FIS Taps Affirm to Give Bank Clients BNPL Tools for Debit Cardholders

FIS Taps Affirm to Give Bank Clients BNPL Tools for Debit Cardholders
  • FIS is partnering with Affirm to enable banks using its debit processing services to integrate Affirm’s BNPL payment options.
  • FIS clients can now offer consumers pay-over-time solutions including both biweekly interest-free installments and longer-term financing plans.
  • Offering BNPL tools can help smaller financial institutions stay competitive, improve their digital offerings, and meet evolving consumer demands.

Payment, banking, and investment systems provider FIS and buy now, pay later (BNPL) player Affirm have teamed up this week. The partnership will allow FIS to enable its debit processing bank clients to integrate Affirm’s BNPL solution into their existing debit card program.

Affirm offers two different payment products, Pay in 4 and Monthly Installments. With Pay in 4, shoppers can split up purchases ranging from $50 to $1,000+ into four interest-free installments paid every two weeks. The Monthly Installments tool is a more traditional borrowing product that allows consumers to finance purchases ranging from $50 to $5,000+ over the course of three to 60 months with a rate of 0% to 36% APR.

FIS anticipates that integrating Affirm’s tools into banking products will help its clients meet evolving consumer demands, ultimately fostering customer loyalty and boosting growth. The company’s debit processing clients can offer their eligible customers biweekly and monthly payment plans via the bank’s existing debit card programs. Banks can also leverage Affirm’s traditional financing offers, funded by Affirm’s 335,000+ merchant partners.

“Customer conversion and retention have become major priorities for card-issuing banks in our increasingly digitized economy, where consumers have endless options,” said FIS Co-president of Banking Solutions Jim Johnson. “Consumers today are looking for innovative and user-friendly experiences that give them flexibility and control over their money and optimize how their money is put to work. That’s why so many of them choose to pay with Affirm. This new program will deliver Affirm’s leading-edge technology, flexible and transparent payment options, and extensive merchant network to our banking clients, enabling them to continue meeting these needs and offer more competitive, differentiated services through their own banking channels.”

This move is particularly significant for FIS’ smaller financial institution clients, such as credit unions and community banks, as it provides a straightforward way to offer BNPL tools to their customers. By integrating these options, institutions can enhance the customer experience with greater payment flexibility while positioning themselves as more tech-savvy and innovative. This distinction can be crucial in attracting and retaining customers in a competitive landscape.

“Millions of consumers prefer using a debit card from their trusted financial institution, and we believe they should have easy access to exceptional credit options through their preferred payment method. That’s why, for the first time, we’re bringing Affirm’s proprietary underwriting technology and full suite of pay-over-time solutions to third party issuers in partnership with FIS,” said Affirm Chief Revenue Officer Wayne Pommen. “This new program will expand access to Affirm’s wide range of payment options, giving more consumers a responsible way to pay over time. It will also connect them directly to Affirm’s vast and growing merchant network – delivering an even more valuable and differentiated experience.”

Established in 1968 and based in Florida, FIS serves 15,000 clients across the globe. The company’s product suite includes payment solutions, risk management services, and customer communication tools. Its technology supports the processing of $50 trillion in transactions annually and oversees assets totaling $16 trillion.


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Zeta Secures $50 Million Strategic Investment

Zeta Secures $50 Million Strategic Investment

Banking technology provider Zeta has raised $50 million in new funding. The investment — from an unnamed strategic investor — boosts the company’s valuation to $2 billion, a significant increase from the firm’s most recent pre-money valuation of $1.45 billion. That valuation followed a capital infusion of $250 million from Softbank Vision Fund 2 and other investors in 2021.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Zeta enables financial institutions and fintechs to launch a wide variety of financial products via its modern, microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native, and Headless (MACH) platform. These products include credit cards, checking accounts, savings accounts, unsecured loans, and more. Zeta’s SaaS suite provides solutions for the entire lifecycle of a banking product: core banking and issuer payments; merchant acquiring and payment services; digital banking and AI applications; issuer operations and servicing; customer engagement and rewards; as well as commercial cards and benefits.

“We are incredibly excited at the pace at which clients are embracing our modern stack,” Zeta Global CEO and Co-Founder Bhavin Turakhia said. “Over the past few years, we have supported over 25 million accounts on our cloud-native processing platform Tachyon and are on track to add 25 million more with contracts already in flight. Our clients are breaking away from decades of legacy systems to deliver amazing digital experiences, thereby increasing their customer satisfaction and accelerating new user acquisition.”

Founded in 2015, Zeta won Best of Show in its debut at our all-digital Finovate conference in 2020. The company returned to the Finovate stage the following year for FinovateFall 2021 in New York. More recently, Zeta has collaborated with fellow Finovate alum Mastercard as part of a five-year partnership and teamed up with Featurespace to combine credit card processing and fraud detection. Last August, Zeta announced that India’s HDFC Bank was leveraging its technology to power its new Credit Line on UPI (CLOU) solutions.

“Zeta’s mission to be a trusted partner to financial institutions is possible through the patient efforts of the best team ever assembled in banking technology,” Zeta Co-Founder Ramki Gaddipati said. “While the past few years have been challenging for the banking-tech industry, our organization has delivered multiple winning programs for our clients in record time.”

To date, Zeta customers around the world have issued more than 25 million cards on Zeta’s platform. The firm’s card processing capabilities were recognized by Celent in its 2023 Next-Gen Card Issuer Processors in the US report, which noted that, in the words of Celent Head of Retail Banking and Payments Research Zil Bareisis, “Zeta is among the likeliest partners for banks considering a shift to next-gen processing.”


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India’s Perfios to Acquire Clari5 (CustomerXPs)

India’s Perfios to Acquire Clari5 (CustomerXPs)
  • Financial data company Perfios has acquired Clari5 to enhance its fraud prevention and risk management capabilities using Clari5’s real-time financial crime management platform.
  • Clari5 offers AI-driven fraud detection tools, including customer-looped alerts, identity resolution, trade-based AML, and real-time transaction monitoring across multiple channels.
  • Perfios anticipates that the acquisition will strengthen its presence in India, the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Financial data analysis company Perfios has agreed to acquire Clari5 (also known as CustomerXPs). India-based Perfios will use Clari5 to strengthen its own fraud and risk management capabilities. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Clari5 was founded in 2006 to help protect banks against fraud and money laundering. Among the company’s tools for fighting fraud are a customer-looped alert management service, payments fraud reporting, identity resolution, trade-based anti-money laundering, an inbound scam detection solution, and more. Additionally, Clari5 uses AI-driven analytics and machine learning to improve the detection of fraud patterns. The company monitors transactions in real-time across multiple channels to ensure that financial services organizations can quickly detect and prevent fraud.

“Joining forces with Perfios marks a new chapter of growth and innovation for Clari5,” said Clari5 CEO Rivi Varghese. “With Perfios’ deep expertise in the financial technology ecosystem and our advanced real-time financial crime management platform, we are creating a powerful synergy to redefine fraud prevention, risk intelligence, and AML compliance at scale. This partnership enables us to expand our reach, accelerate product innovation, and strengthen our ability to help financial institutions combat evolving financial crime with unmatched speed and precision. Perfios’ scale, global presence, and stability position us to serve the largest banks worldwide, enabling us to deliver impactful solutions to financial institutions of all sizes and complexities.”

Founded in 2008, Perfios builds customized solutions for financial services firms to make data-based, real-time decisions in lending, wealth management, embedded finance, insurance, and KYC. The company serves over 1,000 lenders in India, including each of the top 10 banks.

Perfios anticipates that adding Clari5 will help it build its leadership in the financial sector in India. The company also plans to use the move to strengthen its presence across its key geographies, including the Middle East, North Africa (MENA), and Southeast Asia (SEA).

“The acquisition of Clari5, a leader in EFRM and AML, marks a significant milestone in our journey to build the most comprehensive fraud and risk management ecosystem,” said Perfios CEO Sabyasachi Goswami. “Clari5’s real-time financial crime management platform, trusted by marquee financial institutions worldwide, perfectly complements Perfios’ mission to deliver secure, scalable, and tech-first solutions. Together, we are set to redefine fraud prevention, risk intelligence, and AML compliance, empowering financial institutions to stay ahead of evolving threats while powering financial security to billions across the globe.”


Photo by Christina Morillo

Backbase and Feedzai Integrate Financial Crime Prevention with Engagement Banking

Backbase and Feedzai Integrate Financial Crime Prevention with Engagement Banking
  • Engagement Banking company Backbase has announced a strategic partnership with financial intelligence solutions provider Feedzai.
  • The partnership will integrated Feedzai’s Digital Trust solutions with Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform.
  • Backbase most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2021. Feedzai made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014 in London.

A newly announced strategic partnership between Backbase and Feedzai aims to bring advanced financial crime prevention technology to engagement banking. The integration of Feedzai’s Digital Trust solutions with Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform will empower financial institutions to fight fraud more effectively while preserving the customer experience.

Feedzai’s Digital Trust platform analyzes user behavior, device health, and potential threats in real-time. The cloud-based solution operates in the background, enabling financial institutions, financial services organizations, and fintechs to detect and counter online identity impersonation and manipulation attacks, while allowing legitimate users to conduct their activities unimpeded. Feedzai’s Digital Trust is effective against account takeover (ATO) attacks as well as new account fraud attempts during onboarding. It combines behavioral biometrics, behavioral analytics, advanced malware detection, and network and device assessment to provide active and preemptive defense against threats. The integration with Backbase’s engagement banking platform will provide banks with real-time, AI-powered, proactive fraud prevention, plus lower operational costs thanks to AI-powered risk assessment that minimizes false positives.

“By combining Backbase’s engagement banking expertise with Feedzai’s advanced security capabilities, we’re giving financial institutions the complete package — superior customer experience and intelligent fraud prevention in one integrated platform,” Backbase CEO and Founder Jouk Pleiter said. “Together, we’re setting a new standard for how banks can build trusted digital relationships with their customers.”

Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Feedzai offers technology that leverages AI to help businesses fight fraud and financial crime. The company’s RiskOps platform uses machine learning and Big Data to detect and defend the world’s largest banks, payment providers, and merchants from malicious online actors. Founded in 2011 and now reaching 900 million people in 190 countries with its technology, Feedzai began 2025 by announcing a partnership with Credibanco to help the Colombian payment processing company strengthen its defenses against fraud.

“As the financial services industry evolves, security can no longer be an afterthought — it must be woven into the very fabric of the customer journey,” Feedzai CEO and Co-Founder Nuno Sebastiao said. “By partnering with Backbase, we’re empowering financial institutions to deliver a unified, seamless journey that not only protects customers from fraud but also ensures they feel valued, understood, and safe.”

Backbase has been a Finovate alum since 2009. The company has won Finovate’s Best of Show award four times, including back-to-back wins at FinovateEurope in 2017 and 2018. Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform is a composable solution that empowers banks to accelerate their digital transformations by progressively modernizing each step of the customer journey, including onboarding, servicing, lending, and investing.

Backbase’s partnership news comes a few weeks after it announced it was teaming up with Alliant Credit Union, a digital-only financial institution with $20 billion in assets and more than 900,000 members. The company also recently partnered with Nordic digital transformation consultancy Knowit. Founded in 2003, Backbase is headquartered in Amsterdam.


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Spreedly Partners with Trustly to Give Clients Pay-by-Bank Capabilities

Spreedly Partners with Trustly to Give Clients Pay-by-Bank Capabilities
  • Spreedly and Trustly have partnered to offer Spreedly’s merchant clients pay-by-bank capabilities through its Open Payments platform.
  • Adding the new payment option will help merchants enhance payment flexibility, conversion rates, and consumer insights.
  • Pay-by-bank adoption is growing in 2025 due to lower fees and faster settlement times for merchants. To encourage its use, some merchants offer monetary incentives at checkout.

Open payments platform Spreedly has teamed up with pay-by-bank expert Trustly this week. The two are collaborating to offer Spreedly’s merchant clients access to Trustly’s pay-by-bank capabilities.

Under the partnership, Trustly will take charge of the pay-by-bank tools in Spreedly’s Open Payments platform. Spreedly anticipates that merchants who use the new pay-by-bank tools will see improved conversion rates without having to overhaul their existing payments infrastructure. The company also envisions that the new capabilities will empower merchants with more payment flexibility and further insight into consumer habits. 

“Our collaboration with Spreedly represents a significant step towards a unified payments experience becoming the industry standard,” said Trustly VP of Enterprise Growth Ross McFerrin. “By integrating Trustly’s pay-by-bank offerings with Spreedly’s orchestration platform, we’re providing merchants an all-in-one solution that allows them to choose the best payment methods to offer their customers while simplifying the complexity of payment integrations.”

Sweden-based Trustly’s pay-by-bank network currently processes over $42 billion in transaction volume each year. The company offers Trustly Pay for open banking payments and Trustly Payouts for payouts. It also provides open data tools like Trustly Connect for data retrieval, Trustly ID for identity verification, and Trustly Insights for real-time underwriting decisions. In 2018, Nordic Capital bought Trustly for an undisclosed amount, and since then, Trustly has acquired three companies of its own, including SlimPay, Ecospend, and PayWithMyBank. The company anticipates that partnering with North Carolina-based Spreedly will increase its market reach in the U.S.

Spreedly was founded in 2007 to help merchants build their payments stack on a single platform. The company’s payment orchestration stack offers merchants more than 140 gateway connections of more than 40 payment methods. Spreedly also offers fraud prevention, payment optimization tools, and more.

“Spreedly has long demonstrated its ability to securely vault and orchestrate payments across card networks, and by partnering with Trustly, we are excited to extend these benefits by embedding pay-by-bank flows directly into our Open Payments platform,” said Spreedly VP of Global Partnerships and Business Development Rose Francois. “Together, we’ll enhance payment flexibility and security, empowering merchants to meet the growing demand for efficient, data-driven payment solutions, while driving stronger outcomes for the broader payments ecosystem.”

Pay-by-bank has been cited by analysts as one of the top trends to watch in 2025 as consumer and merchant adoption continues to grow. Merchants often favor pay-by-bank because of the lower fees and faster settlement times. And while consumers may be hesitant to ditch their credit cards in favor of pay-by-bank, some merchants offer a monetary incentive at the point of purchase to promote using pay-by-bank.


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Personetics Unveils New AI Tools to Help Banks Boost Customer Engagement

Personetics Unveils New AI Tools to Help Banks Boost Customer Engagement
  • Personetics unveiled a number of new features for its AI-powered flagship solution, Personetics Engage, this week.
  • The new features will help financial institutions build personalized digital experiences that encourage their customers to better manage their financial lives.
  • Headquartered in New York, Personetics made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

Personetics announced a range of new features for its AI-powered flagship solution, Personetics Engage, this week. The new features are designed to help financial institutions create personalized digital experiences for their customers that empower and motivate them to better manage their finances.

“Financial institutions today need solutions that go beyond basic personalization and static insights,” Personetics Chief Product Officer Ron Agam said. “These new capabilities advance our mission of providing banks with a platform that dynamically responds to their customers’ changing financial needs, making them smarter about their money and motivated to act.”

The new features include an Activity Tracker that customers can use to see their spending, income, and cash flow for up to 12 months. This interactive overview gives customers enhanced visibility into their financial status, helping them track and manage their finances across multiple accounts from a single location. Personetics also introduced a Financial Recap feature that provides customers with an Instagram-like summary of their spending over the past seven days. The feature not only lists top merchants and categories of spending but also gives users a seven-day forecast of their projected cash balance and activities. Financial Recap helps contextualize spending for customers, making it easy to spot spending trends.

Personetics Engage will also now be equipped with Bank and User Categorization Control. This enables banks to manage transaction categorization mapping to improve accuracy. Institutions can review, recategorize, and rename categories — as well as create their own unique category designations. Customers also have the ability to recategorize transactions, increasing personalization and providing valuable feedback for their bank.

Personetics has also introduced a new level of interactive engagement between banks and customers courtesy of Custom User Journeys. This feature enables banks to build targeted, dynamic flows that collect customer preferences and adapt in real-time. These dynamic flows provide personalized financial guidance, as well as product recommendations that are based on direct customer input. To enhance engagement, the system uses customizable and interactive insights, questionnaires, and teasers..

“With these innovations, banks can move beyond static insights and truly monetize financial wellness,” Personetics VP of Strategy and Business Development Dorel Blitz noted on the company’s LinkedIn page, “inspiring customers to take action while driving meaningful business value.”

Personetics made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016 in London. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in New York, the company provides money management and personal financial management (PFM) solutions for banks and other financial institutions. Personetics’ technology leverages AI and its financial-data-driven platform to help FIs enhance customer engagement and boost revenue. Today, Personetics serves more than 135 million bank customers around the world, and includes six of the top 12 banks in North America and Europe as customers.


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Worldpay Acquires Ravelin to Help Merchants Battle Fraud

Worldpay Acquires Ravelin to Help Merchants Battle Fraud
  • Worldpay plans to acquire AI-driven fraud detection company Ravelin.
  • The acquisition will help Worldpay enhance its e-commerce offerings by adding fraud prevention technology and improve business clients’ authorization rates.
  • Ravelin’s cloud-based platform helps merchants combat online fraud, secure accounts, and improve payment authorization rates through partnerships with data providers like Ekata and Ethoca.

Payments and banking services company Worldpay announced plans today to acquire fraud detection company Ravelin. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close later this quarter.

“Our acquisition of Ravelin aligns with our strategy to invest in innovation and AI technology, enhancing the value we provide customers and accelerating our e-commerce growth,” said Worldpay CEO Charles Drucker. “In today’s online world, equipping merchants with next-generation AI-powered fraud prevention products is vital, and we believe Ravelin’s technology and expertise will significantly enhance Worldpay’s overall value proposition to the marketplace. We look forward to partnering with Ravelin’s leadership and their talented team to help our customers address their most complex challenges.”

Ohio-based Worldpay anticipates that buying Ravelin will complement and enhance its existing portfolio of solutions. The company will also leverage Ravelin’s cloud-based AI platform to help its merchant clients improve authorization rates.

Worldpay was founded in 1971 and enables merchants of all sizes to grow faster and protect their businesses as fraud activity accelerates globally. The company offers processing solutions that allow businesses to take, make, and manage a variety of payments, including online, in-person, and embedded payments. The company processes over 50 billion transactions each year across 146 countries and 135 currencies. 

Fraud prevention and payments optimization company Ravelin helps ecommerce merchants combat online payments fraud, implement account security, accept returns while blocking fraudsters, and set limits on promotional redemptions. The company also performs 3D Secure identification. Ravelin works with third parties including Ekata, Ethoca, and Chargebacks 911 to bring a wealth of data and disputes, and can integrate with other external data sources, as well.

“Ravelin is thrilled to be joining Worldpay, a true global leader in the payments industry,” said Ravelin Co-Founder and CEO Martin Sweeney. “Worldpay’s scale and reach, including processing approximately $2.5 trillion in payments volume and more than 50 billion transactions in 2024, will be an immense asset as we accelerate Ravelin’s momentum and advance our mission to eradicate fraud from the internet. Together, we will be able to deliver innovation at scale, driving the adoption of our industry-leading fraud solutions to customers as they respond to increasingly sophisticated threats and rising fraud-related costs.”

In a world where consumers are demanding faster payments, fraud is taking place at a faster rate, as well. The methods of fraud are also evolving as AI tools become more advanced, making fraud more sophisticated and harder to detect. By integrating Ravelin’s fraud prevention tools with its payment processing services, Worldpay will provide businesses with the ability to protect themselves against fast-moving fraud.


Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

Numeral Unveils Fully Managed Verification of Payee (VOP) Solution

Numeral Unveils Fully Managed Verification of Payee (VOP) Solution
  • Payment technology provider for financial institutions, Numeral, unveiled its fully managed Verification of Payee (VOP) solution this week.
  • The new offering will help financial institutions in the European Union meet new VOP requirements months ahead of the regulator’s October 9 deadline.
  • Headquartered in France, Numeral made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. The company was acquired by fellow Finovate alum Mambu in December.

Numeral, a payment technology provider for financial institutions, launched its fully managed Verification of Payee (VOP) solution this week. The technology will enable banks and other financial institutions to comply with the European Union’s VOP policy by October 9, the deadline set by regulators.

“At Numeral, our mission is to provide financial institutions with a future-proof and compliant payments infrastructure,” Numeral CEO and Co-founder Édouard Mandon said. “Given our fully managed payments hub offering, enabling our customers to comply with VOP aligns perfectly with our commitment to streamline payments infrastructures and operations. Our fully managed approach ensures they become and remain compliant without having to navigate the complexities of scheme adherence and ongoing operations.”

Numeral’s solution arrives as Europe searches for ways to fight payment fraud — especially authorized push payment (APP) fraud — and enhance payment security at a time when instant payments are becoming increasingly popular and available. To this end, new regulations for Verification of Payee (VOP) mandate that payment service providers (PSPs) give payers verification of payee details before making credit transfers.

Numeral’s VOP offering provides a managed approach that deals with all the regulatory and technical requirements involved in sending and responding to VOP requests. The solution supports the payment process from VOP scheme adherence to go-live readiness and enables account data synchronization through SFTP, API, manual upload, as well as real-time API connectivity. Numeral’s VOP technology also leverages a configurable matching algorithm that helps firms balance risk management and a seamless user experience. The company has also produced a publication, The Ultimate Guide to Verification of Payee, to help financial institutions better understand the VOP scheme.

“Account pre-validation and domestic verification solutions are extremely valuable for their intended use cases, but aren’t required to achieve VOP compliance,” Numeral Head of Product Marketing Matthieu Blandineau said. “The European Payments Council’s VOP scheme ensures interoperability across PSPs and countries by default, and our solution helps financial institutions comply with the scheme requirements on time, with minimal resources.”

Headquartered in Paris, France, Numeral made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023, where it demonstrated its API platform that enhances payment operations by automating bank payment processing. Specifically, Numeral showed how its platform automatically sends, receives, and reconciles SEPA payments and manages payment errors via SEPA R transactions.

Founded in 2021, Numeral was acquired by fellow Finovate alum Mambu in December 2024.


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FIS Enables FedNow Send Capabilities

FIS Enables FedNow Send Capabilities
  • FIS is now certified to offer send capabilities for FedNow.
  • Adding FedNow send capabilities enhances FedNow’s real-time payment services for bank clients and enables instant credit transfers.
  • As of late last year, 60% of FedNow participants can receive payments, only 40% have adopted sending capabilities.

Payment, banking, and investment systems provider FIS announced today that it is now certified to enable send capabilities for FedNow instant payment credit transfers.

FIS was an early adopter of FedNow, and was one of the first institutions to enable its customers to receive FedNow payments after the technology launched in July of 2023. Adding send capabilities, along with real-time transfer alerts, allows FIS to bring its bank clients a more comprehensive payments experience.

“As money moves between banks, consumers, businesses, and beyond in a complex cycle, credit and debit cards continue to play a leading role in the payment experience,” said FIS Head of Cards and Money Movement Chris Como. “However, slow or delayed transfers can harm customer loyalty when they need to pay loans, rent, or time-sensitive bills on any given day. Giving the end user direct access to send payments instantly using FedNow marks a huge milestone in our efforts to enable a harmonious payments experience for our clients and the customers they serve.”

This announcement comes after it was reported that only 40% of firms have signed up to send payments using FedNow, as of late last year. In comparison, close to 60% of the financial institutions on board with FedNow are able to receive payments. As of last month, more than 1,000 financial institutions have enrolled in the FedNow Service. The Federal Reserve maintains a list of participating financial institutions on its website.

The lack of banks willing to send payments over FedNow may be caused by a handful of factors. Implementing the necessary infrastructure to send payments requires more technological investment and operational considerations than simply receiving payments. Additionally, faster payments leads to faster fraud, including authorized push payment (APP) fraud, where fraudsters trick users into sending money to them. Also, at a time when banks are seeking to increase their deposits, it doesn’t benefit them to make it easy for customers to send money.

Founded in 1968, FIS is headquartered in Florida. The firm, which counts 15,000 clients across the globe, offers a wide range of products and solutions, including payment capabilities, risk management tools, customer communications products, and more. FIS-powered tools process $50 trillion annually and hold $16 trillion in assets.


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Money Squirrel Taps Moneyhub’s Open Banking Tech for New App Launch

Money Squirrel Taps Moneyhub’s Open Banking Tech for New App Launch
  • Moneyhub is partnering with Money Squirrel to provide open banking technology for Money Squirrel’s new small business financial management app.
  • Money Squirrel’s new app is aimed to automate VAT savings and optimize cash flow.
  • The collaboration comes as regulations like PSD2 continue to shape the open banking landscape across Europe.

Data and payments fintech Moneyhub unveiled this week that it has been selected by Money Squirrel to power its new small business financial management app.

Launched last month, Money Squirrel’s app aims to help businesses manage their finances and optimize their cashflow. The UK-based company will leverage Moneyhub’s open banking-enabled API technology to power the platform. Money Squirrel’s tools allow businesses to automate saving for future VAT payments. Once businesses connect their savings accounts, Money Squirrel places incoming funds into high interest rate accounts to maximize returns on sedentary cash, according to the business’ preference.

“Having Moneyhub’s API technology has been critical to launching our app, but it’s also encouraging to be aligned with them on the aim of making open banking and open finance more inclusive,” said Money Squirrel Founder and CEO Andreea Daly. “Having founded a business, I’ve experienced the frustrations of managing cash flow – spending countless hours calculating VAT and budgeting for future expenses. Therefore, we know firsthand how having the technology to remove these frustrations can unlock so much potential for businesses.”

Founded in 2023, Money Squirrel was selected to participate in the SHIFT open finance community’s dedicated fintech incubator, Ignite. The program provides financial support, expert guidance, and industry networking opportunities.

Moneyhub was founded in 2014 and sells personal finance technology tools, open data APIs, decisioning solutions, and payments capabilities. The company helps businesses leverage open data to enhance the financial wellness of their customers, communities, and businesses.

“Collaborating with Money Squirrel is a significant step in making open banking technology accessible to both SMEs and larger institutions,” said Moneyhub MD of API Kim Jenkins. “We are thrilled to help simplify financial management and unlock growth opportunities for smaller businesses by powering Money Squirrel’s app with our API. This partnership highlights our commitment to driving financial inclusivity and innovation across the board.”

As regulations like PSD2 continue to evolve across Europe, businesses are increasingly adopting open finance solutions to gain better control over their financial operations. By automating tasks such as VAT planning and cash flow optimization, fintechs like Money Squirrel can help businesses reduce administrative burdens, improve liquidity management, and make more data-driven financial decisions.

Moneyhub has demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2015 and FinovateEurope 2017. This year’s FinovateEurope event is just a few weeks away. Learn more about this year’s demoing companies and register to attend to take part in the action.

Algebrik AI Partners with Plaid to Bring Better Data to Lending Decision-Making

Algebrik AI Partners with Plaid to Bring Better Data to Lending Decision-Making
  • Plaid and Algebrik have forged a partnership to integrate consumer-permissioned data with Algebrik’s AI-powered, digital Loan Origination Platform (LOS).
  • The partnership will help credit unions make better, more accurate lending decisions and provide a frictionless, transparent process for borrowers.
  • Plaid made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Francisco.

A newly announced partnership between Algebrik and Plaid will bring seamless identity verification, financial data access, and better decision-making to lenders, banks, and credit unions. Algebrik is the company behind the world’s first, cloud-native, AI-powered, digital Loan Origination Platform (LOS). By integrating Plaid’s consumer-permissioned data, the company will be able to help its financial institution clients streamline the borrowing experience while maintaining both compliance and data security.

“Credit unions are the lifeblood of financial inclusion, and we’re excited to bring them cutting-edge technology that enhances their ability to serve their members by incorporating cash flow data into credit decisions,” Algebrik AI CEO and Founder Pankaj Jain said. “Partnering with Plaid allows us to reimagine the loan origination process — faster, more secure, and deeply personalized for every borrower.”

The access to consumer-permissioned real-time financial data will help credit unions and other lenders make better and faster lending decisions. Credit unions and community banks in particular are likely to realize significant operational advantages thanks to the partnership, including reduced time-to-decision and greater underwriting accuracy. The integration will help lenders conduct income verification and financial wellness assessments, while borrowers benefit from a lending experience with less friction and greater transparency.

“This alliance underscores Algebrik’s commitment to leveraging advanced technology to simplify and humanize the lending process,” Jain said. “Together with Plaid, we’re enabling credit unions to unlock greater value for their members while setting a new standard for lending efficiency and borrower satisfaction.”

Headquartered in New York, Algebrik was founded in 2024. The company’s mission is to help credit unions deliver digital loans to their members, revolutionizing the loan origination process by leveraging inclusive AI technology. In a world in which lenders and borrowers alike are faced with inefficiencies — from manual processes to disconnected systems — Algebrik blends AI-powered automation, intelligent insights, and seamless workflows to transform the loan lifecycle from borrower onboarding to loan closure.

Plaid made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014 in San Francisco. Today, the company boasts more than 100 million users on its data and insights network and more than 12,000 financial institutions. The company’s open finance network facilitates fast customer onboarding, account verification, multi-rail payments, fraud prevention, credit underwriting, and more. Zach Perret is CEO.


Photo by Tim Mossholder

Sikoia Brings AI-driven Automation to Brokerage Simple Financial Planning

Sikoia Brings AI-driven Automation to Brokerage Simple Financial Planning
  • Customer verification automation company Sikoia partnered with brokerage Simple Financial Planning (Simple).
  • Integrating Sikoia’s technology will enable Simple to automate broker workflows, saving time, boosting accuracy, and enhancing compliance.
  • London-based Sikoia made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024.

One month after announcing its partnership with Tandem Bank, customer verification automation company Sikoia reports that it is working with Simple Financial Planning (Simple) to bring AI-driven automation to broker workflows. Simple will embed Sikoia’s document processing technology into its CRM platform to save time, boost accuracy, and enhance compliance.

“Together, we’re not just enhancing accuracy and compliance; we’re enabling Simple’s advisors to spend less time on admin and more time delivering value to their clients,” Sikoia Founder and CEO Alexis Rog said. “This collaboration represents a shared ambition to streamline processes, support growth, and provide brokers with tools that make a tangible difference in their day-to-day operations.”

The integration will enable Simple to access verified data in minutes, reducing administrative workloads while enabling the company to scale effectively without compromising service quality. In addition to automating manual tasks such as document verification and data extraction, Sikoia’s technology leverages AI to ensure accurate data handling and automates AML checks to assist brokers in meeting regulatory requirements.

“By integrating (Sikoia’s) solutions, our brokers can onboard clients faster and more confidently while maintaining seamless, compliant workflows,” Simple Underwriter Pamela Stewart said. “Sikoia’s expertise is setting a new benchmark in the industry, and we’re proud to work together to help our brokers excel.”

Authorized and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Simple is a financial advisory firm that provides tailored advice and solutions for its clients. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Glasgow, Simple offers professional money planners who provide advice and guidance on mortgages, insurance, savings, and investments. Alex McGarvey is Managing Director.

In its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024, Sikoia demoed its AI-powered customer application processing solution that provides automated verification for income, employment, affordability, and more. The technology automates customer application document checks, accelerating verification times, reducing document handling costs, and improving the overall customer experience. Headquartered in London, Sikoia was founded in 2021.

In addition to its partnership with Tandem Bank mentioned above, Sikoia last month announced that it was collaborating with specialist loan brokerage Y3S to enhance the customer verification process for brokers and borrowers. Integrating with Sikoia will enable Y3S to streamline multiple tasks, including biometric identity verification (IDV) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks. Y3S will also benefit from automated processing of key mortgage application documents.


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