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FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 5

By Madeline Clines Posted on January 29, 2026
Categories: FinovateEurope 2026, FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek, FINTRAC, Maisa, MyPocketSkill, Syntex

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 10. Register today using this link and save 20%. FINTRAC TRAC by FINTRAC is the governance layer for regulated analytics - making calculations auditable, repeatable, and self-documenting by default. Features Includes a governed execution layer compatible with modern analytics architectures Embeds auditability, repeatability, and documentation directly into execution Eliminates manual processes and controls Who's it for? Any financial institution that has to execute models and calculations in a highly governed fashion to meet regulatory or internal governance requirements. Maisa Maisa allows business users to deploy Digital Workers that automate complex banking operations with full explainability and traceability. Features Production-ready in 6 weeks, integrates with systems Natural language onboarding and deterministic execution Every output includes a complete audit trail, auto-QAs without human in the loop Who's it for? Global and regional banks, wealth management firms, insurance companies, and financial services…

Dotfile Teams Up with Bastion to Boost Risk Management for Stablecoin Programs

By David Penn Posted on January 28, 2026
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Dotfile

AML compliance platform Dotfile has teamed up with stablecoin issuance platform Bastion to provide onboarding and risk management for stablecoin programs. The partnership will deliver comprehensive verification, AI-powered compliance screening, and the ability to adapt to local jurisdictions and multiple regulatory regimes. Headquartered in Paris, France and founded in 2021, Dotfile made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. AI-powered AML compliance platform Dotfile has forged a partnership with Bastion to provide onboarding and risk management for enterprise-grade stablecoin programs. Bastion, which powers secure and compliant stablecoin issuance, wallets, on/off ramps, cards, and yield products for financial institutions, will benefit from a comprehensive verification platform with AI-powered compliance and the ability to adapt to multiple regulatory contexts. "Bastion's enterprise focus demands flexible, auditable onboarding that scales," Dotfile Founder and CEO, Vasco Alexandre, said. "Together, we're enabling a compliant path from treasury to consumer rollouts." As stablecoins are maturing into…

ThetaRay Launches Ray, An Agentic AI Investigation Suite

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on January 28, 2026
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ThetaRay

ThetaRay has launched Ray, an Agentic AI investigation suite designed to help banks automate and standardize transaction monitoring investigations amid rising alert volumes and regulatory scrutiny. The platform targets growing regulatory demands from frameworks such as the EU’s AMLR and FinCEN’s AML/CFT directives by delivering faster, more consistent, and audit-ready investigations with traceable, explainable AI. Ray helps firms create compliance-critical workflows and scale AML operations without relying on manual processes or increasing headcount. Financial crime detection company ThetaRay has launched a new set of tools to help firms keep up with evolving regulations in the face of advanced fraud. Called Ray, the new Agentic AI investigation suite aims to help banks conduct transaction monitoring investigations. Ray is embedded into ThetaRay's Investigation Center, an Agentic investigation suite designed for banks, fintechs, and payments platforms balancing high alert volumes with rising regulatory demands. Ray combines autonomous investigations with on-demand analyst support. The…

Intellect Design Arena Unveils AI-First Payments Platform Amid Expansion to the US

By David Penn Posted on January 27, 2026
Categories: Alumni News, Intellect Design

India-based fintech Intellect Design Arena introduced its AI-first payments platform, Intellect Payments, this week. The announcement is part of the firm's continued expansion into the US. The new offering will help banks and financial institutions take advantage of a US real-time payments market that analysts expect to be worth $2 billion by 2030. Intellect Design Arena made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025. The company was founded in 1993 and serves more than 500 customers in 60+ countries. Intellect Design Arena has launched its AI-first payments platform, Intellect Payments. Part of the Indian company's US market expansion, the new offering integrates with existing core systems, channels, and operations to allow for incremental modernization rather than large-scale replacement. The technology relies on a low-code/no-code composable framework, making it easy to quickly deploy new payment rails as institutions scale. Intellect Design Arena's Purple Fabric AI intelligently validates and enriches payments before they…

Fiserv Brings BNPL Capabilities to Debit Cards with Affirm

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on January 27, 2026
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Fiserv

Fiserv and Affirm are bringing BNPL to debit cards, enabling banks and credit unions to offer pay-over-time capabilities through existing debit programs without building new lending infrastructure. Offering BNPL with bank-issued debit cards shifts installment lending from the merchant checkout to bank-owned channels, allowing financial institutions to retain customer relationships, data, and engagement within their own apps and card programs. The model positions banks as the primary gateway for flexible payments, placing BNPL distribution within core payments infrastructure. Core banking platform and payments player Fiserv is bringing buy now, pay later (BNPL) capabilities to its debit cards. The Wisconsin-based company is collaborating with Affirm to bring pay-over-time capabilities to its debit card programs, empowering Fiserv clients, including community banks and credit unions, to offer their end customers flexible payment options without having to build new lending products. According to Fiserv, the move is designed to help smaller financial institutions compete more effectively…

FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek Series: Part 4

By Madeline Clines Posted on January 27, 2026
Categories: Elephant, FinovateEurope 2026, FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek, OPENTECH, Pipl, Sea.dev

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 10. Register today using this link and save 20%. Elephant Elephant by Pipl delivers identity intelligence and fraud signals to help businesses verify users, detect risk, and make confident decisions across onboarding, payments, and compliance. Features Identity resolution (fully GDPR compliant) Actionable fraud and trust signals Faster, more accurate onboarding decisions Who's it for? Banks, fintech lenders, payment providers, marketplaces, and digital platforms. Opentech Opentech's OpenPay for Merchants (O4M) brings Buy Now, Pay Later into merchant-owned journeys, turning checkout into a new distribution channel for bank consumer credit. Features Offers merchant touchpoints as a consumer credit distribution channel Delivers a pre-qualified customer base for consumer credit offers Provides access to detailed spending data Who's it for? Banks and institutions offering consumer credit. Card issuers willing to offer payments products embedded into digital assets of merchants. Sea.dev Sea.dev automates business…

FinovateEurope 2026: Innovation, Regulation, and Transformation in the AI Era

By David Penn Posted on January 26, 2026
Categories: FinovateEurope 2026

What trends are driving fintech innovation in the UK and Europe as 2026 begins? With FinovateEurope 2026 kicking off in just two weeks, we are showcasing some of the major themes in banking and financial services that will be addressed—on the demo stage as well as through our keynote addresses, fireside chats, and panel discussions—when the conference begins on Tuesday, 10 February. From agentic AI to post-quantum cryptography, the enabling technologies of today are transforming banking and financial services. Making the most of these innovations to better serve customers, create new revenue streams, and successfully compete in an ever-more complex marketplace is the goal of every banker and financial services professional. Come see the solutions for yourself this year at FinovateEurope 2026. Innovations in Verification, Fraud Prevention, and Workflow Automation From the demo stage, expect to see a range of innovations in identity verification and fraud prevention. With the proliferation…

Stablecoin Rails Company Kast Pays Stablecoin Yield with Gauntlet’s Vault

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on January 26, 2026
Categories: Daily news

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 launching Kast 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…

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

By David Penn Posted on January 26, 2026
Categories: Fintech Rundown

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 Mercuryo teams 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 Finby partners with the European Payments Initiative (EPI) to support the pan-European digital wallet, Wero. Embedded finance Embedded finance platform Treasury Prime inks partnerships with i3i Bank and Coastal. DeFi Core banking vendor DXC Technology partners with Ripple to embed digital asset custody and RLUSD stablecoin into its core. KAST, a financial platform built on stablecoin rails, unveils…

PayPal Acquires Cymbio for Agentic Commerce Capabilities

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on January 23, 2026
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, PayPal

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…

Finovate Global Europe: Competition, Profitability, and a Reckoning Year for Regulation

By David Penn Posted on January 23, 2026
Categories: Finovate Global, NCR Corporation, PayPal, Thought Leadership

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…