Sales platform Xaver unveiled a range of new features that arm financial advisors with an Agentic AI workforce that “assists, advises, and acts.” The new functionality reduces the number of hallucinations, features 24/7 call answering with AI-native advisors, and provides greater accuracy compared to popular Large Language Models (LLMs), the company said. Founded in 2023, Xaver made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025 in London. Co-founder Max Bachem is CEO. White-label, omnichannel sales platform Xaver has introduced a range of new features the company pledges will “open a new chapter for financial advisory with an AI workforce that doesn’t just assist, it advises, and acts.” The new functionality includes three elements in particular that respond to key barriers that regulated businesses and organizations can face when looking to adopt AI-powered solutions. To start, Xaver has leveraged context engineering, a model-independent data ingestion layer, and multi-agent orchestration to reduce the number of hallucinations by 80%. This “safer by design” strategy makes the technology more appropriate for operation in high-risk, regulated environments with both auditability and human oversight. Second, the company has shown through independent testing that its AI agents outperformed leading LLMs when it comes to regulated financial-advice accuracy. This is important insofar as companies in regulated industries have expressed concerns about AI being able to consistently achieve this level of accuracy. Third, Xaver has introduced 24/7 call answering with voice-native AI advisors who can resolve incoming questions, qualify interest into warm leads, and seamlessly transfer calls to a human agent, when appropriate. “Powered by Xaver’s MCP-enabled investment infrastructure rails, our AI advisors do things no other AI can today,” the company noted on its LinkedIn page. Pictured (left to right): Nigel Jankelson (COO) and Max Bachem (CEO & Co-Founder), Xaver Xaver’s enhanced offering enables financial advisors to use the AI agents as “prep partners” to provide instant briefs, conduct prospect research, suggest next-best actions, and build both tailored playbooks and compliant document packs. The AI agents run in parallel to the client journey, “like a personal AI advisor at your side. Always on, cost-efficient, infinitely scalable,” the company explained. The new features also include the ability to conduct phone, email, and WhatsApp campaigns—including automated follow-ups—from first touch to booked meeting or sale. Xaver made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025 in London. At the conference, the company demonstrated its sales platform that leverages specifically trained and compliant AI agents to handle a variety of tasks including financial analysis, data extraction, and the creation of personalized customer journeys. Fully ISO27001, GDPR, and EU AI Act-compliant, Xaver’s platform orchestrates multiple LLMs to deliver 24/7 AI-powered guidance via chat and voice. At the same time, the technology is able to introduce human advisors into the workflow as needed. “This platform has four main components,” Xaver co-founder and CEO Max Bachem explained from the Finovate stage earlier this year. “First of all, we are providing AI-generated, tailored, personalized online journeys for each customer. Second, we have AI advisors who can compliantly advise customers and do conversational sales. But we have an omnichannel approach so, number three, we do seamless handovers from these digital channels … to your in-person financial advisor. And, number four, when you are with the in-person financial advisor, the AI is then acting as a co-pilot for that advisor.” Bachem co-founded Xaver with Ole Breulmann (CPTO) in 2023. The company is headquartered in Cologne, Germany. Photo by Adnan Omicevic on Unsplash The post Xaver Unveils AI Workforce for Financial Advisory that Assists, Advises, and Acts appeared first on Finovate.       

Two weeks ago, 63 companies took the stage at FinovateFall 2025 to demonstrate their newest offerings live in front of our audience. Whether or not you were in attendance, you can now watch all of the seven-minute demo videos for free online. That’s more than seven and a half hours of fintech content, available for free. Don’t know where to start? We’ve highlighted the six Best of Show-winning demos below to get you started. Casap eko Krida LemonadeLXP LendAPI Vertice AI You can find all of the videos on the Finovate website and on Finovate’s YouTube channel. If you don’t want to miss out on the live action next time around, be sure to register for FinovateEurope, taking place February 10 through 11 at the O2 Intercontinental in London. Photo by Gloire Bingana on Unsplash The post Watch the 63 Live Demos from FinovateFall 2025 appeared first on Finovate.       

Lending platform EnFi has introduced EnFi Grid, its new AI-powered spreadsheet intelligence for lending solution. The new offering brings full, AI-powered, spreadsheet functionality directly into the EnFi platform. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and founded in 2024, EnFi made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025. AI-native lending platform EnFi has launched its new AI-powered spreadsheet intelligence for lending solution, EnFi Grid. The company, which offers technology that automates commercial credit workflows for financial institutions and private lenders, reports that the new offering brings full spreadsheet functionality directly into the EnFi platform, assisted with AI. “This is a major launch for Team EnFi,” the company noted on its LinkedIn page. “EnFi Grid lets commercial lenders work in the familiar spreadsheet interface and models they know and love while taking advantage of the power of EnFi’s purpose-built commercial lending AI to add a layer of intelligence and scale to their efforts.” EnFi Grid enables users to upload existing spreadsheets or start from scratch from within the platform. Users can build custom financial models, stress tests, and projects, as well as collaborate with AI to complete scoring models and trackers. EnFi Grid has a complete range of spreadsheet features including formulas, charts, pivot tables, editing, and more. Lenders can use the technology, for example, to complete a credit scorecard with a borrower’s most recent financial data, or to build a cash flow projection for a given construction project. “At times like this—quarter end—where the crush of production goals collides with reporting requirements in a sea of cells, imagine being able to deploy an army of EnFi Grid Agents to ingest, analyze, and update your spreadsheets in minutes,” the company wrote. Founded in 2024, EnFi made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025 in New York. At the conference, the Boston, Massachusetts-based fintech introduced its suite of agentic AI agents for data ingestion/extraction, automated spreading, and relationship management. The company also demoed orchestrations that combined agents into bigger automated workflows for deal screening, underwriting, and portfolio monitoring. Finally, EnFi showed how the platform can be tuned to provide customer-specific workflows for a variety of commercial credit types including CRE, C&I, SBA, and venture. Named a “Startup to Watch in 2025” by the Boston Business Journal, EnFi began this year adding to its C-suite. The company hired its first chief revenue officer, Chris Aronis, a fintech executive with more than 20 years of experience, in January. Aronis has held leadership roles at Fiserv, Quovo, and Bottomline, and was chief revenue officer of business banking and lending for Numerated. EnFi was co-founded by Joshua Summers (CEO), Scott Weller (CTO), and Michelle Hipwood (CFO). According to Crunchbase, the company has raised $7.5 million in funding courtesy of a June 2024 seed round led by Unusual Ventures. Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash The post EnFi Unveils EnFi Grid, an AI-Powered Spreadsheet Intelligence for Lending Solution appeared first on Finovate.       

Paytech ACI Worldwide announced that Berlin-based embedded finance platform Solaris SE will consolidate all SEPA payments onto ACI Worldwide’s ACI Connetic payment hub. Unveiled earlier this year, ACI Connetic is a unified solution that integrates account-to-account (A2A) payments, card processing, and fraud prevention within a single, cloud-native architecture. Founded in 1975, ACI Worldwide has been a Finovate alum since 2011. Just months after launching its centralized payment hub, ACI Connetic, ACI Worldwide has announced that European embedded finance platform, Solaris SE, will consolidate all SEPA payments onto ACI’s cloud-native payments solution. “ACI Connetic represents a significant step-change in our commitment to supporting financial institutions as they navigate the complexities of the global payments landscape,” ACI Worldwide CEO and President Tom Warsop said. “In an environment of increasing payments complexity and regulatory demands, ACI Connetic delivers the agility, resilience, and innovation required to drive digital transformations, sustainable growth, and long-term success.” ACI Connetic is a unified solution that integrates account-to-account (A2A) payments, card processing, and AI-powered fraud prevention within a single, modular, cloud-native architecture. ACI Connetic helps financial institutions simplify their operations, innovate faster, and meet emerging regulatory and compliance requirements with greater agility and less cost. Solaris SE joins a number of financial services companies around the world—including leading clearing and settlement systems—that are integrating their payment capabilities into ACI Connetic. These early adopters include the Bank of England, Swift, the US Federal Reserve, and The Clearing House. The company’s partnership announcement with ACI Worldwide comes at a time when the benefits of centralized payment processing are becoming more apparent to both financial services analysts and financial institutions. “Migrating our instant payments capabilities to ACI Connetic marks a key milestone in Solaris’ digital transformation and growth journey,” Solaris SE CEO Carsten Höltkemeyer said. “It future-proofs our payments infrastructure, accelerates service innovation, and enhances the value we deliver to partners and their customers across Europe.” Based in Berlin, Germany, Solaris SE was originally established as a part of incubator and accelerator, Finleap. As Solarisbank, the company secured its German banking license in 2016. The company rebranded to Solaris in 2022, a move which coincided with the firm changing its legal status from a German AG (Aktiengesellschaft) to an SE (Societas Europea or European company). Today, Solaris SE offers a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform that enables businesses—from SMEs to multinational corporations—to embed a wide range of financial solutions from digital banking and payments to cards and lending. A Finovate alum since 2011 and an alum of our developers conference FinDEVr Silicon Valley, ACI Worldwide offers solutions that power intelligent, real-time, payments orchestration to enable banks, billers, and merchants to deploy modern payment technologies seamlessly and securely. The company serves the top 10 banks worldwide; enables more than 80,000 merchants directly and via PSPs; and provides thousands of businesses and organizations with billpay solutions. Founded in 1975, ACI Worldwide now processes 25 billion cloud transactions and more than 225 billion consumer transactions annually. The company is headquartered in Elkhorn, Nebraska. Photo by Pixabay The post Solaris Partners with ACI Worldwide to Unify Payments appeared first on Finovate.       

Swift is launching a blockchain-based shared ledger with Consensys to enable instant, always-on cross-border transactions. Swift is leveraging its 50 years of experience providing global financial messaging to offer the same standardization and trust for tokenized assets as it has for payment instructions. The ledger will emphasize trust and compliance while being interoperable by working with both public and private networks. Swift announced this week that it is launching its own blockchain in partnership with blockchain software company Consensys. Swift’s new blockchain-based shared ledger will facilitate instant, always-on cross-border transactions. Today’s announcement comes after Swift prototyped the blockchain with more than 30 financial institutions across the globe. The experience with those firms is helping Swift design and build the ledger, which is starting with a prototype powered by Consensys. This move builds directly on Swift’s five-decade history as the backbone of cross-border financial messaging. Since it was founded in 1973, Swift has grown from a consortium of 239 banks in 15 countries into what it is today: a global standard for secure interbank communication that connects more than 11,000 institutions worldwide. Just as Swift’s original network created a common language for banks to exchange payment instructions, its new ledger is designed to provide standardization and trust for tokenized assets. Swift anticipates that its new ledger will expand its focus on infrastructure. The member-owned cooperative plans to work with banks on leveraging the ledger infrastructure. The launch also reflects rising demand for always-on settlement, interoperability between blockchains and fiat rails, and the need for a trusted global standard in digital finance. “We provide powerful and effective rails today and are moving at a rapid pace with our community to create the infrastructure stack of the future,” said Swift CEO Javier Pérez-Tasso. “Through this initial ledger concept we are paving the way for financial institutions to take the payments experience to the next level with Swift’s proven and trusted platform at the centre of the industry’s digital transformation.” The new ledger will work with existing and emerging networks to record a secure, real-time log of transactions that take place among financial institutions. Swift will place a great emphasis on trust and compliance, leveraging its long-standing reputation. It will also ensure interoperability between distributed ledger transfers and existing fiat rails, by orchestrating between different systems and supporting both private and public networks. “As digital assets continue to develop and mature at pace, Swift’s blockchain-based ledger provides the foundational infrastructure needed for trusted, real-time cross-border payments alongside existing ways of moving money,” said NatWest Head of Group Payment and Digital Asset Strategy Lee McNabb. “By partnering in this initiative, we are shaping solutions that allow our clients benefit from greater speed, transparency and crucially, flexibility in the digital age—without wavering on robust compliance and risk management.” Swift’s ledger is not just an evolution of the company. It is also an example of how the wider industry is changing along with technology. In this case, the same rails that have carried payment messages for 50 years may soon carry records for tokenized funds, as well. Photo by Noah Wilke The post Swift to Add Blockchain-Based Ledger to its Own Infrastructure appeared first on Finovate.       

The rebound in fintech funding that we’ve been looking for over the past few weeks earned further confirmation today after our review of the funding totals for companies that have demoed on the Finovate stage. Nine alums have raised more than $566 million in the third quarter of 2025. This figure is the highest funding total for alums in a Q3 since 2022. In fact, given that the amounts of the investments in two instances this quarter (the fundraisings by AKUVO and Argyle) were not disclosed, it is likely that this year’s Q3 total is more than double the amount raised in the third quarter of 2023. Previous quarterly comparisons Q3 2024: More than $16 million raised by six alums Q3 2023: More than $293 million raised by eight alums Q3 2022: More than $1 billion raised by eight alums Q3 2021: More than $1.1 billion raised by 14 alums While this quarter’s tally falls short of the billion-plus we’ve seen in many third quarters in the past (2022-2019, 2017, and 2015 for example), the sizable figure is still a hopeful sign heading into the final quarter of the year that fintech funding is on the way back. Top equity investments The top equity investment for Finovate alums in Q3 2025 was far and away the $300 million announced by Quavo Fraud & Disputes in July. In fact, Quavo’s fundraising total represents more than half of the total quarterly funding for alums in Q3 2025. Quavo’s growth equity investment came from Spectrum Equity and empowered the company, in the words of Co-Founder and CEO Joseph McLean, to “accelerate our AI-led product development initiatives and expand our go-to-market and client success teams to meet growing market demand.” The investment took the company’s total capital raised to $311 million, according to Crunchbase. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, Quavo provides fraud and dispute management solutions to companies ranging from global issuers and fintechs to regional banks and credit unions. The company most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2025. Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q3 2025. July 2025: $300 million raised by one alum Quavo Fraud & Disputes: $300 million – post August 2025: More than $86 million raised by two alums 1Kosmos: $57 million – post Casca: $29 million – post September 2025: More than $180 million raised by six alums AKUVO: undisclosed – post Argyle: undisclosed – post Extend: $20 million – post ID.me: $65 million – post PayNearMe: $50 million – post WorkFusion: $45 million – news If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the third quarter of 2025, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at research@finovate.com. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included. Photo by Ian Talmacs on Unsplash The post Nine Alums Raised More Than $566 Million in Q3 2025 appeared first on Finovate.       

Tomorrow is the final day of the third quarter of 2025, which means that Wednesday marks our entrance into October. Historically, fall has been the busiest season for fintech announcements, so we’re ready to keep up with all of the new developments. Here is some of the biggest news from this week so far. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned! BaaS and embedded finance Worldpay launches embedded lending, banking and card issuing for platforms partners. Payments Citi and Dandelion collaborate to transform cross-border payments and enable near-instant payments into digital wallets across the globe. Swift to add blockchain-based ledger to its infrastructure stack. Solaris selects ACI Worldwide’s Connetic to future-proof payments infrastructure. Finastra unveils intelligent routing module for payment routing. Paze to become the official jersey patch partner of the Atlanta Hawks.  Blockchain and decentralized finance Deutsche Bank conducts first euro transaction via blockchain. Fraud and compliance Fenergo enhances FinCrime OS with native identity and verification to deliver compliance in one platform. Photo by Daka The post Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News appeared first on Finovate.       

Bolt launched its all-in-one SuperApp, combining digital banking, crypto trading, ecommerce, and peer-to-peer transfers in a single platform. The company has partnered with Midland States Bank and Zero Hash for FDIC-insured banking services and crypto infrastructure under one roof. The app has added agentic AI and dual-rail transactions give users seamless fiat and crypto payments, personalized shopping, and integrated rewards. Identity and ecommerce fintech Bolt launched its all-in-one app to bridge the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). The new app offers users a singular way to shop, spend, save, earn, and invest. Bolt is calling the app its SuperApp because it provides crypto trading, peer-to-peer transfers, digital banking capabilities, and ecommerce, with Midland States Bank providing FDIC-insured banking services and Zero Hash powering crypto custody and trading infrastructure. “The future of money and commerce isn’t siloed—it’s seamless,” said Bolt Founder and CEO Ryan Breslow. “Today’s consumer shouldn’t have to juggle multiple apps for fiat, crypto, rewards, or shopping. Our SuperApp brings it all together in one secure, intuitive platform. By building rewards, banking and commerce directly into a single app, we’re creating not just another wallet, but a financial operating system for the modern consumer. Bolt is delivering the infrastructure to make this future real, scalable, and accessible to everyone.” The app, which is launching out of beta today, offers a virtual and physical debit card with the ability to lock and unlock the card using the app. Users automatically earn rewards, including personalized rewards boosts that let users optimize earnings across everyday spending categories like restaurants, travel, groceries, transit, and fuel. Crucially, in addition to debit and credit functionality, the app offers dual-rail transaction support for both fiat and crypto, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, USDC, and more. Additionally, Bolt’s crypto trading is available on more than 40 major cryptocurrencies. Bolt is leveraging agentic AI by introducing an AI agent that helps users search, compare, and products products based on personalized preferences, intent, and constraints. The new app offers integrated shopping and spending that brings commerce, payments, and tracking in a single experience. Bolt was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company offers both retail and commercial payment tools, such as conversion and loyalty solutions for retailers and one-click checkout for more than 80 million shoppers. Photo by Liliana Drew The post Bolt’s New App Combines DeFi, TradFi, and Rewards appeared first on Finovate.       

The challenge of modernization remains a daunting one for many community banks and credit unions. Faced with the expense and risk of a “rip and replace” strategy on the one hand and a seemingly endless series of quick fixes, workarounds, and complex third-party relationships on the other, some financial institutions remain in a limbo of inaction. To this end, the latest innovations from banking technology platform company Nymbus are a welcome development. In our interview with Nymbus CEO Jeffery Kendall, shared here, we talk about the current state of core banking systems, the innovative “sidecar” approach to core modernization that Nymbus offers, and the transition toward vertical banking which helps community financial institutions deliver differentiated solutions to a wider range of customers and members. “We are a United States-focused banking technology platform. We work with community banks and credit unions (that) tend to be in the one to ten billion asset size; those are the customers we are able to help the most. We provide a full banking stack that allows them to run their core processing, their digital banking experiences, onboarding experiences … from one unified platform.” Chairman and CEO of Nymbus since 2020, Jeffery Kendall has more than 20 years of experience in technology and financial services. He succeeded Scott Killoh, who founded the company in 2015. With Kendall as CEO, Nymbus has secured more than $123 million in funding courtesy of Series C and D rounds in 2021 and 2023, respectively. The company launched a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) in 2021, and has forged partnerships with financial institutions like PeoplesBank, VyStar Credit Union, and MSU Federal Credit Union. A leading provider of banking technology solutions for financial institutions, Nymbus offers a full-stack banking platform for US banks and credit unions that helps them accelerate their growth and enhance their market positioning. The company modernizes legacy core systems for both brick-and-mortar and digital-first institutions. Nymbus also supports vertical banking strategies and the launch of subsidiary brands with a sidecar core alternative. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. Photo by Kelly The post Revolutionizing Community Banking—How to Modernize Your Operations appeared first on Finovate.       

Klarna’s debit card hit one million US sign-ups in just 11 weeks, reflecting strong consumer demand for flexible, seamless payment experiences. The card’s growth highlights the success of Klarna’s integrated model that combines commerce, payments, and banking features. Banks and fintechs should take note of Klarna’s playbook to meet customer expectations of unified ecosystems, modernized infrastructure, and agility. BNPL leader Klarna revealed today that its debit card reached one million US sign-ups in just 11 weeks. The news from Klarna is certainly a testament to the company itself, which has freshly gone public. The growth also sends deeper signals about evolving consumer behavior, fintech product strategy, and what banks should do to stay relevant. As a recap, Klarna launched its debit card in the US on July 4 of this year. The fintech is seeing 13,000 new US users sign up for debit cards each day, reaching a peak of 50,000 sign-ups on September 23. The card, which is aimed at consumers seeking a wider variety of payment options and timing, is different from other fintech debit cards on the market, as it adds BNPL flexibility to help shoppers pay on their own terms, wherever they shop. “The amazing response to our card in the US shows just how strong the demand is for a fairer, more transparent way to pay,” said Klarna CMO David Sandström. “With the Klarna Card, consumers get the best of both worlds: the simplicity of a debit card with the flexibility of credit.” What Klarna is doing right There’s no denying that these numbers are staggering. They also highlight key aspects about Klarna. First, the numbers reflect an increase in demand for seamless payments experiences. With its single card able to offer a variety of payment options, Klarna’s debit card provides a single wallet experience with integrated financial tools rather than multiple, disjointed products. The rapid increase in cardholders suggests users prefer an integrated payment experience that offers multiple payment options. The data is also an indication of how Klarna has achieved an optimal trifecta in the fintech world. The company already combines commerce, payments, and banking features, and its debit card extends the reach of each of these elements even further. Crucially, reaching one million debit cardholders in 11 weeks requires KYC, underwriting, fraud prevention, compliance, and scaling techniques that all work in unison. Klarna has been able to balance each of these elements, proving that its critical infrastructure is able to stand up under stress. What banks can learn Given each of these elements contributing to Klarna’s success, it’s worth taking a deeper look at what banks and fintechs can learn from this growth. First, they should take a look at their own ecosystem to ensure their cards, deposits, credit, and payments products work together in an integrated manner, and do not exist in isolated silos. They should also seek to modernize their underwriting, fraud, and decisioning engines to support their onboarding flows. Banks should also work to prioritize agility, product iteration, and scaling infrastructure. For firms seeking to grow, infrastructure upgrades are no longer optional. Risks and caveats While we can look to Klarna as an example of growth, it’s important to keep in mind that there are a few hidden factors to consider. The fintech’s rapid growth does not necessarily guarantee that its operations are profitable. Orchestrating interchange revenue, default risk, and customer acquisition costs is tricky, and the debit card issuance numbers don’t offer a full picture of profit. Additionally, as issuance numbers like these increase, so will regulatory scrutiny. Because of this, compliance overhead for consumer protection and disclosures may worsen as scale increases. When it comes down to it, Klarna’s milestone shows that consumers want flexible, unified payments. It is a warning signal to banks that hesitate moving forward to modernize and integrate their product stack. Slow-moving players risk being reduced to back-end utilities. Photo by Julio Lopez The post Klarna Hits 1 Million US Card Sign-Ups: What Banks Can Learn appeared first on Finovate.       

AI-powered scam defense platform Charm Security has forged a strategic partnership with no-cost mental health service provider Give an Hour. Charm Security will embed the experiences of scam victims as well as those of mental health professionals directly into its AI model training to help “break the scam spell” before losses—financial and emotional—accumulate. Headquartered in New York and founded in 2024, Charm Security made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2025. Charm Security, an AI-powered scam defense platform for financial institutions, recently announced a strategic partnership with Give an Hour, a nationwide non-profit that provides access to no-cost mental health services. Courtesy of the partnership, Charm Security will embed the experiences of scam victims and their families, as well as clinicians and psychologists, directly into its AI model training. This integration will fortify Charm Security’s Human Vulnerabilities, Exposures, and Exploits model (HVE) and power real-time interventions that, in Charm Security’s parlance, “break the scam spell” before financial or emotional losses escalate. In their statement, the companies cited a survey from Lloyds Banking Group that indicated that 69% of fraud victims reported experiencing significant mental impacts such as anxiety, as well as less trust in online platforms. The UK Home Office has documented fraud and scam victims experiencing depression and, in some cases, even suicidal thoughts or attempts. “Scams exploit human vulnerabilities, not just financial systems,” Charm Security Co-Founder and CEO Roy Zur said. “By embedding victim and clinician experiences and voices into our AI, we can anticipate manipulative tactics, disrupt them in real time, and ensure prevention and healing go hand in hand.” The integration will feature feedback loops to deliver insights back to Give an Hour’s national mental health network to provide victims with both prevention and compassionate care. The partnership will enable Give an Hour to deliver training to financial institution teams to help them better recognize and respond to the concerns of their customers when they are victims of scams and fraud. This training complements Charm Security’s AI scam prevention agents and copilots, which support frontline workers with real-time tools to assist in detecting and disrupting scams as they are happening. “For nearly two decades, Give an Hour has provided free mental health care to those in need,” Give an Hour CEO Dr. Trina Clayeux said. “By partnering with Charm, we can ensure scam victims receive both better protection from cutting-edge AI-based technology and the compassionate support they deserve from their financial institutions.” Founded in 2005, Give an Hour leverages the skills, experience, and compassion of mental health professionals, peer support facilitators, and others to provide no-cost mental health services to those in need. To date, Give an Hour has provided more than 400,000 hours of free mental health care to military servicemen and women, veterans, families, and communities. Headquartered in New York and founded in 2024, Charm Security made its Finovate debut earlier this month at FinovateFall 2025. At the conference, the startup demonstrated how its AI agents help users and frontline employees proactively avoid scams, actively engage with users during transactions to “break the scam spell,” and provide immediate, personalized post-scam support, including incident reporting, evidence collection, and recovery processes. Photo by Andrew Neel The post Charm Security and Give an Hour Combine AI with Mental Health Expertise to Fight Scams appeared first on Finovate.       

Stablecoins may have saturated headlines earlier this year, but September has marked a turning point to the industry. This month has brought four large announcements in agentic payments, demonstrating that the technology has moved from fringe to forefront. And while the announcements speak volumes about how quickly technology developments move in fintech, it also sends seven major signals to banks and fintechs. A preferred protocol layer emerges Earlier this week, agentic commerce platform Circuit & Chisel landed $19.2 million to launch ATXP, a web-wide protocol. The protocol will not only position Circuit & Chisel as an orchestrator of agentic commerce, but it will also help streamline workflows and enable businesses to operate faster and more efficiently by leveraging revenue-generating autonomous agents. The launch and growth of ATXP show the industry’s movement toward a web-wide standard for agentic payments. It also highlights how payments are shifting from app-specific functions into a common infrastructure layer. Big Tech wants to lead Google and PayPal made headlines last week when they announced their partnership on agentic shopping, embedded payments, payments processing, and more. The two are positioning themselves at the forefront of agentic payments and commerce and are providing developers with tools to engage in the new era of digital commerce. The partnership between Google and PayPal shows that Big Tech wants to be at the forefront in shaping how commerce and payments flow online in the future. This early movement is a warning to players that sit back on the sidelines and wait for others to move first. Slow-moving banks and fintechs risk being relegated to backend providers unless they strategically find their own niche in the space. Crypto and Web3 join forces with platforms Also last week, Google announced that it is leveraging the x402 protocol within its Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) to allow AI agents to pay each other using stablecoins on Coinbase. With the ability to handle payments on behalf of their end users, agents will now be able to complete certain tasks that previously required manual oversight, such as paying for data crawls, services, or microtasks. The launch merges crypto protocols and mainstream platforms, and is a great example of how agentic payments won’t be limited to decentralized finance environments. Instead, we’ll see agentic payments within web browsers, search, and commerce platforms. Credit has an agentic future After landing strategic backing from Citi Ventures earlier this month, agentic AI-powered credit data and payments platform Spinwheel plans to fuel growth, expand its agentic AI platform, build out its data sets and add new products. Additionally, Citi Ventures will advise the company on banking-specific product use cases. This funding shows backing for the idea that consumer credit and agentic payments will be integrated in the future. It shows the breadth of potential for agents to manage payments, debt repayment, refinancing, and credit optimization. The shift to autonomous decisioning All four of these announcements demonstrate how payments will move from static, user-initiated tasks to autonomous, rule-driven events. To stay current, banks and fintechs will need to embed decisioning logic, risk scoring, and compliance into their payment flows. Regulators will take notice While regulators don’t have a lot of time (or expertise), agentic payments are sure to get their attention. These announcements around autonomous money movement have raised concerns around AML, KYC, and consumer protection issues. Firms that build compliance into agentic systems will be one step ahead in winning not only consumer trust but also regulators’ approval. The race for standards is on Much like open finance, the world of agentic payments will desperately need to abide by an agreed upon set of standards. Because competing protocols and ecosystems could fragment adoption, the disorganization could not only disrupt the user experience, but it could also wreak havoc on creating a clean, regulated environment. Whichever parties are involved in driving standards for payment rail interoperability will take the role that SWIFT did in shaping payments rails in the 1970s. The ultimate question is, who will lead and who will follow? Photo by Athena Sandrini The post 7 Signals Agentic Payments Sending to Fintech and Banking appeared first on Finovate.       

FIS has acquired Chicago-based Amount, adding the fintech’s digital banking and lending SaaS platform to its portfolio; terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition strengthens FIS’s digital banking strategy, enabling banks, lenders, and credit unions to streamline account origination, lending, deposits, cards, and fraud prevention. Amount brings 158 employees and a fintech growth story marked by unicorn status, layoffs, and $313 million raised. Fintech giant FIS has finalized the acquisition of digital banking and lending SaaS platform Amount. The financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. “After years of successful partnership, we are thrilled to welcome Amount’s talented team and innovative capabilities to FIS,” said FIS CEO and President Stephanie Ferris. Founded in 2019 and spun out of online lending company Avant a year later, Chicago-based Amount helps banks offer unified digital banking origination and decisioning experiences across lending, cards and deposits. The company’s solution offers embedded AI functionality to simplify the online account opening experience for banks, lenders and credit unions. FIS anticipates that adding Amount will help it strategically expand its solutions portfolio. Specifically, the Florida-based company will leverage Amount to empower financial institutions to boost efficiency, streamline lending, improve customer service, simplify account opening while reducing fraud, and optimize credit card issuance and payments. The deal will offer FIS’ bank clients the ability to provide a more unified and seamless digital account opening process for the retail and commercial clients. “Our strategy and investments have positioned FIS to lead the next generation of banking solutions, enabling financial institutions to thrive in today’s digital-first world with confidence, innovation and reliability. The Amount platform, integrated into FIS digital, core banking and card systems, will help FIS clients grow deposits, loans and card portfolios efficiently and securely,” added Ferris. Established in 1968 and based in Florida, FIS serves 15,000 clients across the globe. The company’s product suite includes payment solutions, risk management services, and customer communication tools. Its technology supports the processing of $50 trillion in transactions annually and oversees assets totaling $16 trillion. “Joining forces with FIS marks an exciting new chapter for Amount,” said Amount CEO Adam Hughes. “FIS provides global scale, robust infrastructure, and regulatory expertise that will allow us to strengthen our market offering and deliver seamless, innovative customer experiences and accelerate digital transformation. Becoming part of the FIS organization will create a unique asset and the industry’s most comprehensive digital banking platform.” Logistically, all of Amount’s 158 employees have joined FIS and the fintech will maintain its headquarters in Chicago. Today’s agreement comes after a roller coaster ride for Amount. After it began operating independently in 2020, the fintech went on to raise $81 million with a $1 billion valuation and later acquired small business lending platform Linear for $175 million. In June 2022, however, as fintech began to slump, Amount had to cut 18% of its workforce and later that year had to lay off another quarter of its workforce. The company picked things up again last year when it raised another $30 million, bringing its total raised to $313 million. The company’s updated valuation is unknown. FIS’s move to acquire Amount is yet another example of how established fintechs are leveraging incumbents to meet demand for secure and seamless digital experiences. As competition heats up in the US and beyond, the acquisition will ultimately help FIS strengthen its leadership in end-to-end digital banking. Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash The post FIS Acquires Digital Banking and Lending Fintech Amount appeared first on Finovate.       

Financial crime prevention company Arva AI has teamed up with FairPlay, an AI enablement company for financial services. The partnership calls for FairPlay to use its Agentic Assurance Platform to validate the effectiveness and safety of Arva’s AI agents for AML and KYC use cases. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Arva made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025. Financial crime prevention technology company Arva AI has announced a partnership with AI enablement company for financial services, FairPlay. The partnership will enable FairPlay to validate the effectiveness and safety of Arva’s agentic AI solution for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Business (KYB) use cases using its FairPlay Agentic Assurance Platform. “Financial institutions need assurance that their AI systems are not only powerful, but also safe, reliable, and regulator-ready,” FairPlay Founder and CEO Kareem Saleh said. “By partnering with Arva, we’re helping the industry deploy tested and trusted agents that can stand up to both business demands and compliance scrutiny.” FairPlay’s Agentic Assurance Platform will provide scenario-based stress testing that uses realistic, multi-turn conversations and workflows to uncover hidden vulnerabilities. The platform has a control mapping engine that links observed risks to compensating controls such as prompt optimization, output filtering, and rollback options. Additionally, the solution features auto-generating documentation that is aligned with SR 11-7 model risk management guidance, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and emerging ISO standards. Arva’s partnership with FairPlay comes at a time when a growing number of banks and financial services companies are seeing agentic AI as “the antidote to KYC/AML headwinds,” according to an August report from McKinsey. Noting that banks often “assign up to 10 to 15 percent of their full-time equivalents to KYC/AML alone,” the report observes that agentic AI provides a “paradigm shift” compared to other AI technologies. This includes productivity gains of 200 to 2,000 percent, according to McKinsey, as well as “a substantial positive impact on the quality and consistency of output.” “At Arva, our mission is to transform financial crime prevention with cutting-edge AI,” Arva Founder and CEO Rahim Shah said. “FairPlay’s Agentic Assurance Platform provides the rigorous testing and evidence generation our customers need to trust and scale these technologies with confidence.” Arva made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025. At the event, the company demonstrated its business verification solution that leverages AI agents to enhance compliance, accelerate review, and cut operational costs. Arva processes more than 100,000 alerts a month and notes that companies deploying its technology have seen an increase of more than 40% in straight through processing, with as many as 92% of reviews handled by the AI. Founded in 2024, Arva is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Arva began 2025 securing $3 million in seed funding. The round was led by Google’s Gradient fund and featured participation from Y Combinator, Amino Capital, and Olive Tree Capital. Photo by Joonyeop Baek on Unsplash The post Arva AI and FairPlay Team Up to Help Financial Services Firm Embrace Agentic AI appeared first on Finovate.       

Financial crime prevention company Arva AI has teamed up with FairPlay, an AI enablement company for financial services. The partnership calls for FairPlay to use its Agentic Assurance Platform to validate the effectiveness and safety of Arva’s AI agents for AML and KYC use cases. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Arva made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025. Financial crime prevention technology company Arva AI has announced a partnership with AI enablement company for financial services, FairPlay. The partnership will enable FairPlay to validate the effectiveness and safety of Arva’s agentic AI solution for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Business (KYB) use cases using its FairPlay Agentic Assurance Platform. “Financial institutions need assurance that their AI systems are not only powerful, but also safe, reliable, and regulator-ready,” FairPlay Founder and CEO Kareem Saleh said. “By partnering with Arva, we’re helping the industry deploy tested and trusted agents that can stand up to both business demands and compliance scrutiny.” FairPlay’s Agentic Assurance Platform will provide scenario-based stress testing that uses realistic, multi-turn conversations and workflows to uncover hidden vulnerabilities. The platform has a control mapping engine that links observed risks to compensating controls such as prompt optimization, output filtering, and rollback options. Additionally, the solution features auto-generating documentation that is aligned with SR 11-7 model risk management guidance, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and emerging ISO standards. Arva’s partnership with FairPlay comes at a time when a growing number of banks and financial services companies are seeing agentic AI as “the antidote to KYC/AML headwinds,” according to an August report from McKinsey. Noting that banks often “assign up to 10 to 15 percent of their full-time equivalents to KYC/AML alone,” the report observes that agentic AI provides a “paradigm shift” compared to other AI technologies. This includes productivity gains of 200 to 2,000 percent, according to McKinsey, as well as “a substantial positive impact on the quality and consistency of output.” “At Arva, our mission is to transform financial crime prevention with cutting-edge AI,” Arva Founder and CEO Rahim Shah said. “FairPlay’s Agentic Assurance Platform provides the rigorous testing and evidence generation our customers need to trust and scale these technologies with confidence.” Arva made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025. At the event, the company demonstrated its business verification solution that leverages AI agents to enhance compliance, accelerate review, and cut operational costs. Arva processes more than 100,000 alerts a month and notes that companies deploying its technology have seen an increase of more than 40% in straight through processing, with as many as 92% of reviews handled by the AI. Founded in 2024, Arva is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Arva began 2025 securing $3 million in seed funding. The round was led by Google’s Gradient fund and featured participation from Y Combinator, Amino Capital, and Olive Tree Capital. Photo by Joonyeop Baek on Unsplash The post Arva AI and FairPlay Team Up to Help Financial Services Firms Embrace Agentic AI appeared first on Finovate.       

For all of the innovations in the world of investing, fractional investing—which involves enabling investors to buy and sell portions of a single share of stock—is among the most significant. Fractional investing has helped democratize access to investments that historically have been out of reach for many individual investors. Fractional investing enables both lower minimum investment requirements as well as micro-investing to help investors with limited capital create diversified portfolios. Bits of Stock, a New York-based fintech that won Best of Show in its return to the Finovate stage earlier this year at FinovateSpring in San Diego, is an example of a company that is bringing the benefits of fractional investing to a wider range of investors, including members of credit unions like Cardinal Credit Union. Last month, the not-for-profit cooperative announced a partnership with Bits of Stock to offer a new stock rewards program for Cardinal CU checking account holders aged 18 to 28. The program enables these young adult investors to automatically earn stock rewards with every Visa debit card purchase. These rewards can then be redeemed into fractional shares in select publicly-traded stocks. The program leverages fractional stock ownership to help young adults begin to build wealth, develop good investing habits, and expand their understanding of finance. This age range may be key to the successful adoption of stock rewards programs based on fractional investing. In their statement, Cardinal CU cited industry research that indicated that 67% of those in Generation Z (individuals aged 13 to 28), believe that the ability to invest with smaller amounts is a major factor in their decision to begin investing. “We are helping student and younger members build a strong foundation while making investing accessible and rewarding,” Cardinal CU CEO Christine Blake said. ” There is tremendous value in this program as it encourages investors to learn about accumulating assets and building wealth in early adulthood.” Mentor, Ohio-based Cardinal CU has integrated Bits of Stock into its digital banking platform, which is powered by Lumen Digital. Bits of Stock’s dashboard provides a brokerage account-like experience for users, helping them become more familiar with the standard tools used by traders and investors to buy and sell stocks in the market. “Bits of Stock is redefining how people think about rewards and investing,” Bits of Stock CEO Arash Asady explained. “This initiative is a game-changer for younger investors, allowing them to start building wealth through everyday spending and to watch their investments grow.” More recently, Bits of Stock announced that it had forged a strategic alliance with fellow Finovate alum Jack Henry. As with Cardinal CU, the partnership with fintech solution provider Jack Henry will involve embedding Bits of Stock’s fractional share-based stock rewards capability into a digital banking platform—in this case, Jack Henry’s Banno Digital Platform. In their alliance announcement, the companies underscored the success that Credit Union One of Oklahoma experienced after launching a comprehensive three-tier checking account with embedded Bits of Stock capabilities. This enabled the institution to test a variety of offerings, from free accounts with round-ups to premium accounts that provided 1% stock rewards on all purchases. “We were so impressed with member response during testing that we integrated stock investing capabilities into every checking account tier,” Credit Union One of Oklahoma President and CEO Tyrel McCain said. “It creates a natural progression where members can start with free entry points and graduate to earning stock rewards as they deepen their relationship with us. It’s driving both new account openings and fee income while helping our members build wealth through everyday spending.” Founded in 1949 to serve employees working in a handful of state agencies, Credit Union One of Oklahoma became a community chartered credit union in May 2003. The institution today boasts more than 3,700 members and $48 million in assets. Photo by Hanna Pad The post Bits of Stock Brings the Benefits of Fractional Investing to Gen Z Credit Union Members appeared first on Finovate.       

HSBC has onboarded Ant International as the first client to use its Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS) for cross-border payments. TDS leverages distributed ledger technology to turn bank deposits into transferable tokens, enabling instant settlement, programmable payments, and 24/7 treasury operations. The partnership signals the beginning of commercial acceptance for tokenized deposits as a regulated alternative to stablecoins. UK-based global banking giant HSBC announced this week that Ant Group’s digital finance leader Ant International, a global payments leader serving millions of merchants worldwide, has become the first client to use the bank’s Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS) for cross-border payments. The news comes five months after HSBC initially launched TDS for corporate cash management in Hong Kong. TDS relies on distributed ledger technology (DLT) to instantly settle remittances and payments. The DLT allows HSBC’s clients to create digital records of their traditional, fiat deposits. While HSBC maintains the fiat deposits, each one of the digital records on the DLT is a token that can be transferred. HSBC anticipates that TDS will set a new standard for liquidity management. In part, this is because, unlike stablecoins, which are issued by private companies or protocols, tokenized deposits remain liabilities of regulated banks, bringing blockchain efficiency into traditional finance. HSBC aims to help its corporate clients leverage TDS to improve treasury management. The bank created a separate, secure platform to allow clients to transfer funds past cut-off times and around the clock, without having to wait for batch processing, with automated reconciliation, greater speed, enhanced security, and seamless integrations with treasury systems. Tokenized deposits can also be used for programmable payments, a capability that allows payments to be triggered based on preset rules to streamline cashflow management. For Ant International, leveraging TDS for cross-border transactions will help streamline treasury operations, enable around-the-clock settlement, and support its mission to deliver faster, more efficient financial services to its global partners. Ant sees HSBC’s tokenized deposits as a way to scale its global treasury operations and complement its push into cross-border digital finance. “Our relationship has enabled us to work across different geographies and cover a wide range of global payment businesses,” said Ant International General Manager of Platform Tech Kelvin Li. “The Tokenised Deposit Service is one of the main means to enable us to do real-time payments globally and also enable us to achieve real-time treasury management on a global basis.” HSBC’s rollout of tokenized deposits with Ant International may mark a change of how organizations think about corporate treasury. With programmable payments, 24/7 settlement, and global reach, tokenized deposits are moving from concept to reality. This is especially true in the commercial space, where tokenized deposits could soon become a standard feature of cross-border finance. The post Ant Group Taps HSBC’s Tokenized Deposit Service for Cross-Border Transactions appeared first on Finovate.       

Verification platform Argyle announced a strategic investment round that featured participation from Mastercard, Bain Capital Ventures, Checkr, Rockefeller Asset Management, and SignalFire. The investment follows Argyle’s launch of verification of assets powered by Mastercard’s open finance technology earlier this year. New York-based Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 in San Francisco. Shmulik Fishman is Co-Founder and CEO. Consumer-powered verification platform Argyle announced a strategic investment round that featured participation from Mastercard as well as existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Checkr, Rockefeller Asset Management, and SignalFire. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. “This investment is more than capital—it’s validation,” Argyle CEO and Co-Founder Shmulik Fishman said. “We’re deepening our ability to serve customers with a comprehensive verification platform built on real-time payroll connections and open finance capabilities. By combining these strengths, we’re eliminating friction from verification workflows and giving lenders, fintechs, and tenant screeners a smarter path to faster, more accurate decisions.” Argyle’s investment announcement comes a year and a half after the company reported securing $30 million in Series C funding. That round was led by Rockefeller Asset Management’s Fintech Innovation Fund. This week’s investment also follows Argyle’s launch of verification of assets powered by Mastercard open finance technology in June of this year. This new offering enables Argyle customers to access real-time consumer-permissioned payroll connections covering 90% of the US workforce. Customers are also now able to generate GSE-compliant reports—including verification of income (VOI), verification of employment (VOE), verification of assets (VOA), and combined verification of assets/income (VOAI)—from a single platform. Argyle noted that the investment is a sign of growing demand for consumer-permissioned verifications. In a statement, the company highlighted a series of recent partnership accomplishments, including Checkr’s ability to reduce verification timelines from days to seconds at 90% lower cost compared to legacy solutions, Regional Finance’s success in automating verifications for more than 65% of borrowers, and Mutual of Omaha’s saving of more than $50,000 per month on verification costs. “Argyle has built critical infrastructure for a category that’s long been overlooked by modern fintech,” Bain Capital Ventures partner Ajay Agarwal said. “We’ve supported the company from the early stages, and this latest round reflects our continued belief in their team, their momentum, and the long-term potential of consumer-permissioned data to transform verifications across financial services.” Founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Link 4.0 design update, which provides a more transparent and trustworthy experience for customers when linking their accounts. Photo by Pixabay The post Verification Specialist Argyle Announces Strategic Investment from Mastercard appeared first on Finovate.       

New York-based spend management platform Extend has secured $20 million in combined debt and equity funding. The equity investment was led by B Capital and featured participation from March Capital, Point72 Ventures, FinTech Collective, and Commerce Ventures. Extend made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2019 in San Francisco, California. Spend and expense management platform Extend has raised $20 million in funding. The amount includes new venture debt and an equity investment led by B Capital. Also participating in the equity side of the deal were March Capital, Point72 Ventures, FinTech Collective, and new investor Commerce Ventures. “We just took another step toward reshaping how businesses manage spend and expenses: We secured $20 million in new funding and welcomed Francois Horikawa as our CFO,” the company noted on its LinkedIn page. “Finance teams deserve modern tools layered onto their existing bank card programs. This investment will help us do that by strengthening our issuer partnerships and accelerating the delivery of new spend and expense management features to better serve businesses.” Extend offers businesses the ability to control and manage spending with the company credit card they already use. Extend’s platform enables companies to create both standard and recurring virtual cards and manage them from either the Extend mobile app or its web-based platform. The virtual cards come with configurable spend controls such as card limits and expiration dates. The platform also can be used to create guest cards to send directly to vendors and contractors that do not have Extend accounts. The firm is currently implementing solutions that leverage automation to manage approvals, capture receipts, and reconcile expenses. “This funding represents a pivotal moment for Extend as we accelerate our path to profitability and launch our paid SaaS offering,” Extend CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Jamison said. “With strong backing from B Capital and our investor group, we’re building a comprehensive spend and expense management platform while maintaining our focus on capital efficiency and deepening our relationships across the banking ecosystem.” Extend’s funding announcement arrived at the same time that the firm introduced new Chief Financial Officer Francois Horikawa. Horikawa was previously Head of Finance for PayPal’s Consumer business division, which includes Venmo, P2P, Cards, and Small Business Lending. In his new role as CFO, he will be charged with helping Extend achieve operational excellence and sustainable profitability. “I joined Extend almost by accident,” Horikawa wrote on LinkedIn this week. “I knew one of the co-founders and a few other folks from American Express. Few months in, people are super nice, the culture is great, and I am excited about the product!” Founded in 2017, Extend made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2019 in San Francisco, California. In the years since then, the New York-based fintech has grown into an out-of-the-box virtual card issuing platform with more than 10,000 business customers. The company’s technology has helped its customers move between 26% and 40% of their spending to virtual cards, and more than a dozen major banks in both the US and Canada are using Extend’s technology. Extend is currently pursuing strategic integrations at the top 10 banks and with a range of smaller issuers. Photo by Pixabay The post Spend Management Firm Extend Secures $20 Million in Funding appeared first on Finovate.       

This year marks the year of the stablecoin, especially in the US. From the start of the year, we have watched as stablecoins evolved from a concept in trials overseas to a market force attracting billions in daily transaction volume, partnerships with major payment networks, active pilots among US banks, and a central focus of US financial regulation in the form of the GENIUS Act. After the passage of the GENIUS Act in July, Ernst & Young’s (EY) strategy consulting services group EY-Parthenon surveyed more than 350 executives from financial and nonfinancial sectors about their views on stablecoins. Based on its findings, the firm generated a 31-page report that highlights adoption, usage, benefits, challenges, regulatory implications, and more. We’ve highlighted the report’s five major takeaways below. Stablecoins are no longer fringe All of the 350 executives surveyed are aware of stablecoins. Of those, 13% have already used stablecoins and 65% expect interest in stablecoins to rise in the next 6 to 12 months. The fact that 100% of executives surveyed are aware of stablecoins demonstrates how quickly stablecoins have moved into the mainstream. For banks and corporates, the conversation around stablecoins is no longer a question of “if,” but rather “how fast” adoption spreads and what role the organization should play. This shift from niche to norm shows that institutions that wait to make a move may miss out on shaping standards and capturing early market share. Charts from EY-Parthenon Stablecoin usage More than half, 54%, of financial institutions and corporates that are not using stablecoins expect to begin using them in the next 6 to 12 months. For 81% of participants surveyed, clear and supportive legislation increases their interest in stablecoins, either significantly or slightly. With more than half of firms signaling plans to adopt stablecoins within a year, the market will likely see an acceleration in usage. For policymakers, this highlights the importance of regulatory clarity, given that it would directly boost adoption. For banks, it shows an opportunity to deepen their relevance by offering compliant, stablecoin-enabled services before competitors get there first. Charts from EY-Parthenon Cross-border fund transfers are the top use case The survey asked about 10 different use cases. Of those ten, the top three use cases centered around cross-border payments. This shows that stablecoins are tackling real, persistent pain points, especially in cross-border payments. Despite previous disruption by alternative players such as Wise, Remitly, and Revolut, international transfers remain slow and expensive. Stablecoins are a credible alternative that resonates with businesses and consumers. This focus could disrupt entrenched correspondent banking networks and give stablecoin adopters an edge in the lucrative field of cross-border payments. Charts from EY-Parthenon Firms most interested in reducing cost and increasing payment speed The most interesting use case is cross-border payments (77%), with interest largely driven by reduction in transaction costs and faster payments. The overwhelming interest in cost savings and speed is a reminder that stablecoins will succeed or fail based on tangible value, not hype. For businesses, even modest reductions in cross-border fees can translate into significant savings at scale. Banks face the challenge of turning this efficiency into a competitive advantage, offering better pricing and faster settlement while managing risks. Charts from EY-Parthenon Practical implementation The survey found that organizations are looking to their traditional banking partners for access to stablecoins, and that most financial institutions, 79%, plan to leverage a third party for stablecoin infrastructure. The finding that most organizations plan to access stablecoins through existing banking partners is significant. It suggests that businesses want access to stablecoins without having to deal with the complexity that comes with the new payment rail. Instead of investing in-house to leverage the new technology, they’re looking to trusted intermediaries like banks to handle the heavy lifting of facilitating the infrastructure. For banks, this is both an opportunity and a warning. Institutions that move quickly to build reliable, third-party-powered stablecoin services can strengthen client relationships, while laggards risk being bypassed entirely. Charts from EY-Parthenon Photo by Sebastian Svenson on Unsplash The post The Year of the Stablecoin: What EY’s Survey Reveals About Adoption and Opportunity appeared first on Finovate.