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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Klarna revealed plans to launch KlarnaUSD, a new stablecoin built on Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempoblockchain.
Set to debut on the Tempo mainnet in 2026, KlarnaUSD will leverage early access to Tempo for testing and integration.
The move positions Klarna to capture value in the $120 billion cross-border payments market, using stablecoins to cut costs for both consumers and merchants as stablecoin usage surpasses $27 trillion annually.
Two months after reaching one million card sign-ups in the US, BNPL leader Klarna has revealed plans to launch its own stablecoin, KlarnaUSD.
Klarna is launching its new stablecoin on the Tempo blockchain. Launched in September 2025, Tempo is an independent, layer-1 blockchain created by Stripe and Paradigm that’s built for payments. KlarnaUSD is built on Open Issuance by stablecoin infrastructure platform Bridge.
“With 114 million customers and $118 billion in annual GMV, Klarna has the scale to change payments globally: with Klarna’s scale and Tempo’s infrastructure, we can challenge old networks and make payments faster and cheaper for everyone,” said Klarna Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “Crypto is finally at a stage where it is fast, low-cost, secure, and built for scale. This is the beginning of Klarna in crypto, and I’m excited to work with Stripe and Tempo to continue to shape the future of payments.”
Klarna will launch its stablecoin on the Tempo mainnet in 2026. Tempo has granted Klarna early access to its infrastructure in advance of the KlarnaUSD launch to allow the fintech to conduct advanced testing, prototyping, and integration.
Klarna and Stripe first teamed up in 2021 when they partnered to allow Stripe users in 20 countries to offer Klarna’s BNPL option, with Stripe as the preferred payments partner in the US and Canada. The partnership between Klarna and Stripe’s blockchain, Tempo, deepens the relationship between the two players.
Today’s announcement comes as cross-border payments are estimated to generate $120 billion in transaction fees annually, and as stablecoin transactions top $27 trillion a year. Launching its own stablecoin isn’t just a way for Klarna to jump on a recent trend. The company will leverage the benefits of stablecoins to reduce costs for both consumers and merchants.
The agenda for FinovateEurope 2026 (February 10—11) in London is still taking shape. We’ve already shared a preview of some of the top themes that the conference will address. Today we’re looking at a trio of Executive Briefings that will offer attendees concentrated deep dives on a few key issues and trends in fintech and financial services.
This year, women in fintech, integrating AI into financial services, and the embedded finance revolution are the three areas of focus for our FinovateEurope Executive Briefings. Stay tuned for more on our moderators and speakers. For now, check out this advance look at how we’re tackling these top issues for 2026.
Women in Fintech: How Can We All Make Sure We Are Moving The Needle?
Ladies first! Tuesday morning will feature the first of three Executive Briefings at FinovateEurope: our Women in Fintech Briefing. This session, open to all attendees, will examine and discuss the status of women in fintech and financial services today. From strategies to encourage intentional change at the executive level to ideas on how to make mentoring relationships successful, our Women in Fintech Briefing will share experiences with successful initiatives to grow and retain female talent. The session will also explore ways that fintech and financial services professionals can drive change in their companies and the industry, at large.
How Can We All Make Sure We Are Moving the Needle? And How Can We Support Women in the Toughest Job Market We Have Seen In Years? Tuesday, February 10. 10:40am—11:20am
The AI Competitive Imperative: Ten Solutions You Need to Know About Today
On Tuesday afternoon our Executive Briefing on the increasing importance of AI in fintech and financial services will take place. This session will focus on practical, real-world applications of AI technology in core financial services operations ranging from fraud prevention and compliance to lending and customer intelligence. Our Executive Briefing on AI will discuss every aspect of the integration process: from pilot to production, emphasizing the best practices that have enabled leading financial institutions to successfully deploy AI-powered solutions to increase profitability, lower costs, boost efficiency, and better engage customers.
The AI Competitive Imperative & the Ten Solutions You Need to Know About Today. Tuesday, February 10. 3:20pm—4:00pm
From Embedded Finance to Platform Banking
On Wednesday, Day Two of FinovateEurope, we will present our Executive Briefing on the latest developments in the field of embedded finance and the growth of platform banking.
Embedded finance continues to be one of the most revolutionary developments in fintech. As the ability to offer banking and financial services becomes increasingly ubiquitous, what are the opportunities for banks to expand their own distribution footprint? This session will examine the current challenges faced by banks from nonbank rivals and discuss ways—including platform banking—that can enable them to compete with the integrated user experiences from Big Tech, Big Retail, and super apps.
From Embedded Finance to Platform Banking—How Can Banks Capture This Huge Opportunity, Create a Robust API Strategy & Defend Against Super Apps & Ecosystem Threats? Wednesday, February 11. 11:30am—12:10pm
From AI-enabled commerce to AI-powered voice agents in insurance, companies across the fintech spectrum are busily integrating AI into their operations to boost efficiency, cut costs, and enhance the customer experience. It is a holiday-shortened week, so be sure to check in to Finovate’s Fintech Rundown to keep you informed on the latest fintech headlines.
This week’s edition of Finovate Globallooks at recent fintech headlines from South Africa.
Lesaka Technologies to Acquire Bank Zero
Lesaka Technologies, a fintech that provides low-cost financial services to underbanked South Africans, has secured approval from the Competition Commission to acquire Bank Zero. An app-only bank co-founded by Michael Jordaan in 2018 and publicly launched three years later, Bank Zero today has more than 40,000 funded accounts and deposits of more than $22 million. The financial institution offers personal and business banking solutions to both underbanked and tech-first customers.
Initially announced in July, the acquisition is valued at $60 million. The transaction consists of a combination of newly issued shares in Lesaka and up to $5 million in cash. Post-transaction, Jordaan will remain as Bank Zero’s chairman, and co-founder Yatin Narsai will continue to serve as CEO. Bank Zero’s entire management team will also remain in place.
Lesaka anticipates that the acquisition will fortify its balance sheet, enhance lending performance, and reduce the firm’s dependence on bank debt. The fintech suggested that the move could lower its gross debt by $57 million.
“The acquisition of Bank Zero is a transformative event in Lesaka’s journey, enabling us to better serve our consumers, merchants, and enterprise clients, by embedding a trusted, well-engineered neobank capability into our fintech platform,” Lesaka Chairman Ali Mazanderani said. “I am delighted to welcome the Bank Zero team to Lesaka as partners.”
Lesaka Technologies offers banking, lending, and insurance products to consumers and cash management, billpay, business funding, and card acquiring solutions to retail merchants in both the formal and informal sectors. Founded in 1997, the company is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
South African Retailer Explores New Banking Venture
One of South Africa’s largest discount retail groups may be getting into the banking business.
Pepkor Holdings operates more than 5,800 stores across a wide number of brands including PEP, Ackermans, and Tekkie Town. A subsidiary of Steinhoff International, Pepkor is reportedly looking to launch a new banking venture—informally referred to as “Pep Bank”—that will leverage the company’s market reach to offer zero-fee banking to millions of consumers with lower incomes. The company is said to be in conversation with Investec, seeking a partner to support the new bank’s regulatory, operational, and financial infrastructure.
There has been no public commentary from Pepkor on the initiative, and press reports assert that the talks are in “early stages.” Further, the launch of a new bank would require approvals from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and the National Credit Regulator, and no such engagement has been reported to date.
Speaking of launching banking operations in South Africa, Revolut announced that it has officially begun the process of securing a banking license in the country. The company has confirmed that it submitted a Section 12 application under the country’s Banks Act, the first step in becoming a licensed bank in South Africa. Revolut first signaled its intention to launch a bank in South Africa in September, highlighting the country as a “key growth market” with increasing rates of digital adoption and an openness to innovative financial products and services.
“Becoming a licensed bank will allow us to bring a full suite of products to the market and ensure we become the go-to financial app for millions of South Africans,” Revolut South Africa CEO Jacques Meyer said.
As a sign of the company’s growing engagement with the South African market, Revolut has appointed Dr. Gaby Magomola as Chairman of Revolut South Africa. A pioneer in the history of banking in South Africa, Dr. Magomola has served in senior executive roles at Citibank, Barclays Bank, First National Bank, and African Bank. He most recently served as Deputy Chairman of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
“Dr. Magomola’s experience is invaluable as we deepen our commitment to the South African market,” Meyer said. “His strategic counsel will be critical in navigating the local regulatory environment, ensuring we build a locally relevant service that addresses the financial needs of all customers in South Africa.”
Revolut’s presence in South Africa would bring significant additional competition to the country’s digital bank industry, which consists of TymeBank, Discovery Bank, and Bank Zero, which has been acquired by Lesaka Technologies, as we noted in this week’s column. Already one of the largest digital banks in the world, Revolut has said its expansion in South Africa is part of the company’s goal to grow its customer base from 65 million to 100 million by 2027. Revolut also seeks to be active in 30 markets by 2030.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Asia-Pacific
Japan’s largest trust bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, selected SCSK Corporation and OneSpan to enhance security for its mobile banking operations.
Australian superannuation fund Brighter Super partnered with Napier AI to enhance its compliance infrastructure.
Is Jack back? South China Morning Post featured Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma’s return to the campus of Ant Group.
Sub-Saharan Africa
South African fintech Lesaka Technologies received approval to acquire Bank Zero in a deal valued at $60 million.
Revoluthas applied for a banking license in South Africa.
South Africa’s Discovery Bank announced new crypto trading offering.
Central and Eastern Europe
Lithuanian regtech iDenfy unveiled its new solution that conduct instant license checks during the KYC process.
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) announced that Wero for e-commerce is now live in Germany.
Mastercardintroduced open loop transit payments in Azerbaijan.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Crypto payments company MoonPay expanded its partnership with Israel-based Zengo Wallet. The firm’s venture arm, MoonPay Ventures, also announced a strategic investment in the self-custodial crypto wallet.
First Abu Dhabi Bank teamed up with Thunes to enable global mobile wallet payouts.
Yuze Digital, a AI-powered fintech platform for freelancers and independent businesses, launched its pilot in India.
Pakistani fintech Abhi partnered with UAE-based digital platform Numou to help SMEs access financial services.
Indian fintech Yubi raised $46.4 million to enhance its debt marketplace, collection systems, and AI capabilities.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Uruguay-based cross-border payment platform dLocal partnered with global payouts orchestration company PayQuicker to help the firm serve more merchants in emerging markets.
Latin American accounts receivable management and collections automation platform Moonflow acquired Mexican fintech Kobro.
How can financial institutions determine the correct digital modernization strategy that will help them achieve their goals while respecting the role of legacy technologies? Can organizations effectively modernize their operations, leveraging enabling technologies like AI, without risking the potential disruptions that change—even positive change—can bring?
This year at FinovateFall 2025, I caught up with Casey Ferguson, VP of Marketing at Zoot Enterprises to discuss the company’s phased approach to modernizing financial systems and integrating legacy technologies. Ferguson explains how effective transformations should embrace incremental progress, cross-functional collaboration, and layered fraud defenses.
At Zoot we look at modernization this way: it’s not about tearing everything down. When you look at this kind of ‘rip and replace’ mentality, you have to remember it can be pretty risky. It can be very expensive and it can be slow, as well. When you think about the pace of change, architecting the perfect environment, the world may have changed by the time you have a perfect picture of all this. So working on things incrementally and in phases can really make a difference.
Headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, and founded in 1990, Zoot Enterprises provides acquisition, origination, and decision management solutions for businesses ranging from leading banks and payment providers to automobile manufacturers and retailers. Zoot’s technology leverages advanced analytics to deliver actionable insights for compliance, risk management, fraud prevention, customer experience, workflow efficiency, digital transformation, and more. The company boasts more than 90 partners and providers, and 300+ data connections to access the most accurate and reliable data in real time.
Superannuation fund Brighter Super is upgrading its compliance infrastructure courtesy of a partnership with Napier AI.
Migrating to Napier AI’s Continuum platform enables Brighter Super to benefit from Kubernetes-based scalability and intuitive rule-testing capabilities, helping compliance teams adapt to changing regulations.
Headquartered in London, Napier AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018.
One of the largest superannuation funds in Queensland, Australia, Brighter Super, has partnered with financial crime prevention platform Napier AI. The fund will leverage Napier AI’s Continuum solution to improve scalability, increase regulatory preparedness, and boost operational efficiency.
“Brighter Super is an excellent example of how a forward-looking institution can use technology to drive compliance transformation,” Napier AI CEO Greg Watson said. “By adopting Napier AI Continuum, Brighter Super has built a scalable, future-ready compliance operation that not only meets today’s regulatory expectations, but also positions them for continued growth.”
Based in Queensland, Australia, Brighter Super migrated from an on-premise system to Napier AI’s hosted environment. The fund now features streamlined post-merger integration, Kubernetes-based scalability, and intuitive rule-testing capabilities that will help future-proof compliance teams, enabling them to better adapt to ever-evolving regulations.
“Napier AI has been instrumental in helping us modernize and scale our compliance operations to keep pace with an evolving superannuation industry,” Brighter Super Chief Risk Officer Shawn Chan said. “As we integrated multiple funds and transitioned to a cloud-based environment, Napier’s platform gave us the flexibility and control we needed—without added complexity. The user-friendly interface meant our team could adapt quickly, even during structural changes.”
Brighter Super manages more than A$36 billion ($23.3 billion) in retirement savings for more than 348,000 members. The fund has experienced significant, M&A-related growth in recent years, merging with Energy Super in 2021 and acquiring Suncorp Portfolio Services Limited in 2022. This fall, Brighter Super announced that it had chosen SuperChoice as its clearing house partner ahead of the new Payday Super regulations that go into effect in July 2026. Also this fall, Brighter Super extended its partnership with MATES in Energy. MATES is a construction industry charity created in 2008 to help reduce the high suicide rate among construction workers. The charity has since been expanded to include workers from other industries, such as energy.
Headquartered in London, and founded in 2015, Napier AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018. The company began this year securing a majority growth investment from Marlin Equity Partners, which took the company’s total funding to more than $55 million. The past few months have been especially busy for Napier AI. The company appointed Noel King as Chief Technology Officer in June, Kenneth Paqvalén as Chief Financial Officer in July, and Adam Flowers as new Chief Revenue Officer in September. Napier AI partnered with UAE-based lottery operator Game LLC in October and, earlier this month, was selected for FCA Supercharged Sandbox launch—supported by fellow Finovate alum NayaOne.
“When deployed in specialist areas such as financial crime, AI can drive billions in cost savings,” Napier AI Chief Product Officer Will Monk said. “The Napier AI / AML Index showed that UK financial institutions could save £2.5 billion annually through AI-driven AML solutions, and the FCA’s Supercharged Sandbox is the perfect platform to streamline this development and deployment to put this cost saving into action.”
This is a sponsored blog post from Capgemini, a financial services consulting and technology firm.
Unlock large-scale growth with cloud-powered AI agents
Cloud and AI agents boost efficiency and personalization, but adoption remains nascent.
Cloud-powered AI agents unlock value by automating tasks and enabling real-time, personalized CX.
To maximize impact, financial institutions must redesign processes and align cloud-AI strategies with compliance.
AI is rapidly becoming a cornerstone of almost every industry. Today, it’s everywhere – discussed, adopted, and integrated across sectors. Now, we’re entering the era of agentic AI. Here’s what it means for financial services.
According to Capgemini’s latest World Cloud Report – Financial Services 2026, 87% of financial institutions have implemented some form of AI, but only 10% are using AI agents at scale. This gap represents a major opportunity for banks, insurers, and market operators to move beyond basic automation and embrace the AI-driven revolution.
Meanwhile, cloud platforms have evolved from simple infrastructure providers into powerful innovation engines. Today, they enable AI-driven transformation across the entire value chain, delivering speed, resilience, and compliance in a highly regulated environment. Together, cloud and AI promise faster time-to-market, hyper-personalized experiences, and greater operational agility. However, according to the report, success requires more than technology. It demands a cultural change, robust governance, and a clear roadmap.
Adapt: Embracing AI evolution and cloud’s changing role
AI has traveled an impressive path, from early machine learning models to generative AI and now agentic AI. These intelligent agents go beyond responding to prompts, and now autonomously manage workflows, make decisions, and learn continuously. For financial services, this means moving past traditional tools like robotic process automation toward systems that can handle complex tasks like underwriting, fraud detection, and customer onboarding with minimal human intervention.
According to the report, 75% of banks and 70% of insurers already deploy AI agents for customer service. Other top use cases include fraud detection, loan processing, and claims handling. Yet, despite these advances, only one tenth of firms have scaled AI agents’ enterprise-wide, signaling untapped potential.
Cloud is the enabler of this evolution. Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies are gaining traction, with 26% of financial institutions migrating more than half of their workloads to hybrid environments. The reasons include scalability (87% of respondents), legacy modernization (86% of respondents), and compliance (32% of respondents).
Forge: Creating business value with cloud-powered AI agents
By utilizing the scalability and flexibility of cloud platforms, firms can gain efficiency, optimize operations, innovative topline growth and deliver superior CX.
These agents automate manual tasks such as underwriting and credit scoring, reducing errors and accelerating turnaround times. With orchestration capabilities and unified large language model layers, they enable seamless coordination across workflows and drive real-time decision-making.
Building on these efficiency gains, AI agents also help institutions evolve toward autonomous operating models. Tasks once dependent on human oversight, like risk scoring and policy servicing, are increasingly performed by AI, freeing employees to focus on more strategic initiatives. This shift is supported by smaller, task-specific models that improve speed, explainability, and compliance while reducing compute costs.
Customer experience is another key dimension. Intelligent agents deliver hyper-personalized interactions, proactive query resolution, and faster service, helping banks and insurers boost acquisition, engagement, and retention.
Orchestrate: Building a cloud-native, AI-centric future
The orchestration phase is where strategy meets execution. Financial institutions are mapping business processes to identify where cloud-based AI agents can deliver the greatest optimization. Capgemini’s latest report divides these into 4 categories:
Quick wins – high-value and easy to adopt
Open for evaluation – strategic but more complex
Need for education – simple to adopt but offer limited value
Investigate – low in both priority and ease of adoption.
Quick wins like credit underwriting and CRM-integrated sales stand out as ideal starting points for rapid returns.
Orchestration goes far beyond technology deployment. It demands strong governance and compliance frameworks. With 96% of executives citing regulatory complexity as a major barrier, institutions must embed explainability, fairness, and accountability into AI systems from the start.
At the same time, numerous behavioral challenges still remain. In fact, 92% of leaders report skill gaps and cultural resistance. Overcoming these requires enterprise-wide AI literacy programs, clear communication of benefits, and collaborative development models.
Closing thoughts
AI agents are poised to redefine financial services, unlocking speed and innovation. Firms should start with a clear buy-or-build strategy that weighs solutions, internal capabilities, compliance, scalability, and privacy, supported by resilient cloud infrastructure.
Leaders must drive an AI-first culture by securing stakeholder buy-in, prioritizing high-value use cases, and enforcing safeguards like human oversight and transparency. Training teams and democratizing access to tools accelerates adoption and creativity.
Embedding these initiatives into digital transformation and cloud strategies enables specialized agents, autonomous operations, and multi-agent collaboration. Combined with a solid cloud strategy to cut costs and remove geographic limits, this approach positions financial institutions to lead the next era of agility, personalization, and growth, where those who act boldly will set the pace for the industry.
Digital banking solutions provider ebankIT has forged a strategic partnership with banking and financial services software company Alogent.
The partnership integrates ebanktIT’s omnichannel digital banking platform with Alogent’s advanced remote deposit capture (RDC) and item processing technologies.
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Porto, Portugal, ebankIT won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2015.
Digital banking solutions provider for community financial institutions (CFIs), ebankIT, has announced a strategic partnership with banking and financial services software firm Alogent. The partnership integrates ebankIT’s omnichannel digital banking platform with Alogent’s advanced remote deposit capture (RDC) and item processing technologies. This will create a unified experience that enables financial institutions to accelerate digital transformations, boost security, and enhance customer journeys.
“Our partnership with ebankIT delivers secure, seamless experiences that build trust and keep users engaged across every channel, helping financial institutions modernize faster and smarter,” Alogent VP of Business Development Chris Wilson said. “The combined strengths of both organizations empower banks and credit unions to provide consistent, digital experiences that enhance customer engagement and meet evolving market demands.”
The partnership combines Alogent’s expertise in image capture, deposit automation, and fraud mitigation with ebankIT’s omnichannel capabilities, responding to a demand from community financial institutions, including credit unions, for greater integration between digital banking and payments technologies. This collaboration facilitates flexibility, speed-to-market, and greater customer engagement, and the integrated solution delivers robust compliance, reduced implementation time, and continuous innovation with AI-driven insights and personalized financial tools.
“This partnership is a natural fit,” ebankIT VP of US Market Development Paul Provenzano said. “Alogent’s deep expertise in payments and deposit automation perfectly complements ebankIT’s vision for a flexible and scalable digital banking ecosystem. Together, we’re helping financial institutions deliver seamless journeys, from deposits to payments, within a single, intuitive interface.”
Headquartered in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, Alogent offers solutions for check payment processing, enterprise content and information management, and loan and exception tracking. Serving financial institutions of all sizes—from global banks to credit unions—Alogent helps companies lower costs, boost processing efficiency, mitigate fraud, generate revenue, and enhance the customer experience across channels. The company announced a number of new partnerships last month, including collaborations with lending accelerator for banks and credit unions Vine, Georgia-based Embassy National Bank ($285 million in assets), and Pennsylvania’s First Capital Federal Credit Union ($350 million in assets). Company co-founder Dede Wakefield is CEO.
A Finovate alum for more than a decade, ebankIT won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. The company demonstrated its technology most recently at FinovateFall 2025, showing how it is leveraging Agentic AI to bring automation and intelligence to a growing number of operations from payments to fraud detection.
Insights-led customer engagement platform MoEngage helps marketers and product owners leverage AI-powered automation and optimization to enable hyper-personalization at scale. Effective across multiple channels including mobile and web push, email, SMS, on-site and in-app messaging, cards, and more, MoEngage empowers brands to analyze customer behavior and engage consumers through highly personalized communication.
This is what UAE-based Union Coop sought when it selected the San Francisco, California-based company as its customer data and engagement partner this week.
“Union Coop’s success is rooted in how we cater to our loyal member base,” Union Coop Chief Marketing Officer Sanjay Patney said. “To deliver on this promise and as we enhance our app-based Tamayaz loyalty program, we needed to move to a complete, all-in-one solution. We chose MoEngage for its powerful ability to unify our members’ data and orchestrate the beautifully designed, highly personalized campaigns our members deserve. This partnership is a key step in leapfrogging our digital strategy to boost engagement and reward our loyal, repeat shoppers.”
Headquartered in Dubai and founded in 1982, Union Coop is one of the largest consumer cooperatives in the UAE. Union Coop operates 28 hypermarket branches throughout Dubai and manages seven shopping malls in the emirate. Union Coop will use MoEngage’s Customer Data and Engagement Platform to unify member data from across multiple systems to provide a single, comprehensive view; orchestrate highly personalized, app-based journeys in real time; increase member engagement; and incentivize repeat shopping with personalized campaigns.
More than 1,350 international consumer brands—including Samsung, McAfee, and Deutsche Telekom—use MoEngage’s technology to boost campaign velocity, shorten time-to-market, optimize at scale, and reduce redundancy while ensuring both data security and privacy. MoEngage helps brands engage 20% of the world’s population a month, analyzing a trillion data points. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022 in London.
MoEngage’s partnership news with Union Coop comes just days after the company announced that it had achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Financial Services ISV Partner Competency. The designation recognizes MoEngage’s industry expertise as well as its success in providing innovative engagement solutions for customers in banking, insurance, fintech, capital markets, and more.
“(This achievement) underscores our commitment to delivering industry-specific engagement solutions that help financial services providers build trust, drive loyalty, and unlock growth,” MoEngage Head of Strategic Alliances Sanjay Kupae said. “From hyper-personalized onboarding journeys to AI-driven retention strategies, we’re enabling banks and financial services to connect with customers in a secure, compliant, and intelligent way.”
MoEngage was founded in 2014. Raviteja Dodda is Co-Founder and CEO.
U.S. Bank partnered with Kyriba to launch Liquidity Manager, an AI-powered cash forecasting and liquidity management tool for commercial clients.
The solution offers real-time visibility, scenario planning, reconciliation, and multi-bank reporting, helping firms automate workflows and reduce operational risk.
The move signals U.S. Bank’s push into tech-forward treasury capabilities, positioning it to compete with modern finance platforms like Ramp.
U.S. Bank has teamed up with treasury solutions company Kyriba to launch a cash forecasting tool to offer businesses visibility and control over their cash and liquidity positions. The new tool, Liquidity Manager, is powered by Kyriba’s liquidity performance platform.
Leveraging Kyriba, U.S. Bank will deliver cash forecasting, scenario planning, and operational efficiencies to its mid- to large-scale commercial clients. Kyriba’s SaaS solutions empower CFOs, treasurers, and IT leaders to connect, protect, forecast, and optimize their liquidity. Founded in 2000, the company aims to help companies and banks improve their financial performance and increase operational efficiency.
“Many companies struggle to obtain a timely and accurate view of their liquidity, especially when managing multiple bank accounts across geographies and currencies,” said U.S. Bank Treasury and Payment Solutions Lead Kristy Carstensen. “This solution builds on the strengths of both U.S. Bank and Kyriba to address these challenges. By automating processes and providing actionable insights, U.S. Bank Liquidity Manager, powered by Kyriba, will empower our clients to make strategic financial decisions with confidence and ease.”
The new tool will improve firms’ cash forecasting by using historical cash flow data to predict future inflows and outflows, providing greater accuracy in daily cash position reporting and supporting more informed scenario planning. Liquidity Manager will also include cash positioning and reconciliation, cash pooling for zero-balance accounts, multi-bank balance and transaction reporting, and real-time visibility for all stakeholders. U.S. Bank expects these capabilities will help firms reduce costs through automated, centralized cash oversight and streamline workflows that minimize manual effort and operational risk.
Liquidity Manager will be available through U.S. Bank’s treasury management platform SinglePoint, which the bank updated a few weeks back. The new SinglePoint release aims to reduce manual work, deliver actionable insights, optimize common user flows, and help clients uncover operational blind spots.
“Working together, Kyriba and U.S. Bank can elevate liquidity management and cash forecasting for businesses,” said Kyriba CRO Bruno Ferreira. “By combining Kyriba’s secure, trusted AI-enabled technologies with U.S. Bank’s deep payments and banking expertise, we deliver real-time visibility across every account and region. This clarity empowers treasurers and finance teams to make confident decisions exactly when they need to, without guesswork or delays.”
Launching advanced treasury management tools may be U.S. Bank’s way of competing with platforms like Ramp, which are expanding beyond spend management into broader operational finance functions. Ramp, in fact, has proven that there is an appetite for this model, disclosing in a funding announcement yesterday that it is now valued at $32 billion.
By strengthening its digital treasury stack, U.S. Bank positions itself as not just a traditional banking partner, but as a technology-minded bank capable of meeting CFO-level expectations around automation, visibility, and real-time decision support.
As part of the alliance, Pleo will now serve as FreeAgent’s preferred expense management partner. This will enable seamless syncing of expenses, card transactions, receipts, and attachments—as well as categories and VAT—from Pleo into FreeAgent. Automated syncing removes the reliance on error-prone and cumbersome manual entry, makes it easier for employees to complete their expense reporting responsibilities, and provides for more accurate, up-to-date bookkeeping for small businesses.
“We know how frustrating and time-consuming it can be for small businesses to keep track of spending, especially when lots of different people are making purchases,” FreeAgent CEO and Co-Founder Roan Lavery said. “This partnership with Pleo takes a huge amount of that stress away. Expenses are recorded and sent straight into FreeAgent without the usual chasing around for receipts or spreadsheets. It just works in the background, so business owners can focus on running their business, not wrestling with their books.”
Pleo provides small businesses with smart virtual or physical company cards that enable complete control over spending limits and policies. The technology automatically tracks, categorizes, and matches all transactions with a receipt in Pleo, then syncs directly into FreeAgent. This integration will provide business owners and finance teams with comprehensive, real-time visibility of company spending, from one-off purchases to recurring expenses.
“Pleo is thrilled to launch our integration with FreeAgent, two partners with a shared vision of empowering SMBs with seamless financial tools,” Pleo SVP Haresh Bajaj said. “This partnership is a step forward in simplifying workflows and unlocking greater value for our customers, and we’re excited about the impact we’ll achieve together.”
Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, Pleo offers solutions for expense management, accounts payable, reimbursements, and vendor management, as well as smart business expense cards with individual spending limits. With more than 40,000 business users of its technology, Pleo notes that 75% of administrators using Pleo have said its solutions have made their companies more productive. Pleo recently announced its Cash Management solution which combines spend and cash management to give businesses full visibility over all accounts, lower FX costs, and earn on idle cash in a single resource.
Founded in 2007, FreeAgent offers accounting software and support for small businesses and their accounting and bookkeeping teams. The Edinburgh, Scotland-based fintech made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013, and was acquired by NatWest Group in 2018. With more than 200,000 users, FreeAgent also recently announced a partnership with Australian corporate performance management (CPM) software provider Fathom.
Automated regulatory intelligence company CUBE has agreed to acquire agentic AI compliance specialist Kodex AI. Terms of the acquisition were not immediately available.
The acquisition will enable CUBE to leverage Kodex AI’s agentic AI technology to offer “co-worker functionality” for compliance teams to help them keep up with ever-evolving regulations.
Headquartered in Berlin, Germany and founded in 2022, Kodex AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024 in London.
Agentic AI compliance specialist Kodex AI has agreed to be acquired by automated regulatory intelligence company CUBE. Calling the agreement “more than an acquisition,” Kodex AI framed the deal as the “beginning of a new era for regulatory technology” in a statement on the company’s website. The acquisition combines CUBE’s regulatory data and risk capabilities with Kodex AI’s agentic AI technology to offer an AI that is more co-worker than tool to assist compliance teams as they seek to implement ever-evolving regulations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Combining Kodex AI’s technology leadership with CUBE’s market-leading regulatory and risk data is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redefine the compliance and risk space,” Kodex AI Co-Founder Thomas Kaiser said. “This is the perfect use case for advanced AI, and together we’ll push the boundaries of what’s possible.”
The technology integration, specifically the introduction of co-worker functionality, will automate complex processes, reduce operational costs, and leverage continuous monitoring and proactive updates. This will promote better—and easier—adherence to regulatory requirements. The addition of Kodex AI’s technology will also enable access to richer data sources and broader coverage across jurisdictions.
“Thomas and Claus (Lang) have built an exceptional and disruptive European technology business, pioneering the use of agentic AI through an agent-based architecture to solve regulatory complexities,” CUBE Founder and CEO Ben Richmond said. “Kodex AI is a natural next step in CUBE’s strategy, allowing us to instantly deliver enhanced, AI-based compliance and risk capabilities to our global customers.”
With 1,000 customers in banking, insurance, payments, asset and investment management, and more, CUBE specializes in Automated Regulatory Intelligence (ARI) and Regulatory Change Management (RCM). Founded in 2011, the London-based regtech offers a RegPlatform product portfolio powered by its regulatory AI engine (RegBrain). The technology tracks, analyzes, and monitors laws and regulations in every country to provide always-up-to-date regulatory insights.
Based in Berlin, Kodex AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. At the conference, the company showed how its AI-powered solution empowers financial professionals to find information, analyze data, and instantly draft reports in minutes rather than days. The company’s specialized Large Language Model (LLM) and Generative AI Agents are designed for financial data, providing a targeted approach that ensures factual intelligence without “hallucinations.” Kodex AI was co-founded in 2022 by Thomas Kaiser (CEO) and Claus Lang (CTO).
