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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Verifone has teamed up with Visa’s Featurespace to bring AI-powered fraud detection to its global payments network.
The integration uses adaptive machine learning to analyze more than 1,800 transaction attributes in real time, helping merchants reduce fraud, chargebacks, and false declines.
Visa acquired Featurespace in 2024. The company demonstrated its fraud detection technology at FinovateFall 2016 in New York.
Global payments technology provider Verifone has teamed up with Visa’sFeaturespace to bolster its anti-fraud network. The integration brings AI-powered, real-time fraud detection to Verifone’s payments network, helping merchants identify suspicious transactions while minimizing friction for legitimate customers.
The Featurespace platform uses adaptive machine learning models to assess transactions on Verifone’s network in real time, helping merchants and payment facilitators reduce fraud, lost sales, and chargebacks. The integration adds another layer of fraud protection to Verifone’s existing infrastructure, helping merchants identify suspicious activity while reducing the risk of declining legitimate transactions.
Verifone’s risk-scoring framework evaluates more than 1,800 transaction attributes in real time, processing payments in under 100 milliseconds. By integrating Featurespace’s Adaptive Behavioral Analytics (ABA), Verifone can establish normal transaction patterns for individual merchants, cards, and accounts, identifying anomalies such as unusually large purchases or late-night transactions. The technology considers both individual transactions and broader behavioral patterns, continuously learning over time to improve fraud detection.
“Great payment security is invisible to the customer and unmistakable to the merchant,” said Verifone Head of Global Fraud and Tooling Fabian Ganster. “Fraud is increasingly shaped by AI, so the defense has to be, too. By combining Visa’s adaptive intelligence with our payments expertise, we can stay ahead of threats that change every day and give merchants and partners payments and protection from one provider they can trust.”
Featurespace was founded in 2008 at Cambridge University’s Department of Engineering, where researchers developed AI-based tools to analyze transaction data and detect fraud. Visa completed its acquisition of Featurespace in 2024. The company showcased its technology at FinovateFall 2016 in New York.
Founded in 1981, Verifone provides payment technology to merchants, fintech companies, and financial institutions. The company processes $8 trillion in transactions annually and supports an open ecosystem of more than 2,500 integrations designed to simplify payments across in-store, online, and mobile channels.
Verifone’s integration comes at a time when the sophistication and complexity of AI-powered fraud are challenging traditional fraud detection methods. Embedding Featurespace’s technology directly into Verifone’s payment gateways allows merchants to access fraud screening without adding another vendor or integrating with another third party. For Visa, the partnership demonstrates how the company is leveraging its 2024 acquisition to expand its fraud prevention capabilities.
Investment solutions provider MDOTM has announced that Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s Portfolio Solutions team will use MDOTM’s Sphere platform to scale its model portfolio solutions.
MDOTM’s Sphere leverages AI to enable asset and wealth managers to analyze markets, build and manage investment portfolios at scale, and generate reports more efficiently.
Founded in London in 2015, MDOTM made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025.
AI-driven investment solutions provider MDOTMhas announced that Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s Portfolio Solutions team will use its Sphere platform. The team will leverage MDOTM’s Sphere to scale its centralized investment approach across hundreds of portfolios. This will give advisors access to a broad range of portfolio options while maintaining a consistent investment view and accommodating the preferences and constraints each portfolio is designed to reflect.
“Being selected by Morgan Stanley is a significant validation of what we’ve built with Sphere,” MDOTM Co-Founder and CEO Tommaso Migliore said. “Morgan Stanley is putting that to work at the scale of one of the world’s largest wealth managers, and that is exactly the kind of value we aim to provide to the financial services sector in the US and globally.”
Asset and wealth managers today face two pressures: fee compression and rising demand for personalization. Additionally, the growing number of investment opportunities and the proliferation of AI-enabled insights have made orchestrating portfolios more complex. For the vast majority of firms, hiring additional investment professionals is an expensive and often insufficient solution to these challenges. MDOTM’s Sphere was developed in response to this problem, enabling companies to leverage human-AI collaboration to scale market and macroeconomic analysis, portfolio construction and rebalancing, personalized portfolio commentary, client reporting, and more.
Sphere consists of three solutions to support investment teams. AI-Driven Investment Insights enables them to analyze markets and generate forward-looking insights across all asset classes; Portfolio Studio empowers them to build, customize, and rebalance portfolios at scale; and StoryFolio allows them to automate and personalize portfolio commentary and client reporting. The platform supports more than $300 billion in assets for more than 60 financial institutions across the US, the UK, and Europe.
The Morgan Stanley Portfolio Solutions team builds advanced, multi-asset investment models used by Morgan Stanley Wealth Management advisors. It creates multi-asset portfolios that combine traditional public equities and bonds with alternative investments such as private equity, private credit, and hedge funds. The team also builds discretionary models that automatically rebalance portfolios based on international market conditions and provides strategies across the liquidity spectrum, from highly liquid public assets to multi-year private fund allocations.
Founded in London in 2015, MDOTM made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025, where it introduced its Sphere platform. The company serves asset and wealth managers, banks, family offices, pension funds, and insurance companies, enabling them to use AI to add speed and scale to their investment processes. Earlier this year, MDOTM raised $27 million in a growth equity round led by Expedition Growth Capital. The round brought the company’s total capital raised to $36.5 million. In October, MDOTM announced an expansion of its New York operations to bolster its US presence and build on its relationships with institutional clients across the country.
“The US is a critical market for MDOTM, and we are seeing strong demand from institutions looking for trusted partners to help them put AI to work across the investment lifecycle,” Migliore said. “The question is no longer whether AI belongs in the investment process. It is which processes firms are willing to hand to an agent, and which stay with the investment team. That is the most pivotal conversation our clients are having right now, and we have spent the last decade building the expertise to solve this with them.”
Stablecoin issuer Circle reported $865 million in third-quarter revenue and reserve income, up 17% year over year.
The revenue was driven in part by $182 million from a private presale of Circle’s ARC token.
Circle is expanding its payments infrastructure through its planned Tazapay acquisition, Arc blockchain launch, and institutional partnerships as it seeks to diversify revenue beyond stablecoin reserves.
Digital currency platform and stablecoin issuer Circlereleased its third-quarter earnings this week. The New York-based company reported that its total revenue and reserve income reached $865 million in the third quarter of this year, representing a 17% increase over last year. Additionally, the fintech reported an increase in USDC transaction activity. Here’s a breakdown of what is behind these two headline figures.
Circle reported that $658 million of the $865 million in revenue and reserve income was generated via reserves. The company reported that this figure was down 8% year over year, citing lower interest rates as the cause of the drop. Of the remaining $207 million in other revenue, $182 million was the result of a private presale of Circle’s ARC token. Interestingly, without the contribution of funds from that sale, Circle’s total revenue and reserve income would have been approximately $683 million, below the 2025 reported total. While Circle is generating revenue in ways beyond interest earned on USDC reserves, the quarter’s revenue growth was not the result of an established or recurring revenue stream.
From a banking perspective, what is particularly notable about these results is that Circle’s USDC on-chain transaction volume reached $13.9 trillion in the third quarter, marking an increase of 49% from last year, while overall average USDC in circulation totaled $73.3 billion, which is up only 8% year on year. This difference in growth suggests that USDC is seeing considerably more transaction activity without a comparable increase in the amount circulating.
All of this growth comes as Circle has been expanding its payments network through acquisitions. The company announced plans to acquire global payments infrastructure company Tazapay earlier this fall. Tazapay reaches 100+ markets and brings more than $25 billion in annualized payment volume. The deal, which is set to close in 2027, will allow Circle to move beyond stablecoin issuance and into international payment and payout infrastructure.
Circle demonstrated its interest in infrastructure last quarter, launching the public mainnet of its Arc blockchain on September 16. At launch, the fintech minted the initial supply of 10 billion ARC tokens and revealed that more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders were already participating. This infrastructure could eventually generate revenue through network participation and token-related activity.
“In Q3, we saw continued proof that institutions are building and expanding on USDC,” said Circle Co-Founder, CEO, and Chairman Jeremy Allaire. Circle highlighted several partnerships as evidence of this growing institutional adoption:
Visa expanded Visa Direct stablecoin pre-funding into commercial deployment, supporting eligible cross-border payouts.
Samsung’s Wallet enables eligible US users to send USDC-funded transfers to bank accounts in more than 60 countries.
Volante Technologies is collaborating with Circle to integrate stablecoin payments and settlement into banks’ existing operations.
Binance announced a $100 million equity investment in Circle and expanded its USDC partnership.
Tereina partnered with Circle to integrate USDC and EURC into enterprise payment workflows.
Taken together, these collaborations highlight that stablecoins are increasingly being integrated into existing payment systems, enterprise software, and banking infrastructure instead of being seen as separate crypto experiences.
Circle’s third-quarter results are evidence of the growing role of stablecoins in financial services. It is clear that USDC transaction activity is increasing, and given Circle’s reliance on reserve income and one-time token sales, it may need to develop more diversified, recurring revenue streams. The recent investments in payments infrastructure, acquisitions, and institutional partnerships may help Circle capture more value from transactions, rather than primarily from interest earned on the reserves backing USDC.
Go.AI, a provider of on-premises (on-prem), examiner-ready AI infrastructure for regulated industries, unveiled its latest solution this week: the Go1 MAX. Billed as the most powerful appliance in the Go1 product line, the Go1 MAX serves up to 8,000 concurrent users from a single appliance at a fixed price with unlimited usage and tokens.
The solution is designed for researchers, data scientists, engineers, and large enterprises—including banks, hospitals, and insurance companies—that train, fine-tune, and serve AI at scale. With the Go1 MAX, teams can train and serve on the same appliance without GPU queuing or cloud quotas. The system is air-gap ready with no API exposure.
“Regulated organizations want AI they can own and audit, and the largest teams need real capacity to run it,” Go.AI Co-Founder and CEO David Moscatelli said. “The Go1 MAX gives a bank or a hospital with thousands of users the ability to use cutting-edge AI and on-box fine-tuning in one appliance, without data leaving their environment.”
We recently caught up with David Moscatelli to talk about the company’s innovative work in on-prem AI infrastructure and what it takes to make private AI practical for companies in regulated industries.
Go Abacus is now Go.AI. Why the change and what does it mean for the company?
David Moscatelli: Go.AI is a clearer expression of what we build and the opportunity we see ahead. Our focus is helping organizations put AI to work within an environment they control. The new name makes that focus immediately recognizable, while “Go” captures the action we want to enable: moving from interest in AI to practical implementation.
It also brings our hardware and software together under a more cohesive identity. The Go1 family provides private AI infrastructure, while Go.OS provides the software foundation, and our applications help teams connect their information and use it in everyday work. We want customers to understand that these are parts of one connected offering, rather than isolated products.
This is a brand evolution, not a departure from our underlying business. Go Abacus Corporation remains the company behind the Go.AI brand. What changes is how clearly we communicate our purpose: making private AI practical for organizations that need control over their data, their deployment, and their costs.
For people who are still unfamiliar with the company, what problem does Go.AI solve and for whom?
Moscatelli: Many organizations want the productivity benefits of AI, but adopting it is not as simple as giving employees access to a public chatbot. They need to consider sensitive information, existing systems, implementation requirements, and the cost of expanding usage.
Go.AI addresses that challenge by bringing private AI infrastructure and usable software together. The Go1 family provides on-premises hardware, and Go.OS supplies the software foundation. Our console gives teams a workspace for connecting documents and data sources, building AI agents and workflows, and reviewing their activity. The goal is to help organizations use their own information to carry out business tasks, not simply experiment with a model. We provide an audit trail and evidence package that regulated institutions can hand over to an examiner, helping them to achieve compliance 365 days a year.
For financial institutions, that means creating a practical path to AI while retaining greater control over where sensitive work happens. Our client work includes everyone from large banks to healthcare providers and beyond.
Ultimately, we serve organizations that want AI to become a useful operational capability, but cannot treat data control or implementation as an afterthought.
How does Go.AI solve this problem better than other companies?
Moscatelli: Unlike public cloud AI providers or multi-tenant assistants that process data externally and expose organizations to variable cloud costs and security vulnerabilities, Go.AI deploys directly on the client’s own on-premises infrastructure. Key differentiators include:
Zero Data Retention & Egress: Data never leaves the client’s environment and is never sent out for training, inference, or storage.
Full Audit Lineage: Every model decision is logged, timestamped, and traceable by design, making it immediately ready for examiner review.
Fixed-Cost, Unlimited Usage: There is no unpredictable, variable per-token cloud billing that spikes with organizational growth.
Rapid Deployment: The Go1™ hardware and Go.OS software stack can deploy in under 24 hours, serving up to 2,000 users in under 15 minutes.
What is driving the growth of the on-premises AI market?
Moscatelli: Growth in the on-premises AI market is primarily driven by heightened security concerns, regulatory tightening, and the operational risks associated with public cloud infrastructure. Incidents like public cloud AI outages (such as major cloud LLM downtime windows) highlight the vulnerabilities of relying entirely on external uptime. Furthermore, organizations are increasingly aware of permission sprawl, data privacy risks, and strict examiner scrutiny regarding AI recordkeeping and audit trails. Compliance-minded institutions require absolute data sovereignty, predictable infrastructure economics, and immutable audit logs, capabilities that public cloud solutions struggle to provide out-of-the-box.
You’ve noted that fixed-cost AI infrastructure is changing the economics of AI adoption for smaller financial institutions. Can you elaborate on this? Are these institutions recognizing this opportunity?
Moscatelli: With usage-based AI, success can create a budgeting challenge: more employees use it, more workflows depend on it, and the consumption bill grows. That can make an institution cautious about expanding adoption, even when it sees useful applications.
A fixed-price model changes that calculation. Go.AI’s positioning is unlimited token usage at one fixed price. Instead of evaluating every additional interaction as another token charge, an institution can focus more directly on which workflows create value.
That is particularly relevant for smaller institutions, where budgeting discipline matters and internal technology resources may be limited. It can make the conversation less about rationing AI usage and more about selecting useful applications, preparing the right information, and helping employees adopt them.
Fixed-cost does not mean unlimited computing capacity or zero operating costs. It means removing per-token metering as a barrier to using the deployed system.
Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology? Or a particularly valuable partnership experience? What made it special?
Moscatelli: Standout deployment milestones for Go.AI involve partnering with financial institutions and credit unions seeking to modernize operations without undertaking disruptive core system overhauls. Our work with community banks and credit unions to deploy private AI assistants for document analysis, loan processing, and compliance workflows stands out because it directly solves legacy friction. What makes these implementations special is seeing regulated institutions successfully harness advanced AI capabilities while maintaining absolute data control and examiner defensibility.
You most recently demoed at FinovateFall this year. How was the experience?
Moscatelli: The FinovateFall 2026 experience was exceptional. Demoing on Day 1 (September 9) provided a powerful stage to showcase our new hardware and software solutions alongside our official company rebrand to Go.AI. Compared with previous Finovate events, people are increasingly aware of what on-prem AI is, which is a real shift. It’s moving from curiosity to awareness and implementation.
What are your goals for Go.AI over the balance of 2026 and into next year?
Moscatelli: Looking across the balance of 2026 and into next year, Go.AI’s key strategic goals include:
Team & R&D Expansion: Expanding our engineering talent pool and accelerating the development of Go.OS and our proprietary hardware line.
Market Scaling: Expanding our go-to-market footprint beyond our core regulated financial services base into the broader universe of compliance-minded organizations (such as healthcare, insurance, and government).
Education & Thought Leadership: Investing heavily in client advisory, training initiatives, expanded marketing campaigns, and dedicated podcast series designed to counter fear-based AI narratives and build robust enterprise buyer confidence.
Identity verification specialist ID-Pal has teamed up with anti-money laundering solution provider ThirdEye.
The partnership will integrate ID-Pal’s technology into ThirdEye’s platform, powering ThirdEye’s Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) capabilities for customers in Australia and New Zealand.
ID-Pal most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2025. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, the company was founded in 2016.
Anti-money laundering (AML) solution provider ThirdEye has partnered with ID-Pal to power ThirdEye’s Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) capabilities across Australia and New Zealand. Institutions in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK can now access ID-Pal’s document authentication, biometric verification, and address verification capabilities alongside ThirdEye’s existing modules.
“Fraud and financial crime know no borders, and increasingly, neither does the technology used to commit them,” ID-Pal CEO and Founder Colum Lyons said. “ThirdEye has built a strong AML proposition across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, and we’re delighted they’ve chosen ID-Pal to power identity and business verification within it. Together, we can help organizations establish trust at onboarding and manage fraud and compliance risk throughout the customer lifecycle.”
The partnership between ThirdEye and ID-Pal comes at a time when financial institutions are facing increased pressure to combat AI-powered fraud and financial crime, meet evolving compliance regulations, and build trust with customers who have a growing range of options when it comes to choosing banking and financial services partners. The alliance builds on ID-Pal’s international footprint and follows its recognition as a High Performer in G2’s Fall 2026 Identity Verification report, which noted that ID-Pal outperformed category benchmarks across support, usability, administration, and setup. A major business software review platform, G2 highlighted ID-Pal’s ability to provide advanced fraud prevention and compliance technology without increasing operational complexity. Integrated into ThirdEye’s AML platform, ID-Pal will give banks, financial institutions, and other regulated businesses a streamlined way to verify customers, detect fraud, manage risk, and meet compliance obligations.
“The financial crime landscape has never been static; bad actors are always evolving new techniques to keep us on our toes,” ThirdEye General Manager Hamish Shaw said. “Now, with AI accelerating the threats, it’s so crucial for those of us on the right side to work together to ensure we stay ahead.”
ThirdEye’s AML platform combines smart automation with local expertise to provide customer screening, transaction monitoring, case management, and regulatory reporting to support banks, financial institutions, and other highly regulated organizations in their defense against fraud and financial crime. The company’s flexible models empower firms to better protect their customers, manage risk, and satisfy evolving compliance requirements. Based in Christchurch, New Zealand, and founded in 2012, ThirdEye is built by Jade Software Corporation, which is part of the UK-based Skipton Group.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, ID-Pal offers an identity verification solution certified to ISO 27001 and ISO 9001. Powered by AI, the company’s technology provides real-time identity verification and zero access to customer data. ID-Pal’s platform combines biometric, document, and database checks in a single, GDPR-compliant solution and is available out of the box, via API/SDK, or through a Salesforce AppExchange integration. The platform supports more than 16,000 identity documents and draws from more than 400 verified data sources.
ID-Pal most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2025 in New York. At the event, the company showed how its ID-Detect solution provides an additional layer of verification to identify AI-generated fake IDs and documents.
Digital bank OnePay is allowing select US customers to fund their checking accounts using USDC stablecoins across 12 blockchains, automatically converting deposits into US dollars.
Stripe-owned Bridge powers the stablecoin deposit functionality, offering an alternative to traditional account funding methods such as ACH transfers.
The launch follows OnePay’s recent agentic banking and MCP integration announcements as the Walmart-backed fintech continues to expand its digital financial services offerings.
Digital bank OnePayannounced this month that it is allowing select US customers to fund their OnePay checking accounts using stablecoins and receive the value as US dollars, all without requiring a separate crypto account or wallet.
Users can fund their accounts by sending stablecoins from an external wallet to a deposit address, and OnePay converts the funds to US dollars and credits the funds to their checking account within moments, depending on the network used and required checks. The feature is launching with support for USDC across 12 blockchains, including Tempo, Base, Solana, and Ethereum. OnePay notes that it will not charge conversion fees at launch, and while it does not charge a service fee, blockchain networks may impose network fees on consumers.
Supporting the behind-the-scenes fund transfer is Stripe-owned Bridge, a stablecoin orchestration platform that creates and secures deposit addresses, monitors incoming blockchain transactions, and facilitates the conversion of stablecoins into US dollars. The integration allows OnePay to offer stablecoin deposits without requiring customers to manage a separate crypto account within the app. In this sense, Bridge provides an alternative to traditional bank account funding methods such as ACH transfers, enabling customers to move funds over blockchain networks while receiving the value in dollars in their checking accounts.
OnePay anticipates that the new stablecoin capability will support the growing number of freelancers, gig workers, and overseas employees who receive payment in stablecoins. OnePay’s new launch removes complexity for these users by enabling them to deposit crypto and receive dollars out that they can use to pay bills, send money, and save.
For OnePay, the move integrates blockchain-based payment rails into everyday banking. While stablecoins are not replacing traditional payment systems such as ACH, they are emerging as an alternative for moving money, particularly across borders. By converting stablecoins directly into spendable dollars, OnePay is leveraging blockchain infrastructure without requiring consumers to interact with cryptocurrency within OnePay. The launch is also an example of a new approach to account funding in which stablecoins serve as an underlying payment mechanism rather than a standalone financial product.
The release of this feature follows OnePay’s agentic banking announcement last month. The New York-based company will offer eligible customers the option to give their AI agent access to spend and manage funds, as well as buy and sell crypto. Also last month, OnePay added an MCP connection to allow users to connect their OnePay accounts to their AI tool.
Founded in 2019, Walmart-backed OnePay offers a range of financial services, including checking and savings accounts, debit and credit cards, buy now, pay later (BNPL) financing, and credit-building tools. The company has also expanded into investing and cryptocurrency trading, allowing customers to buy and sell stocks and digital assets through its app. OnePay partners with financial institutions and technology providers to deliver its services, including Coastal Community Bank, Lead Bank, Synchrony Bank, Klarna, and DriveWealth.
Digital banking platform Revolutannounced today that it has officially launched in New Zealand as a bank after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand registered Revolut Bank New Zealand Limited. This registration makes Revolut the country’s 27th registered bank and its first digital bank.
The new registration, which comes three years after Revolut first began operating in New Zealand as a financial services provider, allows Revolut to launch Instant Access Savings accounts, with eligible deposits up to NZ$100,000 now protected by the New Zealand Depositor Compensation Scheme (DCS). The new Instant Access Savings accounts feature a 3.50% variable introductory savings rate for four months.
“Launching our New Zealand bank marks another significant step in our mission to build the world’s first truly global bank,” said Revolut Founder and CEO Nik Storonsky. “Securing our seventh bank license and our fifth this year alone is a testament to our business model and our team. We are confident our offering will bring true competition to the New Zealand banking sector.”
Along with Revolut’s official move into New Zealand, the fintech committed to investing NZ$120 million into the local market over the next five years. Revolut aims to offer solutions that enhance the financial wellbeing of New Zealand residents and hopes to bring competition to the region’s market, which has long been dominated by traditional players.
“Becoming a bank in New Zealand marks a defining moment in our journey, achieved through a relentless focus on delivering a better financial experience for Kiwis,” said Revolut Bank New Zealand CEO Ryan Brosnahan. “Since launching here in 2023, we have experienced massive growth. It’s clear the market is primed for disruption, and this licence is the launchpad for our next chapter to build the most seamless, secure, and customer-first banking experience in New Zealand.”
With more than 80 million customers worldwide, UK-based Revolut now holds seven banking licenses and operates as a licensed bank in 34 geographies, including the UK, Europe, Australia, and now New Zealand. The company recently secured new licenses and authorizations in the UAE, Mexico, Colombia, and Peru; has advanced its US bank charter application with the OCC; and received approval to acquire Banco Cetelem in Argentina. In 2015, Revolut CEO Storonsky demoed the company’s banking platform at FinovateEurope in London.
Revolut’s entry into the New Zealand market broadens its reach as a global banking competitor. While other international digital banks, such as Brazil-based Nubank, have largely focused their expansion efforts on specific regions, Revolut is pursuing a more geographically diverse strategy. Securing banking licenses across multiple continents positions Revolut to compete directly with traditional financial institutions, rather than simply offering an alternative digital financial services platform.
Cloud-native banking platform 10x Banking and lending technology platform ezbob have partnered to help banks launch SME lending products faster.
Via the partnership, 10x Banking will provide modular core and ledger capabilities, while ezbob provides onboarding orchestration, application handling, credit decisioning, and AI agents.
Both companies are headquartered in London. 10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. ezbob made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014.
Helping banks launch SME lending products in weeks rather than months is the goal of a newly announced strategic partnership between 10x Banking and ezbob.
“Banks are too often asked to choose between a broad suite that is difficult to adapt and a collection of point solutions that never quite connect,” 10x Banking Chief Product & Technology Officer Okan Ozaltin said. “Neither gets a lender to market quickly. Bringing our core and ledger together with a specialist origination platform gives them a faster, lower-risk route to market and the flexibility to keep evolving it afterwards. SME lending is where customers can get the most value, which is why we are starting there.”
10x Banking and ezbob are focused on closing what they called “one of the most persistent digital experience gaps in UK financial services” in their partnership announcement. The companies noted that while incumbent banks have digitalized and automated simpler retail customer journeys, modernizing SME lending has been a slower process. These challenges reflect both the greater complexity of SME lending compared to retail lending and the limitations of systems built on workflow tools or legacy cores that fail to create a connected customer journey.
The partnership combines 10x Banking’s cloud-native banking platform with ezbob’s lending technology. 10x will provide the modular core and ledger, while ezbob will orchestrate onboarding, application handling, credit decisioning, and AI agents. Open integration enables specialist components to be connected without forcing a bank into a single closed suite. Shared components can be reused to introduce additional lending products instead of building a new silo each time. Together, 10x Banking and ezbob are providing banks with the ability to launch new SME lending products quickly, shortening time to market and time to value.
“We built ezbob to digitize the lending journey itself, rather than automate an internal process on top of systems that were never designed for it,” ezbob Chief Technology Officer Yaron Shoshani said. “Pairing that with a tier-one bank-grade core means a lender can launch a complete SME product, automate decisions where policy allows, and reuse the same components to add further lending products instead of building a new silo each time.”
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, 10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. With deployments at Chase UK, Old Mutual, and Westpac, 10x Banking’s platform provides a fast, cost-effective, and de-risked path to full modernization, enabling banks to scale, launch new products, streamline operations, leverage real-time data, and integrate seamlessly across their technology ecosystems. 10x Banking announced in October that it had partnered with intelligent document and accounts payable automation company Tungsten Automation to provide the core ledger behind Tungsten’s new embedded payments offering, Pay+. Antony Jenkins is 10x Banking’s founder, chair, and CEO.
London-based ezbob made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014. Earlier this year, the company announced that its lending platform had been selected for availability on IBM Power Cloud. This gives banks running on IBM AS/400 and IBM Power systems access to a modular, AI-driven digital lending platform without requiring a full-scale legacy core system replacement.
“Our platform’s flexibility, along with our experience deploying across public cloud, virtual private cloud, and on-premise environments, made ezbob a natural choice for this initiative,” ezbob Sales Director Francesco Manitta wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Inventory financing fintech Settle has secured up to $100 million in a forward-flow financing agreement with crypto-native structured credit platform 3Jane, beginning with $50 million in financing capacity.
The agreement will allow Settle to sell eligible loans to 3Jane on an ongoing basis, freeing up capital to originate additional loans and expand its lending operations.
The deal leverages stablecoin liquidity to finance real-world lending and follows Settle’s recent $240 million credit facility aimed at expanding its financing offerings.
Inventory financing fintech Settle has secured up to $100 million in a forward-flow agreement today. In a deal with 3Jane, the agreement provides $50 million initially with the option to expand to $100 million.
Today’s agreement follows Settle’s announcement last month that it secured a $240 million credit facility from an international financial institution and a New York-based asset manager. That facility aimed to help Settle serve larger businesses and expand its financing offerings. The company also previously secured a $280 million revolving credit facility in 2022 and a $145 million credit facility in 2023.
3Jane is a crypto-native structured credit platform that provides capital to fintech lenders through a revolving conduit powered by blockchain technology. As part of the agreement, 3Jane has already purchased $18 million of Settle’s existing loans and has committed to purchasing eligible new loans on an ongoing basis.
The forward-flow arrangement will allow Settle to recycle capital into new loan originations rather than holding existing loans on its balance sheet until maturity, enabling the company to scale its lending operations.
The deal highlights a growing connection between traditional lending and blockchain-based finance. Tapping stablecoin liquidity to fund loans to consumer brands allows 3Jane to connect digital asset capital with real-world credit demand. Additionally, the deal gives Settle an alternative source of financing as it expands its lending operations.
Founded in 2019, Settle has provided more than $4 billion in funding to thousands of consumer brands and ecommerce businesses. Its financing solutions help businesses pay for inventory purchases and supplier invoices upfront, with repayment through extended payment terms or scheduled installments. In addition to lending, Settle offers a suite of cash flow management tools, including bill pay, accounts payable automation, and invoice tracking.
Settle CEO and Founder Alek Koenig emphasized the importance of helping consumer brands finance inventory purchases before generating revenue from sales. “The forward flow with 3Jane gives us a more capital-efficient way to finance that gap at scale,” Koenig said. 3Jane CEO Jacob Chudnovsky highlighted the role of stablecoin liquidity in supporting Settle’s lending operations, noting that the financing structure is designed to lower Settle’s borrowing costs. “Settle has built a lending business serving thousands of consumer brands,” Chudnovsky said.
The big event is still months away (May 3 through 5, 2027), but we’re already looking forward to returning to Southern California for three days of live fintech demonstrations and insightful thought leadership on banking and financial services. We’ve even switched to a new venue to enable attendees to take full advantage of everything sunny Southern California has to offer.
Our spring conference will feature many familiar favorites. Our pre-event Leaders+ session is back, with an invite-only briefing and networking evening for bankers, asset managers, and insurers. We’ll also host a series of executive briefings on Women in Fintech, community banking, and credit unions. And Finovate would not be complete without our live demos, Analyst All Stars, Investor All Stars, and industry stages.
FinovateSpring 2027 will also feature a number of new attractions designed to help you stay informed on the latest innovations and emerging trends in fintech. Here’s a brief preview of what we have in store:
AI: From experimentation to application
AI is moving rapidly from experimentation to real-world application. What do banks and other financial institutions need to do in order to take their AI projects from pilot to deployment in real financial workflows? FinovateSpring will feature power panels on the agentic revolution, an executive briefing on AI deployment success stories, and keynote addresses on the rise of agentic banking, the importance of Know Your Agent (KYA), and the relationship between open banking, open finance, and AI.
Stablecoins: Opportunities and challenges for banks
The rise of stablecoins has been another significant development in banking and financial services in recent years. From facilitating cross-border payments to enabling programmable finance, stablecoins have become one of the most compelling technologies to emerge from the world of digital assets.
What does the proliferation of stablecoins mean for banks and other financial institutions? How will they affect deposits and the economics of lending, and what does it mean when customers have even more flexibility to separate deposits, payments, and financing? FinovateSpring 2027 will host an invite-only keynote on stablecoins during the Leaders+ session and feature fireside chats in the plenary on what banks need to do in order to develop a stablecoin strategy and maximize the new opportunities in digital money.
New industry stages: The Intelligent Bank / The Future of Money / Trust, Risk, and Growth
Another big change for FinovateSpring 2027 is the rebranding of our industry stages. As AI, embedded finance, open banking, and digital assets blur the lines between traditional industry boundaries, Finovate has evolved to help attendees better understand the relationships between emerging technologies and the problems they solve.
Our Intelligent Bank stage will feature keynote addresses and power panels on how to build a bank that is more adaptive and efficient, scale AI projects from proof of concept to production, overcome the challenges of legacy modernization, and understand what the wave of new bank charters tells us about the future of the banking stack. Our Future of Money stage will feature discussions on everything from agentic payments and the economics of embedded finance to use cases for stablecoins and tokenized deposits. Our Trust, Risk, and Growth stage will offer deep dives into the relationships between banks and their customers in the age of agentic AI, as well as the challenge of innovating responsibly at a time of rapid technological change.
FinovateSpring 2027 comes to the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center in Chula Vista, California, May 3 through 5. Register by Friday, November 6 and save up to $600.
It’s a new month and time for some fresh banking news and fintech developments. The biggest headline to start the week is OPay’s withdrawal from its IPO. Here’s a look at what else fintechs are up to in this week’s list of the top news. We’ll continue to update this post with news throughout the week.
Payments
Paysafeappoints gaming industry veteran Rob Schonfeld as Chief Revenue Officer.
Embedded finance platform Brim Financial has teamed up with Manulife Bank.
The bank will deploy Brim Financial’s embedded technology to provide its employees, bankers, advisors, and customer-facing teams with intelligent capabilities and seamless digital workflows.
Founded in 2016, Brim Financial made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Brim Financialannounced a partnership with Manulife Bank to help the bank transition its credit card portfolio and modernize its platform. Brim offers an intelligent, configurable operating model that combines issuing, processing, servicing, loyalty campaigns, and customer engagement capabilities. This enables banks and other financial institutions to embed cards and payments within their digital ecosystems.
The partnership will help Manulife transition away from fragmented, legacy issuer stacks and toward vertically integrated platforms. These platforms support faster product innovation, streamlined operations, and more connected customer journeys.
“Brim helps banks move beyond fragmented card and payments architectures with a more integrated approach,” Brim Financial Founder and CEO Rasha Katabi said. “Financial institutions globally are reassessing their modernization strategies and their go-to-market approach. They are recognizing the limitations of the traditional approach where attaching together multiple vendors can slow down innovation and increase costs. Partnering with Manulife Bank reflects how institutions are delivering an embedded, more efficient and future-ready platform that enables speed, control, and growth.”
Brim’s platform will enable Manulife to embed credit and payments natively within its digital ecosystem, support enterprise-wide lifecycle customer engagement at scale, accelerate product innovation and configurable launch capabilities, as well as drive operational efficiency via an integrated platform model. Brim’s embedded customer journeys will also support Manulife’s independent advisors, mortgage specialists, and customer-facing teams, helping them drive growth and enhance customer relationships.
“This partnership enables Manulife Bank to deliver a more cohesive, transparent, and personalized digital experience for our customers, supported by insights that make everyday banking simpler,” Manulife Bank President and CEO Katy Boshart said. “Brim’s modern, flexible technology strengthens our digital foundation and supports our transformation journey—creating a platform that evolves with the needs of Canadians.”
Manulife Bank of Canada (Manulife Bank) is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, which is a subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corporation. Established in 1993 and headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Manulife Bank was the first federally regulated bank opened by an insurance company in Canada. The financial institution serves customers in all Canadian provinces and territories and has C$34.8 billion in total assets as of Q2 2026.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Brim Financial made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. At the event, the company demonstrated its turnkey business and commercial cards and payments platform that enables financial institutions to offer scalable solutions to business customers as they grow. The platform integrates with existing digital banking infrastructure and features multi-product capabilities, including business and virtual cards, payments, invoicing, accounting integration, enterprise workflows, and more.
