Mastercard partners with CredibleX to empower SMEs with enhanced access to financing

Mastercard partners with CredibleX to empower SMEs with enhanced access to financing
  • CredibleX is integrating Mastercard’s Small Business Credit Analytics (SBCA) API into its embedded financing platform to enhance SME credit access in the UAE and EMEA region.
  • SBCA uses anonymized, item-level transaction data to help lenders assess small business financial performance, enabling faster underwriting, reduced risk, and improved loan terms.
  • This partnership aligns with Mastercard’s goal of driving financial inclusion, leveraging advanced analytics to help small businesses secure working capital despite limited credit history.

Working capital financing platform CredibleX announced this week that it has partnered with Mastercard. The Abu Dhabi-based company is integrating Mastercard’s Small Business Credit Analytics (SBCA) into its embedded financing tool.

The integration will offer CredibleX enhanced data-driven insights based on anonymized and aggregated transaction data. Leveraging this new data in a unique way with SBCA will empower small and medium businesses to have greater access to financing.

​Mastercard launched its SBCA API last April as part of an effort to enhance tools for acquirers in identifying and mitigating potential risks during onboarding and daily operations. SBCA solicits consent from the small business client to leverage data-driven insights to help assess the company’s financial performance. SBCA leverages business performance data to help lenders evaluate key questions about a small business’s financial health.

With SBCA integrated into its embedded financing tool, CredibleX will be able to help make more informed lending decisions, reduce underwriting time, and enhance risk management. “This partnership with CredibleX underscores Mastercard’s commitment to supporting the SME ecosystem in the UAE,” said Mastercard EVP of Services in EEMEA Selin Bahadirli. “SBCA is a game-changer, offering unparalleled insights into small business performance. Together, we aim to empower SMEs with better credit access, improved loan terms, and enhanced opportunities for growth.”

Adding enhanced data will also help CredibleX improve access to credit across the EMEA region. Because Mastercard’s SBCA will offer CredibleX a more comprehensive evaluation of a business’s financial health, it will also drive financial inclusion for small businesses with previously limited access to working capital because of their limited credit history or lack of formal documentation.

“This partnership is a testament to our shared vision of enabling financial inclusion and innovation,” said CredibleX Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer Hassan Reda. “By combining CredibleX’s expertise in lending with Mastercard’s advanced analytics, we are setting a new benchmark for data driven SME financing in the region.”

Founded in 2023, CredibleX offers embedded insurance, embedded invoice finance, embedded POS finance, and B2B channel finance tools. The solutions help any organization that services SMB customers to add lending solutions under their brand. CredibleX raised $55 million in funding last December from Further Ventures. Anand Nagaraj serves as CEO.


Photo by Rachel Claire

Bilt Rewards Acquires Banyan for Item-Level Receipt Data

Bilt Rewards Acquires Banyan for Item-Level Receipt Data
  • Bilt Rewards is acquiring Banyan to enhance its neighborhood commerce platform with item-level receipt data, enabling hyper-personalized rewards.
  • Banyan’s tier three data will allow Bilt to expand into new merchant categories like grocery and gas, automate FSA/HSA reimbursements, and deliver targeted rewards based on residents’ specific purchases.
  • Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed and Banyan will continue to operate independently after the acquisition is finalized.

Rent payment rewards program Bilt Rewards is acquiring item-level receipt data company Banyan to enable hyper-personalized rewards. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Bilt Rewards offers a loyalty rewards program and credit card that allows renters to earn points when they pay their rent, building credit with every payment. With no annual fee, the Bilt Mastercard credit card also allows cardholders to earn points on select dining experiences, rideshare purchases, and travel purchases. These points can be redeemed for travel, fitness classes, home decor, and even a down payment on a future home.

“This acquisition represents a major step forward in our mission to transform how residents engage with their neighborhoods,” said Bilt Rewards Founder and CEO Ankur Jain. “By further incorporating Banyan’s item-level intelligence into our platform, we’re able to create truly seamless experiences that drive value for both our members and our network of over 40,000 neighborhood merchants. This is about making commerce more meaningful, more personalized, and more rewarding exactly where people live.”

Since it was founded in 2019, Banyan has analyzed more than 20 billion receipts and processed hundreds of billions of dollars in spending. Bilt Rewards will use Banyan’s item-level receipt data, also known as tier three data, to improve its neighborhood commerce rewards platform by enabling hyper-personalized rewards.

Some of the new capabilities that Banyan’s tier three data capabilities will unlock include:

  1. Extending Bilt’s FSA/HSA program to more neighborhood merchants by automatically identifying potentially eligible purchases, and filing for FSA/HSA reimbursement.
  2. Enabling neighborhood merchants to offer personalized rewards on home essentials when Bilt members move into a new neighborhood.
  3. Allowing consumer packaged goods companies to offer targeted rewards when residents purchase specific products at neighborhood merchants.
  4. Helping Bilt to expand into new merchant categories beyond dining, fitness, and pharmacy to include grocery, gas, parking, and more in order to create a comprehensive neighborhood commerce network.

“Our expansion with Banyan allows us to bring neighborhood commerce to life in ways that weren’t previously possible,” added Jain. “We’re creating an ecosystem where the barriers between earning and using rewards disappear, and where the value of being part of our network increases dramatically for every participant.”

Logistically, Banyan will continue to operate independently after the acquisition is finalized. Founder and CEO Jehan Luth will remain at the helm while helping Bilt to enhance the neighborhood commerce ecosystem. New Jersey-based Banyan most recently demoed at FinovateSpring 2022.

Tier three data is often considered the holy grail for data aggregators like MX, Finicity, and Yodlee because it offers insight into exactly what consumers are buying, and not just where they are spending. This is valuable when it comes to analyzing consumer spending at big box retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Costco, where a single transaction could contain anything from vitamins to electronics. Understanding specific, product-level spending allows financial services, merchants, and marketing platforms to create personalization strategies that include hyper-targeted offers and ultimately drive engagement and increase conversions.

However, the rise of e-commerce and AI-driven analytics has reshaped the demand for tier three data. That’s because ecommerce merchants already collect structured purchase data, eliminating some of the guesswork that traditional financial data aggregators rely on. The real value lies in combining AI with receipt-level data to create automated marketing and loyalty solutions that leverage machine learning to help merchants and marketing service providers analyze transaction patterns, predict future purchases, and deliver personalized promotions in real time.

PayPal, which launched its Smart Receipts tool earlier this year, is a prime example of this. With Smart Receipts, merchants can embed AI-powered personalized offers directly into digital receipts, ensuring that consumers receive targeted promotions based on their actual purchases. Unlike traditional receipt scanning apps or rewards programs, Smart Receipts dynamically adjusts offers after the transaction to suggest relevant products, cross-sell complementary items, and drive repeat purchases.


Photo by Kaboompics.com

Streamly Snapshot: The Real Reason Open Banking has Floundered in Europe

Streamly Snapshot: The Real Reason Open Banking has Floundered in Europe

Open banking was expected to revolutionize financial services in Europe, but years after its introduction, adoption has fallen short of expectations. While regulation like PSD2 laid the groundwork for greater financial data sharing, the actual implementation of open banking has been fragmented, inconsistent, and underwhelming. Many financial institutions still treat open banking as a compliance exercise rather than an opportunity for innovation, leaving consumers and businesses with limited, disjointed experiences instead of the seamless financial ecosystem that was promised.

In this exclusive interview recorded at FinovateEurope 2025, David Barton-Grimley, Strategy Director at 11:FS speaks with Finovate VP Greg Palmer to discuss why open banking has floundered in Europe, the underlying issues slowing adoption, and what needs to change for it to deliver on its full potential. From poor API standards to a lack of clear monetization strategies, Barton-Grimley explores some of the underlying implementation issues and addresses how financial institutions can shift their approach to make open banking work for both consumers and businesses.

“Too often the conversation about open banking is very binary,” Barton-Grimley said. “Is it successful, and what does success even mean in this category? It is growing, and we are seeing year-on year multi-digit uptake of it as people are getting used to it and using it.”

11:FS is a digital financial services consultancy that helps banks, fintechs, and businesses stay current with changing demands. The company is known for its deep industry expertise, research, and advisory services that help financial institutions design and launch truly digital financial products. With a mission to make financial services “truly digital” rather than just digitized versions of old models, 11:FS works with some of the biggest names in banking and fintech to drive real innovation in open finance, embedded banking, and digital transformation.

As Strategy Director at 11:FS, David Barton-Grimley specializes in helping banks and fintechs navigate the evolving financial landscape. He has advised financial institutions on how to build better digital banking experiences and leverage open finance as a competitive advantage. At 11:FS, Barton-Grimley works closely with financial services leaders to develop and execute strategies that drive growth, customer engagement, and long-term success in an increasingly digital-first world.


Photo by Jeff Vinluan

Rocket to Acquire Redfin for $1.75 Billion

Rocket to Acquire Redfin for $1.75 Billion
  • Rocket Companies is acquiring real estate platform Redfin for $1.75 billion.
  • Rocket anticipates that adding Redfin into its offerings will create a more seamless home-buying experience by integrating home search, real estate brokerage, and mortgage financing.
  • The acquisition brings Redfin’s 50 million monthly visitors, 1 million active listings, and 2,200+ real estate agents into Rocket’s ecosystem.

Rocket Companies is ready for takeoff with its latest acquisition today. The Michigan-based corporate group announced plans to purchase real estate brokerage website Redfin for $1.75 billion.

Washington-based Redfin was founded in 2004 and is now one of the most recognized real estate search and brokerage platforms. The company hosts more than 1 million for-sale and rental listings, as well as a brokerage that consists of more than 2,200 agents.

“Rocket and Redfin have a unified vision of a better way to buy and sell homes,” said Rocket Companies CEO Varun Krishna. “Together, we will improve the experience by connecting traditionally disparate steps of the search and financing process with leading technology that removes friction, reduces costs, and increases value to American homebuyers.”

Rocket Companies consists of 11 separate brands, including Rocket Mortgage, Amrock, Rocket Money, Rocket Loans, Lowermybills.com, and others. Rocket has been around for 40 years and currently provides home financing in all 50 states.

Rocket anticipates that integrating Redfin’s home search and real estate agent network with its mortgage origination and servicing capabilities will offer users a more seamless experience, as Redfin will bring home search capabilities to Rocket’s mortgage financing and closing processes.

Specifically, Rocket will benefit from Redfin’s almost 50 million monthly visitors, 1 million active purchase and rental listings, and its 2,200+ real estate agent employees across 42 states. Rocket expects that, after its combination with Redfin, it will achieve more than $200 million in projected, annualized savings by 2027, including around $140 million saved from eliminating duplicate expenses.

“Rocket and Redfin’s approaches to lending and brokerage service have always been two halves of one vision to make the whole home-buying process magical,” said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. “We want a customer to be able to check her phone to find out what she can afford, see which homes are just right for her, schedule a tour with a local, expert Redfin agent, and get pre-qualified for a loan, all in a matter of minutes. Varun and I see how much better real estate could be when AI guides customers not just through that first step in their search, but all the way home, through the sale, the loan and then a lifetime of accumulating equity and wealth.”

Rocket Companies’ acquisition of Redfin is a major move in mortgagetech, which has generally remained one of the least disrupted subsectors of fintech. This is good news for consumers, who have traditionally had to navigate multiple fragmented steps to purchase a home. By bringing Redfin’s search and brokerage capabilities under its umbrella, Rocket will help streamline the home buying journey and create a more approachable experience, especially for first-time buyers.

The move also positions Rocket to capture more mortgage business at a time when refinancing demand has declined due to higher interest rates. Integrating Redfin’s platform and user base could significantly increase its share of purchase loans, allowing the company to compete more effectively against traditional banks and other real estate fintechs.


Photo by David McBee

See Who’s Demoing at FinovateSpring this May

See Who’s Demoing at FinovateSpring this May

FinovateSpring 2025 takes place in San Diego on May 7 through May 9. Register to attend by March 28 and save $400.

FinovateSpring is making it’s SoCal debut this May with an unmissable showcase featuring over 50 trailblazing fintech innovations.

With just 7 minutes each, they’ll unveil the cutting-edge technology shaping 2025 and beyond.

This year’s carefully curated demo lineup dives into technology trends including:

  • Third-party risk management for FI vendors
  • Contact center capacity planning
  • Earned-wage access and pre-emptive pay gap planning
  • BaaS from retail and commercial angles 
  • Enhanced compliance workflows that scale
  • Streamlined KYC/B through biometrics and automation
  • Agentic AI for improved customer experience
  • . . . and much more!

Join us to develop a strong foundation for your fintech success early this year.

Demo applications are still open to those driving innovation in financial services. Whether a startup, bank, public entity, or established leader–all organizations can demo.

With main stage speaking, plug-and-play expo stand, speaker passes, lead generation reports, coaching calls with Finovate’s host and resident expert, and marketing and media exposure, this is unparalleled exposure with a high ROI. Apply now.

Questions? Email us at spring@finovate.com.

FutureVault Secures $3 Million in Equity Funding

FutureVault Secures $3 Million in Equity Funding

AI-powered digital vault provider FutureVault has raised $3 million in equity capital. The funding boosts the fintech’s total capital raised to $31 million, and will be used to accelerate the development of new product functionality, continue innovating in the use of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), drive additional advancements in workflow automation, and strengthen the company’s position as the pioneer of Client Life Management Vault solutions.

“We are grateful for the confidence our existing and new shareholders have in our enormous business opportunity,” said FutureVault CEO Daniel Kenny. Company founder and executive chairman G. Scott Paterson added, “The aggregation of critical documents into a digital vault, when coupled with AI, is changing the face of financial services, advice delivery, and client engagement.”

Digital vaults play a key role in the modern technology stack for companies in financial services and wealth management. In the same way that physical vaults store and protect valuable assets—such as cash, jewelry, and important documents—digital vaults safeguard valuable digital assets, such as files and documentation. Digital vault technology enables firms to better organize, manage, store, and deliver client-facing documents, onboard and retrain customers, attract talent, manage compliance and audit readiness, and ultimately enhance engagement with both new and existing clients.

FutureVault’s platform leverages AI to provide document summaries, keyword extraction and expiration date recognition, contextualized action items and more. Users can extract structured and unstructured data to power workflows and enterprise-wide intelligence. The platform provides secure document exchange and helps firms maintain data security and compliance via better recordkeeping governance and streamlined audits.

“Digital vault platforms are becoming the next iteration and the future of secure document management by providing firms (and their advisors) accountability, efficiency, structure, compliance, and protection—all areas that enable organizations to scale document management practices across the many levels of their organization, and most importantly, to extend and enhance the value proposition delivered to their clients,” FutureVault CMO Kristian Borghesan said.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, FutureVault made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2016 in New York. Today, the company boasts more than 150,000 client vault accounts, 4,000+ partner professionals, and more than $600 billion in assets under management of partner firms. FutureVault serves investment dealers, RIAs and advisors, family offices, banks and credit unions, insurance companies, accounting firms, and more.

FutureVault began the year by teaming up with Canadian wealth compliance technology provider PortfolioAid. The partnership combines PortfolioAid’s wealth compliance technology with FutureVault’s Client Life Management Vault and Digital Vault to establish a new benchmark for digital document management, compliance transparency, and an enhanced client value proposition.

“Data embedded within documents is worth more than raw data,” FutureVault CEO Daniel Kenny said. “With FutureVault’s AI-powered Digital Vault construct, we’re enabling enterprises, advisors and their clients to tap into this data like never before—driving unprecedented advisor-client engagement and streamlining operational workflows. Our partnership with Sam Webster and the team at PortfolioAid will materially transform the modern wealth enterprise’s ability to deliver a more personalized, seamless, and compliant client experience.”


Photo by Ehtiram Mammadov

Ladies First: Celebrating the Women of FinovateEurope 2025

Ladies First: Celebrating the Women of FinovateEurope 2025

This past Saturday marked International Women’s Day, but if you missed it, I’ve got good news: Women’s History Month is celebrated throughout the month.

In the US, Women’s History Week was first celebrated in 1982, and this commemoration of women’s history was extended to the full month of March four years later. To learn more about the history of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month—and their fascinating origins in European and women’s labor history—check out this primer from Time.com.

Here at Finovate, we have recognized the accomplishments of women in fintech and financial services for more than a decade. In both our conferences and on the Finovate blog, we have endeavored to showcase women who have founded and led some of the most innovative companies in our industry.

With this in mind, Finovate is once again proud to recognize the women who introduced themselves and their companies to our FinovateEurope audience this past February.


Catherine Kurt

CEO & Co-Founder, AQ22

Kurt (LinkedIn) is a co-founder at AQ22, leading the growth of an agentic banking orchestration platform that transforms financial workflows with AI-driven automation globally.

Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, AQ22 automates and accelerates up to 90% of commercial lending processes.


Tatiana Botskina

CEO, Deriskly

Botskina (LinkedIn) is an award-winning serial founder, Oxford-trained AI scientist, and banking lawyer with 10+ years of expertise in safe, explainable AI, and compliance for the financial sector.

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in London, England, Deriskly empowers organizations to enhance customer trust, reduce compliance risks, and optimize engagement via AI-driven insights to create clear, effective, and customer-centric financial communications.


Jackie (Jac) Dunne

CEO, Dimply

Dunne (LinkedIn) is a seasoned executive whose expertise lies in the financial services and fintech/regtech industry. She has a proven track record in growing and building businesses and fostering relationships.

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Dimply helps banks and credit unions unlock greater value from their data and create beautiful, personalized, insightful, and resonant embedded financial experiences.


Moyi Dang

CEO, Mati Labs

Dang (LinkedIn) is a former Asia investment researcher, Uber data scientist, an experienced entrepreneur, and YC alum.

Founded in 2024 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Mati Labs helps financial institutions transform and grow by enabling AI adoption with robust data foundations, ensuring security and compliance, and fostering knowledge-based innovation.


Sage Franch

CEO & Co-Founder, PromoComply

Franch (LinkedIn) has more than a decade of experience in artificial intelligence and business leadership, working with organizations of all sizes to drive business growth through digital transformation.

Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Montreal, Canada, PromoComply streamlines compliance for financial promotions, cutting down significantly on the time and cost of maintaining compliant marketing, so organizations build trust with consumers and regulators.

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

The arrival of Daylight Savings Time in much of the West is yet another reminder that Spring is right around the corner. Here’s Finovate’s Fintech Rundown with some fintech news—including some funding and partnership news from a handful of long-time Finovate alums—to help you get caught up on the latest updates and announcements in our industry.


Wealth management and investing

Digital vault platform FutureVault secures $3 million in equity capital.

Clearwater Analytics to acquire Beacon and Blackstone’s Bistro to deliver investment intelligence across private markets.

Digital banking

American Eagle Financial Credit Union to deploy Alkami Technology’s Digital Banking Platform.

Lithuanian digital bank myTU raises €10 million in Series A funding.

Challenger bank Lunar launches app for kids and teens.

Payments

Zimpler and Swish team up to enhance payments for highly regulated industries in Sweden.

Boost Payment Solutions partners with TransferMate to enhance cross-border payment capabilities.

AuthenticID and Authvia join forces to Provide Secure, Frictionless Digital Payments.

Fortis received a joint investment from Audax Private Equity and existing investor Lovell Minnick Partners

SEON launches new automated chargeback management solution.

Financial wellness

Augie unveils new credit card to help consumers build credit.

Open banking / open finance

Fintech Galaxy announces collaboration with the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) as part of its expansion in the country.

Business banking

Expensify, a financial management super app for expenses and corporate cards, launches new travel management tool, Expensify Travel.

Flywire acquires vertical software and payments platform for the hospitality industry Sertifi.

Lending and mortgage

Digital banking solutions origination platform Blend Labs forges partnership with verification of income and employment platform Truework.

Union Credit expands its partnership with Experian.

Tomo Mortgage raises $20 million with backing from Progressive Insurance.

Backend solutions

Worth secures $25 million investment led by TTV Capital to drive major enterprise growth and expand workflow automation solutions.

Dwolla announces the general availability of its expanded integration with Plaid, allowing its clients to leverage Plaid’s instant account verification and real-time balance check and pay-by-bank payments.

Digital identity

Microblink launches automated identity verification platform.


Photo by Pao Dayag

Finovate Global: Boku’s Stuart Neal Talks About Local Payment Methods, EPI, and More!

Finovate Global: Boku’s Stuart Neal Talks About Local Payment Methods, EPI, and More!

What happens when an ongoing revolution in payment innovation meets a regulatory regime determined to ensure secure and safe transactions for individual consumers, business entities, and even governments? This is the payments landscape in the UK and EU in 2025. As a proliferation of payment options promises to streamline banking and commerce, regulators, fintechs, and financial services companies are looking for ways to make sure that the challenges to these new payment options—from technical complexity to new forms of fraud and financial crime—are met.

To discuss these and other issues involving payments and the emerging regulatory environment, we caught up with Stuart Neal, Chief Executive Officer of Boku. Appointed CEO in January of 2024, Neal previously served as the company’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of Boku’s Identity Division. A champion of payment choice, Boku supports a global network of localized payment solutions, including Direct Carrier Billing (DCB), digital wallets, and account-to-account connections. Founded in 2008, Boku is headquartered in London.


Local Payment Methods (LPMs) have proliferated around the world over the past decade. Socially and technologically, what has powered this growth?

Stuart Neal: Local Payment Methods (LPMs) have had a meteoric rise over the past decade. It’s hard to overstate what a significant and rapid change we’ve seen, and behind it are two main driving forces: changing consumer preferences and rapid technological innovation.

Payments as an industry is finally beginning to reflect the diversity of people’s preferences around the world. And that’s a really positive development. It’s fair to say that traditional financial systems left many people and communities underserved, but LPMs—from mobile wallets in Africa to RTP schemes like UPI in India—bridge this gap, and they’re empowering billions of consumers to participate in the digital economy. This financial inclusion is great for society, for merchants and for the payments industry as a whole. 

At Boku, we want to be at the heart of this transformation. People just want convenience, and we’re here to help them buy what they want, the way they want. With one of the biggest LPM networks in the world, we’re making it easier than ever for global merchants to meet consumers where they are. 

Looking at Europe specifically, what role has the European Payments Initiative (EPI) played in driving this trend?

Neal: While still in its early stages, the European Payments Initiative (EPI) is playing a crucial role in reshaping the EU payment landscape. Its focus on creating a unified, pan-European payment solution, fostering instant payments, acquiring established players like iDEAL and Payconiq, and advocating for regulatory changes positions it as a future leader in European payments. By competing with global giants, EPI is pushing Europe toward a more integrated, efficient, and competitive payment system. However, full market transformation will likely take a few more years, with real change expected in 2025.

So far the EPI has excelled in laying the groundwork for this payments evolution by clearly articulating its vision and aligning strategically with the key pillars of ecommerce. By fostering strong relationships with merchants, PSPs, and issuing banks, EPI is now in a great position to effect significant change and shape the future of digital payments across Europe.

Part of this was the launch of the real-time payment system Wero last summer. Can you tell us a little about the significance of the Wero launch and how adoption has been so far?

Neal: The Wero Wallet, launched by the European Payments Initiative (EPI), serves as a strong entry into the EU market with the goal of unifying Europe’s fragmented payment landscape. Initially focusing on person-to-person (P2P) payments, Wero will expand to e-commerce in 2025 and in-store payments by 2026, offering various options such as instant payments, installment plans, and subscriptions. With the acquisitions of Dutch payment solution iDEAL and Luxembourg-based Payconiq International or the transition of the former Paylib P2P user base in France to Wero, EPI / Wero is well-positioned for success. However, EPI has opted for a phased market rollout, like what we have seen by other payment schemes in the past, starting with smaller-scale P2P launches in countries like Germany and France, while the true transformation is expected to unfold in 2025. Notably, these acquisitions continue to operate under their original brands, allowing for organic user growth before transitioning fully to Wero.

Has adoption of Wero been uniform across Europe or have some markets remained more reluctant? What distinguishes the eager adopters from the more cautious?

Neal: This is an interesting question, and one that will be clearer by the end of 2025, when we can fully assess the impact of Wero’s initial e-commerce launches. However, what we can say so far is that Wero’s adoption has been strongly shaped by key market dynamics. Starting in July 2024, users of participating German banks were able to sign up for Wero, with Belgium following suit by the end of 2024, also seeing gradual, organic growth. Around the same time, Wero benefited from a significant boost in France, where the transition from Paylib to Wero provided a built-in user base of approximately 35 million registered Paylib users. Looking ahead, the exit of local payment schemes like Giropay in Germany is expected to reshape the competitive landscape, presenting new opportunities for Wero to establish itself as a leading player in the market.

What can be done to encourage broader acceptance of solutions like Wero and less reliance on cards?

Neal: Accessibility is key to the adoption of anything. And if solutions like Wero are to be more broadly adopted, they must become more accessible for consumers and merchants. So to start with we need to integrate these solutions seamlessly into merchant payment ecosystems and do so in a way that matches–or ideally betters–the convenience of cards. You need a frictionless experience for people on both sides of the counter, as it were, if you want to drive adoption.

And then trust.  When it comes to sending and receiving money, trust is non-negotiable. Wero and other solutions like it must be really secure, have robust fraud prevention, and partner with regulators to ensure compliance. When consumers and businesses feel confident, they’ll naturally shift to these modern, local payment methods.

The final piece is education and awareness. A lot of consumers, especially in places like the UK and the US, stick to cards out of habit. If it’s familiar and it works, why change right? That being said, in the last year we’ve seen a huge shift in payment habits and greater awareness and adoption of alternatives. Research by Juniper reveals that 60% of all ecommerce transactions will happen via local payment methods by 2028. To put that into context, it’s equivalent to $7 billion a year flowing through hundreds of different payment methods and away from the legacy card networks. Merchants and payment providers need to highlight the benefits of solutions like Wero—whether it’s lower fees, faster transactions, or better alignment with local preferences.

You have just concluded your first year as CEO of Boku. What are your biggest takeaways from the first year and what are you hoping for in 2025?

Neal: It’s been a whirlwind year for sure. I’m very proud of the progress we’ve made, which has been underpinned by the demand for more convenient payment solutions from consumers. From where we were at the start of 2024, we’ve positioned ourselves as one of the world’s largest and most innovative global networks for Local Payment Methods with significant expansion in key global markets and more significant launches planned for this year.

I think my biggest takeaways would be the size of the opportunity for LPMs and the interwoven nature of the industry. Collaboration is so important, between merchants, PSPs, local payment providers, and indeed consumers. All of these need to be on the same page for digital commerce to flow smoothly, which is why the breadth and depth of our network is so important. 

Looking ahead to 2025, ecommerce is going to continue to grow as you’d expect. Research that we’ve commissioned actually estimates that the industry will reach an astonishing $10.6 trillion in value by 2028 (from $5.75 trillion today). Local payment methods are no longer an alternative, they are mainstream. For my part, and for Boku, our focus will be on continuing to innovate and scale our offering across Europe, APAC, Africa and Middle East, as well as some exciting planned launches for Latin America, all as part of our push and our mission to give people the freedom to buy what they want, the way they want.


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian B2B Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company Perfios acquired financial crime detection and risk management platform Claris5.
  • Pakistan fintech ABHI launched its microfinance bank.
  • Indian insurtech InsuranceDekho raised $70 million in a funding round co-led by existing investors including Beams Fintech Fund and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG).

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

  • CTBC Bank Philippines turned to Hitachi Asia to upgrade its digital corporate banking platform.
  • inDrive partnered with Fingular to launch its inDrive.Money solutions for customers in Indonesia.
  • Malaysia’s central bank and finance ministry granted licenses to a pair of new digital banks: KAF Digital Berhad and YTL Digital Bank Berhad.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Flutterwave secured a payment system license from the Bank of Zambia.
  • The Bank of Ghana and the National Bank of Rwanda inked an MoU to provide companies with a license passporting framework and cross-border payment interoperability.
  • Nigerian fintech ProsperaVest EGG introduced eNsc, a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Nigerian Naira.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Lithuanian identity verification service iDenfy announced a partnership with Highvibes to help protect artists from fraud.
  • Online payment and checkout solutions provider Montonio expanded its partnership with Inbank to bring BNPL and Hire Purchase options to customers in Latvia and Lithuania.
  • Austrian Reporting Services (AuRep) teamed up with the Nasdaq to provide regulatory reporting technology and support to companies in Austria’s financial services industry.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • UAE fintech Flow48 raised $69 million in combined debt and equity funding.
  • Egyptian fintech Khazna secured $16 million to power its expansion into Saudi Arabia.
  • Sadad teamed up with Mastercard to enhance digital payments in Qatar.

Photo by Peter Spencer

Expedia Taps Upgrade’s FlexPay to Bring Cruise Vacations to Travelers

Expedia Taps Upgrade’s FlexPay to Bring Cruise Vacations to Travelers
  • Expedia is partnering with fintech company Upgrade to offer Flex Pay, a BNPL solution that lets travelers pay for cruises in monthly installments, making luxury vacations more accessible.
  • Flex Pay supports payments across Expedia’s platforms and 750 travel and retail brands.
  • The partnership will assist travelers in managing their costs and will help cruise operators boost bookings, conversions, and order values.

Online travel booking company Expedia is partnering with mobile banking and lending fintech Upgrade to make its cruise booking services more accessible.

Specifically, Expedia is using Flex Pay, Upgrade’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution to enable travelers to pay for their cruise vacations in monthly installments. Consumers in the US and Canada will be able to book cruise experiences on 750 travel and retail brands via Expedia Cruises, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Orbitz.com and Cheaptickets.com using Flex Pay.

“We believe travel should be accessible to everyone,” said Expedia Cruises President Matthew Eichhorst. “With the introduction of Flex Pay, we’re not just offering payment options; we’re opening doors to experiences that once may have seemed out of reach. By allowing travelers to spread costs over time, we’re making dream cruises more attainable and enabling the exploration of the world on one’s own terms.”

Formerly known as Uplift, Flex Pay partners with Celtic Bank, Uplift, and Uplift Canada to allow travelers to finance their cruise vacation by spreading their payments over three to 24 months with no interest. While consumers benefit from a more approachable way to pay for their cruise, the cruise brands themselves also benefit. That’s because Flex Pay’s financing has proven to increase booking volume, conversion, and order value by 15% to 25%.

“This partnership builds on the success of our cruise division, which achieved a 23% year-over-year growth in bookings in 2024, driven by both increased volume and order value,” said Flex Pay President Tom Botts. “With products like no-interest loans and on-board financing, we take pride in helping partners like Expedia Group and their cruise lines expand their reach, attract more customers, and boost revenue.”

Founded in 2017, Upgrade is a digital banking platform headquartered in California. The company offers checking and savings accounts, personal loans, credit cards, and rewards programs that focus on low fees and responsible credit usage to help consumers improve their financial lives. Upgrade has served millions of customers and has facilitated over $35 billion in credit with tools such as its Upgrade Card, which encourages customers to pay off balances quickly and avoid revolving debt and build credit responsibly. Upgrade also offers cashback rewards, competitive savings rates, and credit monitoring tools, positioning itself as a customer-friendly alternative to traditional banks.

Upgrade launched the Flex Pay brand in 2024, rebranding it from Uplift. The BNPL tool serves 750 travel and retail brands, helping them to increase their customer engagement, loyalty, and consumer spending by offering more flexible payment options.

The partnership between Expedia and Upgrade is a prime example of how fintechs are expanding beyond traditional banking services into everyday spending categories, providing financial tools at the point of sale rather than only at the point of need.

The news comes at a time when the BNPL market, while not slowing, is experiencing a maturation. Regulators in the UK and Europe are more closely scrutinizing BNPL tools, while BNPL pioneer Klarna is reportedly set to file a $1 billion-plus IPO as early as next week. Despite the signs that BNPL is maturing, however, it does not seem to be slowing down, especially as consumers find themselves cash-strapped and credit-starved.


Photo by Samson Bush

Streamly Snapshot: Overcoming Increased Regulatory Scrutiny on Financial Promotions

Streamly Snapshot: Overcoming Increased Regulatory Scrutiny on Financial Promotions

The regulatory landscape for financial promotions has become increasingly complex as regulators focus on ensuring that promotional materials are fair, transparent, and compliant. Today, both banks and fintechs are having to take a new approach to how they create, approve, and distribute promotional content to avoid regulatory breaches and potential penalties, while still conveying their messaging.

In this exclusive interview recorded at FinovateEurope last week, Sage Franch, CEO of PromoComply, shares her insights into how firms can navigate this increased scrutiny, the importance of real-time compliance monitoring, and how technology is transforming the way financial promotions are managed.

“Regulators are really cracking down on non-compliant financial promotions,” said Franch. “And every financial organization that markets a financial product here in the UK has to comply with these. If they don’t, illegal financial promotion is a criminal offense and so the potential consequences are huge.”

PromoComply offers a comprehensive compliance automation platform designed specifically for the financial services sector, helping firms streamline the review and approval process for financial promotions. The platform uses AI-driven content analysis to automatically flag potential compliance risks, reducing the manual burden on compliance teams while enabling faster marketing campaign approvals. By integrating with existing content management systems, PromoComply ensures that compliance is embedded into every step of the promotional lifecycle.

As CEO and Co-Founder of PromoComply, Sage Franch brings a unique blend of technological expertise and regulatory insight to the world of financial services marketing compliance. With a background in software development and product management, Franch helps banks and fintechs leverage technology to simplify complex regulatory processes.


Photo by Polina Tankilevitch

FinovateEurope: Deep Dives into Payments, Banking, Risk, AI, and the Customer Experience

FinovateEurope: Deep Dives into Payments, Banking, Risk, AI, and the Customer Experience

At Finovate conferences, our special track sessions give attendees an opportunity to dive deep into specific industries and themes within fintech. Via keynote addresses, fireside chats, and power panels, our Finovate tracks provide time for more extended analysis, discussion, and even debate about key developments in fintech and financial services.

This year at FinovateEurope, we held five separate tracks covering AI, payments, lending, customer experience, and banking, risk, and regulation. Below are our summaries, reviews, and key takeaways from the presentations in each of those tracks.


Julie Muhn, Senior Research Analyst, Finovate

Customer Experience

During the Customer Experience Track, Taner Akcok’s keynote address titled “Enabling Hyper-Personalization” emphasized that today’s financial institutions must go beyond transactional relationships to deliver deeply personalized, always-on experiences that meet the high expectations set by big tech companies. Achieving this level of personalization requires an API-first strategy, where data, modern technology platforms, and advanced APIs combine to enable real-time, tailored customer interactions. Crucially, financial institutions no longer need to be the primary channel through which products and services are offered. Instead, banks can embed themselves within broader business management ecosystems, using customer data from procurement systems, accounting platforms, and other third-party tools to power proactive financial insights, such as tax preparation assistance or financial health recommendations. Ultimately, Akcok noted, this shift moves banks from product providers to intelligent financial assistants, delivering insights and solutions based on life events and real-time business needs.

Moderated by Anette Broløs, Director and Co-Founder of Finthropology, the customer experience panel explored the customer experience revolution. Panelists stressed the importance of proactive engagement, where banks anticipate customer needs based on behavior, data, and life events—rather than reacting to requests. Banks need to balance deep personalization with ethical data usage, ensuring they treat each customer as an individual while considering accessibility and usability for users at all experience levels. The panel also highlighted the dangers of building overly complex feature sets designed for power users, as it is better to tailor experiences for beginners and casual users as well. Ultimately, cross-functional collaboration within financial institutions is critical to delivering these personalized experiences, breaking down internal silos to ensure all departments—from product teams to customer support—work together to design and deliver cohesive, customer-centric solutions.

Banking, Regulation, and Risk

The Banking, Regulation, & Risk track at FinovateEurope provided a comprehensive overview of the evolving regulatory landscape shaping Europe’s financial sector. In his keynote, Thomas Zink from IDC Financial Insights highlighted how the rapid pace of regulatory change—from DORA and PSD3 to FiDA, eIDAS 2.0, and the Digital Markets Act (DMA)—is placing an immense compliance burden on European financial institutions, which may put them at a competitive disadvantage compared to international peers. While PSD3 aims to simplify the payments ecosystem by merging payments and e-money rules, it also references DORA for operational resilience, GDPR for data protection, and introduces new obligations for third-party risk management and incident reporting. Meanwhile, FiDA will broaden open finance obligations, and eIDAS 2.0 will introduce a pan-European digital wallet for seamless identification, onboarding, and trust services across the EU. These changes promise greater transparency and interoperability but raise concerns about security, implementation complexity, and long-term regulatory fatigue.

The panel discussion, which was moderated by Omdia Principal Analyst Philip Benton, expanded on Zink’s discussion of regulatory challenges, particularly focusing on DORA and digital identity frameworks. Panelists stressed that while DORA’s direct applicability is limited to the EU, similar resilience and outsourcing requirements are already emerging in the UK, with the FCA increasingly focused on third-party oversight and ensuring financial institutions have robust contingency plans for operational failures. The panel also addressed the growing role of AI in risk management, emphasizing the importance of explainability. If firms can clearly explain to regulators how their AI works, it is a strong indicator they understand it themselves. Effective vendor management was another hot topic, with panelists warning against excessively long infrastructure contracts that make timely upgrades difficult, potentially exposing firms to operational and cybersecurity risks. Ultimately, the track underscored that collaboration, transparency, and proactive risk management—both internally and with third-party partners—will be critical to navigating Europe’s increasingly complex regulatory environment.


Theodora Lau, Author, Analyst, Podcaster, Founder of Unconventional Ventures

Artificial Intelligence

It’s been over 820 days since November 30, 2022, when OpenAI launched ChatGPT, and the world has never been the same. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT has amassed more than 400 million weekly active users, up 30% in the last couple of months. Of course, we all know that AI is more than just generative AI. As a technology, AI has been around since the early 1940s, and it has been used in banking and other industries for quite a while. But ChatGPT and the generative AI race that followed have changed the narrative—simply because now this is a tool that we can all use and play with. We can touch and feel it firsthand, and we can do things that we have never done before. One can certainly feel the energy buzzing at FinovateEurope, especially during the extended AI track this year, where we hosted four presentations and two panel discussions. There has been a noticeable shift in conversations from the hallways to the stage, where we have gone from a cautious exploration mode to one where we share learnings and war stories.

We are at an interesting inflection point. While many have high hopes for the technology and promising use cases abound, ranging from customer service, personalization, and fraud management to workflow automation, market analysis, and software development, we must also go in with eyes wide open to potential pitfalls if we are not careful. In their separate keynote addresses, Aurélie L’Hostis from Forrester, along with Nombuso Matsape and Rahul Aggarwal from ICBC Standard Bank, pointed out some of the top hurdles that our industry faces, including skills gaps, ethical and privacy challenges, regulatory pressure, operational complexities, security concerns, and trust. So where can we gain value from AI, and how can we best manage change while accelerating the right adoption, as Rich Wham from Airia rightfully asked? 

As the panels suggested, beyond the tech stack readiness and implementation strategies (for example, selecting the right use cases to begin), success will depend on people and culture, as well as business buy-in, where we must focus on generating real value. A good governance and risk management framework is also key. As Sajid Iqbal pointed out afterwards, AI is an F1 car—fast, but useless without brakes. While some might quip that the future of finance is agentic AI, I believe we still have a bit of a way to go. 


David Penn, Research Analyst, Finovate

Payments

This session features Claire Simpson, Senior Manager, APP Fraud Policy Lead, Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), discussing the challenge of authorized push payment fraud, along with our Power Panel on the growth of the payments market and opportunities for banks. Participating in our Payments Power Panel were Pragya Jauhari, Senior Product Manager, Fintech, Booking.com; Alexandre Stervinou, Director, Banque De France; Leticia Costa, Executive Director, Cash Management Sales, JP Morgan Payments; and Andrew Stewart, CRO Europe, Thunes. Moderated by Zil Bareisis, Director, Retail Banking & Payments Practice, Celent.

We began the conversation on payments with a discussion on the challenge of fraud, particularly fraud and financial crime like authorized push payment (APP) fraud to which innovations like faster payments are especially vulnerable. In her keynote address, Claire Simpson, Senior Manager, APP Fraud Policy Lead, PSR, explained this vulnerability, the rise of “psychologically based” fraud, and the way this particular type of fraud can erode trust between financial institutions and their customers. Simpson also underscored what entities like PSR have done to help both FIs and consumers better manage the fraud threat—such as advancing solutions like Confirmation of Payee and the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code, which require banks to reimburse customers who are fooled into making fraudulent payments. Simpson noted that it was key for financial institutions on both sides of the fraudulent transaction—the sending and receiving institutions—to have a role to play in making whole customers who have been impacted by APP fraud. That said, her message in large part was that fighting fraud was not simply a task for regulators and banks. Technology companies, including fintechs, help by creating innovations that make it easier for consumers to identify and protect themselves from scams and fraud, as well as solutions that facilitate intelligence sharing between financial institutions about current fraud threats.

Our Payment Power Panel featured a wide-ranging discussion on a $2.85 trillion market that is expected to reach $4.78 trillion by 2029. Moderated by Zil Bareisis, Director, Retail Banking & Payments Practice, Celent, the panel looked at how banks can reimagine payments to take advantage of this sizable growth opportunity. To this end, the panelists reminded attendees that, from the merchants’ point of view, “payments are a way of facilitating a relationship” and, as such, issues of trust and security are just as important as speed. In line with remarks from Simpson’s keynote, the panelists underscored the role of regulations in helping drive innovation and noted that as payments become more ubiquitous via open finance and embedded solutions, it will become all the more important for non-traditional actors participating in the financial services and banking space—such as telcos and platforms— to be covered by the same sort of regulatory umbrella that governs the current players in the payments space. When asked what areas of payments our panelists are most optimistic about for growth, the top areas noted were cross-border payments, embedded finance, and stablecoins—although there was also a great deal of enthusiasm about alternative payment methods (APMs), the rise of domestic payment schemes, and the challenges and opportunities of serving digital nomads and workers in the gig economy.

Lending

This session featured a fireside chat with Joel Perlman, Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director, OakNorth; an address on self-driving finance and agentic AI from Varun Ghai, Associate Vice President, NewGen Software; and a Power Panel on BaaS-powered embedded lending featuring Ishtiaq M. Ahmed, Senior Product Manager, Emerging Tech, Innovation & Ventures, HSBC; Joris Hensen, Initiator and Co-Lead Deutsche Bank API Program, Deutsche Bank; Olaf ten Duis, Lead Embedded Lending, Rabobank; and Ram Devanarayanan, Head of Business Consulting, Infosys Finacle Europe. Moderated by Philippa Ushio, Managing Director, Prosek Partners.

Our conversation on lending in financial services began with a fireside chat with OakNorth co-founder Joel Perlman. Perlman highlighted the firm’s work in what he called the “middle-market” of businesses that are typically overlooked by banks and traditional lenders. This issue is especially acute in the UK, Perlman explained, because of the relative dominance of a few major entities that represent as much as 90% of lending to enterprises. This compares to about 25% in the US. Perlman pointed out that lenders often turn away from certain industries as borrowers because of poor results in the past or from a lack of nuance that prevents them from separating the wheat from the chaff. As one example, Perlman noted that a retrenchment from lending in a sector broadly defined as, for example, retail apparel, may prevent lenders from serving worthy borrowers in a subset of that field, such as yoga pants and athletic clothing. To this point, Perlman acknowledged the role of enabling technologies such as machine learning and AI to help lenders make more discerning assessments, but asserted that “precision” and the basics of good lending matter as much “or more.”

Varun Ghai, Associate Vice President, NewGen Software, discussed the role of self-driving finance and agentic AI in reinventing business lending. In his keynote address, Ghai highlighted the role of data science and low-code technology to bring greater speed and efficiency to the business lending process. He explained the challenges in business lending, from its inherent complexity and extensive documentation requirements to both current and emerging regulatory hurdles. In response, fintechs and innovators like NewGen Software deliver technologies that provide end-to-end automation to streamline workflows and reduce manual data entry, as well as AI-driven decision-making to take guesswork out of the process. Furthermore, NewGen leverages a low-code approach that boosts flexibility and helps to lower operational costs by as much as 50%.

The Lending track concluded with a lively Power Panel discussion that examined the current state of BaaS-powered embedded lending. Among the key takeaways of the conversation was the role of APIs, a desire to move “beyond BNPL,” and the growing importance of technologies like AI—especially explainable AI—in helping ensure transparency in the lending process as well as promote customer education. The customer was very much at the center of the panelists’ thinking, noting that customer preferences are dynamic and changing, but that change often comes at a slower pace than financial institutions and fintechs, determined to provide the latest innovations to their customers, often expect. Here, institutions were advised by panelists to focus on helping customers “make the right decisions at the right time” and to fashion their offerings with this goal in mind. Institutions also need to be aware of regional differences that might favor, for example, credit cards over newer embedded lending solutions, and be ready to meet those customers where they are rather than where an institution or a fintech innovator might otherwise expect them to be.