Big Brands Are Issuing Their Own Stablecoins– Is Yours Next?

Big Brands Are Issuing Their Own Stablecoins– Is Yours Next?
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Julie's Column

Stablecoins are blowing up the financial ecosystem. They are quickly evolving from a crypto-native concept into a mainstream financial tool. As proof, we saw news last week that major retailers Walmart and Amazon are exploring developing their own stablecoins.

If retailers are jumping onto the stablecoin bandwagon, should your firm or fintech be considering doing so, too? To answer that, let’s take a look at the benefits of issuing proprietary stablecoins. We’ll consider Amazon’s and Walmart’s possible strategy, discuss pros and cons, and identify who might be next.

Walmart

Walmart filed a patent for a USD-backed digital currency in 2019. The retailer would use the stablecoin for internal settlement, supply chain payments, employee payroll, and in-store consumer purchases. As an additional benefit of issuing its own stablecoin, Walmart would be able to provide a direct-to-consumer financial product geared toward underbanked customers that would offer a low-fee, efficient alternative to traditional banking.

Amazon

While not officially confirmed, Amazon has also explored blockchain-based payments. The Wall Street Journal revealed (paywall) that Amazon has listed job postings hinting at its crypto ambitions. The retailer could use its own stablecoin to power consumer incentives such as rewards programs, marketplace settlements, and cross-border payments.

Benefits of stablecoin issuance

Both retailers have massive internal ecosystems that stand to benefit by reducing interchange fees by eliminating or reducing third-party payment processing fees from traditional players such as Visa and Mastercard. They would also benefit from the real-time settlement that stablecoins offer, which would save costs on both sides of the transaction. Additionally, issuing their own proprietary stablecoins could foster more loyalty if customers are incentivized by rewards built into stablecoin usage. Control would be another benefit, as stablecoins could offer retailers full control over the payment rail and user data, and they could leverage stablecoins to enhance fraud detection efforts and improve analytics.

It is worth noting that neither retailer has officially announced plans to issue a stablecoin, as that hinges on the passage of the Genius Act, which, if passed, would offer a regulatory framework for stablecoins.

Should you issue your own stablecoin?

These benefits sound appealing, but does all of this mean that your firm should launch its own stablecoin? The answer is likely, “no,” but here are three major things to consider before launching your own.

1) What is your use case?

If your business processes a high volume of payments or regularly encounters steep interchange fees, issuing a stablecoin could help lower transaction costs. For companies that move money across borders or between vendors, stablecoins offer the advantage of near-instant settlement. And for consumer-facing businesses that offer rewards or loyalty programs, stablecoins present an opportunity to merge loyalty and payment into a single, seamless digital currency.

2) What is your level of consumer trust?

If customers already trust you with financial transactions or stored value (such as gift cards or mobile wallet accounts), you may already have the trust foundation needed to support a proprietary token. Additionally, you’ll need some sort of ecosystem that facilitates spending, saving, and earning that customers trust and frequently engage with in order to facilitate stablecoin transactions.

3) Are you prepared for regulatory implications?

Firms with skilled, in-house blockchain capabilities are best poised to succeed when it comes to launching their own stablecoin. Make sure you have resources in place to engage with regulators on stablecoin licensing, AML/KYC, and reserve requirements and that you can support one-to-one asset backing.

Alternatives to issuing

As with many things in financial services, the majority of firms will have more success partnering with an existing stablecoin provider when it comes to leveraging stablecoins. If your firm can’t rationalize issuing your own stablecoin using the framework above, consider working with established issuers like Circle, which issues USDC, or Paxos, which issues PYUSD, or another alternative. This will reduce development cost and time, eliminate legal requirements, and reduce operational costs. It can also facilitate a faster time-to-market without the need to build infrastructure or receive regulatory approvals.

Alternatively, offer multi-stablecoin support by enabling wallet use for USDC, PYUSD, or other popular stablecoins. Leveraging this existing infrastructure can help reduce risk while still reaping the benefits of stablecoin usage.

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SmartStreamAir Expansion Takes Company into the Insurance Business

SmartStreamAir Expansion Takes Company into the Insurance Business
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, SmartStream
  • Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM) solutions provider SmartStream is entering the insurance business with the latest expansion of its reconciliation and data management platform, SmartStream Air.
  • SmartStream Air leverages AI and machine learning to automate the process of reconciling and managing large volumes of data.
  • Founded in 2000 and headquartered in London, SmartStream made its FinovateEurope debut in 2022.

London-based financial Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM) solutions provider SmartStream is bringing its technology to the insurance sector. The company announced an expansion of its AI-powered reconciliation and data management platform, SmartStream Air, that will help insurers deal with rising transaction volumes, data quality challenges, and an increasingly complex regulatory environment.

For companies that have front office systems that need to report to back office systems or are transitioning from legacy infrastructures to new technologies, SmartStream checks and assures data integrity throughout the process. SmartStream Air enables institutions to reconcile and manage large volumes of data, leveraging AI and machine learning to automate this process.

In the insurance business, this means identifying and resolving discrepancies in data such as payments, reimbursements, claims, policyholder transactions, or investment operations. SmartStream Air can serve numerous insurance-specific use cases including premium collection and processing, commission payments, claims management, financial reporting, reinsurance settlements, policyholder refunds, investment account reconciliation, data validation, risk and reserve management, expense tracking, and fraud detection.

SmartStream’s announcement comes as regulations like IFRS 17 and DORA create new challenges for insurance companies when it comes to accounting and operational resilience, respectively. These challenges—and others—have exposed both operational inefficiencies and compliance risks. And while analysts such as Celent’s Karlyn Carnahan expect this to be a “transformative year in insurance,” there is still a sense that “getting arms around AI from a compliance and use case perspective is difficult.” To this, SmartStream’s AI-powered solution serves as opportunity, in Carnahan’s words, to deploy “proven technologies from other industries” that will help insurers grow effectively and efficiently.

SmartStream Global Head of Reconciliations Robin Hasson highlighted this point. “Our heritage and experience in working with the world’s top 100 banks gives us a strong foundation to support the insurance sector as firms identify use cases for increased automation.” Hasson added, “We’re already partnering with leading insurers to implement AI-powered solutions that enable data-driven agility. In today’s environment, insurers must respond swiftly to market shifts and customer expectations, or risk falling behind due to inefficiencies and increased exposure.”

Founded in 2000, SmartStream made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated how SmartStream Air provides fast AI and machine learning data quality analysis without requiring training or an IT skillset. The company has more than 2,000 customers and analyzes more than one billion SaaS transactions monthly.

This spring, SmartStream launched its RegRegistry Service as part of its Reference Data Services (RDS) business. The company’s RegRegistry Service identifies counterparty and trading venues as required by regulatory authorities such as ESMA, FCA, GLEIF, CFTC, and ISO MIC. Also this year, SmartStream announced a partnership with fellow Finovate alum Finastra to extend collateral management workflows across treasury and capital markets.

Photo by Chris Panas

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Autobooks Taps Fundbox to Launch Autobooks Capital

Autobooks Taps Fundbox to Launch Autobooks Capital
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Autobooks, Daily news
  • Autobooks is launching Autobooks Capital, a short-term working capital tool embedded directly into its platform and powered by Fundbox.
  • The embedded lending experience helps financial institutions retain small business clients by offering fast, flexible funding without requiring third-party apps or extra accounts.
  • By partnering with Fundbox, Autobooks is enabling over 2,000 financial institutions to deliver capital access seamlessly inside their digital banking platforms.

Small businesses often face a frustrating gap between sending an invoice and getting paid. Payment and accounting platform Autobooks is seeking to change that with the launch of Autobooks Capital, a funding product embedded within the Autobooks platform. The new short-term working capital tool is powered by embedded capital infrastructure provider Fundbox.

With fast underwriting, competitive rates, and flexible repayment options, Autobooks Capital is designed to complement traditional lending programs by helping small businesses access working capital. By embedding Fundbox’s funding tools directly into its platform, Autobooks enables financial institutions to retain customers, compete with alternative lenders, and serve as the primary operating hub for small business clients.

“While Fintech 1.0 tried to sidestep financial institutions, we believe that working with banks where small businesses already manage their finances is critical to addressing the trillion-dollar SMB capital opportunity,” said Fundbox CEO Prashant Fuloria.

Teaming up with Fundbox will allow Autobooks to offer flexible funding directly within its platform without redirecting the borrower or requiring extra accounts. By placing Autobooks Capital within the Autobooks product suite, the company is able to offer small business owners working capital right when and where they need it. Autobooks’ product suite also includes digital invoicing, payment acceptance, automated bookkeeping, and financial reporting.

The embedded aspect of Autobooks Capital is key. Embedding lending tools directly into digital banking platforms helps turn lending products into seamless, context-aware experiences. Instead of sending small businesses to third-party lenders or apps, Autobooks Capital meets business owners where they already manage cash flow tasks such as invoicing, payments, and bookkeeping.

“The launch of Autobooks Capital gives financial institutions a powerful new way to support small business growth with fast, flexible funding, delivered right inside digital banking,” said Autobooks CEO Steve Robert. “By partnering with Fundbox and leveraging our distribution network of over 2,000 financial institutions, we’re embedding capital access directly into the banking experience—in a way that complements and does not compete with financial institutions. It’s seamless, intuitive, and built to help bridge short-term cash flow gaps for small businesses.”

Founded in 2013, Fundbox is a digital-first provider of capital infrastructure for small businesses. Its platform enables customers to seamlessly embed financial tools into their own user experiences. To date, Fundbox has helped over 150,000 small businesses access more than $6 billion in capital.

With more than 2,000 financial institutions in its distribution network, Autobooks is well-positioned to scale this offering rapidly. As embedded finance continues to mature, embedded products like Autobooks Capital will be a successful way for small businesses to access capital from inside their banking app.

Autobooks was founded in 2015 and now serves more than 60,000 small businesses with a range of tools including digital payment acceptance, online invoicing, online enrollment, accounting, bookkeeping, financial reporting, billpay, and now lending. The company white labels its technology to firms including TD Bank, Alkami, Bottomline, CSI, FIS, Jack Henry, NCR, and Q2.

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Autobooks, Experian, Fintech Rundown, Salt Edge

With Father’s Day behind us and the first official day of summer ahead, we keeping our eye on the fintech headlines as the summer news slump approaches. Be sure to check in with Finovate’s Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest announcements in the industry.

Open banking

Crypto / DeFi

Credit unions

Payments

Fraud prevention

Lending

  • Baker Hill unveils enhancements to its platform to help financial institutions better manage commercial real estate, CECL compliance, AI-driven compliance, agricultural spreading and financial analysis.

Digital banking

  • Digital banking solution provider for small businesses, Autobooks, introduces Autobooks Capital, powered by Fundbox, integrating business lending directly within the Autobooks platform.

Photo by Josh Willink

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Finovate Global Southeast Asia: Payments, Lending, and the Rise of Islamic Digital Banking

Finovate Global Southeast Asia: Payments, Lending, and the Rise of Islamic Digital Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AMLYZE, Finovate Global, Mambu, MoneyGram, Revolut, VISA

This week’s edition of Finovate Global showcases recent fintech news from three countries in southeast Asia: Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Visa brings Click to Pay to Vietnam

A growing number of Vietnamese banks have become early adopters of Visa’s Click to Pay service. Click to Pay provides a faster, more secure, and convenient checkout experience for online transactions by enabling cardholders to make their purchases with fewer clicks—including relieving them of the need to manually enter card and shipping details. Instead, Click to Pay allows users to identify themselves through their email address or mobile phone number. The service uses advanced security technology—including the Visa Token Service—to keep transaction data secure and is designed to meet EMVCo standards for digital checkout.

“With e-commerce being so prevalent in Vietnam and aligning with the Vietnamese government’s digitization objectives, we are pleased to introduce this solution through our banking partners,” Visa Country Manager for Vietnam and Laos Dung Dang said. “Click to Pay with Visa has the potential to transform online shopping and support the development of a more connected digital economy.”

Cardholders with Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) and Vietnam Prosperity Joint-Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) can enroll in the Click to Pay service through their banking apps or with participating online merchants. Visa has also teamed up with Vietnamese payment platform Payoo, which will integrate Click to Pay across its merchant ecosystem. Visa announced that cardholders using Click to Pay at Payoo-affiliated merchants will be eligible for exclusive promotional offers “in the near future”. Additional merchants are expected to be added in the coming months.

BNPL provider Atome secures $75 million to support Philippines operations

Singapore-based Buy Now, Pay Later fintech Atome has received an asset-back financing facility of $75 million. The financing, from Lending Ark Asia Secured Private Debt Fund, will help support Atome’s expansion in the Philippines.

“The Philippines is a key growth market for Atome,” Atome Chief Commercial Officer Andy Tan said. “This financing reflects the continued confidence in Atome’s ability to deliver inclusive, risk-managed credit at scale.”

Atome is part of Advance Intelligence Group, a fintech and AI platform backed by investors such as SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Warburg Pincus, Northstar, and Singapore-based EDBI. This week’s funding comes as the company has been expanding its BNPL offering throughout Southeast Asia, bringing alternative credit solutions to unbanked and underbanked populations in the region. The financing also arrives one year after Atome secured a three-year term loan facility from EvolutionX Debt Capital.

“The launch of innovative and fit-for-market solutions like the Atome Card (PayLater Anywhere) and lending products demonstrates their ability to expand offerings while leveraging local market expertise,” EvolutionX Partner Rahul Shah said.

Malaysia’s KAF Digital Bank goes live with Temenos

The growth of Islamic digital banking is one of the most underappreciated developments in international fintech. Helping power this trend are companies like Temenos which recently partnered with Malaysia’s KAF Digital Bank as the institution launches its new Islamic digital bank in the country.

“Powered by Temenos SaaS, KAF Digital Bank is redefining Shariah-compliant banking with smarter, simpler financial solutions and a seamless, customer-first digital experience,” KAF Digital Bank CEO Rafiza Ghazali said. “The successful go-live and early access customer launch marks a key milestone in our journey, enabling Malaysians to take control of their financial futures with greater confidence.”

Temenos SaaS will enable KAF Digital Bank to offer a range of Shariah-compliant financial solutions that make financial management easier for customers who require or simply prefer Islamic banking. The offering includes comprehensive core and digital banking services with payments, analytics, and Temenos Data Hub on Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure. In a statement, Temenos APAC Managing Director Will Dale noted the growth and importance of the Islamic banking customer in the country.

“This go-live not only strengthens Temenos’ regional footprint in SaaS, but also shows the unique breadth of functionality and advanced technology we deliver,” Dale said. “With proven capabilities tailored to the Malaysian market and Islamic banking, Temenos SaaS empowers KAF Digital Bank to achieve faster time-to-market, greater efficiency, and drive future growth.”

KAF Digital Bank secured approval to operate as a digital bank at the beginning of the year, and will be the fourth digital bank to operate in the country. The bank was launched by KAF Investment Bank Berhad, in partnership with Carsome, MoneyMatch, Jirnexu, and StoreHub. KAF Investment Bank Berhad was established in 1975.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Saudi Arabian finance app tiqmo partnered with global payments network MoneyGram.
  • Revolut reported that it has entered talks with the Bank of Israel to expand operations in the country.
  • MENA-based financial institution Mashreq launched its NEO PLUS Saver Account.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazilian fintech Matera partnered with Circle to integrate stablecoins as a payment method.
  • Cross-border payment platform dLocal teamed up with payment infrastructure solutions provider JusPay.
  • Tether announced an investment in Chiliean crypto exchange Orionx to support financial inclusion and digital payment adoption in Latin America.

Asia-Pacific

  • Visa launched its Click to Pay solution in Vietnam.
  • Buy Now, Pay Later provider Atome secured a $75 million asset-backed financing facility to support its expansion to the Philippines.
  • A new trading platform, moomoo, has gone live in New Zealand.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Africa.com profiled African fintech giant Paystack.
  • Online payment service provider PayU GPO launched account-to-account payments in Nigeria.
  • Critics warn that Kenya’s 1.5% tax on crypto transactions could hamper the development of the country’s fintech industry.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Berlin-based paytech Payrails raised $32 million in Series A funding.
  • Lithuania’s largest credit union, Lietuvos centrinė kredito unija (LCKU), inked a long-term agreement with regtech AMLYZE.
  • German SaaS cloud banking platform Mambu announced that Sweden-based Marginalen Bank has migrated to its core.

Photo by Pixabay

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Coinbase Unveils New Business Platform

Coinbase Unveils New Business Platform
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Coinbase
  • Coinbase announced plans to launch Coinbase Business, a crypto operating account designed to help small businesses send, receive, and manage crypto payments with no fees.
  • The platform offers instant settlements, high-yield USDC savings of up to 4.1% APY, and integrations with QuickBooks and Xero to streamline crypto-powered financial workflows.
  • With this move, Coinbase enters the commercial crypto space, competing with Circle and Fireblocks.

Crypto exchange platform and wallet Coinbase is expanding its horizons into the business world. The California-based company revealed plans to launch Coinbase Business, a crypto operating account that small businesses can use to manage payments, crypto assets, and automated payouts.

“At Coinbase, we’ve spent over a decade building the trusted foundation for the cryptoeconomy to increase economic freedom around the world,” the company announced on its blog. “Now, we’re bringing that same security, scale, and compliance to everyday businesses with Coinbase Business—a modern financial stack built with the speed and scale of crypto.”

The new, fee-free accounts will allow businesses to benefit from the fast, borderless, and low-cost aspects of transacting in crypto and stablecoins. Coinbase built its Business accounts to streamline financial workflows and create a single place for businesses to send and receive payments, manage crypto assets, and automate payouts.

Coinbase Business is designed for startups managing global contractors, ecommerce companies accepting stablecoin payments, DAOs distributing tokens, or service providers working with clients in emerging markets. With automated USDC payouts and integration with QuickBooks and Xero, Coinbase is allowing businesses to leverage crypto as not just an investment tool, but also use it as a part of their working capital infrastructure.

Among the features of Coinbase Business are: crypto payments with instant settlements, no delays, and no chargebacks; the ability to buy, sell, and exchange crypto directly from the business account; high interest savings of up to 4.1% APY earned on USDC; simplified onboarding; and streamlined accounting with reconciliation into QuickBooks and Xero.

Coinbase’s entrance into the commercial space highlights a growing interest that small businesses have shown in crypto infrastructure. As traditional banking systems remain slow, expensive, and siloed across regions, crypto can serve as an alternative for faster money movement, especially across borders. With Coinbase Business, companies can avoid high foreign exchange fees, streamline vendor payments, and integrate crypto into day-to-day operations without needing specialized knowledge.

The launch places Coinbase in competition with other crypto-native business tools like Circle’s USDC treasury services, Fireblocks, and even legacy fintech platforms that are starting to explore stablecoins. Coinbase, however, can differentiate itself with its built-in user base, regulatory compliance, and direct access to a deep liquidity pool via its exchange.

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Klarna Unveils New Debit Card Powered by Marqeta

Klarna Unveils New Debit Card Powered by Marqeta
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Klarna, Marqeta
  • Klarna and Marqeta are launching a new debit card powered by Visa Flexible Credential (VFC), allowing users to pay now or later with the same card.
  • The Klarna Card marks a shift from BNPL-only into mainstream payments, which supports consumers’ demand for flexible, app-connected spending tools.
  • The launch supports Klarna’s pre-IPO growth strategy, which includes partnerships with Clover and Walmart as the company continues to mull its public debut.

BNPL giant Klarna has teamed up with card issuing platform Marqeta to power the Klarna Card: a new debit card powered by Visa Flexible Credential (VFC) that offers flexible payment options.

This development follows Marqeta’s move in July of 2024 to become the first issuer processor in the US certified for VFC. Using VFC, Marqeta will enable Klarna Card users to pay at the time of the transaction, or to pay later using the same card. Klarna is currently trialing the Klarna Card and plans to roll it out to a broader US user base later this year.

This isn’t the first collaboration between Marqeta and Klarna, who first teamed up in 2018 when Marqeta agreed to power Klarna’s virtual cards in the US. Since then, the two companies have expanded and Marqeta now supports Klarna in six countries.

“The future of payments is flexible, and we’re proud to enable this new offering together with Visa,” said Marqeta Chief Product and Engineering Officer Rahul Shah. “Our ongoing partnership with Klarna is a true testament to what’s possible with Marqeta’s platform and how we enable our customers to grow and innovate at global scale.”

Releasing the Klarna Card is a notable evolution for Klarna, shifting its focus from short-term BNPL loans into mainstream spending habits. By enabling “pay now” or “pay later” choices on the same card, Klarna and Marqeta are blurring the lines between credit and debit by offering a single, flexible product that caters to consumers’ expectations for control and choice at checkout.

Klarna isn’t the first BNPL player to expand into card-based products. California-based Affirm launched its own debit+ card in 2021 and just recently surpassed two million debit cards.

Marqeta was founded in 2009 to provide infrastructure and tools to help companies build and manage their own payment programs. The company enables developers to launch and scale new programs with flexibility. Headquartered in California, Marqeta processed almost $300 billion in annual payments volume in 2024.

“Through our continued partnership with Marqeta and Visa, we’re evolving the Klarna Card into a truly dynamic and versatile payment experience,” said Klarna Chief Marketing Officer David Sandström. “We’re excited to continue innovating alongside Marqeta as we scale the Klarna Card to provide smart, seamless payments that empower smarter, more informed shoppers everywhere.”

The news announcement comes as Klarna has been strategically ramping up its public presence in preparation for going public. While the company postponed its IPO plans earlier this year, it has partnered with Clover for in-store BNPL, signed an agreement to serve as Walmart’s BNPL provider, and announced that it reached 100 million active consumers in April 2025. 

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Breaking News: First Wave of Demos Announced for FinovateFall 2025

Breaking News: First Wave of Demos Announced for FinovateFall 2025
By Heather Stowell Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2025, Marketing

FinovateFall returns returns to New York this September with a best-in-class demo lineup. 

Over 60 companies will have just 7 minutes to show why they’re industry leaders and disruptors. And then you’ll decide who takes home the coveted Best of Show award. Make sure you’re there to see it!

Curated to reflect fintech’s state of play, this year’s demo lineup hits all the high notes for emerging tech. Here’s why to tune in: 

  • First impressions matter: Delight new customers with a personalized onboarding switch kit
  • Plant seeds early: Supercharge teens’ digital banking experience and deposit growth
  • Break the scam spell: Disrupt high-risk situations with AI trained on human vulnerabilities and exploit techniques 
  • Strike (more) gold: Automate 90% of client interactions to manage (and build) even more wealth
  • Mine your data: Transform scattered data into an intelligent ecosystem with more opportunities for growth and automation 
  • Raise your shields: Combat the rising tide of deepfakes and synthetic identities without customer inconvenience
  • Help them nest: Nurture first-time homebuyers from curiosity to closing with a personalized journey

And here’s who you’ll meet:

Are you a fintech or tech company? Demo applications are still open—if you’re working on something new and groundbreaking in fintech, apply now.

Are you a financial institution, venture capitalist, or another leader in the finserv space? Early-bird delegate passes expire THIS FRIDAY, JUNE 13. Register today!

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Streamly Snapshot: What the Great Wealth Transfer Means for Banks and Fintechs

Streamly Snapshot: What the Great Wealth Transfer Means for Banks and Fintechs
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2025, Speaker series, Streamly

For decades, the idea of generational wealth transfer has been more of a long-term planning theme than a present-day priority. But that priority is beginning to change. With trillions of dollars moving from Baby Boomers to Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z over the next two decades, banks and fintechs are staring down a pivotal question: how will they capture the attention and loyalty of younger, digitally native inheritors?

In a recent Streamly interview, Tapp Engine CEO Will Dolan spoke about this massive economic shift and the opportunities it presents for financial institutions. He explained that the winners in this space will be those who not only meet younger generations on the digital platforms they use every day, but also those who understand the emotional context of wealth and inheritance in modern families.

“Technology has become such an important parat of everybody’s day-to-day lives… people have a lot more information at their disposal now that they’ve every had…. How do you engage with people out there that you want to draw into the opportunities that your company possesses? If you’re not digital, if you’re not thinking AI, if you’re not thinking mobile, you really need to re-think your strategy because that’s the way that most people are looking to utilize solutions, consume information, and companies really need to respond to that.”

Founded in 2019, Tapp Engine is a digital experience platform that helps financial institutions thrive in the digital age by modernizing customer engagement through embedded tools and adaptive experiences. Instead of offering static interfaces or one-size-fits-all financial products, Tapp Engine enables banks and fintechs to build modular, white-labeled experiences tailored to users’ life stages and financial goals. With features like real-time personalization, guided decision flows, and behavioral insights, Tapp Engine helps turn generic banking apps into trusted, go-to financial companions.

As President of Tapp Engine, Dolan brings a human-centered lens to a category that often defaults to technology-first thinking. His insights reflect years of experience working at the intersection of product design, user experience, and fintech innovation.

Photo by cottonbro studio

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ID-Pal Unveils Reusable KYC Solution

ID-Pal Unveils Reusable KYC Solution
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, ID-Pal
  • Identity verification innovator ID-Pal has unveiled its reusable KYC solution, ID-Pal Once.
  • The new offering streamlines the verification process, enabling users to complete identity verification as much as 5x faster.
  • Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, ID-Pal most recently demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2025.

AI-powered identity verification specialist ID-Pal has introduced its reusable KYC solution ID-Pal Once. The offering will enable organizations to streamline identity verification processes, control costs, and enable them to focus on growing their businesses. As a reusable identity verification solution, ID-Pal Once enables returning users to complete the verification process up to five times faster. The company estimates that this produces an 80% time savings.

“With ID-Pal Once, we’re not just speeding up KYC, we’re removing unnecessary friction, ID-Pal Once is an incredibly powerful solution that meets and exceeds the needs of organizations and customer expectations, underpinned by our existing full suite of world-class biometric, document, and database checks,” ID-Pal Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer Robert O’Farrell said. “ID-Pal Once ensures that only genuine, verified identities are reused and importantly, doesn’t use humans to access the data. This is about secure identity reuse that respects the time of organizations and customers and respects your data.”

ID-Pal Once works by building profiles from previously-verified identity data, re-validating the data against the organization’s risk rules so as not to require users to repeat the data submission process. An accurate, secure, and real-time liveness check is all that is required in order for the technology to recognize returning users and reduce the verification process to a matter of seconds. The solution scales as organizations grow, allowing companies to continue to rely on consistent, policy-aligned identity verifications across regions, products, and channels. Deployed to power step-up authentication efforts for high-risk or high-value transactions, time-based re-checks for compliance requirements, as well as instant re-verification of returning customers, ID-Pal Once is already being used by the company’s customers in verticals ranging from financial services to telco to gaming.

“ID-Pal Once marks a major leap forward in how organizations can manage identity verification,” ID-Pal Head of Product Rob Sheehan said. “By enabling secure re-verification linked to biometrics, we’re eliminating redundant steps, reducing operational costs, and dramatically improving the user experience. It’s a win for both our partners and their customers.”

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, ID-Pal made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 and returned to the Finovate stage a year later for FinovateEurope in London. In its most recent appearance, ID-Pal showed how its platform uses 100% AI-powered technology to provide real-time verification that detects AI-generated documents, deepfakes, injection attacks, and more.

ID-Pal’s product news comes a month after the firm announced a partnership with UK-based financial services consultancy, Albany Beck. The partnership will combine Albany Beck’s AML/KYC Academy with ID-Pal’s identity verification and AML screening technology. The Academy is designed to instruct consultants on best-practices and provide them with practical skills to review AML/KYC processes and ensure regulatory compliance.

“Our partnership with ID-Pal marks a significant step forward in enhancing KYC/AML programs. By combining our training and development expertise with ID-Pal’s advanced technology, we can deliver unparalleled value to our clients, providing experts who will continue to deliver immediate impact, protecting the firms we work with and their end customers,” Albany Beck Partner Head of AML/KYC Emer McPartland said.

Photo by Matheus Câmara da Silva on Unsplash

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Innovations in Insurtech: IPOs, Expats, and Enhancements in Risk Management

Innovations in Insurtech: IPOs, Expats, and Enhancements in Risk Management
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Insurance, List series

Insurtech continues to be one of the most dynamic subsectors in fintech. Just last month, life insurance SaaS company Bestow raised $120 million in Series D funding. Other insurtechs, as noted below, have launched successful IPOs in recent weeks.

This week, we’re sharing three headlines from the industry that shine a light on where innovation and growth in this space are headed—including more insurtech IPO news from a Florida-based speciality firm.

Insurtech Slide eyes $2 billion valuation in upcoming US IPO

Slide Insurance, a Tampa, Florida-based insurtech, has filed for an initial public offering. Founded in 2021 and going live the following year, Slide specializes in property insurance and has become one of the leading coastal insurance firms in the US. Slide provides home, condo, and commercial residential insurance products via a network of more than 5,000 agents in Florida and South Carolina. A self-described “technology-enabled insurance company,” Slide leverages AI and Big Data to hyper-personalize, optimize, and streamline the insurance process.

The company anticipates a valuation of as much as $2.12 billion in its IPO, raising $340 million through an offer of 20 million shares priced between $15 and $17, based on Slide’s SEC filing earlier this week. Slide shares will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol SLDE. The company reported profits of $92.5 million for the quarter ended March 31. The figure reflected a gain of more than 69% year-over-year.

Slide’s IPO filing comes in the wake of American Integrity Insurance Group’s $126.5 million IPO. Also recently going public was specialty insurer and reinsurer Aspen Insurance, which raised more than $397 million in its May IPO. Specialty insurer Ategrity is seeking to raise in excess of $113 million in its public offering later this week.

Feather introduces business insurance for expat workers in Europe

German insurtech Feather unveiled new, digital business insurance designed for companies with international workers. The company’s expanded service comes in the wake of Feather’s successful efforts to digitize insurance access for international workers in Germany, France, and Spain. Feather’s new offering is aimed directly at human resource departments to equip them with technology that manages employee, health, life, and pension insurance, as well as cybersecurity insurance and professional and general liability coverage.

Feather CEO and Co-Founder Rob Schumacher said in a statement that offering quality insurance benefits for their workers was a challenge for many small and medium-sized businesses in part because “traditional insurance partners aren’t built to support them.” Highlighting pension insurance as an example of a benefit SMEs struggle to provide, Schumacher added, “Feather is a no-brainer for companies where expats make up at least 10% of the workforce. HR leaders can turn international onboarding into a warm welcome instead of a bureaucratic nightmare.”

Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Feather was founded in 2018. To date, the company has served more than 90,000 customers and processed more than 20,000 successful claims.

Markel unveils InsurtechRisk+ for insurtech businesses

Markel Insurance, the insurance operations division of Markel Group, launched its InsurtechRisk+ solution for insurtech companies today. The offering includes four insuring clauses: (1) insurance services and technology liability, (2) directors and officers (D&O) liability, (3) crime and cyber liability, and (4) loss cover. These clauses provide protection for businesses domiciled in the UK, Europe, Australia, and Canada, and offers limits of up to £10 million.

“The cyber risk landscape has evolved since we launched our first Insurtech policy with the emergence of more advanced attacks from threat actors utilizing AI tools/technology to infiltrate company networks, impersonate senior personnel and steal confidential data and funds,” Markel Head of Fintech and Investment Management Insurance Nick Rugg said.

Combined with value-added services including 24/7 business; legal and employment advice; R&D tax advisory; debt recovery support; grant and funding assistance; contract reviews and a cyber risk toolkit, the clauses in Markel’s InsurtechRisk+ product will help insurtechs better manage cyber threats, as well as criminal and financial liabilities. The new offering gives firms a “one-stop-shop” approach that avoids potential coverage gaps that can occur when companies rely on multiple policies from multiple insurance vendors.

“Another key goal in launching InsurtechRisk+ is to offer best-in-class cover alongside risk management solutions that go beyond typical post-loss assistance for policyholders,” Rugg added. “We want to disrupt traditional insurance products as well as how customers view the role of the insurer as only helping clients after an incident has taken place.”

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

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ANNA Money Partners with Episode Six

ANNA Money Partners with Episode Six
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, ANNA
  • Business account provider ANNA Money has teamed up with card infrastructure company Episode Six.
  • Via the partnership, ANNA Money has migrated its business card program to Episode Six’s platform to better serve its small business customers.
  • Headquartered in Cardiff, Wales, ANNA Money made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020.

All-in-one business account provider ANNA Money has partnered with card issuing and ledger infrastructure company Episode Six. ANNA Money has successfully migrated its business card program to Episode Six’s platform to better meet the product, expansion, and integration needs of its customers.

“We needed a partner with proven infrastructure and the ability to match our pace and expansion,” ANNA Money COO Alex Kokovin said. “Episode Six delivered on all fronts, addressing the limitations we previously faced. Their technology allows us to offer business debit cards, deliver a seamless experience to our customers, and scale with confidence. We reviewed a large number of vendors and Episode Six stood out for their experience, agility, and proven ability to migrate live card programs successfully.”

ANNA Money has leveraged Episode Six’s modern card infrastructure to integrate virtual and physical card capabilities into its mobile-first business account solution. The integration enables visibility into real-time transactions, instant card issuance, and the ability to configure both features and workflows. A core component of ANNA Money’s offering, business debit cards enable the fintech’s customers to pay suppliers and make business payments directly from their account conveniently and securely. In their announcement, the companies noted that their partnership comes as demand for modern card solutions is growing among SMEs in the UK. A 2024 study by Juniper Research estimated that the number of cards issued by modern card issuing platforms will soar from 748 million in 2024 to 1.4 billion in 2029.

“ANNA Money is a great example of what’s possible when fintechs pair vision with the right infrastructure,” Episode Six CEO and Co-Founder John Mitchell said. “By leveraging our platform, they’ve migrated to a sophisticated card platform to enhance the overall ANNA Money offering for its business customers, at scale and with speed.”

Episode Six helps banks, fintechs, and brands launch card, deposit, and credit products at speed and scale their offerings without having to rewrite their core. The company’s technology enables firms to build consumer, business, and secured credit cards; prepaid and debit cards; commercial cards and spend controls; multi-currency cards and wallets; virtual accounts and embedded wallets; installments, BNPL, lending features, and more. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Episode Six operates in 50 markets around the world, has more than 70 enterprise customers, and more than 40 million end users.

Headquartered in Cardiff, Wales, and founded in 2017, ANNA Money made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020. At the conference, ANNA Money demoed how its tax and VAT accounting functionality provides self-assessment and VAT returns without the cost of relying on dedicated accountants. The technology automatically categorizes and reconciles expenses, calculates VAT and tax in real time, and submits completed tax and VAT returns to the HMRC.

This week’s announcement comes weeks after ANNA Money reported that it was working with Australian fintech Shaype, which helps businesses embed banking and payment options into their offerings. The partnership enabled Shaype to launch an all-in-one business finance super app that consolidates services including business banking, taxes, expenses, company formation, and corporate cards into a single platform.

Photo by Balazs Bezeczky

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