between the CFPB’s mission and the concern that many conservatives and Republicans have about the phenomenon of “de-banking” — even if they disagree on which entities are being unfairly “de-banked.”
If Vought’s name sounds familiar, then it may have to do with his connection to Project 2025, a policy blueprint that was touted by many conservatives and Trump supporters during the presidential election in 2024, but was never fully embraced by Trump as part of the campaign. Many observers see the current moves in Washington to reduce headcount, control spending, and realign various agencies as part of the mission of Project 2025.
Interestingly, there remains some uncertainty about who will take over the CFPB on a permanent basis if the bureau does survive — as most observers view likely. At least two senior CFPB officials have announced their resignations in the wake of Vought’s email: Lorelai Salas, supervision director, and Eric Halperin, enforcement director. The Dodd-Frank Update reported that there are indications that the Trump administration has struggled to find someone interested in the job. In the first Trump administration, the CFPB was run by Mick Mulvaney, who served as acting director from November 2017 to December 2018, and Kathleen Kraninger, who took over from Mulvaney and served until Joe Biden assumed the Presidency in January 2021.
Banking technology provider Zeta has raised $50 million in new funding. The investment — from an unnamed strategic investor — boosts the company’s valuation to $2 billion, a significant increase from the firm’s most recent pre-money valuation of $1.45 billion. That valuation followed a capital infusion of $250 million from Softbank Vision Fund 2 and other investors in 2021.
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Zeta enables financial institutions and fintechs to launch a wide variety of financial products via its modern, microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native, and Headless (MACH) platform. These products include credit cards, checking accounts, savings accounts, unsecured loans, and more. Zeta’s SaaS suite provides solutions for the entire lifecycle of a banking product: core banking and issuer payments; merchant acquiring and payment services; digital banking and AI applications; issuer operations and servicing; customer engagement and rewards; as well as commercial cards and benefits.
“We are incredibly excited at the pace at which clients are embracing our modern stack,” Zeta Global CEO and Co-Founder Bhavin Turakhia said. “Over the past few years, we have supported over 25 million accounts on our cloud-native processing platform Tachyon and are on track to add 25 million more with contracts already in flight. Our clients are breaking away from decades of legacy systems to deliver amazing digital experiences, thereby increasing their customer satisfaction and accelerating new user acquisition.”
Founded in 2015, Zeta won Best of Show in its debut at our all-digital Finovate conference in 2020. The company returned to the Finovate stage the following year for FinovateFall 2021 in New York. More recently, Zeta has collaborated with fellow Finovate alum Mastercard as part of a five-year partnership and teamed up with Featurespace to combine credit card processing and fraud detection. Last August, Zeta announced that India’s HDFC Bank was leveraging its technology to power its new Credit Line on UPI (CLOU) solutions.
“Zeta’s mission to be a trusted partner to financial institutions is possible through the patient efforts of the best team ever assembled in banking technology,” Zeta Co-Founder Ramki Gaddipati said. “While the past few years have been challenging for the banking-tech industry, our organization has delivered multiple winning programs for our clients in record time.”
To date, Zeta customers around the world have issued more than 25 million cards on Zeta’s platform. The firm’s card processing capabilities were recognized by Celent in its 2023 Next-Gen Card Issuer Processors in the US report, which noted that, in the words of Celent Head of Retail Banking and Payments Research Zil Bareisis, “Zeta is among the likeliest partners for banks considering a shift to next-gen processing.”
