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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
FinovateSpring wrapped up earlier this month, and one of the main discussion topics I heard repeatedly was how to proceed during an era of economic uncertainty combined with regulatory freedom. The US is taking a vastly different approach to regulation than Europe, which seems to be tightening its grip on compliance.
In the US, there are four major moves that have indicated the new administration’s stance toward regulation in banking and finance. Among the regulations that are shifting are:
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
The key rulemaking activity of the CFPB has been paused. Employees have been instructed to stop work on regulations involving overdraft fees and open banking.
Crypto enforcement actions
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have pulled back on enforcement actions in crypto, giving more clarity on stablecoin classification and providing more room for decentralized finance projects to operate.
Capital requirement rollbacks
Capital requirement rollbacks have reduced regulatory pressure on traditional banks. Key elements, like the supplementary leverage ratio and stress testing thresholds, have been softened or delayed, especially for regional banks. These rollbacks are designed to free up capital for lending and investment, but critics argue they increase risk by removing safeguards that were put in place after the 2008 financial crisis.
Basel III changes
Discussions of finalizing Basel III, which aims to require banks to maintain sufficient capital buffers and improve liquidity management, are still ongoing. However, lobbying has delayed its final implementation and resulted in a watered down version of some of its core provisions. A return to Basel II-style flexibility would prioritize bank competitiveness and profitability over strict capital adequacy.
While the current regulatory environment may give companies more room to innovate, most of the fintechs and banks I spoke with at FinovateSpring emphasized that they are still operating well within traditional regulatory boundaries, many of which are more stringent than today’s US standards. In fact, with AI now playing a major role across financial services, one compliance specialist noted that it’s increasingly common for firms to involve data scientists early in the compliance process to ensure new technologies meet regulatory expectations from the start.
Another focal point was third-party risk management, especially in today’s BaaS-driven banking environment. During my conversation with Christina Tetreault, Deputy Commissioner, Officer of Financial Technology Innovation at the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, she made it clear that bank-fintech partnerships are more than just IT projects. If the fintech’s technology fails, the bank will be held responsible for the issue.
As fintechs and financial institutions navigate this evolving landscape, the message from regulators and industry leaders is clear: regulatory freedom does not equal regulatory absence. Even as rules shift or stall, expectations remain high, especially when it comes to emerging technologies and third-party partnerships. In today’s environment, staying ahead means embedding compliance into innovation from the start of the project, proactively managing risks, and recognizing that regulatory clarity is still a moving target.
Trading and investing platform eToro has partnered with French life insurance leader Generali to offer life insurance and a French retirement savings plan called a PER to customers in France.
The partnership comes days after eToro went public in the US on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Founded in 2007, eToro has won Best of Show in all six of its Finovate appearances.
Stocks, bonds, and … life insurance?
That’s the deal that trading and investing platform eToro has struck with French life insurance provider Generali this week. The partnership between eToro and Generali will enable the platform to offer its users in France life insurance and a PER (Plan d’Épargne Retraite), a tax-advantaged French retirement savings plan.
The PER and life insurance contracts available through the alliance with eToro Patrimonie, eToro’s local subsidiary, provide both managed and self-directed options to serve a range of retail investor preferences and risk tolerances. Investors can also build their own investment allocations by choosing from among 500 different mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks, and dated bond funds.
“Introducing savings solutions for eToro’s users in France and opening a local subsidiary underscore our commitment to strengthen our footprint in a key market for the business,” said Julien Nebenzahl, President of eToro Patrimoine. “With these new products, we want to empower retail investors to build a robust savings portfolio that allows them to grow their wealth for the long-term.”
Among France’s leading insurers and asset managers, Generali France offers a range of insurance solutions including life, property, health, liability, and assistance coverage. The firm also provides wealth and asset management services to its eight million retail, professional, and corporate clients. Founded in 1832, the institution reported a revenue of €19.2 billion in 2024.
“We are delighted to support eToro, a globally recognized investment player, in the launch of its subsidiary in France and its savings offering,” Corentin Favennec, Partnerships Director at Generali Patrimoine, said. “Our 100% digital PER and life insurance products, which complement each other, perfectly fit into eToro’s value proposition to serve the wealth management needs of the French people.”
The launch of eToro’s new insurance offering comes in the wake of a number of product releases announced for the company’s customers in France. Last year, eToro enabled trading in local currency for eToro Money EUR accounts. The company also expanded the number of French-listed stocks from Euronext Paris that could be traded on the eToro platform. The insurance news in France also comes as eToro makes its debut as a public company on the Nasdaq. eToro raised nearly $310 million in its IPO last week, giving the platform a market capitalization north of $5.4 billion. The company’s successful offering was hoped by many to be a sign of resurgent strength for the IPO market.
Founded in 2007, eToro is a trading and investing platform with 40 million registered users in 75 countries. eToro’s customers can use the platform to buy and sell assets from 20 global stock exchanges, as well as trade and invest in more than 70 cryptocurrencies. A pioneer in collaborative investing, eToro offers a CopyTrader feature that enables users to automatically copy the buying and selling of other, more experienced, investors in real time.
eToro has won Best of Show in all six of its Finovate appearances beginning in 2011. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2017.
The UK is looking to regulate Buy Now, Pay Later lenders. Meanwhile in the US, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is reducing fines on previous enforcement actions. It’s a tale of two very different regulatory trends depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on.
We’ve got the latest regtech news along with the rest of the top headlines in fintech right here in this week’s edition of the Fintech Rundown!
Payments
Ripplereports that Zand Bank and fintech platform Mamo have deployed its blockchain-enabled payments solution, the first UAE-based financial institutions to do so.
PayPallaunches its Complete Payments service in Singapore.
Albertsons Companies offers invoice-based payment for its business customers courtesy of its partnership with TreviPay.
AAA Life Insurance partners with payments network One Inc. to support digital payment processing.
Digital banking
Finovate Best of Show winner Tuumlaunches suite of Islamic Banking solutions to enable financial institutions to offer more Sharia-compliant banking products.
Fraud prevention
Money and safety app for families, Greenlight, introducesFamily Shield to help caregivers protect seniors from financial fraud.
Identity verification and fraud prevention services provider AU10TIXlaunches continuous AML risk monitoring.
MRI Software integratesNova Credit’sIncome Navigator into its fraud prevention and application qualification solution.
DeFi / crypto
Non-custodial stablecoin wallet MiniPayis now available as a standalone application on iOS devices.
Investment / wealth management
U.S. Bank Global Fund Services turns to Fenergo to digitize and streamline its investor onboarding and service experience.
Regtech
Risk management company EverClaunches its AI-powered risk assessment solution for marketplaces, Smart Scan.
Lloyds Banking Group has partnered with Moneyhub to enhance transaction categorization and personalization across its brands, including Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland.
Moneyhub’s AI-driven platform uses consumer-permissioned data and a decade of user training to deliver highly accurate transaction insights, supporting Lloyds Banking Group’s digital strategy.
While open banking accelerates in the UK and Europe, the US faces regulatory uncertainty, with recent legal challenges casting doubt on the future of the CFPB’s Section 1033 rule.
UK-based Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) announced this week that it has selected open data platform Moneyhub to help categorize and enrich transaction data across its brands, including Lloyds, Halifax, Scottish Widows, and Bank of Scotland.
LBG expects that partnering with Moneyhub will enhance the personalization of its digital banking services and help customers gain deeper insights into their spending. Moneyhub categorizes customer transactions such as card payments, direct debits, standing orders, and transfers. The company uses both direct API integrations and indirect methods like screen scraping to gather the consumer-permissioned data, then uses its AI-driven categorization engine that has been refined over more than a decade with user input, resulting in highly accurate transaction insights.
“Partnering with Moneyhub will allow us to rapidly deliver far richer and more valuable insights for our customers,” said LBG Group Chief Data and Analytics Officer Ranil Boteju. “By combining Moneyhub’s advanced categorization technology with our in-house GenAI expertise, we’ll improve the time and accuracy of transaction classifications, unlocking new products and services for our customers and providing real-time insights so they can make more informed financial decisions.”
Moneyhub was founded in 2014 and offers personal finance technology tools, open data APIs, decisioning solutions, and payments capabilities. Its platform is designed to empower financial institutions, employers, and technology providers to deliver more tailored financial experiences through real-time data access and intelligent analysis. Regulated by the FCA, Moneyhub’s infrastructure supports a wide range of use cases, including budgeting tools, affordability assessments, wealth insights, and financial wellness programs.
“We are delighted to be chosen by Lloyds Banking Group as their categorization partner,” said Moneyhub CCO Dan Scholey. “Our extensive experience in transaction categorization has enabled us to develop a highly accurate engine that will benefit LBG and its customers. We look forward to enabling the many use cases this partnership offers, helping LBG become more efficient, profitable, compliant, and customer-centric.”
This move comes amid growing adoption of open banking frameworks across the UK and Europe, where regulatory support and consumer demand for data portability are facilitating innovation among fintechs and banks. At the same time, in the US, the open banking movement is still waiting to take off. The CFPB’s Section 1033 rule was put into place last October to grant consumers the right to access and share their financial data with third parties. However, the rule has faced legal challenges and potential revisions. Earlier this month, the CFPB indicated plans to ask a court to vacate the rule, citing procedural concerns and industry pushback over provisions such as the prohibition on data access fees and the lack of clear liability standards for third-party data handlers. This uncertainty has left the future of open banking in the US in flux, even as other markets continue to advance.
This week, Finovate Global travels to Lithuania to talk about payment card optimization with Torus’ Kirill Lisitsyn.
The payment card business is among the most competitive areas of financial services. But are some of the greatest opportunities for companies to profit being overlooked? A growing number of fintechs have developed strategies and technologies to help card issuers and acquirers access millions of dollars in cost savings and missed revenue by better controlling card network fees and enhancing transactional profitability.
Lithuania-based Torus is one such fintech. Founded in 2021 and making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024, Torus offers a SaaS intelligence platform for banks and acquirers that enhances profits on card transactions by up to 50%. The company enables card issuers and merchant acquirers to optimize card scheme fees and boost transactional earnings via pricing optimization and profitability analysis at the card and merchant level.
To discuss this field, and the opportunities it presents for card issuers and merchant acquirers, we caught up with Torus Co-Founder and CEO Kirill Lisitsyn (pictured). Lisitsyn brings to bear more than 15 years of experience leading payments consulting projects at firms such as Accenture and Mastercard.
What problem does Torus solve and who does it solve it for?
Kirill Lisitsyn: Torus is a SaaS platform for in-depth analysis and optimization of scheme fees (Visa, Mastercard) for issuers, merchant acquirers, and now large merchants. We automate the collection, forecasting, and reconciliation of both transaction flows and invoice data, so that our clients can see accurate cost and profit metrics at the level of transaction, product, merchant, region—and beyond.
How does Torus solve this problem better than other companies or solutions?
Lisitsyn: We provide nearly 98% fee prediction accuracy, and our plug-and-play setup enables end-to-end analytics with minimum resources needed from the customer side. Torus goes beyond pretty dashboards to deliver optimization recommendations backed by industry benchmarks and detailed “what-if” simulations.
Who are Torus’ primary customers. How do you reach them?
Lisitsyn: Our clients include banks, fintechs, BaaS providers, PSPs, and large merchants across Europe, the UK, Central Asia, and Japan. We reach them through targeted outreach, industry conferences, high-visibility publications, and strategic partnerships with top-tier industry players.
We’re also building a community around card economics. I run a LinkedIn page where I share insights on scheme fee mechanics, analysis pitfalls, and market updates.
Many clients come to us after seeing just one number: $1M+ in annual losses that could be avoided with better visibility.
Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology?
Lisitsyn: One EU-based e-commerce acquirer used to assess profitability by portfolio averages—and was losing up to 10% on hidden merchant-level losses. With Torus, they switched to granular analysis, identified low-margin segments, updated pricing, and increased overall portfolio margin by 30%. These are real, realized gains—not slideware.
What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?
Lisitsyn: We have productized over a hundred years of joint team expertise in the card payments industry—coming from different segments of the industry, players like Mastercard, Global Payments, Societe Generale, Worldline, and various other banks. This is our unfair advantage which gives us a deep understanding of where the pain points are. When your team includes former scheme insiders, “scheme fees” stop being scary and start becoming manageable.
What is the fintech ecosystem in Lithuania like? What is the relationship between fintechs, banks, and traditional financial services companies in Lithuania?
Lisitsyn: Lithuania is a magnet for fintech startups: a responsive regulator, fast-track licensing, and tech-forward infrastructure. Banks here are increasingly open to partnerships, and startups are learning to scale responsibly and operate under real-world pressures.
Torus is a great example of how legacy banking know-how and fintech velocity can combine into something powerful. We are proud to both actively contribute to the Lithuanian ecosystem and represent it internationally.
You demoed at FinovateEurope earlier this year. How was your experience?
Lisitsyn: This year we demoed our product for BaaS providers. We showcased how Torus enables these players to accurately calculate scheme fees and interchange per transaction, allocate costs, and build margin-based pricing for their fintech partners.
We demonstrated that BaaS can move beyond volume games and become a margin game.
Finovate is built for showing working products to real decision-makers—and our demo generated several highly relevant inbound requests for our BaaS module.
What are your goals for Torus? What can we expect to hear from you in the months to come?
Lisitsyn: We’re scaling fast. This year includes multiple product launches and major feature updates. Just a month ago, we released our new product, Merchant Cost Indicator—a tool that estimates transaction costs without needing real data. It predicts interchange and scheme fees based on country, MCC, and channel, giving acquirers and BIN sponsors instant, reliable margin calculations.
Coming next is a dynamic profit-based pricing module, embedded analytics for BaaS, and AI agents to support profitability control, pricing and decision workflows.
We’re shaping a new standard of transparency and profitability controls in card economics. Our strength lies in combining deep industry expertise with true product velocity. We know where the market is heading—and we’re already moving to clear the path.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Brazilian digital banking company NubankintroducedTap-to-Pay Pix.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand announced deployment of risk and surveillance platforms courtesy of its expanded strategic technology partnership with the Nasdaq.
Adyen selected Fiskil as its data-sharing partner to enhance onboarding and account verification for merchants in Australia.
Vietnam-based securities company Kafi went live with Horizon Trading Solutions.
Sub-Saharan Africa
African proptech Nawy secured $52 million in Series A funding.
Payment solutions provider Cross Switch partnered with Pesawise to bring its services to Kenya.
AI-powered sales technology provider Solda.AI has raised $4 million in seed funding.
The round was led by Accel and included participation from AltaIR Capital.
Solda.AI won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, California.
Solda.AI, an innovator in AI sales for fintech that won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring last week, has announced $4 million in new funding. The seed round was led by Accel and featured participation from AltaIR Capital. The company will use the capital to further develop its fleet of AI agents, forge partnerships with more businesses around the world, and continue to transform international sales processes.
“At Solda.AI, we believe that the future of telesales is AI,” Solda.AI CEO and Co-Founder Sergey Shalaev said. “Our vision is for voice agent-powered sales that generate revenue and provide real ROI, and we believe that we’re the first and only company to deliver this. We have already seamlessly integrated our agents into 20 partners’ sales channels, and are delighted to announce this seed funding led by Accel to help us collaborate with more businesses and take phone sales into the age of AI.”
Solda.AI offers fully autonomous, AI-powered voice agents that can operate a business’s entire telesales cycle at scale, processing 10,000 leads a day to make sales calls, follow-up calls, return calls, and close deals. The agents can engage leads after two weeks of sales call and script training, which compares favorably with human call center agents, only 10% of whom achieve proficiency in less than two months.
Solda.AI’s agents have a 1% AI detection rate and, at peak hours, can manage 100 phone lines simultaneously. The agents are multilingual, and can currently conduct sales-based conversations in both US and UK English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. The agents can even distinguish between European and Latin American versions of Spanish (as spoken in Mexico, for example) and Portuguese (as spoken in Brazil). Companies deploying Solda.AI’s technology have benefited from a 30% cost efficiency gain compared to call centers. Solda.AI reports that its agents generated $7 million in incremental revenue for clients last year and are on target to deliver $30 million in 2025.
“When we first met Sergey and the Solda.AI team, we were blown away by the AI voice agents’ human-like attributes and ability to not only handle complex conversations, but also close deals on the spot,” Accel partner Zhenya Loginov said. “Solda.AI’s technology has the potential to completely revolutionize the telesales market, with the team using AI to redefine sales automation from scratch.”
Headquartered in Middletown, Delaware, Solda.AI demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2025 in May, winning Best of Show. At the conference, the company showed how its AI sales agents automate the sales process while delivering human-like, personalized, on-brand interactions that produce conversion rates up to twice those of traditional methods. Solda.AI’s technology helps fintechs and banks automate onboarding, upsell, KYC, and retention calls with less than 1% AI detection at 60% of the cost.
Mastercard and MoonPay are partnering to launch stablecoin-powered cards, enabling users to spend crypto at over 150 million merchants worldwide.
MoonPay is leveraging its acquisition of Iron to provide API infrastructure that lets businesses manage stablecoin payouts, disbursements, and cross-border transactions.
This move signals growing mainstream adoption of stablecoins, with Mastercard aiming to make crypto wallets function like traditional bank accounts.
Mastercard announced today that it has teamed up with stablecoin infrastructure provider MoonPay to enable people and businesses to pay using stablecoins.
Under the partnership, businesses will leverage Mastercard-branded cards linked to users’ stablecoin balances. Mastercard will allow cardholders to spend their stablecoins, which MoonPay will convert to fiat currency, at the 150+ million locations where Mastercard is accepted.
MoonPay is using API-driven stablecoin infrastructure from Iron, which it acquired in March of this year. Iron will facilitate stablecoin-powered payments for businesses, which will turn crypto wallets into digital bank accounts for global transactions. The API will allow businesses, neobanks, and payment players to manage payouts, facilitate disbursements, improve cross-border money transfers, and offer stablecoin-based payouts to gig workers, contractors, and creators.
“By providing solutions that unlock stablecoin utility and ubiquity, we are redefining how money moves globally and driving a shift in payments as we know it,” said Mastercard EVP of Global Partnerships at Mastercard Scott Abrahams. “Together with MoonPay, we’re building innovative and secure connectivity between crypto and mainstream finance ecosystems, grounded by trust and driven by scale.”
Founded in 2019, MoonPay provides the infrastructure needed to buy cryptocurrencies using traditional payment methods like credit cards, Apple Pay, and bank transfers. It enables individuals around the world to easily convert fiat currency into digital assets without needing to navigate complex exchanges. MoonPay primarily serves consumers new to crypto, as well as fintechs offering wallets, NFT platforms, and decentralized apps seeking to simplify the crypto purchasing experience for their users.
“MoonPay serves the largest crypto wallets in the industry, and with Mastercard, we’re bringing convenient, trusted stablecoin-enabled cards to crypto users around the world,” said MoonPay CEO and Founder Ivan Soto-Wright. “Our acquisition of Iron and long-standing relationship with Mastercard allow us to power a new era of payments made with stablecoins at more than 150 million merchant locations worldwide.”
The partnership comes as stablecoins are growing at an incredible rate across the globe. According to the World Economic Forum, global stablecoin transaction volume surpassed $27.6 trillion in 2024, partially because they have emerged as a viable use case to bridge the speed of crypto and the trust of traditional finance. Mastercard’s move into stablecoin spending, backed by MoonPay’s infrastructure, could accelerate mainstream adoption by turning crypto wallets into practical spending tools for real-world purchases.
While Mastercard is leading the charge in stablecoin payments, it is not alone. Visa has been piloting USDC settlement on Solana, and PayPal recently launched its own stablecoin, PYUSD. Mastercard, however, has placed its focus on spendability via legacy rails, which may give it a unique head start in usability.
What remains to be seen, however, is how regulatory bodies will respond. With looser regulatory pressures in the US, now is an ideal time to launch a stablecoin-focused payments tool. However, if and when the regulatory pendulum swings in the other direction, fintechs may find themselves scrambling to sort out the compliance aspects of stablecoins.
Credit risk analytics provider Carrington Labs teamed up with real-time decisioning infrastructure company Oscilar.
The partnership will make Carrington Labs’ explainable AI-powered, advanced credit risk and cash flow underwriting models available via Oscilar’s decisioning platform.
Headquartered in Sydney, NSW, Australia, Carrington Labs made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York.
Credit risk analytics provider Carrington Labshas announced a new partnership with real-time decisioning infrastructure company Oscilar. The partnership will shorten integration times for lenders and enhance credit risk workflows for banks, credit unions, and fintechs alike.
“Lenders want to improve how they assess credit risk, but many are limited by legacy systems and long implementation cycles,” Carrington Labs CEO Jamie Twiss said. “Partnering with Oscilar makes it significantly easier for lenders to access and act on better credit risk insights and improve their underwriting using infrastructure they already have.”
Courtesy of the partnership, Carrington Labs’ advanced credit risk and cash flow underwriting models will be accessible via Oscilar’s real-time decisioning platform. Carrington Labs’ models leverage a combination of transaction level data, credit bureau data, and behavioral insights to provide smarter credit risk insights. Combined with Oscilar’s no-code platform, the models promote broader inclusivity in lending by more accurately assessing the creditworthiness of thin-file borrowers and borrowers with non-traditional incomes.
“Carrington Labs brings a strong capability in credit risk analytics and alternative data,” Oscilar CEO and Co-Founder Neha Narkhede said. “Together, we’re helping lenders build a more complete picture of creditworthiness, without adding complexity.”
Founded in 2021, Oscilar emerged from stealth two years ago with its AI-powered technology to help businesses better defend online transactions from fraud. The Palo Alto, California-based company uses real-time data, AI, and decisioning to create an advanced credit and fraud detection platform that enables firms to assess the risk of every online transaction in a matter of minutes. The company values the market for risk protection at more than $200 billion and noted that credit and fraud risk currently cost businesses more than $48 billion a year. For their part, consumers are on the hook for $8 billion a year due to credit and fraud risk.
“During my time leading engineering teams at Meta, I found that data and AI played a huge role for making risk decisions—but this technology was hard to build and not easily accessible to our business teams,” Oscilar Co-Founder and CTO Sachin Kulkarni said. “We built Oscilar so that companies could have a thorough risk decisioning solution but wouldn’t have to use their engineering teams’ valuable time to achieve that.”
Carrington Labs empowers lenders to be more inclusive while at the same time boosting revenues, lowering default rates, and improving margins. Founded in 2024, Carrington Labs made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. At the conference, the Sydney, Australia-based company demoed its technology that leverages explainable AI to provide alternative credit risk assessments and loan limit recommendations based on the lender’s unique loan products. Carrington Labs’ credit risk models have been trained on more than one billion data points to provide precise insights; the company boasts that it can pilot a tailored risk model for a lender in days and onboard a new lender in weeks.
The company’s partnership announcement comes as it unveiled new research that underscored the importance of identifying behavioral changes in loan applications. The study showed how behavioral changes can predict loan risk and supported Carrington Labs’ decision to adjust the behavioral factor weighting in its risk model to 36%, a record weighting for the firm’s model.
“While we’ve always looked at a range of behavioral factors, this latest generation of cash flow underwriting models tests a wider range of attributes than ever before, and we were surprised to see how many behavioral elements ended up in this particular model,” Twiss said. “This finding underlines the value of behavioral data in assessing a loan applicant’s risk levels.”
FinovateSpring showcased credit unions and the fintechs that innovate for them in its Credit Union Spotlight last week. The closed-door session—”a safe space for credit unions” in the words of CURQL’s Nick Evens—was exclusively to provide credit union executives with a unique opportunity to discuss their challenges directly with fintech providers. The forum also gave these executives an opportunity to meet and network with each other to discuss common issues and new solutions.
Below is a sample of some of the most common concerns raised by credit union executives during the session, and a sense of what they need fintechs to offer in return.
“We want to do more with less”
The desire to maximize resources to accomplish more for customers and members is not unique to the credit union industry. The promise of enabling technologies like AI and the persistent competition for human talent make companies in virtually every industry today pursue efficiency as a way not only to keep costs low, but to offer more products and services faster and more seamlessly.
For credit unions, this challenge is all the more acute. These member-driven organizations face competition from larger rivals in the banking industry, as well as new entrants from technology and retail who are leveraging embedded finance to offer a widening range of financial services, including payments and lending. Further, these institutions often face pressure from their own members, whose lives are becoming more digitally oriented and who want more digital solutions when it comes to managing their finances and investing for the future.
Through technologies like AI, innovations like embedded finance, and strategic, third-party relationships, credit unions can do more faster, offering new products and services, and growing their membership communities.
“More automation”
There are few better examples of technology enabling companies to do “more with less” than automation. Whether driven by machine learning or agentic AI, automation is a key driver in technological modernization—and it is no different in financial services.
For credit unions, automation offers the ability to convert labor-intensive, manual, and relatively more error-prone human tasks into processes that are completed with technical tools. As these technical tools evolve—from apps and APIs to agents and AI bots—so does their capacity to operate increasingly complex workflows and customer lifecycles.
Many businesses stand to gain from automating many internal processes. But institutions like credit unions could disproportionately benefit from the ability of automation to “liberate” human workers from mundane tasks and enable them to participate in more higher-order activities. These include delivering better, more personalized engagement to members.
“Better authentication for diverse memberships”
How do the authentication needs differ for a credit union with a sizable number of members over the age of 70+? What about a credit union with a large number of Spanish-speaking members? How about a credit union with a special commitment to serving members with disabilities?
Unlike many other financial institutions, credit unions are often as unique as the members who make them. In case after case, we can draw a straight line from the communities of farmers, teachers, and small business owners who first launched their financial cooperatives decades ago directly to the present-day communities benefiting from the growth and success of those institutions right now.
Fintechs that help credit unions carry out their unique missions are the kind of partners that credit unions are looking for. Beyond avoiding one-size-fits-all approaches to providing solutions, fintechs should strive to understand not only what their credit union partner does, but what it values most. One fintech’s niche offering could be a decisive ingredient in helping a credit union fulfill its mission to its members.
“Better support for third-party integrations”
The opportunities—and challenges— of third-party integrations have become all too clear for most in fintech and financial services. While the rewards of getting it right have almost become table stakes, the penalties for getting it wrong remain powerful—and painful. The prospect of a less aggressive regulatory environment for financial services companies in the US only adds another level of uncertainty.
Along with empowering technologies like AI and AI-powered automation, third-party partnerships and integrations are a key way for credit unions to leverage creativity, hard work, and good decision-making to “punch above their weight” and compete with larger rivals. Additionally, providing better support for third-party integrations helps ensure that credit unions stay on the right side of regulatory scrutiny, and remain their community’s trusted financial partner.
“Better technology / credit union culture compatibility”
Underscoring the diversity of credit unions, one industry representative highlighted the fact that not every credit union wants every new fintech product or service. This credit union executive was referring specifically to Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products, and his concern that offering the products could be considered a more general endorsement of BNPL by the credit union.
Whether it is alternative lending solutions, innovative payout services, digital assets, or other new fintech products, providers should be mindful of the culture of the credit union they are seeking to partner with. Even when the potential feature or service appears uncontroversial—such as a new, gamified interface designed to engage younger users—there is the possibility of a poor fit if the culture and current goals of the credit union are not just taken into consideration, but put front and center.
Zopa raised $106 million in AT1 capital to bolster its balance sheet ahead of launching its flagship bank account.
The UK digital bank has raised $1.2 billion, and has doubled its profits to $45 million in 2024.
Zopa’s bank account is currently in a beta phase with a limited number of customers.
UK-based digital bank Zopa has raised $106 million (£80 million) in Additional Tier 1 (AT1) capital from existing and new investors. The new funds come five months after the company brought in $87 million in funding, boosting Zopa’s funding to $1.2 billion.
Zopa plans to use today’s funds to prepare for the launch of its flagship bank account. The AT1 capital will offer a regulatory buffer, helping Zopa meet regulatory capital requirements that ensure it has enough capital to absorb losses and continue operating during periods of financial stress. Because the funds come in the form of perpetual bonds or hybrid securities, they do not dilute existing shareholders’ equity stakes, and they can also be written down or converted to equity if the bank’s capital falls below a certain threshold.
Zopa has been working toward launching its full bank account since receiving its banking license from the Financial Conduct Authority in 2020. The company currently offers a range of lending, savings, and pension products, with $7.29 billion (£5.5 billion) in deposits and over $4 billion (£3 billion) in loans on its balance sheet. Zopa has yet to launch any payment tools, but it is currently in a beta phase with a limited number of customers.
With 850 employees, Zopa has doubled its profits, reaching $45 million (£34 million) last year. That same year, the company also partnered with Britain electricity supplier Octopus Energy and with retailer John Lewis to offer personal loans to its 23 million customers.
While Zopa hinted at plans for a public debut in 2021, the company announced last year that it has no current plans to pursue an IPO, saying it wants to wait for the markets “to revive and be more positive.” This is currently a common sentiment among fintechs, including Klarna, which delayed its IPO because of economic uncertainty. However, we may be seeing early signs of positivity, as investing platform eToro hit the public markets today, popping as high as 34% at the open before settling back to a 28% gain in recent trading. Additionally, US challenger bank Chime filed its S-1 yesterday afternoon in preparation for its own IPO.
Robinhood has announced plans to acquire Canada-based decentralized trading platform WonderFi.
The all-cash deal is expected to close for $179 million.
The acquisition will help Robinhood move into the Canadian market.
Digital stock brokerage app Robinhood plans to acquire decentralized trading platform WonderFi in an all-cash deal totaling $178.56 million (CA$250 million). The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.
WonderFi was founded in 2021 to help democratize access to digital assets. The company, which operates regulated cryptocurrency trading platforms Bitbuy and Coinsquare, serves both novice and experienced investors. Among WonderFi’s services are crypto trading and staking, investor education, and over-the-counter transactions. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, WonderFi processed over $2.56 billion (C$3.57 billion) in crypto trading volumes last year, a 28% increase over the volume it processed in 2023.
“Through a long and focused effort, WonderFi successfully built one of Canada’s largest registered Crypto-Trading platforms,” said WonderFi Executive Chairman Bobby Halpern. “This transaction is the culmination of those efforts and the launchpad for Robinhood to democratize finance across Canada. The arrangement provides WonderFi shareholders with all-cash consideration at an attractive premium to our recent trading levels.”
Robinhood will acquire all WonderFi shares for $0.25 (C$0.36) per share. The purchase price represents a premium of approximately 41% to the closing price of the common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange on May 12, 2025, and approximately a 71% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average trading price.
California-based Robinhood launched its commission-free, mobile-first trading platform in 2013 to attract the newest generation of investors. The company’s app enables users to trade stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies, and also offers wealth management, retirement accounts, and banking services. Robinhood serves more than 25 million customers with $193 billion in assets under custody.
Robinhood will leverage WonderFi to accelerate its international expansion, providing it with access to WonderFi’s over 1.6 million registered Canadian users and more than $717 million (C$1 billion) in assets under custody. While Robinhood does not serve any Canadian customers, today’s acquisition will allow it to leverage WonderFi’s infrastructure, licensing, and experience navigating the Canadian regulatory environment.
“WonderFi and Robinhood are united in our visions of making crypto accessible and bringing more people into the crypto space,” said WonderFi President and CEO Dean Skurka. “We’re delighted to be joining the Robinhood team and to super-charge our product offerings for customers.”
Today’s acquisition isn’t Robinhood’s first move into international markets. The company officially launched its trading platform in the UK on November 30, 2023 and doubled-down on its operations in the region after purchasing European exchange Bitstamp for $200 million in June of 2024.
Investing app Stash has raised $146 million in Series H funding. The oversubscribed round was led by Goodwater Capital.
Stash will use the funds to drive subscriber growth, accelerate product innovation, and enhance the firm’s AI capabilities.
Founded in 2015, New York-based Stash made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017.
Investing platform Stashsecured $146 million in Series H funding. The oversubscribed round was led by Goodwater Capital and featured participation from existing investors Union Square Ventures, StepStone Group, Serengeti, and the University of Illinois Foundation. Funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc, were also involved in the round.
The investment will help the New York-based fintech bring its financial guidance to a broader range of customers and boost the firm’s investment in AI to enhance its advisory capabilities.
“This new funding is a resounding vote of confidence in Stash’s vision for the future of personal finance,” Stash Co-Founder and Co-CEO Ed Robinson said. “For a decade, Stash has helped millions take control of their financial futures. Now, we’re doubling down—transforming how people save, invest, and build long-term wealth with AI-powered intelligence at the core. We’re just getting started.”
The centerpiece of Stash’s growth strategy is Money Coach AI, the company’s advanced financial guidance platform. Money Coach AI converts investing strategies into real-time, personalized recommendations for investors. Stash reports that the offering already has 2.2 million users who have put Money Coach AI to work helping select their first investments, generating personalized diversification suggestions, and more. Further, Stash notes that one in four Money Coach AI customers have taken proactive steps—making an investment, depositing funds, diversifying, or initiating Auto-Stash automatic payments—within 10 minutes of interaction with the platform.
“For too long, financial advice has been out of reach for everyday people. Stash’s mission has always been to change that,” Co-Founder and Co-CEO Brandon Krieg said. “Now, by leveraging the power of AI, Stash is helping people take control of their money, understand their options, build real wealth, and secure their financial future, no matter where they’re starting from.”
Celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year, Stash made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017. At the conference, the company unveiled its low-fee, self-directed Roth IRA accounts as part of its Stash Retire offering. Today, Stash has 1.3 million paying subscribers and $4.3 billion in assets under management. The company’s funding announcement follows the launch of its Learn & Earn initiative, which offers users short, actionable financial lessons combined with stock rewards and personalized next-step guidance. Stash also reported recently that the platform has added the AIS ETF from Jon McNeill and Adam Patti VistaShares. The exchange-traded fund provides exposure to 80 public stocks that reflect the entire AI supply chain, from chip manufacturers and data centers to storage and high-voltage electrical equipment providers.
“For our community of Stashers this means participating in the AI revolution the Stash way—regularly investing small amounts into a diversified portfolio for long-term growth,” Krieg noted in a LinkedIn post last month. “Tech advances should create opportunities for all of us, not just the privileged few. The AIS ETF is one other way we’re making that happen, letting our community build wealth by being part of the AI supercycle.”
