Bolt’s New App Combines DeFi, TradFi, and Rewards

Bolt’s New App Combines DeFi, TradFi, and Rewards
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Bolt launched its all-in-one SuperApp, combining digital banking, crypto trading, ecommerce, and peer-to-peer transfers in a single platform.
  • The company has partnered with Midland States Bank and Zero Hash for FDIC-insured banking services and crypto infrastructure under one roof.
  • The app has added agentic AI and dual-rail transactions give users seamless fiat and crypto payments, personalized shopping, and integrated rewards.

Identity and ecommerce fintech Bolt launched its all-in-one app to bridge the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). The new app offers users a singular way to shop, spend, save, earn, and invest.

Bolt is calling the app its SuperApp because it provides crypto trading, peer-to-peer transfers, digital banking capabilities, and ecommerce, with Midland States Bank providing FDIC-insured banking services and Zero Hash powering crypto custody and trading infrastructure.

“The future of money and commerce isn’t siloed—it’s seamless,” said Bolt Founder and CEO Ryan Breslow. “Today’s consumer shouldn’t have to juggle multiple apps for fiat, crypto, rewards, or shopping. Our SuperApp brings it all together in one secure, intuitive platform. By building rewards, banking and commerce directly into a single app, we’re creating not just another wallet, but a financial operating system for the modern consumer. Bolt is delivering the infrastructure to make this future real, scalable, and accessible to everyone.”

The app, which is launching out of beta today, offers a virtual and physical debit card with the ability to lock and unlock the card using the app. Users automatically earn rewards, including personalized rewards boosts that let users optimize earnings across everyday spending categories like restaurants, travel, groceries, transit, and fuel.

Crucially, in addition to debit and credit functionality, the app offers dual-rail transaction support for both fiat and crypto, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, USDC, and more. Additionally, Bolt’s crypto trading is available on more than 40 major cryptocurrencies.

Bolt is leveraging agentic AI by introducing an AI agent that helps users search, compare, and products products based on personalized preferences, intent, and constraints. The new app offers integrated shopping and spending that brings commerce, payments, and tracking in a single experience.

Bolt was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company offers both retail and commercial payment tools, such as conversion and loyalty solutions for retailers and one-click checkout for more than 80 million shoppers.

Photo by Liliana Drew

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Revolutionizing Community Banking—How to Modernize Your Operations

Revolutionizing Community Banking—How to Modernize Your Operations
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2025, NYMBUS, Speaker series, Streamly

The challenge of modernization remains a daunting one for many community banks and credit unions. Faced with the expense and risk of a “rip and replace” strategy on the one hand and a seemingly endless series of quick fixes, workarounds, and complex third-party relationships on the other, some financial institutions remain in a limbo of inaction.

To this end, the latest innovations from banking technology platform company Nymbus are a welcome development. In our interview with Nymbus CEO Jeffery Kendall, shared here, we talk about the current state of core banking systems, the innovative “sidecar” approach to core modernization that Nymbus offers, and the transition toward vertical banking which helps community financial institutions deliver differentiated solutions to a wider range of customers and members.

“We are a United States-focused banking technology platform. We work with community banks and credit unions (that) tend to be in the one to ten billion asset size; those are the customers we are able to help the most. We provide a full banking stack that allows them to run their core processing, their digital banking experiences, onboarding experiences … from one unified platform.”

Chairman and CEO of Nymbus since 2020, Jeffery Kendall has more than 20 years of experience in technology and financial services. He succeeded Scott Killoh, who founded the company in 2015. With Kendall as CEO, Nymbus has secured more than $123 million in funding courtesy of Series C and D rounds in 2021 and 2023, respectively. The company launched a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) in 2021, and has forged partnerships with financial institutions like PeoplesBank, VyStar Credit Union, and MSU Federal Credit Union.

A leading provider of banking technology solutions for financial institutions, Nymbus offers a full-stack banking platform for US banks and credit unions that helps them accelerate their growth and enhance their market positioning. The company modernizes legacy core systems for both brick-and-mortar and digital-first institutions. Nymbus also supports vertical banking strategies and the launch of subsidiary brands with a sidecar core alternative. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

Photo by Kelly

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Klarna Hits 1 Million US Card Sign-Ups: What Banks Can Learn

Klarna Hits 1 Million US Card Sign-Ups: What Banks Can Learn
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Klarna
  • Klarna’s debit card hit one million US sign-ups in just 11 weeks, reflecting strong consumer demand for flexible, seamless payment experiences.
  • The card’s growth highlights the success of Klarna’s integrated model that combines commerce, payments, and banking features.
  • Banks and fintechs should take note of Klarna’s playbook to meet customer expectations of unified ecosystems, modernized infrastructure, and agility.

BNPL leader Klarna revealed today that its debit card reached one million US sign-ups in just 11 weeks. The news from Klarna is certainly a testament to the company itself, which has freshly gone public. The growth also sends deeper signals about evolving consumer behavior, fintech product strategy, and what banks should do to stay relevant.

As a recap, Klarna launched its debit card in the US on July 4 of this year. The fintech is seeing 13,000 new US users sign up for debit cards each day, reaching a peak of 50,000 sign-ups on September 23. The card, which is aimed at consumers seeking a wider variety of payment options and timing, is different from other fintech debit cards on the market, as it adds BNPL flexibility to help shoppers pay on their own terms, wherever they shop.

“The amazing response to our card in the US shows just how strong the demand is for a fairer, more transparent way to pay,” said Klarna CMO David Sandström. “With the Klarna Card, consumers get the best of both worlds: the simplicity of a debit card with the flexibility of credit.”

What Klarna is doing right

There’s no denying that these numbers are staggering. They also highlight key aspects about Klarna.

First, the numbers reflect an increase in demand for seamless payments experiences. With its single card able to offer a variety of payment options, Klarna’s debit card provides a single wallet experience with integrated financial tools rather than multiple, disjointed products. The rapid increase in cardholders suggests users prefer an integrated payment experience that offers multiple payment options.

The data is also an indication of how Klarna has achieved an optimal trifecta in the fintech world. The company already combines commerce, payments, and banking features, and its debit card extends the reach of each of these elements even further.

Crucially, reaching one million debit cardholders in 11 weeks requires KYC, underwriting, fraud prevention, compliance, and scaling techniques that all work in unison. Klarna has been able to balance each of these elements, proving that its critical infrastructure is able to stand up under stress.

What banks can learn

Given each of these elements contributing to Klarna’s success, it’s worth taking a deeper look at what banks and fintechs can learn from this growth.

First, they should take a look at their own ecosystem to ensure their cards, deposits, credit, and payments products work together in an integrated manner, and do not exist in isolated silos. They should also seek to modernize their underwriting, fraud, and decisioning engines to support their onboarding flows. Banks should also work to prioritize agility, product iteration, and scaling infrastructure. For firms seeking to grow, infrastructure upgrades are no longer optional.

Risks and caveats

While we can look to Klarna as an example of growth, it’s important to keep in mind that there are a few hidden factors to consider. The fintech’s rapid growth does not necessarily guarantee that its operations are profitable. Orchestrating interchange revenue, default risk, and customer acquisition costs is tricky, and the debit card issuance numbers don’t offer a full picture of profit. Additionally, as issuance numbers like these increase, so will regulatory scrutiny. Because of this, compliance overhead for consumer protection and disclosures may worsen as scale increases.

When it comes down to it, Klarna’s milestone shows that consumers want flexible, unified payments. It is a warning signal to banks that hesitate moving forward to modernize and integrate their product stack. Slow-moving players risk being reduced to back-end utilities.

Photo by Julio Lopez

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Charm Security and Give an Hour Combine AI with Mental Health Expertise to Fight Scams

Charm Security and Give an Hour Combine AI with Mental Health Expertise to Fight Scams
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Charm Security
  • AI-powered scam defense platform Charm Security has forged a strategic partnership with no-cost mental health service provider Give an Hour.
  • Charm Security will embed the experiences of scam victims as well as those of mental health professionals directly into its AI model training to help “break the scam spell” before losses—financial and emotional—accumulate.
  • Headquartered in New York and founded in 2024, Charm Security made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025.

Charm Security, an AI-powered scam defense platform for financial institutions, recently announced a strategic partnership with Give an Hour, a nationwide non-profit that provides access to no-cost mental health services. Courtesy of the partnership, Charm Security will embed the experiences of scam victims and their families, as well as clinicians and psychologists, directly into its AI model training. This integration will fortify Charm Security’s Human Vulnerabilities, Exposures, and Exploits model (HVE) and power real-time interventions that, in Charm Security’s parlance, “break the scam spell” before financial or emotional losses escalate.

In their statement, the companies cited a survey from Lloyds Banking Group that indicated that 69% of fraud victims reported experiencing significant mental impacts such as anxiety, as well as less trust in online platforms. The UK Home Office has documented fraud and scam victims experiencing depression and, in some cases, even suicidal thoughts or attempts.

“Scams exploit human vulnerabilities, not just financial systems,” Charm Security Co-Founder and CEO Roy Zur said. “By embedding victim and clinician experiences and voices into our AI, we can anticipate manipulative tactics, disrupt them in real time, and ensure prevention and healing go hand in hand.”

The integration will feature feedback loops to deliver insights back to Give an Hour’s national mental health network to provide victims with both prevention and compassionate care. The partnership will enable Give an Hour to deliver training to financial institution teams to help them better recognize and respond to the concerns of their customers when they are victims of scams and fraud. This training complements Charm Security’s AI scam prevention agents and copilots, which support frontline workers with real-time tools to assist in detecting and disrupting scams as they are happening.

“For nearly two decades, Give an Hour has provided free mental health care to those in need,” Give an Hour CEO Dr. Trina Clayeux said. “By partnering with Charm, we can ensure scam victims receive both better protection from cutting-edge AI-based technology and the compassionate support they deserve from their financial institutions.”

Founded in 2005, Give an Hour leverages the skills, experience, and compassion of mental health professionals, peer support facilitators, and others to provide no-cost mental health services to those in need. To date, Give an Hour has provided more than 400,000 hours of free mental health care to military servicemen and women, veterans, families, and communities.

Headquartered in New York and founded in 2024, Charm Security made its Finovate debut earlier this month at FinovateFall 2025. At the conference, the startup demonstrated how its AI agents help users and frontline employees proactively avoid scams, actively engage with users during transactions to “break the scam spell,” and provide immediate, personalized post-scam support, including incident reporting, evidence collection, and recovery processes.

Photo by Andrew Neel

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

7 Signals Agentic Payments Sending to Fintech and Banking

7 Signals Agentic Payments Sending to Fintech and Banking
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: List series, Thought Leadership

Stablecoins may have saturated headlines earlier this year, but September has marked a turning point to the industry. This month has brought four large announcements in agentic payments, demonstrating that the technology has moved from fringe to forefront.

And while the announcements speak volumes about how quickly technology developments move in fintech, it also sends seven major signals to banks and fintechs.

A preferred protocol layer emerges

Earlier this week, agentic commerce platform Circuit & Chisel landed $19.2 million to launch ATXP, a web-wide protocol. The protocol will not only position Circuit & Chisel as an orchestrator of agentic commerce, but it will also help streamline workflows and enable businesses to operate faster and more efficiently by leveraging revenue-generating autonomous agents.

The launch and growth of ATXP show the industry’s movement toward a web-wide standard for agentic payments. It also highlights how payments are shifting from app-specific functions into a common infrastructure layer.

Big Tech wants to lead

Google and PayPal made headlines last week when they announced their partnership on agentic shopping, embedded payments, payments processing, and more. The two are positioning themselves at the forefront of agentic payments and commerce and are providing developers with tools to engage in the new era of digital commerce.

The partnership between Google and PayPal shows that Big Tech wants to be at the forefront in shaping how commerce and payments flow online in the future. This early movement is a warning to players that sit back on the sidelines and wait for others to move first. Slow-moving banks and fintechs risk being relegated to backend providers unless they strategically find their own niche in the space.

Crypto and Web3 join forces with platforms

Also last week, Google announced that it is leveraging the x402 protocol within its Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) to allow AI agents to pay each other using stablecoins on Coinbase. With the ability to handle payments on behalf of their end users, agents will now be able to complete certain tasks that previously required manual oversight, such as paying for data crawls, services, or microtasks.

The launch merges crypto protocols and mainstream platforms, and is a great example of how agentic payments won’t be limited to decentralized finance environments. Instead, we’ll see agentic payments within web browsers, search, and commerce platforms.

Credit has an agentic future

After landing strategic backing from Citi Ventures earlier this month, agentic AI-powered credit data and payments platform Spinwheel plans to fuel growth, expand its agentic AI platform, build out its data sets and add new products. Additionally, Citi Ventures will advise the company on banking-specific product use cases.

This funding shows backing for the idea that consumer credit and agentic payments will be integrated in the future. It shows the breadth of potential for agents to manage payments, debt repayment, refinancing, and credit optimization.

The shift to autonomous decisioning

All four of these announcements demonstrate how payments will move from static, user-initiated tasks to autonomous, rule-driven events. To stay current, banks and fintechs will need to embed decisioning logic, risk scoring, and compliance into their payment flows.

Regulators will take notice

While regulators don’t have a lot of time (or expertise), agentic payments are sure to get their attention. These announcements around autonomous money movement have raised concerns around AML, KYC, and consumer protection issues. Firms that build compliance into agentic systems will be one step ahead in winning not only consumer trust but also regulators’ approval.

The race for standards is on

Much like open finance, the world of agentic payments will desperately need to abide by an agreed upon set of standards. Because competing protocols and ecosystems could fragment adoption, the disorganization could not only disrupt the user experience, but it could also wreak havoc on creating a clean, regulated environment. Whichever parties are involved in driving standards for payment rail interoperability will take the role that SWIFT did in shaping payments rails in the 1970s.

The ultimate question is, who will lead and who will follow?

Photo by Athena Sandrini

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FIS Acquires Digital Banking and Lending Fintech Amount

FIS Acquires Digital Banking and Lending Fintech Amount
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, FIS, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • FIS has acquired Chicago-based Amount, adding the fintech’s digital banking and lending SaaS platform to its portfolio; terms of the deal were not disclosed.
  • The acquisition strengthens FIS’s digital banking strategy, enabling banks, lenders, and credit unions to streamline account origination, lending, deposits, cards, and fraud prevention.
  • Amount brings 158 employees and a fintech growth story marked by unicorn status, layoffs, and $313 million raised.

Fintech giant FIS has finalized the acquisition of digital banking and lending SaaS platform Amount. The financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

“After years of successful partnership, we are thrilled to welcome Amount’s talented team and innovative capabilities to FIS,” said FIS CEO and President Stephanie Ferris.

Founded in 2019 and spun out of online lending company Avant a year later, Chicago-based Amount helps banks offer unified digital banking origination and decisioning experiences across lending, cards and deposits. The company’s solution offers embedded AI functionality to simplify the online account opening experience for banks, lenders and credit unions.

FIS anticipates that adding Amount will help it strategically expand its solutions portfolio. Specifically, the Florida-based company will leverage Amount to empower financial institutions to boost efficiency, streamline lending, improve customer service, simplify account opening while reducing fraud, and optimize credit card issuance and payments. The deal will offer FIS’ bank clients the ability to provide a more unified and seamless digital account opening process for the retail and commercial clients.

“Our strategy and investments have positioned FIS to lead the next generation of banking solutions, enabling financial institutions to thrive in today’s digital-first world with confidence, innovation and reliability. The Amount platform, integrated into FIS digital, core banking and card systems, will help FIS clients grow deposits, loans and card portfolios efficiently and securely,” added Ferris.

Established in 1968 and based in Florida, FIS serves 15,000 clients across the globe. The company’s product suite includes payment solutions, risk management services, and customer communication tools. Its technology supports the processing of $50 trillion in transactions annually and oversees assets totaling $16 trillion.

“Joining forces with FIS marks an exciting new chapter for Amount,” said Amount CEO Adam Hughes. “FIS provides global scale, robust infrastructure, and regulatory expertise that will allow us to strengthen our market offering and deliver seamless, innovative customer experiences and accelerate digital transformation. Becoming part of the FIS organization will create a unique asset and the industry’s most comprehensive digital banking platform.”

Logistically, all of Amount’s 158 employees have joined FIS and the fintech will maintain its headquarters in Chicago.

Today’s agreement comes after a roller coaster ride for Amount. After it began operating independently in 2020, the fintech went on to raise $81 million with a $1 billion valuation and later acquired small business lending platform Linear for $175 million. In June 2022, however, as fintech began to slump, Amount had to cut 18% of its workforce and later that year had to lay off another quarter of its workforce. The company picked things up again last year when it raised another $30 million, bringing its total raised to $313 million. The company’s updated valuation is unknown.

FIS’s move to acquire Amount is yet another example of how established fintechs are leveraging incumbents to meet demand for secure and seamless digital experiences. As competition heats up in the US and beyond, the acquisition will ultimately help FIS strengthen its leadership in end-to-end digital banking.

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Arva AI and FairPlay Team Up to Help Financial Services Firms Embrace Agentic AI

Arva AI and FairPlay Team Up to Help Financial Services Firms Embrace Agentic AI
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Arva AI
  • Financial crime prevention company Arva AI has teamed up with FairPlay, an AI enablement company for financial services.
  • The partnership calls for FairPlay to use its Agentic Assurance Platform to validate the effectiveness and safety of Arva’s AI agents for AML and KYC use cases.
  • Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Arva made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025.

Financial crime prevention technology company Arva AI has announced a partnership with AI enablement company for financial services, FairPlay. The partnership will enable FairPlay to validate the effectiveness and safety of Arva’s agentic AI solution for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Business (KYB) use cases using its FairPlay Agentic Assurance Platform.

“Financial institutions need assurance that their AI systems are not only powerful, but also safe, reliable, and regulator-ready,” FairPlay Founder and CEO Kareem Saleh said. “By partnering with Arva, we’re helping the industry deploy tested and trusted agents that can stand up to both business demands and compliance scrutiny.”

FairPlay’s Agentic Assurance Platform will provide scenario-based stress testing that uses realistic, multi-turn conversations and workflows to uncover hidden vulnerabilities. The platform has a control mapping engine that links observed risks to compensating controls such as prompt optimization, output filtering, and rollback options. Additionally, the solution features auto-generating documentation that is aligned with SR 11-7 model risk management guidance, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and emerging ISO standards.

Arva’s partnership with FairPlay comes at a time when a growing number of banks and financial services companies are seeing agentic AI as “the antidote to KYC/AML headwinds,” according to an August report from McKinsey. Noting that banks often “assign up to 10 to 15 percent of their full-time equivalents to KYC/AML alone,” the report observes that agentic AI provides a “paradigm shift” compared to other AI technologies. This includes productivity gains of 200 to 2,000 percent, according to McKinsey, as well as “a substantial positive impact on the quality and consistency of output.”

“At Arva, our mission is to transform financial crime prevention with cutting-edge AI,” Arva Founder and CEO Rahim Shah said. “FairPlay’s Agentic Assurance Platform provides the rigorous testing and evidence generation our customers need to trust and scale these technologies with confidence.”

Arva made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025. At the event, the company demonstrated its business verification solution that leverages AI agents to enhance compliance, accelerate review, and cut operational costs. Arva processes more than 100,000 alerts a month and notes that companies deploying its technology have seen an increase of more than 40% in straight through processing, with as many as 92% of reviews handled by the AI. Founded in 2024, Arva is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Arva began 2025 securing $3 million in seed funding. The round was led by Google’s Gradient fund and featured participation from Y Combinator, Amino Capital, and Olive Tree Capital.

Photo by Joonyeop Baek on Unsplash

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Bits of Stock Brings the Benefits of Fractional Investing to Gen Z Credit Union Members

Bits of Stock Brings the Benefits of Fractional Investing to Gen Z Credit Union Members
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, Bits of Stock, Jack Henry

For all of the innovations in the world of investing, fractional investing—which involves enabling investors to buy and sell portions of a single share of stock—is among the most significant. Fractional investing has helped democratize access to investments that historically have been out of reach for many individual investors. Fractional investing enables both lower minimum investment requirements as well as micro-investing to help investors with limited capital create diversified portfolios.

Bits of Stock, a New York-based fintech that won Best of Show in its return to the Finovate stage earlier this year at FinovateSpring in San Diego, is an example of a company that is bringing the benefits of fractional investing to a wider range of investors, including members of credit unions like Cardinal Credit Union. Last month, the not-for-profit cooperative announced a partnership with Bits of Stock to offer a new stock rewards program for Cardinal CU checking account holders aged 18 to 28.

The program enables these young adult investors to automatically earn stock rewards with every Visa debit card purchase. These rewards can then be redeemed into fractional shares in select publicly-traded stocks. The program leverages fractional stock ownership to help young adults begin to build wealth, develop good investing habits, and expand their understanding of finance.

This age range may be key to the successful adoption of stock rewards programs based on fractional investing. In their statement, Cardinal CU cited industry research that indicated that 67% of those in Generation Z (individuals aged 13 to 28), believe that the ability to invest with smaller amounts is a major factor in their decision to begin investing.

“We are helping student and younger members build a strong foundation while making investing accessible and rewarding,” Cardinal CU CEO Christine Blake said. ” There is tremendous value in this program as it encourages investors to learn about accumulating assets and building wealth in early adulthood.”

Mentor, Ohio-based Cardinal CU has integrated Bits of Stock into its digital banking platform, which is powered by Lumen Digital. Bits of Stock’s dashboard provides a brokerage account-like experience for users, helping them become more familiar with the standard tools used by traders and investors to buy and sell stocks in the market.

“Bits of Stock is redefining how people think about rewards and investing,” Bits of Stock CEO Arash Asady explained. “This initiative is a game-changer for younger investors, allowing them to start building wealth through everyday spending and to watch their investments grow.”

More recently, Bits of Stock announced that it had forged a strategic alliance with fellow Finovate alum Jack Henry. As with Cardinal CU, the partnership with fintech solution provider Jack Henry will involve embedding Bits of Stock’s fractional share-based stock rewards capability into a digital banking platform—in this case, Jack Henry’s Banno Digital Platform.

In their alliance announcement, the companies underscored the success that Credit Union One of Oklahoma experienced after launching a comprehensive three-tier checking account with embedded Bits of Stock capabilities. This enabled the institution to test a variety of offerings, from free accounts with round-ups to premium accounts that provided 1% stock rewards on all purchases.

“We were so impressed with member response during testing that we integrated stock investing capabilities into every checking account tier,” Credit Union One of Oklahoma President and CEO Tyrel McCain said. “It creates a natural progression where members can start with free entry points and graduate to earning stock rewards as they deepen their relationship with us. It’s driving both new account openings and fee income while helping our members build wealth through everyday spending.”

Founded in 1949 to serve employees working in a handful of state agencies, Credit Union One of Oklahoma became a community chartered credit union in May 2003. The institution today boasts more than 3,700 members and $48 million in assets.

Photo by Hanna Pad

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Ant Group Taps HSBC’s Tokenized Deposit Service for Cross-Border Transactions

Ant Group Taps HSBC’s Tokenized Deposit Service for Cross-Border Transactions
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, HSBC
  • HSBC has onboarded Ant International as the first client to use its Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS) for cross-border payments.
  • TDS leverages distributed ledger technology to turn bank deposits into transferable tokens, enabling instant settlement, programmable payments, and 24/7 treasury operations.
  • The partnership signals the beginning of commercial acceptance for tokenized deposits as a regulated alternative to stablecoins.

UK-based global banking giant HSBC announced this week that Ant Group’s digital finance leader Ant International, a global payments leader serving millions of merchants worldwide, has become the first client to use the bank’s Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS) for cross-border payments.

The news comes five months after HSBC initially launched TDS for corporate cash management in Hong Kong. TDS relies on distributed ledger technology (DLT) to instantly settle remittances and payments. The DLT allows HSBC’s clients to create digital records of their traditional, fiat deposits. While HSBC maintains the fiat deposits, each one of the digital records on the DLT is a token that can be transferred.

HSBC anticipates that TDS will set a new standard for liquidity management. In part, this is because, unlike stablecoins, which are issued by private companies or protocols, tokenized deposits remain liabilities of regulated banks, bringing blockchain efficiency into traditional finance.

HSBC aims to help its corporate clients leverage TDS to improve treasury management. The bank created a separate, secure platform to allow clients to transfer funds past cut-off times and around the clock, without having to wait for batch processing, with automated reconciliation, greater speed, enhanced security, and seamless integrations with treasury systems.

Tokenized deposits can also be used for programmable payments, a capability that allows payments to be triggered based on preset rules to streamline cashflow management.

For Ant International, leveraging TDS for cross-border transactions will help streamline treasury operations, enable around-the-clock settlement, and support its mission to deliver faster, more efficient financial services to its global partners.

Ant sees HSBC’s tokenized deposits as a way to scale its global treasury operations and complement its push into cross-border digital finance. “Our relationship has enabled us to work across different geographies and cover a wide range of global payment businesses,” said Ant International General Manager of Platform Tech Kelvin Li. “The Tokenised Deposit Service is one of the main means to enable us to do real-time payments globally and also enable us to achieve real-time treasury management on a global basis.”

HSBC’s rollout of tokenized deposits with Ant International may mark a change of how organizations think about corporate treasury. With programmable payments, 24/7 settlement, and global reach, tokenized deposits are moving from concept to reality. This is especially true in the commercial space, where tokenized deposits could soon become a standard feature of cross-border finance.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Verification Specialist Argyle Announces Strategic Investment from Mastercard

Verification Specialist Argyle Announces Strategic Investment from Mastercard
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Argyle, Funding, MasterCard
  • Verification platform Argyle announced a strategic investment round that featured participation from Mastercard, Bain Capital Ventures, Checkr, Rockefeller Asset Management, and SignalFire.
  • The investment follows Argyle’s launch of verification of assets powered by Mastercard’s open finance technology earlier this year.
  • New York-based Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 in San Francisco. Shmulik Fishman is Co-Founder and CEO.

Consumer-powered verification platform Argyle announced a strategic investment round that featured participation from Mastercard as well as existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Checkr, Rockefeller Asset Management, and SignalFire. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

“This investment is more than capital—it’s validation,” Argyle CEO and Co-Founder Shmulik Fishman said. “We’re deepening our ability to serve customers with a comprehensive verification platform built on real-time payroll connections and open finance capabilities. By combining these strengths, we’re eliminating friction from verification workflows and giving lenders, fintechs, and tenant screeners a smarter path to faster, more accurate decisions.”

Argyle’s investment announcement comes a year and a half after the company reported securing $30 million in Series C funding. That round was led by Rockefeller Asset Management’s Fintech Innovation Fund. This week’s investment also follows Argyle’s launch of verification of assets powered by Mastercard open finance technology in June of this year. This new offering enables Argyle customers to access real-time consumer-permissioned payroll connections covering 90% of the US workforce. Customers are also now able to generate GSE-compliant reports—including verification of income (VOI), verification of employment (VOE), verification of assets (VOA), and combined verification of assets/income (VOAI)—from a single platform.

Argyle noted that the investment is a sign of growing demand for consumer-permissioned verifications. In a statement, the company highlighted a series of recent partnership accomplishments, including Checkr’s ability to reduce verification timelines from days to seconds at 90% lower cost compared to legacy solutions, Regional Finance’s success in automating verifications for more than 65% of borrowers, and Mutual of Omaha’s saving of more than $50,000 per month on verification costs.

“Argyle has built critical infrastructure for a category that’s long been overlooked by modern fintech,” Bain Capital Ventures partner Ajay Agarwal said. “We’ve supported the company from the early stages, and this latest round reflects our continued belief in their team, their momentum, and the long-term potential of consumer-permissioned data to transform verifications across financial services.”

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Link 4.0 design update, which provides a more transparent and trustworthy experience for customers when linking their accounts.

Photo by Pixabay

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Spend Management Firm Extend Secures $20 Million in Funding

Spend Management Firm Extend Secures $20 Million in Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Extend, Funding
  • New York-based spend management platform Extend has secured $20 million in combined debt and equity funding.
  • The equity investment was led by B Capital and featured participation from March Capital, Point72 Ventures, FinTech Collective, and Commerce Ventures.
  • Extend made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2019 in San Francisco, California.

Spend and expense management platform Extend has raised $20 million in funding. The amount includes new venture debt and an equity investment led by B Capital. Also participating in the equity side of the deal were March Capital, Point72 Ventures, FinTech Collective, and new investor Commerce Ventures.

“We just took another step toward reshaping how businesses manage spend and expenses: We secured $20 million in new funding and welcomed Francois Horikawa as our CFO,” the company noted on its LinkedIn page. “Finance teams deserve modern tools layered onto their existing bank card programs. This investment will help us do that by strengthening our issuer partnerships and accelerating the delivery of new spend and expense management features to better serve businesses.”

Extend offers businesses the ability to control and manage spending with the company credit card they already use. Extend’s platform enables companies to create both standard and recurring virtual cards and manage them from either the Extend mobile app or its web-based platform. The virtual cards come with configurable spend controls such as card limits and expiration dates. The platform also can be used to create guest cards to send directly to vendors and contractors that do not have Extend accounts. The firm is currently implementing solutions that leverage automation to manage approvals, capture receipts, and reconcile expenses.

“This funding represents a pivotal moment for Extend as we accelerate our path to profitability and launch our paid SaaS offering,” Extend CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Jamison said. “With strong backing from B Capital and our investor group, we’re building a comprehensive spend and expense management platform while maintaining our focus on capital efficiency and deepening our relationships across the banking ecosystem.”

Extend’s funding announcement arrived at the same time that the firm introduced new Chief Financial Officer Francois Horikawa. Horikawa was previously Head of Finance for PayPal’s Consumer business division, which includes Venmo, P2P, Cards, and Small Business Lending. In his new role as CFO, he will be charged with helping Extend achieve operational excellence and sustainable profitability.

“I joined Extend almost by accident,” Horikawa wrote on LinkedIn this week. “I knew one of the co-founders and a few other folks from American Express. Few months in, people are super nice, the culture is great, and I am excited about the product!”

Founded in 2017, Extend made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2019 in San Francisco, California. In the years since then, the New York-based fintech has grown into an out-of-the-box virtual card issuing platform with more than 10,000 business customers. The company’s technology has helped its customers move between 26% and 40% of their spending to virtual cards, and more than a dozen major banks in both the US and Canada are using Extend’s technology. Extend is currently pursuing strategic integrations at the top 10 banks and with a range of smaller issuers.

Photo by Pixabay

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

The Year of the Stablecoin: What EY’s Survey Reveals About Adoption and Opportunity

The Year of the Stablecoin: What EY’s Survey Reveals About Adoption and Opportunity
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Report series

This year marks the year of the stablecoin, especially in the US. From the start of the year, we have watched as stablecoins evolved from a concept in trials overseas to a market force attracting billions in daily transaction volume, partnerships with major payment networks, active pilots among US banks, and a central focus of US financial regulation in the form of the GENIUS Act.

After the passage of the GENIUS Act in July, Ernst & Young’s (EY) strategy consulting services group EY-Parthenon surveyed more than 350 executives from financial and nonfinancial sectors about their views on stablecoins. Based on its findings, the firm generated a 31-page report that highlights adoption, usage, benefits, challenges, regulatory implications, and more. We’ve highlighted the report’s five major takeaways below.

Stablecoins are no longer fringe

All of the 350 executives surveyed are aware of stablecoins. Of those, 13% have already used stablecoins and 65% expect interest in stablecoins to rise in the next 6 to 12 months.

The fact that 100% of executives surveyed are aware of stablecoins demonstrates how quickly stablecoins have moved into the mainstream. For banks and corporates, the conversation around stablecoins is no longer a question of “if,” but rather “how fast” adoption spreads and what role the organization should play. This shift from niche to norm shows that institutions that wait to make a move may miss out on shaping standards and capturing early market share.

Charts from EY-Parthenon

Stablecoin usage

More than half, 54%, of financial institutions and corporates that are not using stablecoins expect to begin using them in the next 6 to 12 months. For 81% of participants surveyed, clear and supportive legislation increases their interest in stablecoins, either significantly or slightly.

With more than half of firms signaling plans to adopt stablecoins within a year, the market will likely see an acceleration in usage. For policymakers, this highlights the importance of regulatory clarity, given that it would directly boost adoption. For banks, it shows an opportunity to deepen their relevance by offering compliant, stablecoin-enabled services before competitors get there first.

Charts from EY-Parthenon

Cross-border fund transfers are the top use case

The survey asked about 10 different use cases. Of those ten, the top three use cases centered around cross-border payments.

This shows that stablecoins are tackling real, persistent pain points, especially in cross-border payments. Despite previous disruption by alternative players such as Wise, Remitly, and Revolut, international transfers remain slow and expensive. Stablecoins are a credible alternative that resonates with businesses and consumers. This focus could disrupt entrenched correspondent banking networks and give stablecoin adopters an edge in the lucrative field of cross-border payments.

Charts from EY-Parthenon

Firms most interested in reducing cost and increasing payment speed

The most interesting use case is cross-border payments (77%), with interest largely driven by reduction in transaction costs and faster payments.

The overwhelming interest in cost savings and speed is a reminder that stablecoins will succeed or fail based on tangible value, not hype. For businesses, even modest reductions in cross-border fees can translate into significant savings at scale. Banks face the challenge of turning this efficiency into a competitive advantage, offering better pricing and faster settlement while managing risks.

Charts from EY-Parthenon

Practical implementation

The survey found that organizations are looking to their traditional banking partners for access to stablecoins, and that most financial institutions, 79%, plan to leverage a third party for stablecoin infrastructure.

The finding that most organizations plan to access stablecoins through existing banking partners is significant. It suggests that businesses want access to stablecoins without having to deal with the complexity that comes with the new payment rail. Instead of investing in-house to leverage the new technology, they’re looking to trusted intermediaries like banks to handle the heavy lifting of facilitating the infrastructure. For banks, this is both an opportunity and a warning. Institutions that move quickly to build reliable, third-party-powered stablecoin services can strengthen client relationships, while laggards risk being bypassed entirely.

Charts from EY-Parthenon

Photo by Sebastian Svenson on Unsplash

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook