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Compliance and fraud prevention platform Sumsub has teamed up with digital asset infrastructure solutions provider Fireblocks to provide Travel Rule compliance.

The Travel Rule is a regulation mandated by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) designed to fight money laundering and terrorist financing. The rule requires financial institutions and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to share specific information about the sender and receiver of funds during certain transactions. Enacted to defend traditional financial transactions from money laundering and terrorist financing, the rule has been extended to cover cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

Courtesy of the partnership, Sumsub’s Travel Rule solution will be natively integrated into the Fireblocks platform. This will provide both financial institutions and VASPs with real-time, automated, and dynamic verification for virtual asset transactions. Fireblocks users will benefit from complete control over compliance workflows, enabling them to customize these workflows to fit their preferred risk profiles. The integration features automated and encrypted Travel Rule data exchange between VASPs, supporting faster and more secure stablecoin payments.

“We’re excited to partner with Fireblocks to bring native Travel Rule compliance directly into one of the world’s leading digital asset infrastructure platforms,” the company noted on its X page. “Together we’re setting a new standard for Travel Rule compliance—secure, automated, and designed for scale—helping businesses power faster, safer, and fully compliant stablecoin payments.”

The Sumsub/Fireblocks partnership comes at a time of increased interest in stablecoins, with stablecoin volumes nearing $1 trillion per month in 2025, twice the levels of the previous year. The rise of stablecoins has put pressure on the fragmented settlement rails and compliance workflows of VASPs and other financial institutions. Further, evolving regulations—from MiCA in the European Union to the latest moves from the FATF—are driving firms to improve their ability to manage financial risks associated with virtual assets, including both implementation and operationalization of the Travel Rule.

“As digital asset payments and stablecoin adoption accelerate, our customers need compliance solutions that are robust and operationally seamless,” Fireblocks SVP of Corporate Development & Partnerships Adam Levine said. “By integrating Sumsub’s Travel Rule solution directly into the Fireblocks platform, we’re giving institutions the flexibility to meet global regulatory requirements while maintaining efficient, streamlined transaction workflows.”

Per the partnership, Fireblocks will remain the hub for transaction processing. Sumsub will provide secure, real-time Travel Rule data exchange to enrich the transaction workflow, facilitating access to 1,800+ VASPs across top protocols including GTR, CODE, Sygna, the Sumsub protocol, and more. The data sharing between counterparties in virtual asset transfers is fully embedded in the Fireblocks platform to ensure scalable, friction-free compliance.

New York-based Fireblocks is a digital asset infrastructure company that helps organizations build, manage, and scale their businesses on the blockchain. The company streamlines stablecoin payments, settlement, custody, tokenization, and trading operations across a large ecosystem of banks, payment providers, stablecoin issuers, exchanges, and custodians. Fireblocks counts 2,200 organizations among its customers including Finovate alums like Worldpay and Revolut. The company secures more than $10 trillion in digital asset transactions across 100 blockchains.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in London, Sumsub (“Sum & Substance”) made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany. At the conference, the company demonstrated its all-in-one technical and legal solution to help firms meet KYC/KYB/AML requirements. The company’s technology helps accelerate verification, reduce costs, and detect fraud, and is used by more than 4,000 companies around the world. Andrew Sever is company Co-Founder and CEO.

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• Data, analytics, and technology company Equifax unveiled Credit Abuse Risk, a new solution to help lenders fight first-party fraud.
• The new offering leverages machine learning to identify common first-party fraud tactics such as credit washing and loan stacking.
• News of Equifax’s Credit Abuse Risk predictive model comes on the heels of the launch of the company’s Synthetic Identity Risk tool. The solution empowers institutions to identify when fraudsters are using fake identities to set up credit accounts and obtain loans.

A new offering from international data, analytics, and technology company Equifax will help protect lenders from first-party fraud. Credit Abuse Risk is a new predictive model that leverages FCRA-regulated data to spot fraud tactics such as credit washing and loan stacking. The model will help lenders make more confident lending decisions.

“By focusing on application behavior in real time, Credit Abuse Risk quickly helps to reduce the potential for fraud and related costs,” Equifax Chief Product Officer for US Information Solutions Felipe Castillo said. “This supports a more confident lending environment and helps keep credit available for consumers.”

In a world of phishing and deepfakes, first-party fraud is a type of financial crime that often goes overlooked in conversations about fraud prevention. First-party fraud, unlike third-party fraud, involves fraud committed by the actual customer or account holder rather than by an external party impersonating someone else. Credit Abuse Risk is designed to detect two specific forms of first-party fraud: loan stacking, in which an individual applies for multiple loans in a short period of time with no intention of repaying the debt, and credit washing, in which an individual attempts to remove accurate but negative information from their credit report. Credit Abuse Risk identifies the behaviors associated with these types of fraud during prequalification, account origination, or portfolio review, enabling lenders to adjust loan terms based on FCRA-compliant insights.

Powered by machine learning, Credit Abuse Risk offers enhanced insights derived from behavioral indicators that detect atypical credit activity, and provides targeted decisioning that addresses the lifecycle of fraud. Credit Abuse Risk features comprehensive portfolio protection covering all credit tiers and actionable intelligence that empowers lenders to make real-time, regulated decisions on credit terms. This includes FCRA-compliant scoring with adverse action reason codes to ensure transparency in the event of application denials, restrictive credit term modifications, and related actions.

Credit Abuse Risk is part of Equifax’s suite of fraud solutions and works alongside the company’s Synthetic Identity Risk tools. Introduced earlier this month, Equifax’s Synthetic Identity Risk uses machine learning algorithms to detect fraud patterns—such as those related to synthetic identity fraud—that are often difficult to spot using traditional methods. Synthetic identity fraud occurs when a fraudster combines aspects of a real identity with fake data to create a new, fictitious identity. The fraudster then uses these fictitious identities to open credit accounts and secure loans on which they eventually stop making payments. The fact that these synthetic identities often include real data and appear in mostly legitimate means that these frauds can be difficult to detect and can persist for long periods of time. Equifax estimates that charge-offs per known synthetic identity cost companies on average $13,000.

“Synthetic identity fraud is a rapidly growing threat impacting the consumer lending ecosystem,” Castillo said. “With Synthetic Identity Risk, Equifax strengthens lenders’ fraud defenses, helping them to uncover hidden risks and ultimately shift from reactive loss recovery to proactive prevention. In doing so, they not only reduce their financial losses but they (also) safeguard and build long-term trust with their legitimate customers.”

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Equifax made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2011 in New York. The company’s differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology help financial institutions, companies, employers, and public agencies make better decisions with more confidence. Along with Experian and TransUnion, Equifax runs one of the three major credit reporting agencies in the US, has nearly 15,000 employees around the globe, and operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Equifax is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker EFX and has a market capitalization of $24 billion.

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• Nubank has received conditional approval from the US OCC to form a national bank, marking a major regulatory milestone as it begins the setup phase for entering the US market.
• Unlike past challenger bank attempts, Nubank enters the US from a position of strength, with more than 127 million customers, strong engagement, and $783 million in quarterly net income.
• Regulators require Nubank to fully fund the bank within 12 months and begin operations within 18 months.

Brazil-based digital bank Nubank (also known as Nu) just achieved a long-standing goal. The fintech received conditional approval from the US OCC for the formation of a de novo national bank, Nubank, N.A.

Announcing the approval, Nu Founder and CEO David Vélez framed the move as a strategic validation of the company’s long-held belief in digital-first banking. “This approval isn’t just an expansion of our operation; it’s an opportunity to prove our thesis that a digital-first, customer-centric model is the future of financial services globally,” said Vélez. “While we remain fully focused on our core markets in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, this step allows us to build the next generation of banking in the United States.”

The conditional approval, granted about four months after Nu initially submitted its application, places the company in the early setup stage of forming a US national bank. During this period, Nu must meet a series of requirements set by the OCC and secure additional approvals from the FDIC and the Federal Reserve. Regulators also require the company to fully fund the bank within 12 months and begin operations within 18 months.

After Nu receives full regulatory approval for a national bank charter, it will operate under a comprehensive federal framework that allows it to launch deposit accounts, credit cards, lending, and digital asset custody. Nu plans to establish strategic hubs in Miami, San Francisco, Northern Virginia, and the North Carolina Research Triangle.

Cristina Junqueira, Nu’s co-founder and CEO of its emerging US business, highlighted the regulatory milestone as a step toward establishing credibility and competitiveness in a crowded market. “Receiving federal approval for a national bank charter is a significant step in our journey to becoming a solid, compliant, and competitive regulated institution in the US,” said Junqueira. “We look forward to delivering the transparent, efficient financial experiences already trusted by more than 127 million customers around the world to our future customers in the US.”

Founded in 2013, Nu has operated in its home country of Brazil as a fully regulated financial institution since 2016 and announced that it plans to obtain its full banking license this year. The fintech also operates in Colombia and has an expansion plan in Mexico, where it is waiting on approval from the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores to organize as a banking institution.

While international expansion efforts have been slow, the company’s customer acquisition growth has not. With more than 127 million customers, Nu is known throughout fintech for its high customer engagement level, reaching an activity rate exceeding 83%. In the third quarter of last year, the fintech reached a record revenue of $4.2 billion, which represents a 39% year-over-year growth.

It’s important to note that Nu’s entrance into the US market will likely succeed where other challenger banks have failed. Monzo, N26, and Bunq have all tried and failed to secure a US license from the OCC, while Revolut still does not have a US banking license, either. The difference is that Nu is massively profitable with relatively low customer costs. The company reported $783 million in net income in the last quarter alone.

For Nu, which caters to a largely Hispanic customer base, the US is full of opportunity. There are more than 65 million Hispanics living in the US, many of whom are left out of traditional banks in the US due to high fees, limited access to credit, and legacy onboarding models that fail to reflect their financial realities. Nu’s success in Latin America has been built on designing for inclusion at scale. The fintech boasts transparent pricing, an intuitive digital experience, and unique underwriting. Bringing this successful model to the US while navigating one of the world’s most demanding regulatory environments, would be a huge win for Nu, and perhaps could serve as a model for other overseas challengers seeking to launch in the US.

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• Core banking platform 10x Banking has teamed up with Australian asset manager and lender Remara.
• Remara will use 10x Banking’s core banking platform to bring new lending and investment solutions to market faster.
• Headquartered in London, 10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023.

Cloud-native core banking platform 10x Banking announced a partnership with Australian asset manager and alternative lender Remara. The firm will leverage 10x Banking’s core banking platform to launch new mortgage, commercial lending, term investment, and novated lease products faster.

The Sydney-based firm sought a partner that could support the unique financial products Remara offers to its clients. The company highlighted 10x Banking’s API-first and event-driven architecture, which will enable Remara to bring new products to market quickly and give the company the control it needs to differentiate its offerings. The new core banking platform will also support Remara as it scales across Australia and the Southeast Asian region. The company noted in its partnership statement that the APAC core banking market is expected to grow by more than 10% CAGR through 2032.

“Remara’s decision to select 10x reflects both the maturity of Australia’s alternative lending scene and the broader shift towards next-generation core technology in the region,” 10x Banking Founder and CEO Antony Jenkins said. “We’re committed to supporting innovative financial providers that make banking better for everyone. Our partnership with Remara is the latest proof point that cloud-native platforms deliver real differentiation and tangible value, both to businesses and end users. This is our ninth ANZ client, underlying the impact our local strategy is having for new and established players.”

Headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Remara is an alternative asset manager that offers specialty finance, middle-market lending, and tactical credit strategies that are not typically available to investors via banks or traditional brokers. Remara offers at-call, 6-month, and 12-month cash management funds; investment grade, high-yield, and credit income funds; as well as a real estate fund that provides exposure to small and medium scale developments. Founded in 2019, Remara has more than $3 billion AUD in assets under management.

“10x Banking’s platform puts us in the driving seat for product and delivery flexibility, letting Remara go to market faster with innovative, specialist lending solutions that really meet our customers’ needs,” Remara Managing Partner Andrew McVeigh said. “Australia’s financial services sector is modernizing fast, and being able to offer something different to the market is vital. With 10x, we can do that, building on a best-of-breed core foundation and executing on our vision for growth.”

10x Banking was founded in 2016, and won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. The company’s technology enables banks to deploy next-generation core banking solutions via a cloud-native, SaaS core banking platform. This empowers firms to deliver new products, services, and customer experiences to customers—both retail and corporate—faster and with less cost. 10x Banking’s partnership announcement with Remara comes a little over a month after the company reported that it was working with Audax Financial Technology to help banks in Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East scale new digital products and services and modernize their core banking systems.

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As FinovateEurope returns to London on February 10 and 11, the spotlight on the second day of the conference shifts from demos to deep discussion. On February 11, FinovateEurope’s Industry Stages run in parallel with one another, giving attendees the opportunity to dive into strategic conversations shaping financial services in 2026.

This year’s event features five Industry Stages: Artificial Intelligence; Banking, Regulation & Risk; Customer Experience; Lending; and Payments. Each stage is designed to offer banking and fintech leaders more than just theory. The sessions focus on what’s working in practice, what’s breaking under the pressure of new technology and regulations, and what institutions need to rethink about their current operations.

Artificial Intelligence: from pilots to production

The AI stage will feature discussions on one of the biggest challenges facing financial institutions today: moving beyond experimentation. The sessions will explore lessons learned from early AI agent pilots, governance frameworks to combat “shadow AI”, and how banks can scale AI responsibly. Highlights include a keynote from Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, who will speak about the realities of implementing AI in production. The stage will also host panels tackling ROI, data readiness, and responsible AI as a competitive necessity.

Customer Experience: personalization without losing the human touch

On the Customer Experience stage, the conversation moves past buzzwords to focus on execution. Sessions will examine how open data enables hyper-personalization, why mindset can be the biggest challenge, and how banks can retain empathy while scaling. A standout power panel brings together leaders from J.P. Morgan, Invesco, and PolyAI to explore what banks can learn from other industries as customer expectations are being reset by the evolution of enabling technologies.

Payments: instant, intelligent, and under threat

Payments are quickly evolving across the globe, especially with new regulations such as PSD3 and new capabilities and enabling technologies such as instant payments, stablecoins, and cross-border modernization. Panels will focus on how data-centricity and AI can unlock growth while strengthening security, especially as fraud losses and cyber threats keep rising.

Banking, regulation & risk: resilience in a volatile world

Regulatory pressure and operational resilience will be the center of the conversation on this stage, where discussions will span DORA, dispute management, and the risks embedded in cloud and AI adoption. These sessions are especially relevant for banks navigating complex vendor ecosystems while being asked to do more, faster, and with greater accountability.

Lending: capturing the embedded opportunity

The Lending stage will look at how banks can reclaim growth by meeting unmet needs, especially in small business and embedded lending. Panelists will explore how AI is reshaping credit decisioning, how regulation is evolving, and where incumbents can realistically compete with fintech challengers.

Together, these five Industry Stages on February 11 will offer a concentrated look at the decisions that will define banking’s next chapter. If you register for FinovateEurope before January 30, you can still save £300.

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• ThetaRay has launched Ray, an Agentic AI investigation suite designed to help banks automate and standardize transaction monitoring investigations amid rising alert volumes and regulatory scrutiny.
• The platform targets growing regulatory demands from frameworks such as the EU’s AMLR and FinCEN’s AML/CFT directives by delivering faster, more consistent, and audit-ready investigations with traceable, explainable AI.
• Ray helps firms create compliance-critical workflows and scale AML operations without relying on manual processes or increasing headcount.

Financial crime detection company ThetaRay has launched a new set of tools to help firms keep up with evolving regulations in the face of advanced fraud. Called Ray, the new Agentic AI investigation suite aims to help banks conduct transaction monitoring investigations.

Ray is embedded into ThetaRay’s Investigation Center, an Agentic investigation suite designed for banks, fintechs, and payments platforms balancing high alert volumes with rising regulatory demands. Ray combines autonomous investigations with on-demand analyst support. The fintech anticipates Ray will ultimately help banks reduce the time it takes to resolve cases and create more consistency in investigations that span internal teams and jurisdictions. ThetaRay created Ray to autonomously handle the full investigation by validating the geolocation, analyzing patterns, and scanning adverse media to prepare a structured, audit-ready case-file document.

The launch is strategic and comes at a time when regulators across the globe are raising their expectations for investigative quality and documentation. The EU’s new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) and AML Authority framework require stronger due diligence, more rigorous monitoring and record-keeping, and consistent compliance controls across jurisdictions. In the US, FinCEN’s AML and Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) directives require transparent, evidence-based investigations and Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) narratives.

“This is an incredibly important moment for us and for the industry,” said ThetaRay CEO Brad Levy. “I couldn’t be more energized by the opportunity to tackle one of the biggest challenges in financial crime compliance. Our mission is simple: to help make global markets more modern and secure for all. The future will be shaped by people who care and by megatechs and specialized fintechs working closely together to raise the bar for transparency, accountability, and lasting trust.”

However, as regulators require higher investigative quality, documentation, and more defensible decisions, alert volumes continue to rise and place a strain on investigation teams, requiring manual data gathering.

“Financial institutions are moving beyond experimentation toward real, production-grade use of Agentic AI in compliance-critical environments,” said Microsoft Global Head of AI Strategy and GTM for Payments and Banking Tyler Pichach. “Platforms like Ray demonstrate how Agentic AI, when deployed on a secure and governed cloud like Microsoft Azure, can help banks modernize complex investigation workflows while meeting regulatory expectations for transparency, control, and trust.”

With Ray, firms can prepare for this increased strain by using it to automate evidence collection, behavioral and counterparty analysis, open-source checks, and document review and narrative generation. Built and deployed on Microsoft Azure, Ray offers an on-demand AI assistant that supports questions from analysts and deeper exploration.

“Manual investigations inevitably vary from analyst to analyst. Ray introduces a consistent reasoning framework across the entire operation, reducing subjectivity, and ensuring that each case, no matter who handles it, stands up to scrutiny,” said ThetaRay Regulatory Affairs Manager David Shapiro. “Most importantly, Ray was built so that every decision is traceable back to evidence. In a regulatory environment that demands transparency, AI explainability is the foundation.”

As regulators require more defensible, consistent, and transparent investigations, financial institutions are under pressure to modernize workflows that rely on manual analysis and fragmented tools. By embedding Agentic AI directly into the investigation process, ThetaRay is positioning Ray amid the next generation of AML operations in which regulators require speed, consistency, and explainability.

Founded in 2013, ThetaRay offers transaction monitoring, transaction and customer screening, and customer risk assessment suites to help firms fight financial crime. The Israel-based company helps its 100+ institutional clients leverage AI to monitor 15 billion transactions valued at $20 trillion on an annual basis.

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What trends are driving fintech innovation in the UK and Europe as 2026 begins?

With FinovateEurope 2026 kicking off in just two weeks, we are showcasing some of the major themes in banking and financial services that will be addressed—on the demo stage as well as through our keynote addresses, fireside chats, and panel discussions—when the conference begins on Tuesday, 10 February.

From agentic AI to post-quantum cryptography, the enabling technologies of today are transforming banking and financial services. Making the most of these innovations to better serve customers, create new revenue streams, and successfully compete in an ever-more complex marketplace is the goal of every banker and financial services professional. Come see the solutions for yourself this year at FinovateEurope 2026.

Innovations in Verification, Fraud Prevention, and Workflow Automation

From the demo stage, expect to see a range of innovations in identity verification and fraud prevention. With the proliferation of technologies ranging from faster payments to agentic AI to digital assets, ensuring that consumers and businesses are able to engage in these services safely has become increasingly important. Additionally, with technologies like AI empowering a new generation of fraudsters and financial criminals, a wide range of innovators are developing solutions that target specific vulnerabilities and attack vectors with continuous surveillance and defense.

Also among the top trends reflected in the demoing companies at this year’s FinovateEurope are innovations in embedded finance and open finance. As paths toward unlocking new revenue streams and deepening customer engagement, both embedded finance and open finance offer financial institutions unique opportunities and are increasingly supported by regulatory guidance in both the UK and across Europe.

Another area where we will see a great deal of innovation this year at FinovateEurope is in workflow automation and system modernization. A number of companies will be demoing solutions that do everything from enhancing developer productivity to accelerating compliance readiness to managing complex models and calculations for banks and other financial institutions. The sheer variety of startups in this space—many of them hailing from Eastern and Central European nations—is a testament to the range of challenges that fintech is capable of solving. It also speaks well of the number of technologists from outside of fintech that are turning their talents toward problems in banking and financial services.

Modernization and Transformation in the Age of AI

Many of the same themes from the live demos will also be manifest on the plenary stage. With regard to modernization, for example, FinovateEurope will examine the ways that fintech, AI, and the cloud could help transform legacy banking. The conference will also look at the challenge of modernizing legacy authentication, specifically by moving to technologies like post-quantum cryptography (PQC) that are designed to secure systems against threats from quantum computers. To the problem of fraud and financial crime, speakers will discuss the use of network APIs to fight scams and how banks and fintechs can work together to meet the unique cybersecurity challenges of the AI age. Accomplishing all of this while avoiding additional friction for the user is a top theme and chief concern for banks and financial services companies alike.

Other key themes such as personalization, open banking, and open finance will also be topics of discussion at this year’s conference. Both in the context of wealth management and retail banking, open data promises not only more engaging, personalized experiences for customers, but also provides financial institutions with better, more data-driven decision-making; more efficient operations; and better risk management.

Unsurprisingly, AI continues to be a main theme in any conversation on technology, banking, and financial services. FinovateEurope’s keynotes and special addresses will investigate issues such as how generative AI is shaping the future of mobile banking as well as the rise of agentic AI and the challenge of “nonhuman customers” such as AI-powered bots and agents. Other presentations will discuss the EU’s AI Act and its implications for banks and financial services providers, as well as “lessons learned” from tech giants like Google, Meta, and Microsoft and their AI innovation journeys.

It is fair to say that innovations in AI continue to drive what’s possible in fintech, and the number of mainstage special addresses at FinovateEurope covering different use cases and applications of AI reflect this fact. Indeed, for another year, FinovateEurope is featuring an industry stage dedicated specifically to applications of AI for banking and financial services. But while AI is a clearly major force in technological innovation, it is just one of a number of technologies—along with open finance/banking/data, embedded finance, and DeFi—that continues to transform fintech.

FinovateEurope 2026 comes to London’s Intercontinental O2, 10 February through 11 February. Tickets to the conference are on sale now. Register today to save your spot at the first big fintech event of the year!

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• PayPal has acquired Cymbio to accelerate its push into agentic commerce, adding marketplace and drop-ship automation capabilities that help merchants sell across AI-driven channels like Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.
• The deal builds on an existing partnership between the two players, which first teamed up in October 2025.
• The acquisition reinforces PayPal’s broader ambitions in agentic commerce.

PayPal just acquired drop-ship and marketplace automation platform Cymbio for an undisclosed amount. The move fits with PayPal’s push into agentic commerce, as Cymbio’s payment orchestration platform helps brands sell across agentic channels, including Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.

Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close later this year, were undisclosed.

PayPal’s acquisition comes three months after PayPal first partnered with Cymbio to launch agentic commerce services, a suite of solutions to help merchants attract customers in an AI-powered commerce environment.

“PayPal has established itself as a leading commerce partner for merchants looking to sell within top AI platforms,” said PayPal Executive Vice President and General Manager of Small Business and Financial Services Michelle Gill. “Acquiring Cymbio’s technology and team will enhance our agentic commerce capabilities and accelerate the expansion to more of our merchants. By making their product catalogs discoverable on AI surfaces, merchants can increase sales while expanding product choice to the millions of consumers shopping on AI platforms today.”

Cymbio was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv. The company’s marketplace and social commerce automation platform facilitates collaboration between brands and retailers by automating processes such as product listing, inventory management, pricing, order fulfillment, and returns. Cymbio connects to 800 brands’ and retailers’ internal systems to enable strong collaborations that can be scaled quickly. The company has raised $35 million from investors including PayPal Ventures, and counts Balmain, Reebok, Abercrombie & Fitch, New Balance, Steve Madden, and Fabletics among its customers.

Once the deal is finalized, PayPal will use Cymbio to power Store Sync, one of PayPal’s agentic commerce services that allows merchants’ product data to be discoverable within AI channels. Store Sync drops orders to merchants’ existing fulfillment and management systems. The system allows the merchant to remain the merchant of record and retain customer relationships and control over their brand.

As a pioneer in fintech, PayPal is seeking to be an early mover in agentic commerce as well. In late 2025, the company rolled out agentic commerce services to help merchants connect product catalogs and checkout experiences to AI platforms like Perplexity. PayPal has also collaborated with AI ecosystem partners such as OpenAI to support instant checkout via the Agentic Commerce Protocol. It is clear that the company is seeking a top spot in the agentic commerce battlefield.

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Last week, Finovate Global looked at how key trends are shaping fintech innovation in the UK. This week, our Friday column crosses the channel to consider the most significant forces shaping fintech innovation on the Continent, especially among advanced industrial economies in the West and Baltic north.

In our examination of the UK, we highlighted navigating regulatory complexity, accelerating technological transformation, and meeting rising customer expectations as three key issues facing banks and financial services providers there. These issues are also important to markets in the advanced markets of Europe. However, there are additional themes that distinguish the concerns of bankers in developed Europe from their colleagues in both the UK and the US.

Profitability and Competitiveness in the Shadow of NIRP

One of the challenges that European banks are still dealing with is the legacy of negative interest rates. Just as the US economy was emerging from its post-Global Financial Crisis (GFC)-initiated ZIRP or zero interest rate policy, the EU was plunging into what would be a seven-year experiment in negative interest rates (NIRP). A response to the threat of deflation in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis and, more acutely, the sovereign debt crisis of 2010-2012, the EU’s NIRP policy lasted longer and was more extreme, with rates falling to -0.50%.

The impact on EU banks has been significant. Even as interest rates have normalized since NIRP ended in 2022, net interest income for EU banks has remained squeezed, impeding profitability. Additionally, European banks suffer from structural challenges to greater profitability that extend beyond the legacy of NIRP. Among them is one fundamental issue: there are a lot of banks in Europe, arguably too many, all chasing too few customers. Considered on a per capita basis, countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy have a very large number of banks and similar financial institutions relative to their populations. By comparison, the UK is significantly less “bank dense,” and even the US, which is often accused of having “too many banks,” is considered only moderately bank dense.

Along with excess capacity, issues of market fragmentation and high cost-to-income ratios all contribute to an environment in which achieving profitability as an EU bank remains a challenge. Banks struggling to make money often hesitate to make the necessary investments in technology that can help them reach new customers, access new markets, and offer new products and services.

A More Integrated Union? Overcoming Fragmentation to Enable Innovation

Both the EU and UK face challenges when it comes to digital transformation. But the differences between the two regions are significant and in some ways related to the issues of market fragmentation that plague EU bank profitability. When it comes to digital transformation and investing in technology, fragmentation and diversity between member states make the task more difficult and more expensive. Larger EU banks often have country- and product-specific legacy cores—sometimes even different cores built in multiple decades. These legacy cores not only fail to communicate well with each other, but also often exist in increasingly outdated mainframe environments. On the other hand, smaller banks and financial institutions in the EU often simply can’t afford major core replacements.

Uneven development and country-specific challenges often hold back fintech innovation in the EU. Even where the EU has effectively encouraged innovation, such as PSD2, which mandated open banking, adoption and implementation has varied widely by country. While open banking adoption rates in parts of Europe, such as the Baltics, are exceptional, many other countries, including Western European countries like France, Germany, and Spain, have had more modest rates of implementation. In this context, it will be interesting to see how the different countries embrace Wero, the new pan-European instant payments and wallet scheme currently being introduced throughout the EU. Here, countries like France, Germany, and Belgium are experiencing strong implementation and user adoption trends, while others, including Spain, Italy, and Switzerland are lagging.

How are some of the other enabling innovations—such as AI and DeFi—shaping banking and financial services in Western Europe? The European Banking Authority characterizes adoption of AI in its industry as “widespread but cautious.” Unsurprisingly, use cases in customer service are the most common, as is the use of AI to help in AML/CFT screening. In addition to customer service, streamlining internal workflows is another popular use case for AI among EU banks. Generally speaking, the larger markets of the EU—Germany, France, the Nordics—are experiencing the most robust use of AI in banking and financial services.

The story is similar with DeFi and blockchain technology adoption in banking: the larger countries tend to have more banks engaged in activities such as digital asset custody services, tokenization, and trade finance. One especially interesting development is the pursuit of a euro stablecoin, an effort led by a consortium of EU banks including ING, UniCredit, and SEB that is expected to lead to a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin launch later this year.

A Regulatory Year of Reckoning for Payments, Crypto, and AI in the EU

There is a variety of regulatory events coming this year. Some of them are the latest chapters in policies that were enacted last year, while others will make their compliance debut here in 2026. With regard to the former, regulations such as DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Regulation) which was passed in 2025 and deals with ICT, third-party, and operational risk, will continue to have an impact as institutions look to ensure compliance with resilience requirements for governance, testing, and incident reporting. Elements of the Basel III reforms, initially designed to help fortify banks in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, have been postponed from scheduled implementation this year to 2027. Speaking of postponements, another significant regulation, the Enhanced Operational Risk Reporting Deadline, has been moved forward to June of this year.

Other key regulatory developments to anticipate for EU banks and financial services providers include the rollout of new payment regulations including PSD3, which focuses on licensing and institutional requirements, and PSR (Payment Services Regulation), which deals with day-to-day operational issues. PSD3, in particular, will be an important mandate insofar as it seeks to correct a number of problems with the previous open banking directive, PSD2. PSD3 features significant guidelines and requirements with regard to fraud prevention and liability, and also paves the way for open finance.

What about the enabling technologies highlighted in the previous section? With regard to DeFi and crypto, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) comes fully into effect in 2026. Among the requirements are that cryptocurrency firms must have MiCA licenses to operate by the middle of the year. While this will address centralized service providers (CASPs) in the DeFi market, it does not specifically define the parameters of DeFi, including what services should be subject to MiCA. This conversation will be key for EU policy-makers in 2026.

As for AI, 2026 will be a big year, as well. Enacted in 2024, the EU AI Act will require AI systems designated as “high risk” to adhere to new guidelines with regards to creditworthiness, loan origination, risk evaluation, and automated decisioning. Additionally, the Act will require these systems to use strong governance, risk management documentation, transparency, human oversight, and quality control. Note that the Act categorizes AI systems by risk: minimal/no risk, which is virtually unregulated; limited risk, where compliance consists largely of transparency obligations; high risk, which is strictly regulated; and banned AI, which includes capabilities such as social scoring by governments and real-time remote biometric identification. Another key development is the launch of national AI regulatory sandboxes in each EU member state by August of this year, as mandated by the Act. Here, both Denmark and Spain have been credited as being ahead of the game in terms of getting these initiatives underway.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

• Singapore-based Airwallex acquired Paynuri in bid to enter the South Korean market.
• Indonesian fintech UangCermat raised $26.4 million in a combination of equity and credit facilities.
• Vietnam announced that crypto firms that want to participate in the country’s pilot digital asset market will need a minimum capitalization of VND 10 trillion ($400 million).

Sub-Saharan Africa

• Payment software firm Akurateco forged a strategic partnership with African digital payments service provider Payaza.
• Two South African fintechs—Johannesburg’s RelyComply and Cape Town’s Ozow—teamed up to enhance security for digital payments in the country.
• The Africa Report profiled SycaPay, the first fintech to be licensed by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO).

Central and Eastern Europe

• German KYB/KYC lifecycle management platform Sinpex raised €10 million in Series A financing.
• Greece-based Epirus Bank teamed up with NCR Atleos to modernize and expand its ATM network.
• Berlin-based climate fintech Cloover secured a $1.2 billion debt facility and raised $22 million in Series A funding.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• PayPal acquired Israel-based agentic commerce innovator Cymbio.
• Financial infrastructure and payment solutions provider Montran opened a new office in Dubai.
• Saudi Arabia’s EdfaPay, a payment infrastructure solutions company, secured approval to launch SmartPOS service in the Kingdom.

Central and Southern Asia

• Indian digital payments giant PhonePe secured approval from the country’s financial regulator to launch an IPO, slated for mid-2026.
• Pakistan-based fintech Neem raised an undisclosed sum in Pre-Series A funding in a round that featured participation from Epic Angels, the largest all-female investment collective in the world.
• Kazakhstan enacted a range of new laws to regulate digital assets and to allow banks to expand into fintech, AI, and digital payments infrastructure.

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Uruguayan cross-border payment platform dLocal teamed up with international AI device ecosystem company HONOR to launch local payments in Peru.
• Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit launched Bybit Pay in Peru via integrations with the country’s Yape and Plin digital payment platforms.
• UK-based stablecoin infrastructure company Noah partnered with Brazil-based digital wallet and investment platform Picnic.

Photo by Marco

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• OnePay is expanding its partnership with Klarna to launch Swipe to Finance, a feature that will enable eligible customers to convert debit card purchases into post-transaction installment payment plans.
• Specific details of the terms around post-purchase financing have not been disclosed, but the feature will position OnePay alongside players like PayPal and Affirm by offering flexible repayment options beyond the point of sale.
• Swipe to Finance strengthens OnePay’s push to compete with digital banks such as Chime and Dave, adding to its growing suite of banking, payments, investing, and crypto tools backed by Walmart’s scale and embedded distribution.

Walmart-owned digital banking platform OnePay is deepening its ties with BNPL player Klarna to launch Swipe to Finance, a new feature that will offer customers the option to pay over time even after they’ve made the transaction.

“Not every purchase comes at the right time,” said Thomas Hoare, Chief Commercial Officer at OnePay. “Customers want and deserve financial flexibility when they need it most, which is why we’re excited to offer new ways for them to pay over time and do it simply, transparently, and all in the OnePay app.”

After making a purchase with a OnePay debit card, eligible customers can use the OnePay app to convert transactions into fixed-term payment plans. While the company has not disclosed details about launch timing, eligible purchases, or available plan options, OnePay’s post-purchase financing may resemble models offered by PayPal and Affirm, which allow users to either pay in four installments or spread payments over longer repayment periods ranging from three to 36 months.

“Post-purchase payments are becoming a core part of how people manage money,” said David Sykes, Chief Commercial Officer at Klarna. “With Swipe to Finance powered by Klarna, we’re giving customers a simple, transparent way to take control of payments after the fact, directly in the OnePay app. It’s another step in expanding smarter payment options and meeting consumers wherever they choose to pay.”

This week’s Swipe to Finance announcement comes about 10 months after OnePay and Klarna first teamed up to offer BNPL options at the point of sale for consumers. The company hinted at plans to deepen ties with Klarna even further, stating, “Additional products and features are planned for later this year that expand OnePay’s types of flexible payment options and can reach new customers.”

Today’s announcement comes at a time of major growth for OnePay, which is seeking to compete with well entrenched digital banks such as Chime and Dave. Last fall, the company partnered with DriveWealth to offer embedded investing tools and teamed up with Zero Hash to facilitate bitcoin and ether trading within its app. In addition to these new capabilities, the OnePay app also offers traditional banking tools such as a high-yield savings account, peer-to-peer money transfer capabilities, and cross-border payments. However, the app also differentiates itself from traditional banks and even other digital banks with a credit builder card, tax filing service, and even a low-cost mobile phone plan via a partnership with Gigs.

OnePay is seeking to compete with entrenched digital banking players such as Chime and Dave. The company is well positioned to do so thanks to its second-mover advantages and embedded distribution through its parent company, Walmart, which launched OnePay in January 2021 in partnership with Ribbit Capital. In January 2022, Walmart expanded OnePay’s capabilities by acquiring two fintech platforms, Even and ONE, which helped Walmart create its version of a financial services super app.

For more on Walmart’s fintech ambitions, which started in 2005 when it applied for a Utah Industrial Loan Corporation (ILC) charter, check out my deep dive conversation on the One Vision podcast with host Theodora Lau.

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FinovateEurope 2026 is only weeks away—but there’s still time to grab your ticket and save your spot. Be sure to visit our registration page today and take advantage of early bird savings!

We recently kicked off our FinovateEurope 2026 Sneak Peek series to help you get to know this year’s demoing companies. Today, we’re sharing a look at the content side of things: starting with four keynote addresses—two for Tuesday and two for Wednesday—that you won’t want to miss.

From the impact of geopolitics on financial decision-making to the rise of agentic AI to the possibilities of open banking and open finance, these FinovateEurope keynotes will explain how the most significant trends in fintech and financial services are impacting bankers and financial services professionals—and will share insights on how to make the most of these exciting new developments and innovations.

The Global Economic Outlook & the Escalation of Geopolitical Risk and the Impact on Banks and their Customers

Manas Chawla, Founder and Chief Executive of London Politica, is a political risk expert who has advised heads of state, UN agencies, and a range of Fortune 500 companies on how to navigate geopolitical risk and volatility. Chawla is also the Director of the Oxbridge Diplomatic Academy.

London Politica is the world’s largest political risk advisory for social impact. Founded in 2020, the organization leverages a global network of more than 300 experts to provide locally grounded insight with a global perspective.

Catch Chawla’s presentation at 10:20 am on Tuesday, 10 February!

AI-First Banking—Why Agentic AI is Truly a New Frontier in Banking

Alpesh Doshi, Managing Partner at Redcliffe Capital, will discuss how banks can harness agentic AI to reimagine a range of business process. With a focus on delivering real value for both customers and banks, Doshi’s keynote address will help bankers understand how they should be thinking about a Brave New World in which bots are the customers.

Redcliffe Capital specializes in investing and building companies that help enterprises and entrepreneurs leverage innovation in technology such as digital transformation, data, and artificial intelligence.

Catch Doshi’s presentation at 3:50 pm on Tuesday, 10 February!

Finding a Commercial Model for Open Banking in Europe—What is the State of the Market & Where Have We Seen Real Success Stories for Retail Customers & Corporates?

Taner Akcok, Head of Global API Banking, Deutsche Bank AG, is a serial entrepreneur, intrapreneur, and investor. With two exits on his resume and a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 roster in Europe, Akcok has extensive experience with API platforms, open banking, banking-as-a-service (BaaS), embedded finance, and contextual banking.

Germany’s Deutsche Bank is the country’s leading financial institution. Founded in 1870 to support emerging German businesses, Deutsche Bank today includes investing, corporate, and retail banking among its core services along with asset and wealth management. The institution operates in more than 70 countries and trades publicly on the Frankfurt and New York Stock Exchanges.

Catch Akcok’s presentation at 2:30 pm on Wednesday, 11 February!

Open Data Will Enable Hyper-Personalization—How Do You Do It & What Do Customers Actually Want?

Jurgen Vandenbroucke, Director at everyoneINVESTED, has more than two decades of experience in financial services. He combines expertise in financial engineering, behavioral finance, and digital innovation to transform the way people think about investing. With a PhD in Applied Economics, Vandenbroucke’s mission is to make investing easy, personal, valuable, and reliable.

everyoneINVESTED empowers financial institutions around the world to boost digital investment engagement via solutions based in behavioral science, regulatory compliance, and user-centric design. The company is the WealthTech spin-off of KBC Group and is a recognized WealthTech 100 company.

Catch Vandenbroucke’s presentation at 3:10 pm on Wednesday, 11 February!

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Financial institutions are scaling digital products, expanding into new markets, and automating their decision-making more than ever in 2026, which makes managing controls, models, and regulatory obligations just as important as stopping fraud.

At FinovateEurope 2026, two new fintechs are showing how banks can move beyond manual processes and static controls toward more dynamic, data-driven approaches to compliance and risk. Check out how the following companies are helping banks reduce cost, improve transparency, and turn regulatory requirements into tools for smarter decision-making.

FinovateEurope 2026 will take place at London’s InterContinental O2 on February 10 and 11. Tickets are available now. Visit our FinovateEurope hub today and take advantage of big early-bird savings!

FINTRAC

UK-based FINTRAC helps financial institutions automate controls and workflows across the model lifecycle, enabling stronger governance with less manual effort. Its platform replaces fragmented, spreadsheet-driven processes with centralized controls, audit-ready documentation, and richer analytics that improve transparency across risk, compliance, and model management teams.

Because its tools are integrated into banks’ existing systems, FINTRAC allows banks to reduce costs while maintaining regulatory compliance in real-time.

Serene

Serene helps firms turn compliance and collections data into actionable insights by helping lenders optimize arrears management, reduce defaults, and expand access to credit by combining compliance discipline with frontline intelligence.

Serene positions compliance as a feedback loop that improves decision-making across collections and lending operations. The company offers organizations data and guidance to enable them to balance risk management with customer outcomes while remaining compliant.

Why banks should care

As banks continue to digitize lending, payments, and risk decisioning, compliance and control functions can no longer rely on manual processes. In fact, regulators are increasingly expecting firms to implement continuous governance, which places more pressure on teams to move faster, adopt AI-driven models, and reduce operational cost.

Fintechs like FINTRAC and Serene are good examples of how compliance and risk intelligence are being embedded into everyday operations. By automating controls and leveraging compliance data for actionable insights, banks can improve transparency, strengthen risk management, and scale more confidently.

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