This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Will World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture linked to President Donald Trump, secure a bank charter? Will PayPal sell itself to Stripe? There’s a lot to mull over in the fintech headlines as the week begins. Be sure to check back here at Finovate’s Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest in news and announcements.
Digital banking
Regional financial institution Flagstar Bank ($87.7 billion in assets) partners with Fiserv to support its core modernization strategy.
Oman-based BankDhofarintroduces youth accounts to promote financial literacy among the country’s young adults.
Agentic AI
Alipayunveils China’s first full-stack agentic commerce platform.
Fiserv has embedded Personetics’ AI platform into Experience Digital (XD).
The integration will help banks deliver real-time, personalized financial guidance to consumers and small businesses.
The move reflects the shift of AI from a standalone fintech tool to core digital banking infrastructure.
Banking and commerce technology provider Fiserv and cognitive banking platform Personetics are joining forces today. Fiserv has embedded Personetics’ platform within its Experience Digital (XD), a tool that gives banks and credit unions a new way to offer more personalized experiences to end users.
Embedding Personetics’ AI platform directly into Fiserv’s digital banking experience will allow Fiserv’s bank clients to act on data in real time, offering them the ability to deliver timely prompts, contextual guidance, and relevant offers within XD. The new capabilities will help end consumers manage their cash flow, build their savings, and make more informed financial decisions. It will offer small business users the ability to better manage working capital, anticipate needs, and respond more quickly to changes in their business.
“Financial institutions have no shortage of data, but many still struggle to translate that information into timely, relevant action,” said Personetics CEO Udi Ziv. “By embedding Personetics within Experience Digital, Fiserv is helping banks and credit unions deliver more human, personalized digital experiences that can improve money management for consumers and help small businesses operate with greater confidence.”
Personetics was founded in 2010 to bring cognitive banking tools to banks. The company sets itself apart with its AI-driven insights that help banks become a trusted advisor to their customers by bringing them personalized financial guidance. Personetics, a long-standing pioneer in AI-powered financial wellness, serves 150 million bank customers across 24 global markets each month.
Fiserv launched its XD platform in 2023 as the evolution of its digital banking offerings, bringing together account opening, money management, payments, small business banking, and fintech integrations in a unified digital experience. Natively embedding Personetics’ tools into XD will enable banks to create a more intuitive and relevant digital banking experience.
The move comes at a time when consumers are increasingly turning to AI-powered tools for financial guidance. Increasingly, fintechs and banks are adding AI-powered financial guidance as a built-in capability rather than an optional add-on. Embedding Personetics directly into XD will allow Fiserv to lower implementation barriers for clients, enabling banks to bring AI-driven money management tools to market more quickly.
“Consumers and small businesses increasingly expect digital banking experiences that are intuitive and responsive,” said Fiserv Chief Product Officer Vishal Dalal. “With this collaboration, our clients can use the data they already have to deliver timely guidance and personalized engagement that creates meaningful value for the consumers and businesses they serve.”
The announcement illustrates how AI is shifting from a standalone feature to core digital banking infrastructure. Rather than asking banks to select and integrate their own AI tools, platform providers like Fiserv are increasingly embedding those capabilities directly into their products, making advanced financial guidance accessible to a broader range of institutions.
Fiserv has partnered with AI agent lab Cognition to use Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer, to accelerate banks’ core modernization efforts and shorten development cycles.
Devin can autonomously plan, write, test, and deploy code across complex codebases, helping Fiserv deliver new features, security updates, and integrations to bank clients faster.
Banks increasingly expect quicker deployment cycles and more flexibility, and providing faster infrastructure changes will offer Fiserv a competitive advantage.
Fiserv has tapped AI agent lab Cognition to help its bank clients modernize their core banking technology faster. The Wisconsin-based company anticipates the partnership will help it accelerate the process of bringing new capabilities to its bank clients.
Specifically, Fiserv will leverage Devin, Cognition’s AI-powered, autonomous software engineer, to shorten release cycles. Released in 2024, Devin plans, writes, tests, iterates, and ships production code on its own, working inside banks’ codebases and using existing tools. Firms like Goldman Sachs, Ramp, Zillow, and Lowe’s use Devin to help extend engineering capacity to free up their teams to focus on delivering improvements such as enhancements, strengthened quality checks, and improved platform resilience.
Because Devin is able to work at scale across complex codebases, it can help modernize a firm’s infrastructure quickly. Fiserv will use Devin to help modernize its core platform and for other complex engineering initiatives.
“Speed matters more than ever in banking, and our clients are counting on us to deliver. With Devin, we can accelerate modernization of the platforms our clients run their business on, ship new capabilities faster, and free our teams to focus on the work that matters most,” said Fiserv Co-President Dhivya Suryadevara.
Core modernization has historically been expensive, resource-intensive, and slow, often taking years to complete. If AI-powered software engineers can materially accelerate development cycles, banks may be able to upgrade infrastructure, launch products, and respond to market shifts faster than previously possible.
Fiserv notes that while this move will help ship new capabilities to its clients faster, it is doing so with controls in mind. The company is also strengthening its governance and security controls specifically for AI-assisted development.
“Fiserv is exactly the kind of organization where Devin creates compounding value—massive scale and an engineering organization that has ambitious goals for what it needs to build and maintain,” said Cognition Co-Founder and President Russell Kaplan. “We are proud to partner with Fiserv to help teams deliver measurable improvements, so clients see faster access to new capabilities, more consistent releases, and continued focus on quality and security.”
Because Fiserv provides infrastructure powering thousands of financial institutions, accelerating modernization efforts could allow the company to roll out new features, security improvements, integrations, and core platform upgrades to banks faster. Banks increasingly expect quicker deployment cycles and more flexible technology stacks, and providing faster infrastructure changes will offer Fiserv a competitive advantage.
With St. Patrick’s Day at the beginning of the week and the first day of spring at the end, it feels as if we are truly leaving winter behind us. Cacti are blooming here in the desert southwest and the fintech news —from new offerings in wealth management to the latest innovations in agentic AI—is flowing. Be sure to check back here at Finovate’s Fintech Rundown all week long for updates.
Digital banking
BankDhofarlaunchesNeo Corporate Internet Banking (Neo CIB), its next-generation digital banking platform.
DNERO, a neobank that caters to Latino customers, readies for a March 24 launch.
Digital asset wealth management platform Abraannounces plans to go public via SPAC merger with New Providence Acquisition Corp at a valuation of $750 million.
Sokinlaunches stablecoin capabilities to provide hybrid finance platform unifying digital assets and fiat.
Agentic AI
Lithuanian fintech Chaseit.aiintroduces AI agents to automate loan servicing and call center communications.
Integrated financial management platform for freelancers and gig economy workers, Finom, launches its embedded interest account.
Iwocaintroduces free financial health resources, including its Credit Compass, for small businesses in the UK.
Lending and Credit
Experian launches its AI-powered Experian Virtual Assistant (EVA) to deliver real-time, personalized financial insights and recommendations on financial products such as credit cards, loans, and insurance.
Ocrolusaccelerates automated conditioning for mortgage lenders with full lifecycle management.
Back end technology
FMSI and Applipartner to help credit union branches drive member revenue.
Fiserv and Affirm are bringing BNPL to debit cards, enabling banks and credit unions to offer pay-over-time capabilities through existing debit programs without building new lending infrastructure.
Offering BNPL with bank-issued debit cards shifts installment lending from the merchant checkout to bank-owned channels, allowing financial institutions to retain customer relationships, data, and engagement within their own apps and card programs.
The model positions banks as the primary gateway for flexible payments, placing BNPL distribution within core payments infrastructure.
Core banking platform and payments player Fiserv is bringing buy now, pay later (BNPL) capabilities to its debit cards.
The Wisconsin-based company is collaborating with Affirm to bring pay-over-time capabilities to its debit card programs, empowering Fiserv clients, including community banks and credit unions, to offer their end customers flexible payment options without having to build new lending products.
According to Fiserv, the move is designed to help smaller financial institutions compete more effectively while keeping customer relationships anchored to their own debit products. “Community and regional banks and credit unions want to meet evolving consumer expectations around greater flexibility in how they pay for purchases all the while building a strong relationship with their primary financial institution,” said Fiserv Head of Card Services Erik Wichita. “This partnership gives our clients a practical, scalable way to offer such payment flexibility through their existing debit products—helping them compete effectively, deepen customer and member relationships, and drive top-of-wallet engagement with their products.”
Today’s announcement comes four years after Affirm and Fiserv first teamed up, integrating Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout to Fiserv’s Carat global commerce hub. The move allowed merchants using Carat to offer BNPL to their shoppers.
Adding pay-over-time capabilities to debit cards instead of just offering the option at the point-of-sale moves the payment from a merchant-led experience to a bank-centric one. Instead of being offered only at checkout with participating retailers, debit-based BNPL allows shoppers to access installment payments across a wider range of purchases and merchants, using their preferred payment card. For banks and credit unions, this model retains the customer relationship, data, and engagement within their own debit programs and mobile apps.
Affirm, for its part, sees the partnership as a way to bring pay-over-time options directly into the primary banking relationship, rather than positioning BNPL as a standalone checkout experience. “Millions of consumers depend on their local financial institutions, including for their top-of-wallet debit cards,” said Affirm CRO Wayne Pommen. “By partnering with Fiserv, we’re helping these institutions offer transparent pay-over-time options so customers can get the flexibility they need from the banks and credit unions they already depend on, rather than having to look elsewhere. We’re excited to enable this co-branded offering for Fiserv’s partners, allowing them to natively offer Affirm’s flexible payments through their existing debit cards.”
Fiserv and Affirm are aiming to make an easy transition for banks by managing all of the technical aspects, including real-time underwriting, loan origination, and funding. As a further benefit, consumers can use Affirm anywhere their debit cards are accepted. Additionally, Affirm’s 420,000 merchant partners give cardholders access to custom financing offers.
The companies are enabling banks and credit unions to participate in BNPL economics without giving up customer ownership to third-party point-of-sale providers. This could reshape how flexible payments are delivered and position banks as the primary gateway for installment lending.
Fiserv has been involved in the payments space since it was founded in 1984. The company serves merchants, banks, and fintechs with payments tools, customer analytics, and fraud prevention technology. Fiserv is publicly listed on the NYSE under the ticker FI and has a market capitalization of $35.39 billion.
Clover is partnering with Wink to embed biometric identity directly into the payment flow across Clover’s point-of-sale ecosystem.
The integration enables identity-based payments using facial, palm, and voice recognition and will support transactions, loyalty enrollment, and age verification without passwords, physical cards, or additional hardware.
The partnership treats identity as a core layer of the transaction and aims to deliver faster checkout, reduced fraud, and simpler operations for merchants.
Fiserv-owned Clover, a company that provides Android-powered point-of-sale tools, announced it is partnering with biometric identity and payments platform Wink to offer a new way to pay.
Clover will integrate Wink’s biometric identity technology into its existing platform, enabling identity-based payments designed to improve security and streamline checkout for both merchants and customers.
Texas-based Wink, a FinovateSpring 2023 Best of Show winner, provides a multi-factor biometric platform that combines facial, palm, voice, and device recognition to authenticate customer identities across in-store, mobile, and online transactions—without relying on passwords, physical cards, or additional hardware.
The integration brings together Clover’s payment and loyalty tools with Wink’s biometric authentication capabilities, allowing consumers to complete transactions, enroll in loyalty programs, and verify age-restricted purchases using biometric authentication. All transactions are processed through Wink’s PCI Level 1 and SOC 2–compliant payment gateway.
“The future of commerce is the unification of payment and identity,” said Fiserv SVP and Global Chief Product Officer of Merchant Solutions Sanjay Saraf. “By embedding Wink’s leading biometric security and intelligence directly into the Clover platform, we’re making cutting-edge technology simple, secure, and accessible for Main Street SMB businesses, helping them to deliver exceptional experiences and unlock new opportunities for growth.”
While contactless payments tools became less exciting after COVID, the heart of this collaboration is around a more central aspect of payments: identity. By integrating Wink’s tools, Clover is bringing identity into the core layer of the transaction, rather than a separate step handled through passwords, cards, or manual checks. For merchants, this could mean faster throughput, lower fraud, and fewer operational touchpoints.
Clover was originally founded in 2010 to help small businesses accept payments. Today, the company serves as a one-stop shop for multiple payment needs. In addition to offering a range of payment acceptance terminals, Clover also has software to help businesses with online orders, accounting, loyalty programs, staff management, inventory, and more.
Clover was acquired in 2012 by First Data, which was acquired by Fiserv in 2019.
“Wink’s strategic integration with Clover will bring unparalleled security, speed, and intelligence to every transaction across a large ecosystem of merchants, app developers, and partners,” said Deepak Jain, Founder and CEO of Wink. “We are excited to work closely with Fiserv to bring to market many advanced use cases of identity-driven payments that will define the future of connected commerce at scale across retail, hospitality, venues, and stadiums.”
Clover will make the biometric capabilities available across all of its point-of-sale devices, including Station Duo, Mini, Flex, and Clover Kiosk, and will not require additional hardware changes. The new biometric technology will be available to QSRs, sports venues, and retailers, in a continuous rollout throughout 2026.
2026 begins in earnest today as the first full working week of the year gets underway. Be sure to check in with Finovate’s Fintech Rundown over the next few days to get you up and running with the latest in fintech news and announcements!
Universal Exchange (UEX) Bitgetopens its TradFi trading suite to all users.
TradeStationunveils the upcoming launch of TITAN X, its next generation of its flagship trading platform designed for active traders.
Crypto and DeFi
Telcoin, a digital asset bank that just won final charter approval from the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, launches its eUSD stablecoin.
Kast, a financial platform built on stablecoin rails, expands global payouts to 11 new local currencies including GBP, EUR, and CAD, as well as a multiple currencies in the Asia Pacific region.
Fiserv is leveraging Paxos, Circle, and Solana to launch FIUSD, a new stablecoin integrated into its global banking and payments infrastructure.
FIUSD is designed for traditional banks and offers a compliant, SDK-based solution that maintains control over the customer experience while enabling 24/7 settlement and programmable payments.
Fiserv is positioning FIUSD as a “bank-friendly coin,” making it possible for banks to participate and compete in the tokenized financial ecosystem.
In a move that signals growing mainstream adoption of digital assets, payments giant Fiserv has unveiled plans to launch its own stablecoin, FIUSD. The Wisconsin-based company is embedding the blockchain-based payments tool directly into its global financial infrastructure by the end of the year.
Fiserv will leverage stablecoin infrastructure from Paxos and Circle and will make FIUSD available to its clients via Web3 infrastructure player Solana. The new stablecoin will be made available at no additional cost to clients, giving them access to a new, interoperable digital asset service to integrate into their banking and payment flows.
Along with today’s announcement, the company also said that it is evaluating the use of tokenized deposits as an alternative to stablecoins. Tokenized deposits offer many of the same advantages that stablecoins do, such as speed, interoperability, and programmability. However, tokenized deposits are designed to align more closely with regulatory and capital requirements. This approach may offer banks a more familiar path to leveraging blockchain-based payment infrastructure without taking on the balance sheet complexities of non-deposit stablecoins.
For traditional banks, FIUSD offers a safe and controlled on-ramp into stablecoins. By partnering with a trusted infrastructure provider like Fiserv, banks can experiment with programmable money without needing to become crypto-native themselves.
Fiserv anticipates FIUSD to scale quickly, as it will be launched across its global network that includes relationships with 10,000 financial institution clients and six million merchant locations that process 90 billion transactions each year. Leveraging stablecoins and tokenized deposits in traditional banking and payments is expected to rapidly expand due to their ability to settle 24/7, streamline processes, increase efficiency, and power use cases where existing options may be limited.
“Through our privileged position as a trusted infrastructure provider to financial institutions, merchants, and their customers worldwide, we are relentlessly focused on delivering state-of-the-art innovation, efficiency, and choice to all of our partners,” said Fiserv Chief Operating Officer Takis Georgakopoulos. “With our scale, reach, and technology leadership, Fiserv is uniquely positioned to advance stablecoin-powered payments and help democratize access to blockchain financial services. Together with our other cloud-native banking and merchant platforms, we believe FIUSD will provide our clients with the efficiency and optionality they need to thrive in the evolving banking and payments ecosystem.”
Fiserv is differentiating FIUSD as a “bank-friendly coin,” stating that it enables banks to maintain full control of the customer experience. Unlike traditional public stablecoins like USDC or USDT, FIUSD is designed specifically for financial institutions. The stablecoin is delivered via an SDK that fits into Fiserv’s existing platforms and offers integrated fraud monitoring, risk tools, and a regulatory-first approach, positioning the stablecoin as a bank-grade alternative that blends innovation with institutional trust.
“FIUSD is designed with our clients in mind, a financial institution-friendly coin that simplifies stablecoin access through a secure and scalable ecosystem,” said Sunil Sachdev, Head of Embedded Finance at Fiserv. “We are excited to begin collaborating with our clients, partners, and other ecosystem players to create modernized financial experiences.”
Fiserv noted that this is the first of “a series of announcements” surrounding digital asset products it plans to release. Notably, the announcement comes the week after the US Congress passed the GENIUS Act, which will serve as a foundation for US banks to participate in a regulated digital asset ecosystem.
The news comes two months after Fiserv acquired Australia-based payment facilitator Pinch Payments. Fiserv has been involved in the payments space since it was founded in 1984. The company serves merchants, banks, and fintechs with payments tools, customer analytics, and fraud prevention technology. Fiserv is publicly listed on the NYSE under the ticker FI and has a market capitalization of $92.3 billion.
With FIUSD, Fiserv is not just staying ahead of the evolution of the DeFi economy, but it is also making it possible for banks to participate and compete in the tokenized financial ecosystem. As one of the first traditional movers in the stablecoin space, Fiserv could set a new benchmark as a bank-grade DeFi provider.
Between FinovateSpring taking place in San Diego and a busy news cycle, last week was a blur. Let’s see what this week has in store! We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!
Fiserv has acquired Australia-based PayFac Pinch Payments to strengthen its digital payments offerings and expand its merchant reach across the Asia Pacific region.
Pinch’s cloud-based SaaS platform and PayFac expertise will help Fiserv deliver more flexible solutions for PayFacs, ISVs, BPSPs, ISOs, and enterprise clients.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Payments innovator Fiserv has acquired Australia-based payment facilitator (PayFac) Pinch Payments for an undisclosed amount.
Fiserv anticipates that bringing Pinch into its ecosystem will help it offer more flexible options for PayFacs, ISVs, BPSPs, ISOs and enterprise clients. Pinch will enhance Fiserv’s reach with its access to a greater number of merchants. It will also help fuel Fiserv’s delivery of new payments solutions such as Pinch’s cloud-based SaaS business operating platform for merchants across Asia Pacific.
“This acquisition further demonstrates Fiserv’s commitment to the local payments market, following our recent launch of Clover in Australia,” said Fiserv Head of Australia Gavin Jones. “By integrating our leading digital payments solutions with Pinch’s innovative technology and local expertise, we are able to deliver innovative payment solutions to empower merchants across the APAC region. We welcome the Pinch associates to the Fiserv family and are committed to seamless integration of services for our customers.”
Pinch was founded in 2017 and currently serves 2,000 merchants throughout Australia and New Zealand. The company is best known for its PayFac enablement and its management platform Glassbox. The company serves both enterprises and small businesses, and also offers a developer API, providing a comprehensive set of tools to help businesses facilitate payments more efficiently at scale.
“Joining Fiserv is an incredible opportunity for the Pinch team and furthers our mission to provide seamless partner experiences to a growing number of merchants,” said Pinch Payments Co-Founder and CEO Paul Allen. “Having worked closely with the Fiserv team, I am confident in our roadmap to expand into new markets.”
The acquisition of Pinch Payments highlights a broader trend in the payments industry as demand grows for faster, more flexible, and embedded payment experiences. Traditional card-based transactions are increasingly being challenged with alternative payment methods such as pay-by-bank, in which consumers make direct, account-to-account transfers without the need for a card network. This shift is being driven by the rise of open banking and a push for lower-cost, real-time payment options.
As businesses and consumers across the Asia Pacific region look for more efficient ways to move money, partnerships and acquisitions like this one position companies like Fiserv to offer a wider range of solutions for customers in more geographies. With PayFac enablement, cloud-based platforms, and emerging capabilities like pay-by-bank, the payments landscape is now offering more speed, transparency, and options.
This week marks Eid al-Fitr, the festival celebrating the end of Ramadan and the breaking of a month-long fast. Similarly, the close of this quarter feels like fintech is breaking its own fast, with Klarna filing its IPO prospectus, Rocket Companies announcing major acquisitions of Mr. Cooper and Redfin, and regulatory frameworks beginning to ease in the U.S. As we enter into the second quarter, here’s a look at this week’s fintech news as we leave the time of fasting behind. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!
Finastra‘s cloud-based loan document preparation system LaserProunveils enhanced features and sees further adoption by community-based financial institutions.
Business financial management
Tesoriolaunches AI agent that autonomously manages portal-based invoicing.
Enterprise spend management platform Mendelcloses $35 million Series B round led by Base10 Partners with participation from PayPal Ventures.
This is the week fintech has been anticipating for years. Klarna filed its F-1 prospectus document late Friday, anticipating it will raise at least $1 billion at a $15 billion valuation with its IPO. We won’t know the official valuation figures until Klarna prices shares, which may take around a month, however. While we wait, let’s dive into this week’s fintech news. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!
Small Business Financial Management
Small business credit card and spend management platform Capital on Tappartners with bank payment firm GoCardless for Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs).
