US Bank’s Queanne Smith on Streamlining Small Business Banking

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2026, Interview, Speaker series

How are financial institutions like US Bank helping small businesses take advantage of new, innovative tools and technologies that will enable them to better serve their customers and scale their operations? At FinovateSpring 2026 earlier this year, I spoke with Queanne Smith, Senior Vice President at US Bank, on how integrated digital solutions and strategic partnerships can bring greater efficiency and new revenue opportunities to small and medium-sized enterprises.

In our conversation, Smith talks about the challenges that small businesses face when confronted with fragmented banking services, and explains how embedded banking and platform integration can build trust and efficiency. Smith also discusses the importance of delivering end-to-end solutions like billpay and payroll and shares her thoughts on the best practices for bank-fintech partnerships.

"We did a survey in 2025 with about a thousand of our small business owners and identified that 63% of those small business owners were really…

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MX Unveils Conversational Financial AI Assistant

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MX

MX launched a white-labeled conversational AI assistant that banks can embed into their digital banking platforms.

Unlike many consumer AI tools, MX's assistant can both answer questions about a customer's finances and initiate banking actions, such as opening new accounts.

The launch reflects a broader industry shift toward keeping AI-powered financial guidance inside banks' own digital channels, helping institutions strengthen customer relationships.

Financial data platform MX is bringing conversational AI directly into digital banking. The company unveiled a white-labeled financial AI assistant that banks can deploy within their existing banking platforms, enabling customers to ask questions about their finances and take action without leaving the bank's app.

The new assistant allows bank customers to engage with their finances by asking natural language questions in a conversational environment. The assistant maintains an active relationship with the customer by surfacing meaningful opportunities for financial wellness. Unlike many consumer AI assistants, MX's tool…

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LexisNexis Risk Solutions Teams Up with Promon to Fight Fraud

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, LexisNexis Risk Solutions

LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Promon announced a strategic alliance to enhance fraud prevention in mobile apps around the world.

The partnership will combine access to LexisNexis' ThreatMetrix digital identity, device, and behavioral intelligence with Promon's in -app protection and trusted telemetry technology.

Headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, LexisNexis Risk Solutions made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025 in New York.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions has forged a strategic alliance with mobile application security firm Promon to bolster fraud prevention in mobile apps. The partnership will combine LexisNexis' ThreatMetrix digital identity, device, and behavioral intelligence with in-app protection and telemetry from Promon's Promon Shield and Promon Insight, respectively.

"Fraud prevention is increasingly dependent on understanding the full context of a digital interaction," LexisNexis Risk Solutions Chief Commercial Officer Grayson Clarke explained. "Promon's app protection capabilities complement the insights delivered through our LexisNexis Risk Intelligence Network, helping customers strengthen the signals they…

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The Wait Is Over: First Wave Of Demos Announced For FinovateFall 2026

By Heather Stowell Posted on
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateFall 2026

At FinovateFall this year, we're selecting 68 innovations that will reshape how financial services operate, and we're ready to name names. We know many of you prefer to see the demo lineup before securing your delegate pass, so without further ado, here's 80% of the lineup featuring breakthrough technologies you haven't seen before and innovation trends you need to know.

The initial wave of selected companies represents many dynamic areas of fintech development—here are just four to give you a sneak peek:

Payments and Cross-Border Solutions: Payments, cross-border solutions, and payment infrastructure modernization feature prominently, with companies developing unified payment hubs that integrate multiple payment rails, blockchain-based remittance systems, and embedded international payment capabilities. These innovative solutions target the growing demand for seamless cross-border transactions and represent exciting new revenue diversification opportunities.

Digital Experience and Security: Privacy-focused customer analytics platforms, streamlined onboarding processes, and voice-based security authentication represent the industry's…

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The Trends Defining the Next Chapter of Banking

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Webinar

The first half of 2026 has made it clear that fintech and banking are entering a new phase. AI is changing how consumers interact with financial institutions, infrastructure is becoming a competitive advantage, and embedded finance continues to blur the lines between banks, fintechs, and technology companies.

What do these shifts mean for the rest of the year?

Join Finovate on Wednesday, July 1, at 12:00 p.m. Pacific for a live webinar featuring leading voices from banking, fintech, and market research as they discuss the trends reshaping the industry and what financial institutions should be preparing for next.

Our panelists

Jody Bhagat, President of North America, Engine by Starling

Tiffani Montez, Principal Analyst, EMARKETER

Jeremy Almond, CEO, Paystand

During this interactive discussion, we'll explore questions such as:

Will AI assistants become the primary interface for banking?

Is owning financial infrastructure becoming more valuable than owning the customer relationship?

How are…

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13 Finovate Alums Raised More than $208 Million in H1 2026

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding

Due to the changing nature of both fintech funding and Finovate alums—a growing number of which are younger, smaller firms—we are presenting our latest alum funding report based on the entirety of the first half of 2026, rather than a single quarter. This year, we are proud to announce that a baker's dozen of Finovate alums have raised more than $208 million in funding for H1 2026.

We should note that there were companies that secured funding shortly before becoming alums. For example, AAZZUR raised more than $2 million less than a month before making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2026 in London. Zocks raised $45 million ahead of its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego. And while these sums cannot be considered as part of the total presented here, they still reflect the level of interest that investors have when it comes to the kind of…

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Fiserv Embeds Personetics’ AI Platform into its Digital Banking Suite

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Fiserv, Personetics

Fiserv has embedded Personetics’ AI platform into Experience Digital (XD).

The integration will help banks deliver real-time, personalized financial guidance to consumers and small businesses.

The move reflects the shift of AI from a standalone fintech tool to core digital banking infrastructure.

Banking and commerce technology provider Fiserv and cognitive banking platform Personetics are joining forces today. Fiserv has embedded Personetics' platform within its Experience Digital (XD), a tool that gives banks and credit unions a new way to offer more personalized experiences to end users.

Embedding Personetics' AI platform directly into Fiserv's digital banking experience will allow Fiserv's bank clients to act on data in real time, offering them the ability to deliver timely prompts, contextual guidance, and relevant offers within XD. The new capabilities will help end consumers manage their cash flow, build their savings, and make more informed financial decisions. It will offer small business users the…

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Baker Hill, Finastra, Fintech Rundown, Tavant

It's a holiday shortened week in the US, with Independence Day (also known as the Fourth of July) just days away. With that in mind, we'll keep you posted with all the fireworks in the fintech headlines this week here on the Fintech Rundown!

Payments

Philippines-based fintech Mynt readies for a $1.5 billion IPO for its mobile payments platform and mobile wallet GCash.

Maldives Premier Bank (MPB) partners with Finastra for its Financial Messaging API, enabling resilient, secure, always-on payment connectivity.

Paysafe joins Primer platform to streamline card payments for online merchants.

Investing

Education Community Alliance partners with InvestiFi for in-platform investing.

Financial wellness

Family technology company Greenlight launches its smart home display—Family Hub—to help families manage finances, chores, and more.

Lending

Baker Hill and Lumos, a specialist in predictive credit intelligence for small business lending, announce a partnership to help community banks and credit unions expand…

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Finovate Global India: Raising Capital, Fighting Fraud, and Innovating in Payments

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Payoneer

This week's edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech headlines from India.

CRED raises $900 million in round led by Meta

CRED, a membership-based, credit rewards platform that offers solutions across payments, lending, insurance, wealth, and lifestyle, has secured $900 million in Series H funding. The round was led by Meta, and will be structured through a combination of primary and secondary share purchases. Meta will join the CRED cap table as a minority investor; CRED will earn a post-money valuation of $4.5 billion.

With 1.7 million members engaging with its platform every month, CRED processes more than 40% of credit card bill payments in India, and has seen its lending business grow to more than $2.5 billion in managed assets. The investment will enable the company to accelerate growth, build "institutional muscle," and extend its leadership across verticals. The company announced that its founder, Kunal Shah, will…

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Chris Nichols on Transforming Payments with Stablecoins and Tokenized Deposits

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2026, Speaker series

How is innovation in blockchain technology, specifically the growing interest in stablecoins and tokenized deposits, creating ways for banks and financial services companies to offer new services, engage current customers better, and introduce new potential revenue sources?

Steven Ramirez, CEO of Beyond the Arc, caught up with Chris Nichols, President of Institutional Banking at SouthState Bank, earlier this year at FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego. At the conference, Nichols gave a keynote address on the emergence of agentic AI as a new frontier in financial services and discussed ways that agentic commerce will reshape the retail landscape. More specifically, Nichols explained how the combination of tokenization and agentic AI could create major opportunities for banks and financial institutions, enabling 24/7 settlement, smart contracts, programmable money, and more.

In this conversation, Ramirez and Nichols discuss SouthState Bank's dual token strategy that embraces both deposit tokens and stablecoins, payment orchestration and the…

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TransUnion UK Launches Modelled Income Assessment

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, TransUnion

TransUnion UK announced the availability of its Modelled Income Assessment solution this week.

The new offering sits inside the company's Affordability Report and helps lenders make income estimates to guide affordability decisions.

TransUnion's new solution comes at a time of greater volatility in consumer incomes, making it more challenging for lenders who require accurate income data.

A new solution from TransUnion UK will help lenders make affordability decisions with greater confidence. Sitting inside the company's Affordability Report, TransUnion's Modelled Income Assessment solution estimates monthly income at configurable confidence thresholds. This enables proportional affordability checks and an income estimate consistent with client-agreed custom thresholds, allowing lenders to tailor outputs to their own risk appetites.

"The way people earn and manage money has fundamentally shifted," TransUnion UK Chief Product Officer Kelli Fielding said. "Incomes are more volatile, data gaps are more common, and lenders are under growing pressure to evidence affordability…

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Entrust Solution Stops Fraud Attacks Against “Moments of Truth” in Customer Lifecycle

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Entrust Datacard

Entrust has unveiled its Entrust Biometric Authentication solution to help organizations defend, high-risk, "moments of truth" in the customer lifecycle, such as account onboarding and device transfer, from fraud and financial crime.

These high-risk moments are increasingly the targets of choice by AI-powered fraud threats including presentation, injection, and deepfake attacks.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Entrust is an alum of Finovate's developer conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. Tony Ball is CEO.

As high-risk security moments like account recovery, device changes, and large transactions are increasingly targeted by fraudsters, developing strategies to defend consumers against these threats has grown in demand. This makes the latest announcement from Entrust, the launch of the company's Entrust Biometric Authentication solution, all the more noteworthy.

"Too many organizations are treating authentication as a login problem, but attackers have already moved beyond access," Entrust Chief Technology & Product Officer Mike Baxter said. "Preventing account takeover in…

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