The final week of October is always a little extra spooky, as it signals that the start of the holiday season is just days away. The week also generally brings an onslaught of company announcements, as organizations rush to publish their latest news before audiences become distracted by the holidays. Here is some of the biggest news from this week so far. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!

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Payments

Mastercard and Citi bring Citi Flex Pay Installments to more retailers at checkout.

Worldpay unveils AI-powered 3D Secure optimization service to increase payment approvals.

PayQuicker announces Flex, a business-ready stablecoin alternative for global payouts.

Bold.org partners with Wildfire to launch first debit card rewards program for purchases on AI platforms.

PayNearMe enhances PayXM with the rollout of AI-powered Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA).

Worldpay launches OpenAI agentic commerce protocol.

MassPay processes tens of thousands of monthly identity verifications through Veriff integration.

Interactive Brokers launches the Karta Visa Card.

Southwest Airlines taps SoFi’s Galileo to offer a new way for customers to earn rapid rewards points on everyday purchases.

Venmo and Bilt unveil partnership reinventing rent and mortgage payments nationwide.

Lending

U.S. Bank Avvance launches customized embedded financing offering.

dLocal launches BNPL Fuse, a Buy Now, Pay Later aggregator for emerging markets.

Alogent partners with Vine to accelerate commercial lending workflows.

Ocrolus launches Encore: A cash flow data sharing platform for small business funding.

Investing

Clearwater Analytics and J.P. Morgan Asset Management launch automated cash management solution for hedge funds.

DriveWealth selected by OnePay to power embedded investment platform .

Fraud, security, and compliance

Trulioo reports 1,996% growth in US Know Your Business (KYB) transaction volume since 2023.

ThetaRay and Kaufman Rossin announce AI AML model validation.

iDenfy revamps its RegTech software and launches a new AML Screening solution.

Socure expands RiskOS platform with AI suite of agents and assistants designed to automate and accelerate identity, risk, and compliance decisions.

Daon launches mobile driver’s license support, powered by MATTR’s verifiable credential infrastructure.

Trulioo unveils next-generation identity capabilities to power a complete digital trust life cycle.

Core banking

Belize Bank Group taps Finastra’s Essence to reimagine its core.

Small business banking

BILL launches new AI agents to power touchless transactions.

Digits launches Connect API for open, programmable accounting and faster, integrations.

AI

Incode launches Agentic Identity to verify and secure AI agents.

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Photo by Juan Felipe Ramírez

Today marks the official start of autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere. In addition to the wealth of fintech news out of Saudi Arabia (!) in recent days, we’re seeing a number of new partnerships and some big investment rounds in Europe, Asia, and the States as the week begins. Be sure to check back here at the Fintech Rundown for the latest updates.

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Payments

International money movement firm TerraPay announces partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Sharia-compliant D360 Bank.

Europe-based TrustPay rebrands to finby.

Global payments processor Thredd extends its card partnership with cross-border payments platform Reap.

Spreedly acquires Dodgeball to link payment optimization with fraud prevention.

MercadoLibre launches new B2B unit to tap corporate market.

JOI Gaming teams up with Trustly to deliver next-level payment experience in the Netherlands.

Wealth management and investing

Fidelity International launches its innovative AI conversational interface, Freya, for its Personal Investing platform.

Morgan Stanley to offer crypto trading through E*Trade following zerohash investment.

Open banking

Payment-linked advertising innovator Sientia teams up with global gift card platform Tillo.

Crypto and Defi

LINE NEXT and Kaia partner to launch a stablecoin superapp, Unify, in Asia.

Coinbase taps DeFi to offer up to 10.8% yield on USDC holdings.

Stripe and Visa to power Fold’s new Bitcoin rewards credit card.

Digital banking

B2B digital banking firm VersaBank implements new AI capabilities within its proprietary core banking technology.

Business management

UK-based business management platform Tide raised $120 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion.

Lending

Dublin, Ireland-based AI-native orchestration platform for credit decisioning Rekord secures $2.1 million in pre-seed funding.

Embedded finance

Cross River Bank introduces its Advanced Authorization model to enhance the transaction approval process for fintechs and enterprises.

Fraud prevention

Hungarian cybersecurity firm SEON secured $80 million in Series C funding.

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Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

We’re past the mid-way point of August, and last week brought some notable fintech funding rounds. What will this week bring? Here’s your look at the latest fintech news this week. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!

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Payments

UAE employees can now receive salaries in digital wallets as UAE telecom operator du launches new platform.

Lending

Finastra supports JICA with Loan IQ to transform private-sector investment finance system in Japan.

Insurtech

UK-based AI insurance broker Meshed raises £950K in pre-seed funding to transform SME insurance market.

Personal finance

PayLaterr partners with Experian to enhance fraud detection and leverage alternative data for smarter budgeting decisions.

Narmi and Grasshopper launch MCP server by a U.S. Bank for AI-driven insights.

Sustainability

Sustainable money app Zero unveils new Zero Carbon Projects feature enabling users to offset their carbon footprint via verified carbon removal projects around the world.

Crypto and DeFi

Tokyo-based fintech JPYC Inc. announces plans to issue Japan’s first stablecoin this fall.

Crypto payments company MoonPay inks multi-year strategic partnership with self-custody crypto wallet Trust Wallet.

Investing

Openbank, a part of the Santander Group, partners with Upvest as its investment infrastructure provider.

Turkey-based retail investing app Midas raises $80 million in Series B funding.

DriveWealth names Naureen Hassan Chief Executive Officer.

Agora expands its fund admin partnerships with Verivest, empowering a new generation of service providers.

Fraud prevention

Canadian digital lender Fig teams up with transaction monitoring and AML compliance company Flagright.

Financial crime detection platform Ivix secures $60 million in Series B funding.

Open banking

Web3 lifestyle app Syfu partners with open banking platform Salt Edge to integrate card data from more than 5,000 banks.

Back end and communications

Eltropy now integrates with over 50 core systems and fintech solutions.

FIS launches Optimized Reconciliation Service to help capital markets adapt to evolving complexity.

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Photo by Efrem Efre