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Feedzai and Matrix USA are launching a Center of Excellence to deliver a standardized, repeatable approach to help financial institutions deploy fraud and AML solutions.
The partnership addresses the growing AI-driven fraud threat, as more than 50% of fraudsters now use AI.
By combining AI-native technology with deep implementation expertise, the companies aim to help banks modernize fraud and AML programs at speed and scale without disrupting day-to-day operations.
Risk management solutions provider Feedzai is teaming up with advisory and technology services company Matrix USA to help financial institutions fight the rising threats of fraud and money laundering.
The two companies are collaborating on a Center of Excellence that will create a standardized approach to deploying fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions.
Highlighting the need for fraud prevention strategies that can keep pace with increasingly sophisticated threats, Feedzai Co-Founder and CEO Nuno Sebastião said AI has permanently reshaped the financial crime landscape. “AI has changed the fraud landscape forever, and financial institutions need solutions that can evolve just as quickly. That requires advanced technology with the right expertise to put it to work effectively. Together, Feedzai and Matrix USA will help financial institutions translate powerful capabilities into real-world impact against sophisticated, AI-enabled financial crime.”
Feedzai was founded in 2011 as a risk operations platform specializing in identity verification, fraud prevention, and financial crime detection. The company’s AI-powered solutions span KYC, AML, watchlist screening, and transaction fraud monitoring to help financial institutions stop fraud in real time without compromising the customer experience. Today, Feedzai protects over one billion consumers in more than 190 countries and safeguards over $8 billion in transactions annually.
Founded in 2006, Matrix USA provides advisory services to help financial institutions prevent financial crime and stay compliant when leveraging agentic AI, AI and LLM, automation, and model validation tools. The New Jersey-based company operates in more than 20 countries and has implemented more than 1,000 projects.
With new advancements in AI becoming more accessible than ever, the partnership comes at a key time. According to research from Feedzai, more than 50% of fraudsters now use AI. When paired with banks’ outdated infrastructure, the enabling technology is widening the gap between increasingly sophisticated financial crime and the tools institutions have used for decades.
Regarding the pressure banks face as they modernize legacy systems, Matrix USA CEO Lior Blik said financial institutions must strengthen fraud and AML defenses without slowing business operations. “Financial institutions are under tremendous pressure to modernize their fraud and AML defenses without slowing down business. By pairing Feedzai’s industry-leading AI capabilities with our deployment and integration expertise, we’re giving customers a faster, more reliable path to advanced prevention and stronger compliance.”
By combining Feedzai’s AI-native financial crime prevention technology with Matrix USA’s implementation and advisory expertise, the two companies aim to deliver a structured, repeatable approach that helps financial institutions fight fraud and money laundering at speed and scale without disrupting day-to-day operations.
CES is known for flashy gadgets and fun consumer technology. For most banks, CES is not a must-attend event because it does not focus on fintech and banking. There is, however, still value in attending the show, as emerging technologies can signal how customer expectations and new operating models are evolving.
U.S. Bank understands this and sent two executives, Don Relyea, Chief Innovation Officer, and Todder Moning, Head of R&D, Innovation, on a “Future Safari” to check out what’s new, what’s next, and what’s possible when it comes to implementing technologies.
After they returned to the office last week, we interviewed Relyea and Moning to unpack what CES 2026 revealed from a banker’s perspective. From embedded AI and robotics to agentic commerce and cross-industry convergence, they highlight new trends, unpack which were overhyped, and explain what bank leaders should be paying attention to over the next 12 to 24 months.
From a banker’s perspective, what signals did CES send this year about where technology investment is actually heading—and which trends felt more operationally real than hype?
Don Relyea and Todder Moning: Well, it’s safe to say the technology investment is increasing across the board. We love taking Future Safaris™ to CES because it is a great way to get ideas and see and follow emerging trends across many spaces that will allow us to improve the customer experience as well as integrate with other new tech innovations.
Trends that stuck out to our team this year include:
Everywhere Intelligence – Embedded in Everything: Artificial intelligence is no longer a standalone category—it’s being woven into devices large and small, at the edge (on-device) and in the cloud, turning ordinary products into smart, context-aware companions. In terms of potential financial implications, personalized financial assistants that understand behavior, spending patterns, and context could dramatically improve user experience and trust in the future. However, increased reliance on AI raises privacy, bias, and regulatory concerns—especially as financial decisions become automated.
Digital Health/Wellness/Longevity Tech: Tech that senses, analyzes, and predicts health was signposted at CES 2025 and carries into 2026 with smarter biofeedback devices. We see healthcare as connected to financial services and even have a saying: “healthcare is wealth care.” Money is emotional and has impacts on people, their families, and businesses, both good and bad, and helping to reach better wealth care outcomes (financial outcomes) positively impacts people’s health and wellness.
The convergence of AI, wearables, brain interfaces, and other age-tech are going to extend life. There is an opportunity for banks to weave that into a more holistic planning process for our clients. We also saw numerous wearables and other AI-based innovations that monitor various metrics and values to inform you about health risks or concerns. This is relevant because there is a strong correlation between physical health and financial health. These innovations could also help catch costly medical problems before they occur, saving people money and stress. For example, transaction metrics could flag early signs of dementia or an eldercare abuse issue.
Robots for industrial and home use: The resurgence of robotics was the most visible trend at CES this year. “Embodied AI” or what some call “Physical AI” are catchier names for intelligent robotics. We’re seeing tons of AI and far more robotics this year than in prior years, and as the two domains merge more deeply, a wave of AI-enabled, more general purpose, and often more human-like robotics solutions are emerging.
Robots, humanoid, non-humanoid, and robotic exoskeletons that you wear are graduating from controlled environments to unstructured, real-world contexts—folding laundry, navigating homes, manufacturing or even autonomous vehicles.
Looking ahead: CES shows a shift from gadget splendor to system-wide integration—everything is connected and intelligent. AI, robotics and immersive interfaces are converging—not just making things “smart” but connecting behaviors, identities and environments.
As CES showcased advances in consumer hardware, AI assistants, and connected devices, what new expectations do you think customers will bring back to their financial institutions?
Relyea and Moning: You’re hitting on two of the five themes about why we like to take Future Safaris and why CES is one of the best—what we call lateral and longitudinal. At CES, we’re able to see many industries and domains in a concentrated amount of time. Taking the lateral view, we see what and how numerous industries use similar technologies to do something. This is a great way to collect and curate direct or indirect ways that you can do metaphorically similar things in your future, industry and domain of interest.
On the longitudinal view, if you’re in a place and time where lots of technologies, developments, or business models are present, it’s a great opportunity to gauge how each technology, development, or business model is changing over time. This was the bank’s 15th year at CES, which allows us to gauge how each technology or development is changing over time. Are robots getting better and more useful, or are they developing slowly (or worse, stalled and in decline)? Is AI advancing and if so, in what places and ways? Is a touted technology delivering against the hype, or is it prancing around with no real innovation use. In Texas, we call the latter “big hat, no cattle.”
The big idea is that technology, design, and experiences are erasing the barriers and boundaries between industries. If one comes to expect what’s possible to do in one industry, business, or product, they will likely come to expect that for other industries and businesses. That’s the kind of meta-trending we try to find and then apply to what that means for banks and financial services going forward.
Customer interactions continue to become increasingly digital and increasingly enabled by AI and sensors, and U.S. Bank is at the leading edge of visioning where tech is headed and what our customers need from us—as we provide the technology and guidance that make their financial lives simpler and more convenient. We’re proud to have one of the longest running dedicated innovation practices in banking today.
AI being embedded in everything is going to raise the bar for consumer expectations of what good is. This year AI was not front and center at CES, it was embedded and improving the automation of consumer devices in subtle and easy to use and easy to access ways. Think rings, pins, and business card form factors that you can talk to (that may or may not connect to other devices or the cloud) and ask them to transcribe, translate, make PowerPoints, fill out forms, manage calendars, and many other things. This is going to raise the expectations of customers that more should be done for them.
Did you notice fintech concepts like embedded finance, identity, or real-time payments showing up inside non-financial technology at CES?
Relyea and Moning: Yes, we saw things like an AI-enabled oven that helps you grocery shop for ingredients.
We saw several biometric payment checkout interfaces. These were easy to use and set up and could be integrated into anything requiring identity and payments pretty easily.
We saw biometric technology using keyboard behavior that could help flag a significant behavior change in an employee (for example), who is either under duress or as a disgruntled employee could make poor decisions impacting the business. Another example we saw is asset-tracking technology that could be used off-grid, to say track trucks, railcars, mining equipment, etc.
For the majority of bank leaders who didn’t attend CES, what is one emerging theme from the show that you think will impact financial services over the next 12 to 24 months, and why?
Relyea and Moning: I’d say the embedding of AI into devices and what has started happening in agentic commerce. Devices of all sorts are showing signs of becoming commerce orchestrators and agents for customers—and it’s a short jump from there to having devices become a type of customer. Many of the things we see at CES come with subscriptions—for instance, the longevity mirror I used came with an annual subscription for you and your family to use its AI data and models. You can imagine that many of these monthly or annual subscriptions we might have in the future. Are you going to manage all of those, or will the device manage it for you with limited spending capabilities you provide it?
Tell us about the coolest non-banking use of technology you saw at CES?
Relyea and Moning: I think the exoskeletons were really cool. Don was able to wear the leg ones that helped him climb stairs much easier and faster. I was able to wear one on my back and hips that helped me to pick up a heavy item with ease. I also liked the sustainable printed battery that was paper thin. It could be embedded into most anything and power airtags in things like your passport carrier, purse, wallet, that kind of thing. And when you throw it away, it is completely compostable.
And we always love the autonomous mobility work that the big agricultural and construction/mining brands show—autonomous combines with autonomous hoppers that keep pace with the combine, and AI-assisted and autonomous Bobcats and construction excavators. It just shows how autonomous mobility is happening, even if its pace is slower than was originally expected at the beginning of the decade.
Worldline is launching new AI capabilities to help merchants move from experimenting with AI agents to deploying them in real-world commerce.
The company’s MCP servers act as a bridge between LLMs and payment APIs to allow AI agents to initiate transactions, issue refunds, and manage payment workflows using natural language.
Worldline acknowledged its support for emerging standards like Google’s AP2 and UCP, as well as European regulatory requirements.
Global payments company Worldline is making new moves to join the agentic future. The France-based firm is launching new capabilities that are helping companies to move from experimenting with AI agents to deploying AI agents.
According to McKinsey, agentic commerce could see between $3 trillion and $5 trillion in global retail value by 2030. To help users leverage this opportunity, Worldline is unveiling two new capabilities to interface with AI agents and help merchants experiment with AI-powered workflows and commerce experiences.
For the first capability, Worldline is using its Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers to act as a translation layer between LLMs and Worldline’s APIs. This bridge will enable consumers to participate in AI-driven shopping by allowing agents to share secure payment links. Shoppers can use AI agents to initiate a transaction using natural language, while merchants can support agent-initiated actions such as payment creation, refunds, status checks, and payment captures.
Worldline views its new AI capabilities as a foundational step toward making agentic commerce practical at scale. According to Gertjan Dewaele, VP of Product & Technology at Worldline, the introduction of MCP servers helps bridge the gap between experimentation and real-world deployment. “The shift to agentic commerce is underway, and MCP servers are the first building block for moving merchants from experimentation to real-world deployment. By providing secure, simple access to Worldline’s payment capabilities for AI agents, we enable the next generation of agentic commerce and streamline internal operations.”
Worldline has also introduced ConnectAI, which will allow developers and merchants to explore, build, test, and prepare for agentic commerce. ConnectAI serves as a hub that offers tools, documentation, and guidance for new agentic payment protocols.
According to Worldline Head of Global Commerce Stijn Gasthuys, the company sees agentic commerce as a catalyst for broader innovation in payments. “Agentic commerce will unlock new waves of innovation, helping merchants deliver better customer experiences. Our investments in this area position Worldline to capture a growing global market for AI-powered transactions, delivering secure, scalable infrastructure that empowers merchants and developers to innovate with confidence.”
Worldline’s move comes during a major shift in the payments industry, which is racing to accept the reality that AI agents are starting to participate in commerce. By focusing on infrastructure, standards alignment, and regulatory compliance, Worldline is positioning itself among the players willing to enable agentic commerce safely and at scale.
Worldline’s new capabilities make it easier for merchants to experiment while reducing the operational and compliance risks that slow adoption. The tools make it easier for companies to transition from AI pilots to real, revenue-generating use cases.
As part of today’s announcement, Worldline is actively supporting emerging standards, including Google’s newly launched Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) and Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). The company also noted that it will place “a strong focus” on complying with European regulatory and trusted requirements.
Founded in 1974, Worldline offers payments technology and solutions customized for hundreds of industries. The company counts more than one million businesses as clients around the world and generated $5.3 billion (4.6 billion euros) in revenue in 2024.
Klarna has launched peer-to-peer payments in 13 European markets, enabling users to send money, split bills, and gift cash directly within the Klarna app.
The move shifts Klarna beyond buy-now, pay-later toward becoming an everyday digital hub for spending and money management.
While initially limited to Klarna users sending domestic payments to other Klarna users, the company plans to expand P2P payments to non-users, cross-border transactions, and potentially stablecoin-based options in the future.
Digital payments app Klarna is taking a step to become more like a bank. The Sweden-based company has launched peer-to-peer (P2P) payment capabilities this week, making it possible for users to send funds to family and friends.
The new P2P capabilities will initially be available in 13 European countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. Customers in these nations will be able to use the Klarna app to split bills, gift cash, and send funds under the protection of a regulated bank.
Klarna, which originally launched as a buy-now, pay-later tool in 2005, views this launch as the next step in its evolution as an everyday digital hub for spending and money management.
“Customers are sick of the friction and fees of traditional banking, which is why millions signed up to Klarna Card within a few months of launch,” said Klarna Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “With peer-to-peer payments we’re making it even easier to manage all of your payments through Klarna, now including small transfers, making managing your money quicker, easier, and cheaper.”
At launch, P2P payments will only work between Klarna users sending domestic payments. To send funds, users need a recipient’s phone number or email address, or they can use a QR code or saved contact. When the sender confirms the amount, Klarna checks the transaction details for fraud. The company plans to expand the capabilities to non-Klarna users and to cross-border payments in the future.
This is among the first major announcements Klarna has made since going public in September 2025. And while it comes two months after the company debuted the KlarnaUSD, its stablecoin, the company said that its P2P payments will initially run over traditional payment rails, though it is exploring stablecoin-based options.
The launch of the new P2P payment capabilities marks Klarna’s first move in 2026 after a busy 2025, when the company saw the deposits in its Klarna Balance account double from $9.5 billion in 2024 to $14 billion in 2025. Additionally, Klarna’s debit card saw more than four million sign-ups just four months after launching.
Klarna made no mention of plans to launch P2P payment capabilities in the US, where it would face entrenched competitors such as Cash App, Venmo, and Zelle. However, adding P2P payments to an already robust app deepens Klarna’s role in users’ daily financial lives, which would reinforce its ambition to move beyond buy-now, pay-later and closer to a full-service digital banking experience.
Checkout.com has received approval for a Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank (MALPB) charter in Georgia.
The charter enables the UK-based payments provider to operate as its own acquirer in the US.
The move marks a major expansion of Checkout.com’s North American strategy, as it expects full banking operations in 2026.
Digital payments provider Checkout.com has received approval for its Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank (MALPB) charter from the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance. For UK-based Checkout.com, this regulatory approval will allow the fintech to transition to operating a MALPB in the US.
Checkout.com sees the approval as the next step in its journey, which includes direct US card network integration and the ability to operate as its own acquirer in the US market. Bringing both of these aspects in-house will offer Checkout.com more control, allow it to move faster, and offer better acceptance rates in order to deliver the performance US merchants expect.
The approval reduces Checkout.com’s dependence on sponsor banks, which will enable greater control over settlement, risk management, and merchant onboarding. These capabilities are increasingly important as payment volumes and regulatory scrutiny grow in the US market.
“With our MALPB charter now approved, the ‘definitive catalyst’ we identified in October is officially activated. This milestone paves the way for a new era of payment performance,” said Checkout.com MALPB CEO and Head of North American Banking Jordan Reynolds. “Our focus is now on scaling our infrastructure and building up talent in Atlanta and the US to meet the rigorous conditions of our approval. We are on track toward full charter banking operations in 2026, doubling down on our commitment to provide US enterprise merchants with the performance and reliability they demand.”
As Reynolds hints, while the charter has been approved, Checkout.com will still need to meet regulatory and operational milestones before fully launching banking operations, which it expects to complete later this year.
Today’s move indicates that Checkout.com is interested in significantly expanding its North American operations. The US bank charter will offer US enterprises a payment platform optimized for the complexities of the US market.
The company operates a US headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia with additional offices in New York and San Francisco. Checkout.com was authorized as an electronic money institution in the UK in 2017 and in France in 2019. In 2023, the company obtained its Retail Payment Services license from the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates and since then has brought Mada (Saudi Arabia’s National Payment Network) and Apple Pay to merchants across the UAE and KSA.
Founded in 2012, Checkout.com is a global payments platform that empowers businesses to accept, process, and manage payments seamlessly. The company uses its payments network to enable organizations to accept payments locally and internationally with global acquiring capabilities. The company also offers a suite of services that allows businesses to create and manage their own payment cards, advanced risk management tools to optimize performance and reduce fraud, and treasury management services to streamline cash flow and reconciliation.
Checkout.com processed more than $300 billion in ecommerce volumes last year and counts Uber, eBay, Pinterest, Klarna, and GE Healthcare among its clients.
Nationwide has selected Moneyhub to enrich and categorize card and direct debit transaction data using AI-driven analysis.
The partnership enables deeper transaction-level insights that support better personal finance management for customers, alongside improved fraud detection, risk monitoring, and personalization for Nationwide.
The deal highlights how transaction data is becoming a strategic differentiator for banks competing on insight-led products and customer experience.
UK financial services company Nationwide has selected open data platform Moneyhub to help categorize, enrich, and better understand consumer transaction data.
Nationwide will leverage Moneyhub’s AI-driven Categorization and Enrichment engine to analyze consumer transactions made on cards and with direct debits. The transaction analysis will allow Nationwide to see details such as contact and location data for the website or store where the purchase was made.
This deep understanding of transaction details will benefit both customers as well as Nationwide. The additional data will help customers better manage their personal finances and quickly identify fraudulent transactions. For Nationwide, the granular insights support more accurate transaction categorization, improved risk detection, and the ability to deliver more personalized products and services. By working with Moneyhub, Nationwide is positioning itself to turn raw transaction data into actionable insights that can power smarter products, clearer customer experiences, and more proactive financial support.
“At Nationwide our tech teams work to deliver fairer, more rewarding, and more convenient banking, so selecting the right partners is crucial, to make sure we’re giving our customers the best experience possible,” said Nationwide Chief Data and Analytics Officer Sri Kanisapakkam. “Moneyhub’s AI-driven tech will help enrich the data we’re giving back to our customers and set us up for success with even more personalized products and services in the future.”
Moneyhub was founded in 2014 and offers personal finance technology tools, open data APIs, decisioning solutions, and payments capabilities. Its platform is designed to empower financial institutions, employers, and technology providers to deliver more tailored financial experiences through real-time data access and intelligent analysis. Regulated by the FCA, Moneyhub’s infrastructure supports a wide range of use cases, including budgeting tools, affordability assessments, wealth insights, and financial wellness programs.
“Moneyhub exists to help our financial services clients build services that improve their customers’ digital experience and deliver better financial outcomes,” said Moneyhub CEO Alastair McGill. “Presenting retail customers with a fine-grained understanding of their income and expenditure is an essential part of this journey, so we’re delighted that Nationwide selected our Categorization and Enrichment engine. We look forward to working with Nationwide as they continue to further enhance their customer engagement.”
Across the globe, transaction data is becoming a strategic asset for banks. As competition heats up in the traditional banking space, financial institutions face growing pressure to improve personalization, fraud prevention, and customer trust. Fortunately, the broad availability of AI tools combined with open banking regulations such as PSD2 make it easier than ever for firms to gain insights from transactions.
Moneyhub demoed its enterprise platform at FinovateEurope 2017. Last year, the company formed a partnership with Lloyds, deepened ties with Experian, and appointed a new CEO.
Google launched Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an interoperability layer that lets AI agents discover products, authenticate users, and complete transactions.
Unlike AP2, which governs how agents move money, UCP orchestrates the entire commerce flow.
UCP will require banks to create new approaches to authentication, consent, liability, and trust as AI agents become active participants in commerce.
Google unveiled its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) today, which essentially serves as the plumbing for how AI agents buy things on consumers’ behalf. But what does it really do and how is it different from Google’s AP2 launched last fall? Here’s a simple breakdown of the newly launched protocol.
What does UCP do?
Co-developed with major retailers and ecommerce players, including Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart, Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol is essentially a standardized way for AI agents to discover products, request prices, authenticate users, and complete transactions. You can think of it like HTTPS, which is a set of rules that serves as a standardized protocol that governs and encrypts how browsers request and servers send web content over the internet.
Similarly, UCP is an interoperability layer that allows many systems to talk to each other and enables AI agents to make purchases and decisions on a consumer’s behalf, instead of just making product recommendations. UCP is more than a marketplace or a wallet. The new protocol coordinates the various aspects of how agents, merchants, identity systems, and payment rails interact during a transaction.
Google plans to use UCP to power a new checkout feature on select Google product listings that will allow shoppers to check out using Google Pay and PayPal from eligible retailers in AI Mode within Search and in the Gemini app.
From an end users’ perspective, this may seem similar to OpenAI’s partnerships with retailers like Walmart that allow shoppers to make purchases within ChatGPT. Google’s move, however, is markedly different. That’s because Google owns the payment rails. While the retailer remains the seller of record, Google controls the checkout experience as well as the protocol, which standardizes identity, payment credentials, shipping information, and consent.
How does UCP differ from AP2?
The final quarter of 2025 brought a deluge of new agentic commerce protocols to the market, creating confusion about the roles of protocols and the players involved. Among the protocols launched last year was Google’s AP2, its Agent Payments Protocol. AP2 is much narrower in scope than UCP, however, because while AP2 governs how an AI agent is allowed to move money, UCP orchestrates the entire commerce flow.
UCP handles product and service discovery, pricing and availability queries, merchant interaction, user intent and authorization checks, transaction confirmation, and fulfillment. AP2, on the other hand, is entirely payments focused. It handles payment initiation, authorization limits, credential handling, transaction execution, and settlement signaling.
What does all of this mean for banks?
Agentic commerce is moving fast and is set to change how transactions are initiated, authorized, and executed. As AI agents take on a more active role in purchasing, banks will need to rethink their role in the transaction stack and consider how to authenticate AI agents and create policies around who is liable when an agent transacts. Fortunately, protocols like UCP create auditability and can program trust into every transaction.
There is a race to the top in Agentic commerce, and Google is here to make sure its name is front and center. The tech giant launched its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a new open standard for agentic commerce, and payments companies like PayPal and Ant International are jumping on board. Read on for more fintech news headlines. We’ll continue to add more announcements as the week progresses.
DeFi
Rainraises $250 million Series C to scale stablecoin-powered payments infrastructure for global enterprises.
BNYextends digital cash capabilities for institutional clients.
Ripplereceives FCA permissions to scale Ripple Payments in the UK.
Emburselaunches Invoice Tax Validation to help global businesses comply with growing wave of e-invoice regulation.
Affirmupdates underwriting with enhanced signals to better reflect consumers’ real-time finances.
AMLYZEpartners with Vinted Pay as it expands payment infrastructure.
Digital banking
The State of Georgia Department of Banking and Finance has officially acceptedCheckout.com‘s application for a Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank (MALPB) charter.
Wio Bankunveils first UAE bank account for content creators.
Bilt is partnering with Verifone to embed its loyalty and customer experience platform directly into Verifone Victa point-of-sale devices and will allow merchants to recognize and engage members at checkout with personalized experiences.
The integration requires no new hardware and works across multiple payment providers.
For Bilt, the deal creates a scalable distribution channel through Verifone’s point-of-sale devices, significantly expanding its merchant reach.
Loyalty platform Biltannounced it is teaming up with Verifone this week. The partnership will integrate Bilt’s experience and loyalty platform into Verifone’s Victa point-of-sale hardware devices.
The nine Verifone Victa point-of-sale devices range from enterprise-grade registers to small mobile and portable devices. Integrating Bilt’s loyalty tools into these devices will help merchants engage customers at point of sale by embedding personalized experiences and member identity into the payment experience.
The native integration, which won’t require additional hardware investment or changes to existing workflows, is designed to be easy for merchants to adopt. It works across multiple payment providers as an out-of-the-box tool that has already been tested and certified, which lowers implementation risk and shortens the time it takes for businesses to go live with Bilt’s customer experience tools.
“By embedding Bilt’s loyalty technology directly into the Verifone platform, delivered through Victa, we’re enabling merchants to elevate customer engagement without adding hardware or disrupting existing workflows,” said Verifone CEO Himanshu Patel. “Through the Verifone gateway, merchants get a pre-certified, enterprise-grade integration that accelerates time to market and is already proven at scale—while unlocking access to Bilt’s member base.”
Bilt was founded in 2021 to offer a loyalty rewards program and credit card that allows renters to earn points when they pay their rent, building credit with every payment. With no annual fee, the Bilt Mastercard credit card also allows cardholders to earn points on select dining experiences, rideshare purchases, and travel purchases. These points can be redeemed for travel, fitness classes, home decor, and even a down payment on a future home.
For Bilt, today’s partnership has the potential to massively increase its merchant footprint by placing its loyalty and customer experience tools directly into widely deployed point-of-sale hardware. By meeting merchants where transactions already occur, Bilt can scale distribution without requiring merchants to adopt new systems or change how they operate.
This is big news for Bilt. The partnership has the potential to move Bilt from a card-centric loyalty program into embedded commerce infrastructure that meets consumers and merchants directly at the point-of-sale.
“Partnering with Verifone—the gold standard in payment hardware—means our merchant partners get best-in-class customer experience technology that’s already delivering better reviews, faster operations, and happier customers,” said Bilt Founder and CEO Ankur Jain. “This partnership with Verifone brings our proven membership and loyalty tech right to the point-of-sale—dining, fitness, retail, you name it. Together, we’re completely changing how merchants connect with their customers. Now they can automatically recognize and reward people at checkout, which means every transaction becomes a chance to build real relationships and unlock new revenue with personalized offers.”
Bilt will begin rolling out the Verifone integration with select restaurant groups, and will make its tools more available to a broader set of merchants throughout 2026.
Clover is partnering with Wink to embed biometric identity directly into the payment flow across Clover’s point-of-sale ecosystem.
The integration enables identity-based payments using facial, palm, and voice recognition and will support transactions, loyalty enrollment, and age verification without passwords, physical cards, or additional hardware.
The partnership treats identity as a core layer of the transaction and aims to deliver faster checkout, reduced fraud, and simpler operations for merchants.
Fiserv-owned Clover, a company that provides Android-powered point-of-sale tools, announced it is partnering with biometric identity and payments platform Wink to offer a new way to pay.
Clover will integrate Wink’s biometric identity technology into its existing platform, enabling identity-based payments designed to improve security and streamline checkout for both merchants and customers.
Texas-based Wink, a FinovateSpring 2023 Best of Show winner, provides a multi-factor biometric platform that combines facial, palm, voice, and device recognition to authenticate customer identities across in-store, mobile, and online transactions—without relying on passwords, physical cards, or additional hardware.
The integration brings together Clover’s payment and loyalty tools with Wink’s biometric authentication capabilities, allowing consumers to complete transactions, enroll in loyalty programs, and verify age-restricted purchases using biometric authentication. All transactions are processed through Wink’s PCI Level 1 and SOC 2–compliant payment gateway.
“The future of commerce is the unification of payment and identity,” said Fiserv SVP and Global Chief Product Officer of Merchant Solutions Sanjay Saraf. “By embedding Wink’s leading biometric security and intelligence directly into the Clover platform, we’re making cutting-edge technology simple, secure, and accessible for Main Street SMB businesses, helping them to deliver exceptional experiences and unlock new opportunities for growth.”
While contactless payments tools became less exciting after COVID, the heart of this collaboration is around a more central aspect of payments: identity. By integrating Wink’s tools, Clover is bringing identity into the core layer of the transaction, rather than a separate step handled through passwords, cards, or manual checks. For merchants, this could mean faster throughput, lower fraud, and fewer operational touchpoints.
Clover was originally founded in 2010 to help small businesses accept payments. Today, the company serves as a one-stop shop for multiple payment needs. In addition to offering a range of payment acceptance terminals, Clover also has software to help businesses with online orders, accounting, loyalty programs, staff management, inventory, and more.
Clover was acquired in 2012 by First Data, which was acquired by Fiserv in 2019.
“Wink’s strategic integration with Clover will bring unparalleled security, speed, and intelligence to every transaction across a large ecosystem of merchants, app developers, and partners,” said Deepak Jain, Founder and CEO of Wink. “We are excited to work closely with Fiserv to bring to market many advanced use cases of identity-driven payments that will define the future of connected commerce at scale across retail, hospitality, venues, and stadiums.”
Clover will make the biometric capabilities available across all of its point-of-sale devices, including Station Duo, Mini, Flex, and Clover Kiosk, and will not require additional hardware changes. The new biometric technology will be available to QSRs, sports venues, and retailers, in a continuous rollout throughout 2026.
As we enter the next era of digitization 2.0, identity verification and fraud prevention have moved from supporting roles to critical infrastructure. At the same time, advances in AI are making it easier for bad actors to circumvent legacy controls, increasing both the complexity and the stakes of managing digital risk.
From onboarding new customers to authenticating transactions and preventing losses in real time, banks and fintechs are under pressure to strike the right balance between security and user experience. Fortunately, fintechs are tackling this challenge head-on, building identity and fraud controls that reduce friction, strengthen trust, and make digital finance scalable. The four companies below are building some of the most cutting-edge tools in this segment and will showcase their solutions on the demo stage at FinovateEurope, which takes place February 10 and 11 in London.
Candour Identity aims to improve digital onboarding by combining identity verification, biometrics, and fraud prevention into a single workflow. The platform is designed to help financial institutions increase conversion rates while maintaining regulatory compliance, enabling ongoing biometric authentication beyond initial onboarding. By supporting daily identity checks for login and payment use cases, Candour reduces fraud losses without introducing additional friction for legitimate users.
Darwinium helps organizations detect and prevent fraud while minimizing friction for trusted customers. Its platform distinguishes between high-risk and low-risk users in real time, allowing banks and fintechs to provide a “VIP” experience to good customers while applying stronger controls where needed. The approach is designed to reduce fraud losses without sacrificing the overall customer experience.
Elephant targets false declines and chargebacks, two persistent challenges in digital payments. By improving transaction decisioning, the company helps businesses approve more legitimate transactions while reducing downstream fraud and disputes. The result is higher authorization rates, fewer customer complaints, and lower operational costs tied to chargeback management.
With Keyless, users are the key. The company’s technology replaces traditional multi-factor authentication methods, such as one-time passwords, with biometric authentication. Keyless’s technology enables passwordless and tokenless login experiences while maintaining strong security controls. By removing reliance on call centers and manual recovery flows, Keyless aims to improve user experience and significantly reduce authentication-related costs for banks. Keyless was acquired by Ping Identity in November 2025.
Why banks should care
Digital channels are increasingly becoming the primary point of interaction with customers, shifting the importance of verification technologies. The companies highlighted above show how banks, payments firms, and marketplaces can reduce fraud and operational costs while improving customer experience by applying smarter, more adaptive controls. Rather than relying on rigid rules or legacy authentication methods that can easily be spoofed using AI, modern identity and fraud platforms allow banks to approve more good customers, intervene only when risk is real, and scale digital growth without sacrificing trust.
To watch these companies demo their newest tools in person, register for FinovateEurope, see what’s new, and shake hands with the innovators.
Barclays has made its first investment in digital currency infrastructure by backing Ubyx.
Ubyx aims to simplify the redemption and acceptance of stablecoins and tokenized deposits through a many-to-many clearing system designed to unify today’s fragmented digital money landscape.
The move shows that Barclays is focused on regulated interoperability rather than issuing its own stablecoin.
UK-based banking giant Barclays is making its first investment in the digital currency infrastructure space this week. The bank made a strategic investment in Ubyx, a US-based clearing system for digital money.
Ubyx was founded in 2025 to create stablecoin ubiquity. In other words, the company focuses on facilitating live transactions through a many-to-many clearing system to make redeeming stablecoins and tokenized deposits as simple as depositing a check. Ubyx uses a collaborative network model to transform the current, fragmented stablecoin landscape into a unified, ubiquitous payment system.
“Our mission is to build a common globalized acceptance network for regulated digital money including tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins,” said Ubyx CEO Tony McLaughlin.
Barclays’ strategic involvement is especially important in Ubyx’s model, as the traditional bank adds a regulated element to the payments model. “Bank participation is vital to provide par value redemption through regulated channels. We are entering a world in which every regulated firm offers digital wallets in addition to traditional bank accounts.”
While it serves as one of the top banks in the UK, Barclays has previously not been among those launching stablecoin programs. Today’s investment is Barclays’ first major move in the stablecoin space since October of 2025, when the bank joined a group of ten major financial institutions to explore a jointly issued stablecoin pegged to G7 currencies.
“Interoperability is essential to unlock the full potential of digital assets,” said Barclays Head of Digital Assets and Strategic Investments Ryan Hayward. “As the landscape of tokens, blockchains, and wallets evolves, specialist technology will play a pivotal role in delivering connectivity and infrastructure to enable regulated financial institutions to interact seamlessly. We are pleased to be joining Ubyx on their journey as we drive forward our shared ambition to accelerate and shape innovation across our industry.”
What’s interesting in this move is that Barclays isn’t taking a step toward issuing its own stablecoin or tokenized deposits. Instead, the bank is focused on interoperability, redemption, and acceptance at par.
While clearing and settlement have long been dominated by bank-led networks, they are currently a bottleneck in digital money adoption. Ubyx’s many-to-many clearing model aims to solve that bottleneck, and Barclays’ participation adds regulatory credibility at a moment when banks are looking for ways to engage with digital assets without fragmenting liquidity or bypassing existing safeguards.
