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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Kast has launched Kast Earn, a yield-bearing cash management feature that uses Gauntlet’s institutional-grade DeFi vaults to generate variable APY (currently 4%–9%) on user deposits.
User funds are deployed via onchain lending strategies and actively managed using quantitative risk models, with earnings accruing continuously and remaining liquid through Kast’s spending account.
The move positions Kast in direct competition with banks and money market funds.
Stablecoin-based challenger bank Kast is making its stablecoin banking platform more enticing this week. The company is launchingKast Earn, a tool that allows accountholders to earn yield on funds in their account.
Powered by Gauntlet, Kast Earn will employ users’ deposits for onchain lending, allowing users to earn yield on fiat funds in their account. Founded in 2018, Gauntlet offers an automated risk platform with institutional-grade vaults that enable decentralized finance to provide risk-adjusted yields at scale. Kast said it partnered with Gauntlet because of its experience building quantitative decentralized finance strategies.
When a user deposits US dollars, their funds go into the Gauntlet USD Alpha vault, which is designed to generate sustainable yield by prioritizing long-term, risk-adjusted returns and proactively adapting as markets change. This vault has $73.8 million in total value locked, or TVL (roughly equivalent to assets under management).
Once a user deposits funds, their capital is distributed across a diversified set of established digital lending markets and actively managed using quantitative risk and performance models developed by Gauntlet. The yield compounds continuously through Vault Share tokens, and the users’ earnings are reflected in the rising value of their shares. Accountholders can cash in on their shares at any time by transferring funds back to their KAST spending account. While the rate of return is variable, the vault currently offers a variable APY between 4% and 9%.
Founded in 2024, Kast bridges traditional finance and decentralized finance by offering a digital money app where users can deposit cash, USDC/T, and crypto. It also allows users to spend their crypto like cash with its Solana payment cards that are accepted at more than 150 million merchants and ATMs and in over 160 countries.
In 2025, Kast evolved from a simple solution to spend stablecoins into a full-fledged global money app. Last year alone, the company launched MOVE cashback, KAST Convert, USD virtual accounts, global bank transfers, and KAST Tags to add more bank-like functionality.
By offering yield-bearing cash management, Kast is placing itself in competition with banks and money market funds. By embedding onchain lending and quantitative risk management directly into a consumer-facing banking app, Kast is testing whether DeFi-based yield products can be delivered with the simplicity, liquidity, and trust. If users are able to trust Kast’s offerings as much as those from their traditional financial institutions, offerings like Kast Earn could change how both challenger banks and incumbents think about generating returns on customer balances in a stablecoin-driven financial system.
The final week of the first month of the year has arrived. Partnerships in payments, embedded finance, and DeFi are among the top headlines in fintech as the week begins. And with FinovateEurope only two weeks away, we’ve got our eye on interesting developments like JPMorgan Chase’s acquisition of UK-based WealthOS. Be sure to check Finovate’s Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest updates!
Payments
Global payments infrastructure platform Mercuryoteams up with Visa to provide crypto-to-fiat off-ramping via Visa’s real-time payments platform, Visa Direct.
European payment service provider and acquirer Finbypartners with the European Payments Initiative (EPI) to support the pan-European digital wallet, Wero.
PayPal has acquired Cymbio to accelerate its push into agentic commerce, adding marketplace and drop-ship automation capabilities that help merchants sell across AI-driven channels like Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.
The deal builds on an existing partnership between the two players, which first teamed up in October 2025.
The acquisition reinforces PayPal’s broader ambitions in agentic commerce.
PayPal just acquired drop-ship and marketplace automation platform Cymbio for an undisclosed amount. The move fits with PayPal’s push into agentic commerce, as Cymbio’s payment orchestration platform helps brands sell across agentic channels, including Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.
Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close later this year, were undisclosed.
PayPal’s acquisition comes three months after PayPal first partnered with Cymbio to launch agentic commerce services, a suite of solutions to help merchants attract customers in an AI-powered commerce environment.
“PayPal has established itself as a leading commerce partner for merchants looking to sell within top AI platforms,” said PayPal Executive Vice President and General Manager of Small Business and Financial Services Michelle Gill. “Acquiring Cymbio’s technology and team will enhance our agentic commerce capabilities and accelerate the expansion to more of our merchants. By making their product catalogs discoverable on AI surfaces, merchants can increase sales while expanding product choice to the millions of consumers shopping on AI platforms today.”
Cymbio was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv. The company’s marketplace and social commerce automation platform facilitates collaboration between brands and retailers by automating processes such as product listing, inventory management, pricing, order fulfillment, and returns. Cymbio connects to 800 brands’ and retailers’ internal systems to enable strong collaborations that can be scaled quickly. The company has raised $35 million from investors including PayPal Ventures, and counts Balmain, Reebok, Abercrombie & Fitch, New Balance, Steve Madden, and Fabletics among its customers.
Once the deal is finalized, PayPal will use Cymbio to power Store Sync, one of PayPal’s agentic commerce services that allows merchants’ product data to be discoverable within AI channels. Store Sync drops orders to merchants’ existing fulfillment and management systems. The system allows the merchant to remain the merchant of record and retain customer relationships and control over their brand.
As a pioneer in fintech, PayPal is seeking to be an early mover in agentic commerce as well. In late 2025, the company rolled out agentic commerce services to help merchants connect product catalogs and checkout experiences to AI platforms like Perplexity. PayPal has also collaborated with AI ecosystem partners such as OpenAI to support instant checkout via the Agentic Commerce Protocol. It is clear that the company is seeking a top spot in the agentic commerce battlefield.
Last week, Finovate Global looked at how key trends are shaping fintech innovation in the UK. This week, our Friday column crosses the channel to consider the most significant forces shaping fintech innovation on the Continent, especially among advanced industrial economies in the West and Baltic north.
In our examination of the UK, we highlighted navigating regulatory complexity, accelerating technological transformation, and meeting rising customer expectations as three key issues facing banks and financial services providers there. These issues are also important to markets in the advanced markets of Europe. However, there are additional themes that distinguish the concerns of bankers in developed Europe from their colleagues in both the UK and the US.
Profitability and Competitiveness in the Shadow of NIRP
One of the challenges that European banks are still dealing with is the legacy of negative interest rates. Just as the US economy was emerging from its post-Global Financial Crisis (GFC)-initiated ZIRP or zero interest rate policy, the EU was plunging into what would be a seven-year experiment in negative interest rates (NIRP). A response to the threat of deflation in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis and, more acutely, the sovereign debt crisis of 2010-2012, the EU’s NIRP policy lasted longer and was more extreme, with rates falling to -0.50%.
The impact on EU banks has been significant. Even as interest rates have normalized since NIRP ended in 2022, net interest income for EU banks has remained squeezed, impeding profitability. Additionally, European banks suffer from structural challenges to greater profitability that extend beyond the legacy of NIRP. Among them is one fundamental issue: there are a lot of banks in Europe, arguably too many, all chasing too few customers. Considered on a per capita basis, countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy have a very large number of banks and similar financial institutions relative to their populations. By comparison, the UK is significantly less “bank dense,” and even the US, which is often accused of having “too many banks,” is considered only moderately bank dense.
Along with excess capacity, issues of market fragmentation and high cost-to-income ratios all contribute to an environment in which achieving profitability as an EU bank remains a challenge. Banks struggling to make money often hesitate to make the necessary investments in technology that can help them reach new customers, access new markets, and offer new products and services.
A More Integrated Union? Overcoming Fragmentation to Enable Innovation
Both the EU and UK face challenges when it comes to digital transformation. But the differences between the two regions are significant and in some ways related to the issues of market fragmentation that plague EU bank profitability. When it comes to digital transformation and investing in technology, fragmentation and diversity between member states make the task more difficult and more expensive. Larger EU banks often have country- and product-specific legacy cores—sometimes even different cores built in multiple decades. These legacy cores not only fail to communicate well with each other, but also often exist in increasingly outdated mainframe environments. On the other hand, smaller banks and financial institutions in the EU often simply can’t afford major core replacements.
Uneven development and country-specific challenges often hold back fintech innovation in the EU. Even where the EU has effectively encouraged innovation, such as PSD2, which mandated open banking, adoption and implementation has varied widely by country. While open banking adoption rates in parts of Europe, such as the Baltics, are exceptional, many other countries, including Western European countries like France, Germany, and Spain, have had more modest rates of implementation. In this context, it will be interesting to see how the different countries embrace Wero, the new pan-European instant payments and wallet scheme currently being introduced throughout the EU. Here, countries like France, Germany, and Belgium are experiencing strong implementation and user adoption trends, while others, including Spain, Italy, and Switzerland are lagging.
How are some of the other enabling innovations—such as AI and DeFi—shaping banking and financial services in Western Europe? The European Banking Authority characterizes adoption of AI in its industry as “widespread but cautious.” Unsurprisingly, use cases in customer service are the most common, as is the use of AI to help in AML/CFT screening. In addition to customer service, streamlining internal workflows is another popular use case for AI among EU banks. Generally speaking, the larger markets of the EU—Germany, France, the Nordics—are experiencing the most robust use of AI in banking and financial services.
The story is similar with DeFi and blockchain technology adoption in banking: the larger countries tend to have more banks engaged in activities such as digital asset custody services, tokenization, and trade finance. One especially interesting development is the pursuit of a euro stablecoin, an effort led by a consortium of EU banks including ING, UniCredit, and SEB that is expected to lead to a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin launch later this year.
A Regulatory Year of Reckoning for Payments, Crypto, and AI in the EU
There is a variety of regulatory events coming this year. Some of them are the latest chapters in policies that were enacted last year, while others will make their compliance debut here in 2026. With regard to the former, regulations such as DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Regulation) which was passed in 2025 and deals with ICT, third-party, and operational risk, will continue to have an impact as institutions look to ensure compliance with resilience requirements for governance, testing, and incident reporting. Elements of the Basel III reforms, initially designed to help fortify banks in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, have been postponed from scheduled implementation this year to 2027. Speaking of postponements, another significant regulation, the Enhanced Operational Risk Reporting Deadline, has been moved forward to June of this year.
Other key regulatory developments to anticipate for EU banks and financial services providers include the rollout of new payment regulations including PSD3, which focuses on licensing and institutional requirements, and PSR (Payment Services Regulation), which deals with day-to-day operational issues. PSD3, in particular, will be an important mandate insofar as it seeks to correct a number of problems with the previous open banking directive, PSD2. PSD3 features significant guidelines and requirements with regard to fraud prevention and liability, and also paves the way for open finance.
What about the enabling technologies highlighted in the previous section? With regard to DeFi and crypto, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) comes fully into effect in 2026. Among the requirements are that cryptocurrency firms must have MiCA licenses to operate by the middle of the year. While this will address centralized service providers (CASPs) in the DeFi market, it does not specifically define the parameters of DeFi, including what services should be subject to MiCA. This conversation will be key for EU policy-makers in 2026.
As for AI, 2026 will be a big year, as well. Enacted in 2024, the EU AI Act will require AI systems designated as “high risk” to adhere to new guidelines with regards to creditworthiness, loan origination, risk evaluation, and automated decisioning. Additionally, the Act will require these systems to use strong governance, risk management documentation, transparency, human oversight, and quality control. Note that the Act categorizes AI systems by risk: minimal/no risk, which is virtually unregulated; limited risk, where compliance consists largely of transparency obligations; high risk, which is strictly regulated; and banned AI, which includes capabilities such as social scoring by governments and real-time remote biometric identification. Another key development is the launch of national AI regulatory sandboxes in each EU member state by August of this year, as mandated by the Act. Here, both Denmark and Spain have been credited as being ahead of the game in terms of getting these initiatives underway.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Asia-Pacific
Singapore-based Airwallex acquired Paynuri in bid to enter the South Korean market.
Indonesian fintech UangCermat raised $26.4 million in a combination of equity and credit facilities.
Vietnam announced that crypto firms that want to participate in the country’s pilot digital asset market will need a minimum capitalization of VND 10 trillion ($400 million).
Financial infrastructure and payment solutions provider Montran opened a new office in Dubai.
Saudi Arabia’s EdfaPay, a payment infrastructure solutions company, secured approval to launch SmartPOS service in the Kingdom.
Central and Southern Asia
Indian digital payments giant PhonePe secured approval from the country’s financial regulator to launch an IPO, slated for mid-2026.
Pakistan-based fintech Neem raised an undisclosed sum in Pre-Series A funding in a round that featured participation from Epic Angels, the largest all-female investment collective in the world.
Kazakhstan enacted a range of new laws to regulate digital assets and to allow banks to expand into fintech, AI, and digital payments infrastructure.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Uruguayan cross-border payment platform dLocal teamed up with international AI device ecosystem company HONOR to launch local payments in Peru.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit launchedBybit Pay in Peru via integrations with the country’s Yape and Plin digital payment platforms.
UK-based stablecoin infrastructure company Noah partnered with Brazil-based digital wallet and investment platform Picnic.
OnePay is expanding its partnership with Klarna to launch Swipe to Finance, a feature that will enable eligible customers to convert debit card purchases into post-transaction installment payment plans.
Specific details of the terms around post-purchase financing have not been disclosed, but the feature will position OnePay alongside players like PayPal and Affirm by offering flexible repayment options beyond the point of sale.
Swipe to Finance strengthens OnePay’s push to compete with digital banks such as Chime and Dave, adding to its growing suite of banking, payments, investing, and crypto tools backed by Walmart’s scale and embedded distribution.
Walmart-owned digital banking platform OnePay is deepening its ties with BNPL player Klarna to launch Swipe to Finance, a new feature that will offer customers the option to pay over time even after they’ve made the transaction.
“Not every purchase comes at the right time,” said Thomas Hoare, Chief Commercial Officer at OnePay. “Customers want and deserve financial flexibility when they need it most, which is why we’re excited to offer new ways for them to pay over time and do it simply, transparently, and all in the OnePay app.”
After making a purchase with a OnePay debit card, eligible customers can use the OnePay app to convert transactions into fixed-term payment plans. While the company has not disclosed details about launch timing, eligible purchases, or available plan options, OnePay’s post-purchase financing may resemble models offered by PayPal and Affirm, which allow users to either pay in four installments or spread payments over longer repayment periods ranging from three to 36 months.
“Post-purchase payments are becoming a core part of how people manage money,” said David Sykes, Chief Commercial Officer at Klarna. “With Swipe to Finance powered by Klarna, we’re giving customers a simple, transparent way to take control of payments after the fact, directly in the OnePay app. It’s another step in expanding smarter payment options and meeting consumers wherever they choose to pay.”
This week’s Swipe to Finance announcement comes about 10 months after OnePay and Klarna first teamed up to offer BNPL options at the point of sale for consumers. The company hinted at plans to deepen ties with Klarna even further, stating, “Additional products and features are planned for later this year that expand OnePay’s types of flexible payment options and can reach new customers.”
Today’s announcement comes at a time of major growth for OnePay, which is seeking to compete with well entrenched digital banks such as Chime and Dave. Last fall, the company partnered with DriveWealth to offer embedded investing tools and teamed up with Zero Hash to facilitate bitcoin and ether trading within its app. In addition to these new capabilities, the OnePay app also offers traditional banking tools such as a high-yield savings account, peer-to-peer money transfer capabilities, and cross-border payments. However, the app also differentiates itself from traditional banks and even other digital banks with a credit builder card, tax filing service, and even a low-cost mobile phone plan via a partnership with Gigs.
OnePay is seeking to compete with entrenched digital banking players such as Chime and Dave. The company is well positioned to do so thanks to its second-mover advantages and embedded distribution through its parent company, Walmart, which launched OnePay in January 2021 in partnership with Ribbit Capital. In January 2022, Walmart expanded OnePay’s capabilities by acquiring two fintech platforms, Even and ONE, which helped Walmart create its version of a financial services super app.
FinovateEurope 2026 is only weeks away—but there’s still time to grab your ticket and save your spot. Be sure to visit our registration page today and take advantage of early bird savings!
We recently kicked off our FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek series to help you get to know this year’s demoing companies. Today, we’re sharing a look at the content side of things: starting with four keynote addresses—two for Tuesday and two for Wednesday—that you won’t want to miss.
From the impact of geopolitics on financial decision-making to the rise of agentic AI to the possibilities of open banking and open finance, these FinovateEurope keynotes will explain how the most significant trends in fintech and financial services are impacting bankers and financial services professionals—and will share insights on how to make the most of these exciting new developments and innovations.
The Global Economic Outlook & the Escalation of Geopolitical Risk and the Impact on Banks and their Customers
Manas Chawla, Founder and Chief Executive of London Politica, is a political risk expert who has advised heads of state, UN agencies, and a range of Fortune 500 companies on how to navigate geopolitical risk and volatility. Chawla is also the Director of the Oxbridge Diplomatic Academy.
London Politica is the world’s largest political risk advisory for social impact. Founded in 2020, the organization leverages a global network of more than 300 experts to provide locally grounded insight with a global perspective.
Catch Chawla’s presentation at 10:20 am on Tuesday, 10 February!
AI-First Banking—Why Agentic AI is Truly a New Frontier in Banking
Alpesh Doshi, Managing Partner at Redcliffe Capital, will discuss how banks can harness agentic AI to reimagine a range of business process. With a focus on delivering real value for both customers and banks, Doshi’s keynote address will help bankers understand how they should be thinking about a Brave New World in which bots are the customers.
Redcliffe Capital specializes in investing and building companies that help enterprises and entrepreneurs leverage innovation in technology such as digital transformation, data, and artificial intelligence.
Catch Doshi’s presentation at 3:50 pm on Tuesday, 10 February!
Finding a Commercial Model for Open Banking in Europe—What is the State of the Market & Where Have We Seen Real Success Stories for Retail Customers & Corporates?
Taner Akcok, Head of Global API Banking, Deutsche Bank AG, is a serial entrepreneur, intrapreneur, and investor. With two exits on his resume and a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 roster in Europe, Akcok has extensive experience with API platforms, open banking, banking-as-a-service (BaaS), embedded finance, and contextual banking.
Germany’s Deutsche Bank is the country’s leading financial institution. Founded in 1870 to support emerging German businesses, Deutsche Bank today includes investing, corporate, and retail banking among its core services along with asset and wealth management. The institution operates in more than 70 countries and trades publicly on the Frankfurt and New York Stock Exchanges.
Catch Akcok’s presentation at 2:30 pm on Wednesday, 11 February!
Open Data Will Enable Hyper-Personalization—How Do You Do It & What Do Customers Actually Want?
Jurgen Vandenbroucke, Director at everyoneINVESTED, has more than two decades of experience in financial services. He combines expertise in financial engineering, behavioral finance, and digital innovation to transform the way people think about investing. With a PhD in Applied Economics, Vandenbroucke’s mission is to make investing easy, personal, valuable, and reliable.
everyoneINVESTED empowers financial institutions around the world to boost digital investment engagement via solutions based in behavioral science, regulatory compliance, and user-centric design. The company is the WealthTech spin-off of KBC Group and is a recognized WealthTech 100 company.
Catch Vandenbroucke’s presentation at 3:10 pm on Wednesday, 11 February!
Accounting software provider FreeAgent has partnered with reporting, analysis, and forecasting platform Fathom.
The partnership will enable small businesses in the UK to access real-time profit and loss reporting, cash flow forecasting, KPI dashboards, and interactive management reports.
Founded in 2007, FreeAgent made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013 in London.
A newly announced partnership between accounting software provider FreeAgent and all-in-one reporting, analysis, and forecasting platform Fathom will enhance the ability of small businesses in the UK—and their accountants—to better manage their finances and make smarter business decisions.
“By partnering with Fathom, we’re giving accountants and their clients the tools they need to scale up their financial scrutiny and analysis,” FreeAgent CSO Stewart Hurd said. “Rather than simply giving an overview of the current financial position, our integration offers deeper, visual insights, forecasting, and scenario modeling into small business data—meaning that accountants are better prepared to answer the questions that really matter.”
Automatically syncing data between FreeAgent and Fathom will enable companies to access real-time profit and loss reporting, cash flow forecasting, KPI dashboards, and interactive and customizable management reports. The integration will also allow accountants to support multiple clients with different reporting needs, and provide them with advisory insights. The latter will come courtesy of Fathom’s technology, which delivers in-depth reporting, forecasting, and scenario modeling that will enhance the ability of small business accountants to provide greater value to their clients.
“FreeAgent has built award-winning accounting software that thousands of UK SMEs rely on daily, but we’ve consistently heard that many businesses outgrow basic reporting as they scale,” Fathom Country Manager Darren Glanville said. “This integration changes that entirely. FreeAgent users now get direct access to Fathom’s enterprise-grade toolkit—which, for accounting partners, means they can deliver genuine strategic advisory services whilst clients stay in the platform they already know. We’re not just connecting two systems, we’re fundamentally upgrading what’s possible for ambitious businesses using FreeAgent.”
Based in Brisbane, Queensland, Fathom is an Australian firm that specializes in corporate performance management (CPM) software. Founded in 2012, Fathom offers a management reporting, forecasting, and financial analysis tool that helps business owners assess business performance, monitor trends, and identify areas for improvement. More than 90,000 businesses and advisors use Fathom’s technology, and the firm enjoys a 36% market share in the Australian financial reporting software category, according to Practice Protect’s Australian Cloud Accounting Apps Report 2025-2026. Fathom was acquired by The Access Group in 2022.
FreeAgent made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013. In the years since then, the UK-based fintech has grown into an accounting software provider with more than 200,000 users. FreeAgent’s platform features tools for tax self assessment, VAT, and MTD. The technology enables firms to send invoices and automatic payment reminders, and record expenses and mileage to easily track business costs. FreeAgent also helps business owners make smarter business decisions by providing them with deep insights into profit and loss, cash flow, and overall business performance.
Acquired by NatWest Group in 2018, FreeAgent was founded in 2007. Co-founder Roan Lavery is CEO.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 10. Register today using this link and save 20%.
Intuitech
Intuitech solves the financial industry’s reliance on slow, manual, and risk-prone workflows that inhibit scalability and create inefficiencies and high operational costs.
Features
Achieves 5x faster time-to-cash
Drives 15%+ additional credit growth
Automates over 95% of workflows
Who’s it for?
Banks, insurance companies, and financial entities with high document processing.
Outsampler
Outsampler lets finance professionals answer complex quantitative questions by talking to their data and models, with guaranteed numerical accuracy, full auditability, and on-premise privacy.
Features
Unlocks insights from previously untapped numerical data
Cuts manual data analysis time by ~50%
Delivers 100% numerically accurate results with full traceability
Serene’s AI orchestration layer, MySerene, turns behavioral risk insight into real-time, context-aware guidance for frontline teams supporting vulnerable customers.
Features
Provides a real-time snapshot view of risk indicators and vulnerability signals
Generates context-aware conversational guidance for better engagement
Delivers auditable, explainable, consumer duty–aligned support
Who’s it for?
Financial institutions, including retail and challenger banks, credit-card issuers, alternative lenders, and credit unions; secondary markets, including insurance, utilities, and telecoms providers.
Skill Studio AI
Skill Studio AI automates compliance training updates by turning documents into engaging, AI-training instantly, reducing costs and keeping content up to date.
Features
PDF-to-Course Wizard drastically reduces time-to-launch from weeks to hours
AI-Course Tutor creates courses based on company context
Financial institutions are scaling digital products, expanding into new markets, and automating their decision-making more than ever in 2026, which makes managing controls, models, and regulatory obligations just as important as stopping fraud.
At FinovateEurope 2026, two new fintechs are showing how banks can move beyond manual processes and static controls toward more dynamic, data-driven approaches to compliance and risk. Check out how the following companies are helping banks reduce cost, improve transparency, and turn regulatory requirements into tools for smarter decision-making.
FinovateEurope 2026 will take place at London’s InterContinental O2 on February 10 and 11. Tickets are available now. Visit our FinovateEurope hub today and take advantage of big early-bird savings!
UK-based FINTRAC helps financial institutions automate controls and workflows across the model lifecycle, enabling stronger governance with less manual effort. Its platform replaces fragmented, spreadsheet-driven processes with centralized controls, audit-ready documentation, and richer analytics that improve transparency across risk, compliance, and model management teams.
Because its tools are integrated into banks’ existing systems, FINTRAC allows banks to reduce costs while maintaining regulatory compliance in real-time.
Serene helps firms turn compliance and collections data into actionable insights by helping lenders optimize arrears management, reduce defaults, and expand access to credit by combining compliance discipline with frontline intelligence.
Serene positions compliance as a feedback loop that improves decision-making across collections and lending operations. The company offers organizations data and guidance to enable them to balance risk management with customer outcomes while remaining compliant.
Why banks should care
As banks continue to digitize lending, payments, and risk decisioning, compliance and control functions can no longer rely on manual processes. In fact, regulators are increasingly expecting firms to implement continuous governance, which places more pressure on teams to move faster, adopt AI-driven models, and reduce operational cost.
Fintechs like FINTRAC and Serene are good examples of how compliance and risk intelligence are being embedded into everyday operations. By automating controls and leveraging compliance data for actionable insights, banks can improve transparency, strengthen risk management, and scale more confidently.
Airwallex is acquiring Paynuri to enter South Korea, securing payment gateway, prepaid electronic payment instrument, and foreign exchange business registrations to support cross-border payments and FX services.
The move gives Korean businesses access to Airwallex’s global financial platform, enabling multi-currency spending, international payments, and cross-border expansion.
The acquisition signals intensifying competition in APAC payments, as Airwallex uses its fresh Series G capital to accelerate regulatory access, expand headcount locally, and strengthen its position against regional fintechs and global incumbents.
Commercial payments and banking platform Airwallex is expanding its global reach this week. The Singapore-based company is acquiring Paynuri, an entity that holds payment gateway and prepaid electronic payment instrument licenses in South Korea. Financial terms of the deal are undisclosed.
Airwallex plans to use these licenses to empower companies in Korea to expand across borders by offering Korean businesses a comprehensive platform for managing their financial operations across multiple markets and currencies. The acquisition will also give Airwallex the benefit of Paynuri’s South Korea Foreign Exchange Business registration, an accreditation that will further support cross-border payments and FX services in Korea.
“We are excited by this significant investment by Airwallex into the Korean market,” said Invest Seoul President and CEO Lee Jihyung. “We believe Airwallex’s entry will strengthen the financial operating environment for both Korean and global companies in the market.”
Airwallex’s spending capabilities, for example, allow businesses to manage company spending across multicurrency payment cards, expense management, and bill payments. The company’s multi-currency account facilitates the management of global banking, FX conversion, and international transfers, while its payments offerings allow businesses to accept online and in-store payments across the globe in more than 160 payment methods.
“This acquisition marks a pivotal milestone for Airwallex as we expand the global reach of our financial platform,” said Airwallex General Manager of APAC, Arnold Chan. “Korea’s fast-growing ecommerce, creative, and entertainment sectors present immense opportunities for Korean businesses on the global stage. Our goal is to support these businesses with a more efficient solution to expand beyond borders.”
Airwallex, which already operates across Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, has been growing rapidly in the APAC region. In 2025, the company reported an 85% year-over-year increase in revenue and a 71% year-over-year boost in transaction volume. Globally, during the month of December 2025, Airwallex achieved $1.2 billion in revenue and recorded $266 billion in transaction volume.
To meet this demand, Airwallex will boost its workforce in Korea with plans to add 20 employees across multiple functions by the end of this year.
Founded in 2015, Airwallex holds 80 licenses and permits that enable customers to operate in 200+ countries and regions and support multi-currency checkout at scale. In 2025 alone, the company extended its regulated and local capabilities across 12 new markets, securing licenses and launching products in France, the Netherlands, Israel, Canada, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Mexico, and the UAE.
Today’s investment comes about six weeks after Airwallex’s $330 million Series G fundraise, which valued the company at $8 billion. Airwallex’s expansion into the Korean market is a direct result of that investment.
By securing payment, prepaid, and foreign exchange approvals in South Korea, Airwallex is positioning itself to serve Korean businesses that are scaling internationally while avoiding the delays associated with organic licensing. The move also strengthens Airwallex’s position against both regional fintechs and global incumbents vying to serve global businesses.
Identity orchestration platform company Alloy has launched its first perpetual Know Your Business (pKYB) and Customer Risk Assessment (CRA) orchestration solution in the UK and across Europe.
The new offering will enable banks, fintech, and payments companies to enhance their ability to check and provide risk assessments on companies on a continuous basis.
Headquartered in New York and founded in 2015, Alloy made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016. Tommy Nicholas is Co-Founder and CEO.
Identity orchestration platform provider Alloyhas introduced its first perpetual Know Your Business (pKYB) and Customer Risk Assessment (CRA) orchestration solution in the UK and across Europe. The launch follows the company’s introduction of its perpetual KYC (pKYC) solution in the fall of 2025.
Financial institutions serving customers in the UK and Europe benefit from the opportunity to develop a variety of solutions for many different markets—from the Baltics to the Mediterranean to the post-Soviet east. Nevertheless, expansion into new territories also comes with significant challenges as business risk becomes more complicated to manage. Corporate entities evolve, beneficial owners change, and regulatory demands shift and expand, especially as they relate to anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) controls.
In response, Alloy’s pKYB solution will empower banks, fintechs, and payments companies in the UK and Europe to automatically re-run checks and re-assign risk when significant business and ownership changes occur. Examples include registry updates, watchlist hits, and event-driven risk signals. Further, the new offering is supported by Alloy’s AI Assistant, which conducts comprehensive online research to corroborate business and ownership changes. The Assistant also runs the Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) review for businesses that change from low to high risk post-onboarding. This helps compliance and risk teams cut down on hours of manual work while improving straight-through-processing (STP) rates.
“Through deep conversations with our UK and European clients, it became clear that static, point-in-time KYB was no longer sufficient,” Alloy Senior Product Director Grace Liu said. “We took what we learned, evaluated how the pKYB ecosystem was evolving, and built on our pKYC foundation to move quickly toward a proactive, event-driven future—one our clients are genuinely excited about and that Alloy is uniquely positioned to deliver.”
Alloy’s pKYB and CRA solution will enable financial institutions to apply configurable policies by market, product, and entity risk level. This facilitates consistent decision-making while satisfying local regulatory mandates, and leverages smart routing to reduce the amount of manual work involved in the screening process. Alloy’s solution also uses filtered, event-triggered Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) alerts that route high-risk issues to human analysts while managing lower-risk issues via automated Customer Due Diligence (CDD) processes. Financial institutions will also be able to use AI-assisted workflows to accelerate investigations, create summaries, and recommend next best steps to achieve faster review-to-resolution.
“Periodic checks alone aren’t enough: they need to be complemented by continuous business monitoring,” Liu added. “With pKYB, Alloy helps institutions detect, evaluate, and act on changes to business identity, ownership, and risk by automating risk reassessment and escalating only the most critical alerts to analysts. The result is consistent policies across markets and the ability to scale confidently, with a clear, up-to-date understanding of business risk between reviews.”
Headquartered in New York and founded in 2015, Alloy introduced itself to Finovate audiences at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016. Today, more than 700 of the world’s largest financial institutions and fintechs rely on Alloy’s platform to access actionable intelligence and a network of 200+ data sources to keep pace with emerging fraud, credit, and compliance risks.
Alloy’s new product announcement comes a month after the firm announced the latest fruits of its partnership with MANTL, an Alkami solution team and loan and deposit account opening technology provider. The company reported that more than two million deposit applications have been processed since the partnership began, with an average automated application decision rate exceeding 80%.
“Our partnership with MANTL shows that strong fraud prevention can actively fuel business growth,” Alloy CEO and Co-Founder Tommy Nicholas said. “By giving our joint clients a complete view of customer identities, we’re helping them stay ahead of fraud, unlock more opportunities to serve legitimate customers, and deliver a better experience.”
Lithuania-based regtech AMLYZE has forged a partnership with Vinted Pay, the payments division of European online marketplace for second-hand fashion and other goods, Vinted.
Vinted Pay will use AMLYZE’s technology to provide real-time and retrospective transaction monitoring and customer risk assessment during onboarding and payment processes.
Headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, AMLYZE made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024.
Lithuanian regtech AMLYZEannounced a partnership with Vinted Pay, the payments subsidiary of European online marketplace for second-hand items, Vinted. Vinted Pay will leverage AMLYZE’s technology for real-time and retrospective transaction monitoring and customer risk assessment to ensure that Vinted Pay’s onboarding and payment processes meet AML/CFT requirements.
A leading second-hand fashion marketplace in Europe and a self-described “go-to destination for all kinds of pre-loved items,” Lithuania’s Vinted offers an online platform that connects millions of members across more than 20 markets. Founded in 2008, Vinted became the country’s first unicorn in 2019, and reached a valuation of more than €5 billion with a €340 million fundraising round in October 2024. That same year, the company reported a boost in net profits of 330%, exceeding €76 million.
“We are proud to partner with Vinted, a key player in the online marketplace industry,” AMLYZE CEO and Co-Founder Gabrielius Erikas Bilkštys said. “Now that Vinted Pay has successfully joined our platform, our advanced solutions will support Vinted Pay in maintaining strict compliance standards, including during onboarding processes, ensuring it continues to be a safe and trusted platform for its users. This collaboration underlines our commitment to providing world-class AML/CFT services and improving the prevention of financial crime across Europe.”
Launched in 2023, Vinted Pay is the latest initiative from Vinted, and is part of the company’s strategy to provide buyers and sellers across Europe with a secure, reliable payment option. Integrated into the Vinted App, Vinted Pay will ensure that members have access to safe, efficient, and easy online transactions with the platform. Members will be able to use Vinted Pay to shop for second-hand merchandise on the Vinted platform or, as Vinted recently announced, to enable members to transfer funds from sales to a secure digital account. These funds can be used to make purchases on the Vinted platform or withdrawn to a personal bank account outside of Vinted.
“Vinted Pay is dedicated to providing a safe and reliable payment experience for our community,” Vinted VP of Payments Modestas Tursa said. “The expertise and innovative technology of AMLYZE helps ensure we continue to foster trust within our platform as we gradually introduce and scale Vinted Pay across markets.”
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Lithuania, AMLYZE made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024. At the conference, the company demonstrated its anti-financial crime information sharing framework that leverages synthetic data to facilitate AI model training, testing of automated monitoring solutions, and more.
