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Tag: FinTech

  • SMBC Americas deploys Fenergo AI for KYC, AML compliance

    Banking giant SMBC Americas is deploying AI solutions from fintech Fenergo to streamline KYC, AML and client lifecycle management at the $2.1 trillion bank.  

    The deployment comes as part of a multiyear transformation aimed at “simplifying the technology infrastructure and removing manual processes,” SMBC Americas Chief Operating Officer Greg Keeley stated in a Jan. 7 release. 

    Financial institutions are seeing up to 80% reductions in manual review times for KYC and AML compliance with the fintech’s AI solution, according to Fenergo.  

    The compliance service provider is also helping banks achieve up to 70% faster client onboarding and 50% fewer KYC remediation cycles by “automating data extraction, client verification and risk scoring,” Fenergo Director of Thought Leadership Tracy Moore told FinAi News.  

    “AI-driven insights also enhance risk detection accuracy, helping institutions identify potential AML issues earlier and with greater precision,” she said.  

    Fenergo’s clients include: 

    Read more on Fenergo leadership here.  

    Fenergo is not the only fintech addressing growing demand for AI-driven compliance solutions in financial services.  

    • Digital solutions provider HGS today launched AMLens, an AML tool it says can reduce case-analysis time by up to 75%, according to a company release.  
    • Fintech Droit also recently launched a generative AI tool to enhance compliance decision-making.  

    Limiting disruption  

    Fenergo develops its platform internally and works with Amazon Web Services to power its AI tools securely and at scale, “ensuring financial institutions benefit from the latest advancements in cloud and machine learning technology,” Moore said.  

    “Our AI is delivered through Fenergo’s cloud-based SaaS platform, with flexible API integration so institutions can easily connect it to their existing systems.”

    — Tracy Moore, Fenergo

    “Our approach to AI is built with strong governance and transparency, giving financial institutions full oversight and control over how AI-driven insights are used in KYC, onboarding and compliance processes,” she said. 

    It typically takes between six to 12 weeks for the compliance tool to be fully integrated in banking operations, although it varies based on the size of the institution, Moore said. 

    To minimize disruptions during the implementation phase, Fenergo works “hand-in-hand” with each institution to design the right operating model for their specific needs, she said.  

    “We also reduce friction through open APIs, guided onboarding and AI-driven automation, which simplify integration, data migration and process setup,” she said.  

    Gen AI for compliance ops  

    The global market for generative AI in financial services is projected to more than double to $5.1 billion in 2029 from $1.9 billion in 2025, according to the Business Research Company, citing compliance-solutions demand as a key growth driver.  

    Fenergo uses gen AI for specific areas in its platform to enhance efficiency and decision-making, Moore said. 

    “For example, generative AI helps automate document summarization, data extraction and the generation of risk narratives or client due diligence summaries, all underpinned by strong governance and human oversight.”

    — Tracy Moore, Fenergo

    While gen AI presents significant opportunities to bolster KYC workflows, there are several associated risks, according to credit analysis and financial solutions provider Moody’s, including: 

    • Hallucinations in text generation; 
    • Regulatory variance by state or country; and 
    • Algorithmic bias.  

    Thus, FIs must use trusted KYC databases for machine learning, integrate global data, maintain human oversight and update systems as needed, according to Moody’s. 

    Many financial institutions including Ally Financial, Grasshopper, University of Michigan Credit Union and TD are deploying gen AI tech to fight money laundering and KYC processes, according to FinAi News’ prior reporting.  

    Register here by Jan. 16 for early bird pricing for the inaugural FinAi Banking Summit, taking place March 2-3 in Denver. View the full event agenda here.   

    Quinn Donoghue

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  • AI paves way for equipment lenders to predict residual values

    AI advancements are enabling lenders to better predict residual values, a boon for the equipment finance industry as machines become increasingly tech heavy.  

    The global market for AI in financial services is expected to grow 34.3% annually to $249.5 billion in 2032 from 2025, according to Verified Market Research. The global predictive AI market is projected to hit $88.6 billion by 2032, a more than fourfold increase from 2025, according to research firm Market.us.  

    The potential benefits of AI for predicting residuals are especially relevant for equipment lenders as autonomous solutions, telematics systems, GPS systems and other machine technologies enter the market. Lenders have been reluctant to finance new tech-heavy machines due to residual-value uncertainty. The uncertainty is driven by:  

    • Limited historical performance data;  
    • Rapid obsolescence; and  
    • Lack of a resale market.  

    Nearest neighbor  

    Fintechs and lenders can overcome these hurdles by deploying the “nearest-neighbor technique” with machine learning, Timothy Appleget, director of technology services at Tamarack Technology, an AI and data solutions provider, told FinAi News’ sister publication Equipment Finance News.  

    The nearest-neighbor method uses proximity to make predictions or classifications about the grouping of an individual data point, according to IBM. The technique helps “fill gaps in data that don’t exist,” Appleget said. 

    For example, rather than just gathering scarce residual-value data for autonomous equipment, lenders and fintechs should seek data for the technologies enabling them — or other asset types with similar systems.  

    Data integrity is crucial during this process, Tamarack President Scott Nelson told EFN.  

    “If I can find an asset type that’s inside the definition of this more techy thing, then that’s like a nearest neighbor,” he said.  

    Borrower behavior 

    Borrower behavior is also an important factor to consider when developing AI tools for predicting residuals, Nelson said.  

    “One of the biggest effects on residuals is usage. So, an interesting question would be: Is anybody out there trying to aggregate data about the operators to predict the behavior of the people moving this equipment around?” 

    — Scott Nelson, president, Tamarack Technology

    To achieve this, fintech-lender partners can take advantage of the data collection and transmission capabilities of emerging equipment technologies, such as telematics, Nelson said. Even simple tech, like shock and vibration sensors, can aid this process, he said. 

    “You get two things immediately: You get runtime, because anytime the thing is vibrating, it’s running,” he said. “If you’ve got runtime, you’ve got hours on the engine, which is one of the big factors. The shock sensors tell you whether or not it got into an accident or whether or not it was abused.”

    “That runtime data can also be converted into revenue generation. How often is this thing generating revenue?” 

    — Scott Nelson, president, Tamarack Technology

    Integrating operator-behavior data with predictive AI could help lenders gain a competitive edge because many take a conservative approach when financing relatively new assets, Appleget said. 

    “This additional asset-behavioral data, to me, opens up the potential for having more flexibility in the residual values you set for a specific asset,” he said. “If you have that level of sophistication, you can gain a considerable advantage.” 

    Register here by Jan. 16 for early bird pricing for the inaugural FinAi Banking Summit, taking place March 2-3 in Denver. View the full event agenda here. 

    Quinn Donoghue

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  • The Payments You Don’t See: How Invisible Fintech Is Powering Your Favorite Apps

    Behind every “Pay now” button sits an increasingly complex financial stack designed to remove friction and prevent failure. Unsplash+

    Not long ago, going cashless felt novel. Today, tapping a card—or clicking “Pay now”—barely registers. Expectations have shifted quickly, and by 2025, consumers largely assume payments will run themselves. The commercial pressure is real: merchants lose an estimated $18 billion per year to abandoned carts, and every failed transaction costs roughly $12 in direct and indirect losses. Any extra step introduces friction, and any decline erodes revenue and trust.

    Embedded payments are designed to address both problems. They sit beneath the surface of digital products, removing friction and allowing payments to function as a native feature rather than a separate event. When designed well, the customer barely notices the transaction at all, yet the underlying infrastructure is doing far more work than it appears. The new baseline is simple: the payment disappears into the product.  

    Payments without banks—at least from the user’s point of view

    Today’s customer does not expect to interact with a bank. They expect the transaction to complete instantly and intuitively. Behind a single button press, however, a cascade of systems activates at once. Issuers verify credentials. Acquirers interpret the merchant request. Fraud engines run risk assessments. If lending, foreign exchange or tokenization are involved, additional layers come online. 

    All of this has to happen in milliseconds. When it does, the commercial impact is tangible. Companies using embedded finance report two- to five-times higher customer lifetime value and up to 30 percent lower acquisition costs. Simplified payment flows increase conversion, reduce friction and open new revenue streams. In some models, a well-built embedded payments experience can add approximately $70 per customer per year.  

    Reliability is the second, less visible benefit. When a basket is full and a customer is ready to pay, the system must complete the transaction. A failure at checkout does more than lose a single sale. It damages confidence, often sends customers to a competitor and, in many cases, ends the relationship altogether.

    Why every company is becoming a payments company

    Embedded payments now sit far outside the fintech sector itself. Most users do not consciously register the change, but nearly every major digital service already relies on them.

    Marketplaces once depended on manual reconciliations and delayed settlements. Today, embedded financial services manage escrow, seller payouts, instant transfers and even on-platform lending. Tax and compliance checks run automatically in the background. What looks like a simple transaction is, in reality, a network of coordinated financial processes running in parallel. 

    “Buy now, pay later” is one of the most visible outcomes of this shift. A single click can trigger an installment plan without redirecting the user or breaking the checkout flow. That convenience increases affordability and lifts conversion, explaining why adoption spread so quickly. 

    The creator economy has moved just as fast. Viewers can instantly tip or subscribe to a streamer, with funds settling to the creator’s card in near real-time. Lower friction translates directly into higher earnings, helping drive a sector projected to grow from $30 billion in 2024 to roughly $284 billion by 2034. 

    Physical environments, like sports venues, are also adapting, recognizing the commercial value. Long queues reduce spending. Cashless stadiums reduce wait times and increase transaction throughput and drive higher per-fan spend. Payments have become a core part of the fan experience itself.

    Even vehicles are becoming payment endpoints. According to Parkopedia, 100 percent of U.S. drivers and 93 percent of German drivers say seamless in-car payments improve their overall experience. Cars, in effect, are evolving into connected payment devices. 

    The reality check: rapid progress coupled with uneven regulation

    Despite these advances, embedded finance brings real challenges. Global regulation remains fragmented. Requirements vary country by country, and in the U.S., state by state. A payment model compliant under California’s Digital Financial Assets Law may still require a money transmitter license in Washington state. These inconsistencies make it difficult to deliver a truly uniform experience at scale. 

    There is also a behavioral dimension. When credit, subscriptions and financial commitments are embedded deeply inside apps, some users can lose visibility into what they have agreed to. Overspending becomes easier, and platform lock-in more likely. Convenience has introduced a new category of consumer risk that regulators are still working to address. 

    What comes next

    Despite these constraints, the trajectory is clear. By 2026, payment systems will increasingly route transactions autonomously, selecting optimal paths without human intervention. Tokenized credentials will improve accuracy and reduce fraud. Machine learning will take on a greater share of real-time decision-making.  

    The boundary between financial and non-financial services will continue to blur. Payments will sit underneath most digital products by default. Customers will not think about them, and that invisibility will be the measure of success. The infrastructure fades from view, but its impact on revenue, retention and experience only grows stronger. 

    Alpesh Patel is a Strategic Partnership Director at Cartex, a new-gen fintech marketplace. He is a senior executive with over 25 years of experience in fintech, cryptocurrency, card issuing, and payments sectors in the UK and globally.

    The Payments You Don’t See: How Invisible Fintech Is Powering Your Favorite Apps

    Alpesh Patel

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  • Fintech Mercury applies for banking license

    Mercury Technologies said today it applied for a national bank charter and federal deposit insurance, a move that would allow the fintech to operate as a regulated bank and expand its product offerings under direct federal oversight.  The San Francisco-based Mercury said it submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a […]

    FinAi News, AI-assisted

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  • Syfe CEO: Fintech founders need to focus on trust if the sector is to reach its full potential | Fortune

    The fintech industry moved into the modern era from something deeper than just better technology. The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 triggered a crisis of trust. For millions of consumers and businesses, the crisis revealed a need for greater transparency. A new generation of financial services companies–fintechs–stepped into the gap promoting not just efficiency and lower costs, but transparency and accessibility as well.

    This approach has delivered real results: The International Monetary Fund finds that digital finance not only increases financial inclusion, but is also associated with higher GDP growth and, in turn, helps create a more equitable global financial system.

    The fintech industry has now matured, as shown by successful industry forums like the Singapore Fintech Festival and Hong Kong Fintech Week. The question has changed: It’s no longer whether fintech can disrupt; it’s whether fintech can build enough trust to manage and move the world’s money, and achieve the sector’s full potential? 

    I believe we’re at a crucial inflection point. Fintech’s potential—business, social and economic—depends entirely on earning people’s trust to bring more of them, and their finances, into the system. 

    Now is the greatest opportunity

    Fintech is in the middle of a turbo-charged era: AI-driven efficiencies and personalization, instant decentralized settlements, and a fully digital wealth management experience, all unthinkable a decade ago, are now on the way. 

    Basic trust has already been established. One example: across age groups, new technologies have significantly reduced the need for physical cash, if not made it near-nonexistent, in many economies. 

    Yet it’s a substantial leap to go from trusting a platform to make a simple payment to trusting it to manage your retirement savings. As technologies grow more powerful and personal, trust is increasingly the gatekeeper to further adoption. The greater responsibility raises the bar for trust in complex financial systems and puts pressure on companies to demonstrate transparency. 

    As algorithms and technology become more sophisticated, customers must understand exactly how decisions are made, where their money is held, and how their data is used. If fintechs cannot bridge the gap between these rapid advancements and clear, jargon-free information and education, mass adoption will falter. 

    The limitation won’t be the technology itself, but the lack of public trust, which ultimately constrains the industry’s potential to improve financial health and inclusion. 

    After all, a crisis of confidence can erase decades of work in mere days—just think back to 2023 and the Silicon Valley Bank crisis. Trust has to be consciously engineered into every platform layer.

    Engineering trust into the business model

    In an industry where relationships with users are largely digital, trust must be engineered through design. This requires modern fintech platforms to be built on three non-negotiable pillars:

    First, fintechs must continue to open up access to their services. Platforms must lower traditional barriers to entry—high minimums, complex processes, early redemption fees and the like—to ensure that no one is excluded from wealth creation. 

    Second, platforms must offer their users guidance. Financial confidence comes from clarity, not endless choice. Platforms must combine digital simplicity with human reassurance and expertise when needed. 

    At Syfe, we’ve tried to put human expertise front and center, such as by offering discretionary management by our in-house experts on Managed Portfolios, but scaling it with technology for maximum reach. The personalized stock updates, powered by AI, are a good example of that process in action. 

    Fintechs also need to build financial literacy, which remains a significant challenge even in advanced markets. Take Singapore: A Fidelity International found that just 22% of its residents felt confident about their ability to invest money. Education and jargon-free information are essential ingredients to empower people to build a better financial future.

    Finally, fintech platforms must be affordable. It sends a clear signal: That they succeed only when their customers do. In an industry where hidden fees can erode confidence, cost efficiency ensures that technology can scale access without exploiting customers. 

    Putting trust at the center of a business is the only sustainable growth strategy, and not just a moral stance. Customers who feel empowered and secure are more likely to recommend a service to others, stay through market volatility, and continue to adopt new products.

    The imperative over the next decade is clear. If fintech is to fulfil its promise of democratizing access to better financial outcomes, it must make trust the organizing principle of its business. This requires investment, patience, and the courage to trade short-term disruption for long-term credibility. Trust will be the hardest metric to win, but it’ll be the one that will matter most.

    The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

    Fortune just hosted the Fortune Innovation Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where business leaders and policymakers from around the region debated and discussed strategies for a world marked by AI, protectionism, and geopolitical tensions. Check out our mainstrage sessions here and oureditorial coverage here!

    Dhruv Arora

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  • Klarna’s First Public Earnings Report: Strong US Growth, ‘Neobanking’ and A.I.

    CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says Klarna is evolving from BNPL to a full “neobank.” Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    Today (Nov. 18), Klarna reported its first quarterly earnings as a public company. The fintech giant, which debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in September, is growing quickly as it leans into A.I. and looks to expand beyond its Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) service into more traditional banking offerings.

    Klarna beat Wall Street expectations with $903 million in revenue for the July–September period, a 26 percent increase from a year earlier. In its largest market, the U.S., sales rose 51 percent from a year ago.

    The company also posted gains in gross merchandise volume (GMV), an e-commerce metric measuring the value of goods sold. GMW jumped 23 percent year-over-year to $32.7 billion for the quarter. One gloomy spot was net income, which swung to a $95 million loss compared to a $12 million profit during the same period in 2024. Klarna attributed the decline partially to a change in accounting principles.

    Demand also increased for Klarna’s “Fair Financing” option, which lets customers spread payments for larger purchases over longer periods. U.S. GMV for the offering jumped 244 percent during the quarter, while global GMV rose 139 percent. Fair Financing is now available at 151,000 merchants, or 18 percent of Klarna’s total merchant base.

    Klarna is still best known for its BNPL services, but the company aims to shift “from payments to full neobank,” CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said during his company’s earnings call. A neobank refers to a fintech firm that offers banking services without a physical branches, such as Chime or Revolut.

    In July, Klarna launched the “Klarna Card,” a payment card that combines BNPL features with a traditional debit card. The product has already gained more than 4 million signups, according to Siemiatkowski, and accounted for 15 percent of Klarna’s global transactions as of October.

    Klarna slows hiring amid A.I. push

    Klarna is also turning to A.I. to move into new areas. As an early adopter, the company has embraced the technology across personal shopping, internal productivity tools and even an A.I. avatar of Siemiatkowski capable of presenting earnings.

    A.I. has transformed customer service as well: an A.I. assistant Klarna introduced last year now performs the work of more than 850 full-time employees and has saved the company $60 million, Siemiatkowski said. In part because of these efficiency gains, Klarna does not “believe that hiring is the right approach at this point in time,” he added.

    That doesn’t mean the CEO is unconcerned about A.I.’s impact on workers. While blue-collar jobs are typically vulnerable during economic downturns, Siemiatkowski warned that A.I. could more heavily affect “high-income households and white-collar jobs.” He said he is closely monitoring unemployment trends to understand how the technology might affect consumers who rely on Klarna.

    Klarna’s First Public Earnings Report: Strong US Growth, ‘Neobanking’ and A.I.

    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • How Looking Outside Your Industry Can Give You Better Game Design Ideas

    When you sit down with your dev team and talk inspiration, the go‑to examples tend to be from gaming itself, “look at Elden Ring,” “study Mario,” or “check what Fortnite is doing.” But inspiration taken from other sectors can unlock fresh angles inside development workflows, art direction, monetization, narrative and systems thinking.

    Game creators who learn from, say, architecture, hospitality, film, or even banking often find unexpected sparks. 

    Fintech Thinking Can Shape Smarter Game Mechanics

    Fintech’s biggest lesson for game designers is in how it handles complexity. From banking apps, virtual wallets to trading platforms, the goal is always the same, make high-stakes, multi-step interactions feel seamless and intuitive. 

    In the crypto space, wallets have become more than just storage tools. Wallets now have full-service interfaces that manage access, verify ownership, and facilitate early participation. For developers, wallets that enable presales for 2025 reflect how thoughtful fintech design can streamline even the most intricate systems. These wallets offer instant asset delivery, transparent purchase history, and multi-platform access, all traits that enable quick and efficient participation in presale events, but also worth mirroring in in-game systems. Whether it’s designing item shops, reward loops, or user onboarding, there’s a lot to learn from how fintech simplifies complexity without removing control. In that sense, wallet infrastructure becomes a kind of blueprint for future-ready game design.

    Architecture and Urban Planning Influence Level Design

    Architects don’t just draw buildings; they guide movement, sightlines, circulation, and transitions between spaces. These same concerns matter in level design, how does a player move, what do they see first, where do paths converge?

    A good example of this crossover is how Bjarke Ingels Group once turned their project portfolio into an 8‑bit arcade game, layering vehicle motion, obstacle evasion, and spatial transitions to reflect their real buildings. In doing so, they treated their real‑world designs as “game spaces,” thinking in zones, thresholds, and player (visitor) sightlines rather than just facades.

    In games, that kind of design thinking translates to emerging vistas, visual “teasers” of upcoming zones, or how a hallway opens into a wide arena. Borrowing architectural principles of hierarchy, focal points, and circulation helps tighten level layouts.

    Hospitality and Retail Improve Engagement Loops

    Hotels and retail environments drive loyalty by staging moments. Check‑in is a ritual, the lobby signals identity, corridors guide discovery, and amenities surprise the user. These principles can be useful in games as well.

    Take mobile games with daily login bonuses styled like a hotel wake-up. The interface opens softly, a greeting appears, then options unfurl. The “lobby” becomes your game’s hub, framed in a way that borrows hospitality’s script of comfort and anticipation.

    Zynga once used restaurant design in FarmVille: the way farm plots are revealed one by one mimics how restaurants guide guests from the greeter zone into deeper dining rooms. That sense of unfolding keeps the discovery alive.

    Storyboarding from Film Enhances Pacing

    Film has taught decades worth of lessons about pacing, tension, framing, and reveal. Narrative games already use cinematic tools, but even non-narrative systems benefit from storyboarding and editing logic.

    Celeste is a good example. The pacing of dialogue and platforming alternates carefully. There’s a moment of rest, a reveal, then escalation. That rhythm borrows from a film’s beat structure: setup, conflict, reveal.

    In Return of the Obra Dinn, visual transitions signal timelines or memory shifts, borrowing straight from cinematic editing. These transitions help the player subconsciously understand they are moving between narrative modes.

    Even outside cinematic games, designers can sketch quests like scenes. Mark the moment of tension, the reward, the turning point. Then match gameplay delivery to that rhythm.

    Financial Thinking Refines Game Economies

    Game economies can borrow a lot from banking and fintech. These sectors specialize in trust, transaction friction, incentives, and risk modeling.

    Staking is one clear crossover. Some games now let players lock in-game currency for a set period to earn rewards, borrowing the concept of fixed deposits. It creates commitment through delayed gratification.

    Insurance is another inspiration point. Some live service games offer revival tokens or mitigation items that mimic insurance policies. Pricing these items can be informed by actuarial models, using odds of failure and expected costs.

    Even loyalty tiers and discount models used in fintech can inform in-game shops or season pass structures. That kind of economic tuning benefits from the analytical lens finance brings.

    What Fashion Can Teach Game Developers About Systems and Identity

    Just like limited-edition drops create urgency in streetwear, time-limited skins or event-based rewards in games can drive engagement without feeling forced. 

    The fashion industry also understands how small variations (a colorway, a trim, a brand mark) can radically change perception, which mirrors how players assign value to cosmetic changes. More importantly, fashion handles identity fluidity, it lets people reinvent how they show up. 

    Games that allow layered customization, social display, or evolving personal style tap into the same psychological loop. By studying how fashion collections are rolled out, how brands build anticipation, and how users mix elements, developers can learn to build systems that are not only expressive but also commercially and culturally responsive.

    Automotive and Simulation Tech Drive Feedback Design

    Automotive engineering is built around feedback. How a car responds to driver input, how suspension reacts, how warnings engage, all of that translates easily to responsive game design.

    Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo have both relied on car engineers to shape how vehicles handle, drift, and respond. But even outside driving games, the lessons apply.

    Inertia in platformers can reflect racing dynamics. Jumping, sliding, or rebounding off surfaces can be tuned to carry momentum and feel tactile. Assist modes, inspired by real-world driver aids, can shape game difficulty and onboarding.

    Kerbal Space Program used real aerospace physics to create meaningful error and correction.

    Adapting Ideas Without Overcomplication

    Not every concept needs a 1:1 translation. The value lies in thinking differently. You can sketch a feature like a hotel experience or tune an economic mechanic like a savings account.

    Other teams prototype one microfeature from an adjacent field, test its friction and see how it affects engagement or retention. Storyboarding even non-narrative content can surface pacing issues or reveal hidden UX gaps.

    Conclusion

    Game creation thrives on synthesis. Architects shape spatial flow, hospitality designers stage emotional moments, filmmakers craft rhythm, financiers model transactions, and engineers tune feedback.

    By giving dev teams permission to explore outside gaming, studios unlock surprising design solutions. Whether you draw from banking to structure a presales offer or from hotel design to improve onboarding, outside ideas fuel creative clarity.

    BurCal Apartments8715

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  • Exclusive: Airwallex crosses $1 billion in annualized revenue as fintech unicorn takes on U.S. competitors like Ramp and Stripe | Fortune

    As the fintech sector comes roaring back, companies like Ramp and Stripe have dominated headlines with eye-popping funding rounds and rapid growth. But the Singapore-based Airwallex is not far behind, crossing $1 billion in annualized revenue as of October with a year-over-year growth rate of 90%, according to cofounder and CEO Jack Zhang. 

    In an interview with Fortune, Zhang said that his company, known for cross-border payments and foreign exchange, has diversified its product suite into a slew of other offerings, including business banking accounts and spend management, putting it directly in competition with not only Ramp and Stripe, but also Mercury, Brex, Revolut and a who’s who of fintech giants. “We’re competing with too many people,” Zhang joked. 

    Airwallex still lacks the name recognition of its rivals, at least in the U.S., but that could soon change as the company accelerates its push into North America and Europe. Founded in 2015, it took nine years for Airwallex to reach its first $500 million in annualized revenue, but only one more year for that to double to $1 billion. With gross profit margins above 60%, according to Zhang, Airwallex is quickly becoming a formidable player in the U.S. The company was last valued at $6 billion in a May funding round, compared to Ramp’s last valuation of $22.5 billion and Stripe’s $106 billion. 

    After achieving cash flow positivity at the end of 2023, Airwallex decided to re-invest in the business but is on target to reach profitability once again in the fourth quarter of 2025, a spokesperson told Fortune.

    “A lot of the reason we’ve succeeded is we’re an outsider,” Zhang said. “We’re not part of the Silicon Valley ecosystem.” 

    From Melbourne to San Francisco

    Many fintech companies focus on one key product, often using it as a wedge to expand further into a company’s financial suite. For Ramp, it was corporate credit cards; for Mercury, business bank accounts; and for Stripe, payment processing.

    Founded in Melbourne, Airwallex later moved to the Asian finance hub of Singapore after launching in the country in early 2022. Zhang said that his company has had to be globally focused from day one, given Australia’s relatively small market. While its initial focus was cross-border payments, Zhang said the company’s revenue is now spread over an array of products, with business accounts similar to Mercury comprising 34% of its revenue, spend management 20%, and payments 30%. Airwallex also offers its global network of licenses and services to other fintech companies through API integrations, such as facilitating Brex, Rippling, and Deel’s international expansions. “Our real moat is the infrastructure, both on the regulatory side and on the financial services side, that we built over the last decade,” Zhang said. 

    As Airwallex pushes into North America, including opening a U.S. headquarters in San Francisco last year, Zhang admits that he won’t compete with a company like Ramp on U.S. focused customers. Airwallex’s focus, instead, is on companies that want a global presence and need to be able to issue employee cards, open bank accounts, and pay merchants across dozens of jurisdictions. Zhang said that North America and Europe now comprise close to 40% of the company’s revenue after sitting at zero just a few years ago. 

    “If you’re a U.S. company and you only have operations in Ohio, you better go with Ramp,” Zhang said. “But if you’re a U.S. company that wants to sell in Australia, wants to sell in Singapore, wants to sell in the U.K., wants to sell in Canada, wants to do that efficiently, and wants to have banking, payments, spend, and treasury management all in a single platform, that’s where Airwallex comes in.”

    Like for most other companies, AI is top of mind for Airwallex, with Zhang working on a wallet product that he says will serve as foundational infrastructure for global agentic payments. He says that he wants the AI agents business to scale to a “few $100 million” before he considers going public. 

    The company has also hired stablecoin developers, another buzzy area of fintech, though he remains skeptical that blockchain can solve global money movement better than existing options. “The merchant adoption is still very low and there’s nothing happening on the B2B [business-to-business] side,” he said. “I’m 99% skeptical, 1% probability.”   

    Leo Schwartz

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  • Is There an Easy Way to Help SNAP Recipients Online? Sort of, Yes

    The situation for recipients of supplementary nutrition aid in the United States is not good right now. Due to the government shutdown, November payments to what we call the “food stamps” program are not happening. Nothing you can do from your couch, using your smartphone, is about to fix this horror show. But you can actually help out with a band-aid fix by donating at this link. 

    Donating to this particular campaign allows specific, qualifying families who are part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to receive one-time payments of $50 instead of nothing. These are families with kids, and they typically get multiple hundreds of dollars in food benefits monthly.

    Just know that there are aspects of this that you’re probably not going to like.

    (Also know that you can donate to, and volunteer at, a food bank in your area as well. They need it right now.)

    Why does this actually work?

    I was a little unsettled when I noticed just how efficient and seamless this charity campaign can claim to be. An app called Propel and a charity called GiveDirectly—yes, the one favored by MrBeast and some in the effective altruism community—can plausibly funnel money to some of the neediest people in the country, and do so very quickly. In theory, you donate, and your money goes to some of the neediest SNAP recipients in under two days. 

    Why it works, however, is another story. Propel is a for-profit fintech company funded by Silicon Valley VCs including Andreessen Horowitz (a firm associated with the MAGA movement). It’s used voluntarily by millions of U.S. benefits recipients because, for one thing, they like it, and also due to other factors, like the fact that the company maintains a heavy footprint in welfare recipients’ discussions on Reddit. Propel appears to be a useful stopgap, patching over some of the clunkiness in the American social safety net. According to Propel, a quarter of SNAP recipients use its app. As such, it has a lot of access and data that a for-profit company might not have in a saner country.

    So Propel can determine who is neediest by, in its own words, “targeting Propel users in households of three or more who receive the maximum SNAP allotment—a key indicator of extremely low or zero earned income.”

    It’s coldly logical. They qualify for the largest benefit because the government has determined that they’re struggling the most. GiveDirectly collects the money, and Propel knows who within its app ecosystem needs it. It then disperses the money via GiveCard (which is yet another startup). 

    Should I trust Propel?

    Propel seeded this campaign with $1 million, but it’s not hiding the fact that it’s a private firm hustling to make a name for itself in the fintech world. A “business case” exists for this app—meaning a way for the company to potentially turn a profit, and you can hear Propel co-founder and CEO Jimmy Chen explain it all in this interview on the Andrew Yang Podcast from three months ago.

    The Propel app is, Chen says, a “hook” for people to get pulled in as users, and exposed to the app’s other functions, which sound like much more obvious avenues for the company to make money. For instance, within Propel, Chen says benefits recipients are presented with deals and potential jobs to apply for.

    So something to keep in mind if you’re donating to this GiveDrectly program (as I am) is that this campaign is a powerful way for Propel to market itself to needy people. After all, if, like the majority of SNAP recipients, you have not downloaded and used the app, you’re not going to get $50.

    Gizmodo reached out to Propel for comment, and will update if we hear back.

    Mike Pearl

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  • Finwise, DreamFi team up to improve financial wellness

    FinWise Bancorp, the parent company of FinWise Bank, announced today a strategic agreement with DreamFi Inc., a fintech startup co-founded by civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Business Funding Group. Stamford, Conn.-based DreamFi aims to improve financial wellness and access for underserved and underbanked communities through education, awareness and practical tools, according to today’s Finwise […]

    FinAi News, AI-assisted

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  • Deloitte was caught using AI in $290,000 report to help the Australian government crack down on welfare after a researcher flagged hallucinations | Fortune

    Deloitte’s member firm in Australia will pay the government a partial refund for a $290,000 report that contained alleged AI-generated errors, including references to non-existent academic research papers and a fabricated quote from a federal court judgment. 

    The report was originally published on the Australian government’s Department of Employment and Workplace Relations website in July. A revised version was quietly published on Friday after Sydney University researcher of health and welfare law Chris Rudge said he alerted media outlets that the report was “full of fabricated references.”

    Deloitte reviewed the 237-page report and “confirmed some footnotes and references were incorrect,” the department said in a statement Tuesday.

    Deloitte did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

    The revised version of the report includes a disclosure that a generative AI language system, Azure OpenAI, was used in its creation. It also removes the fabricated quotes attributed to a federal court judge and references to nonexistent reports attributed to law and software engineering experts. Deloitte noted in a “Report Update” section that the updated version, dated September 26, replaced the report published in July. 

    “The updates made in no way impact or affect the substantive content, findings and recommendations in the report,” Deloitte wrote.

    In late August the Australian Financial Review first reported that the document contained multiple errors, citing Rudge as the researcher who identified the apparent AI-generated inaccuracies. 

    Rudge discovered the report’s mistakes when he read a portion incorrectly stating Lisa Burton Crawford, a Sydney University professor of public and constitutional law, had authored a non-existent book with a title outside her field of expertise.

    “I instantaneously knew it was either hallucinated by AI or the world’s best kept secret because I’d never heard of the book and it sounded preposterous,” Rudge told The Associated Press on Tuesday. 

    The Big Four consulting firms and global management firms such as McKinsey have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into AI initiatives to develop proprietary models and increase efficiency. In September, Deloitte said it would invest $3 billion in generative AI development through fiscal year 2030. 

    Anthropic also announced a Deloitte partnership on Monday that includes making Claude available to more than 470,000 Deloitte professionals.

    In June, the UK Financial Reporting Council, an accountancy regulator, warned that the Big Four firms were failing to monitor how AI and automated technologies affected the quality of their audits. 

    Though the firm will refund its last payment installment to the Australian government, Senator Barbara Pocock, the Australian Greens party’s spokesperson on the public sector, said Deloitte should refund the entire $290,000.

    Deloitte “misused AI and used it very inappropriately: misquoted a judge, used references that are non-existent,” Pocock told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “I mean, the kinds of things that a first-year university student would be in deep trouble for.”“The matter has been resolved directly with the client,” a spokesperson from Deloitte Australia told TheAssociated Press.

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    Nino Paoli

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  • With its latest acqui-hire, OpenAI is doubling down on personalized consumer AI  | TechCrunch

    OpenAI has acquired Roi, an AI-powered personal finance app. In keeping with a recent trend in the AI industry, only the CEO is making the jump.  

    Chief executive and co-founder Sujith Vishwajith announced the acquisition on Friday, and a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch he is the only one of Roi’s four-person staff to join OpenAI. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company will wind down operations and end its service to customers on October 15. 

    The Roi deal marks the latest in a string of acqui-hires from OpenAI this year, including Context.ai, Crossing Minds, and Alex.

    While it’s not clear whether any of Roi’s technology will transfer over to OpenAI or which unit Vishwajith will join, the acquisition clearly aligns with OpenAI’s bet on personalization and life management as the next layer of AI products. Roi brings a specialized team that has already tried to solve personalization in finance at scale — a challenge whose lessons can be applied more broadly.   

    New York-based Roi was founded in 2022 and has raised $3.6 million in early-stage funding from investors like Balaji Srinivasan, Spark Capital, Gradient Ventures, and Spacecadet Ventures, according to PitchBook data. Its mission was to aggregate a user’s financial footprint, including stocks, crypto, DeFi, real-estate, and NFTs, into one app that can track funds, provide insights, and help people make trades.  

    “We started Roi 3 years ago to make investing accessible to everyone by building the most personalized financial experience,” Vishwajith wrote in a post on X. “Along the way we realized personalization isn’t just the future of finance. It’s the future of software.” 

    Beyond tracking trades, Roi gave users access to a financially savvy AI companion that responded in ways that made sense for them. When signing up, users could personalize Roi by providing information like what they do for a living and how they wanted Roi to respond to them. 

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    In one telling example that Roi posted on X, the sample user wrote: “Talk to me like I’m a Gen-Z kid with brain rot. Use as little words as possible and roast me as much as you want I don’t mind.” In response to a query about the status of the user’s portfolio, Roi replied: “Suje, you got cooked lil bro. Cause of the tariff announcements, you took an L today of $32,459.12…Based on your risk preference this might be an opportunity to buy the dip.” 

    The exchange highlights the philosophy behind Roi and its co-founder — that software shouldn’t just provide generic answers but should adapt, learn, and communicate in ways that feel personal, human, and most importantly, keep you engaged.  

    As the Roi team wrote in a blog post: “The products we use every day won’t remain static, predetermined experiences. They’ll become adaptive, deeply personal companions that understand us, learn from us, and evolve with us.” 

    That vision dovetails with OpenAI’s existing consumer efforts, including Pulse, which generates personalized news and content reports for users as they sleep; the Sora app, a TikTok competitor filled with AI-generated content, including personal cameos from users; and Instant Checkout, a feature that lets users shop and make purchases directly in ChatGPT.  

    The deal also comes as OpenAI beefs up its consumer applications team,  led by former Instacart CEO Fidji Simo. It’s a further signal that OpenAI isn’t just trying to be an API provider, but wants to build its own end-user apps. Roi’s talent and tech could slot right into these apps and help make them more adaptive.  

    Vishwajith, alongside his co-founder Chip Davis, used to work at Airbnb, where he developed a knack for optimizing user behavior to drive revenue. By his account, a simple change of 25 lines of code led to $10+ million in additional cash.  

    Being able to bring in meaningful revenue via consumer apps is more important than ever to OpenAI as it continues to burn through billions on data centers and infrastructure to power its models.  

    Rebecca Bellan

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  • Europe must build better public markets for fintechs and not chase the bubble | Fortune

    Europe is home to more than 9,000 fintechs. It has produced global champions such as Wise, Klarna, and Adyen in payments, Revolut and Monzo in banking, and Mambu in B2B software. Across the Atlantic, the United States plays host to more than 13,000 fintechs, with leaders like Stripe, PayPal, and Chime. Both continents coexist and compete to produce the most influential companies in financial technology, though the paths taken and outcomes achieved often vary widely.  

    European fintechs raised €3.6 billion in the first half of 2025, 23% higher than in the same period in 2024, with funding on track to reach €7.6 billion for the year. In 2021, this total reached almost €16 billion. But 2021 was an anomaly, a sugar-high: a liquidity-driven bubble when venture investment hit record highs. We don’t expect to see those levels for another five to seven years, nor should we seek to recreate that. What matters now is building stamina, not chasing another rush. European fintech funding is on a steady path, tracking at 2019 levels. 

    The challenge for European markets isn’t chasing bubbles but building durable ecosystems where capital formation is balanced and sustainable. European scale-ups have long scaled under tighter capital constraints than their American counterparts. The result is companies built on sturdier foundations, less vulnerable to the ups and downs of funding markets. But also, a persistent excess demand for capital and, in turn, more reasonably priced assets in the small-to-mid-market.

    Visible cracks

    However, some cracks are starting to show. In 2025 so far, just two deals, Rapyd and FNZ, accounted for nearly half of European fintech funding, leaving much of the rest of the market with less attention. Concentration at the top is not unusual in periods of market caution, but it highlights the growing importance of building a stronger funding base for mid-market companies. By contrast, in the United States the top two fintech deals represented less than 10% of total funding, with capital spread across hundreds of Series A-C rounds. 

    This reflects the greater depth of US capital markets, supported by large institutional pools such as pensions, endowments, and crossover funds. Europe has historically relied more heavily on venture funds and corporate investors. For example, US public pensions and endowments together commit well over $1 trillion to private markets, compared with a far smaller role played by European institutions, where government agencies and corporates are more prominent backers. 

    This means that in quieter years, capital tends to cluster around the largest names. The result is a thinner middle market, not because of a lack of quality companies, but because the supporting financial structures are still developing. Strengthening that layer would help ensure a broader range of companies can scale and eventually reach the public markets.

    The building backlog

    Europe now faces an estimated €300 billion backlog of technology companies waiting to list. A treasure trove for businesses and employees seeking to be unlocked. But the backlog won’t clear overnight. Assuming 15% of this unicorn equity is floated, it would take nearly a decade to clear at the pace of 2024 listings regardless of where they list. And the bar today is set high for IPOs. The sub-$500 million revenue IPO is all but extinct. Mature private capital markets and strategic acquirers with heavy war-chests allow companies to stay private for longer, or forever. 

    However, these same features also allow Europe’s small-to-mid-cap exit market to excel. The continent delivers close to 1,000 technology exits annually of $100 million-$500 million, roughly the same size as the US market and with leaner capital journeys. It benefits from a deep pool of strategic acquirers, and active mid-market PE funds. Private equity buyout accounted for 40% of technology exits in the $100 million-$500 million range in Europe, roughly twice the proportion in the US. Europe’s exit market offers resilience and consistent outcomes for stakeholders, not reliant IPOs.

    Europe does not suffer from a shortage of strong tech companies and not every company needs to raise capital as if it were on the path to €500 million+ revenue (ARR). A €50 million ARR business, given the right capital environment, can be more than good enough for founders, for investors, and for Europe’s competitiveness. But the continent could do more to open up routes for its businesses.

    What the continent can do 

    First, exchanges need to allow companies to list with greater flexibility, so that European firms can list at scale without being forced to seek more favorable terms overseas. Second, the continent needs a vibrant mid-cap investor base, bridging the gap between venture and growth equity. 

    The companies are there, the exit market is vibrant, and the demand for scale-up capital is in excess. Pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional investors have a role to play in seeding this layer of the market, just as crossover funds have done in the US. For instance, private equity assets account for roughly 14% of US pension fund portfolios, today, European pension fund’s PE allocations are a fraction of this. 

    The next phase of Europe’s technology story should not be defined by bubbles or backlogs, but by building markets that allow its companies to scale sustainably, list locally, and thrive globally.

    The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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    Aman Ghei

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  • 5 AI-driven fintechs to watch

    AI-driven fintechs have been top recipients of venture capital funding in 2025, attracting $7.2 billion out of $44.7 billion of total global fintech funding during the first half of the year.  Payments fintech were next, grabbing $4.2 billion of funding, or 9.4%, during the same period, according to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech report, published in […]

    Vaidik Trivedi

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  • 5 AI-driven fintechs to watch

    AI-driven fintechs have been top recipients of venture capital funding in 2025, attracting $7.2 billion out of $44.7 billion of total global fintech funding during the first half of the year.  Payments fintech were next, grabbing $4.2 billion of funding, or 9.4%, during the same period, according to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech report, published in […]

    Vaidik Trivedi

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  • Why the Future of Finance Won’t Be Built on Innovation Alone | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain are transforming business, governance and everyday life. Yet even while fintech startups continue to grow, their reach is still overshadowed by the global footprint of established financial institutions. That’s because innovation on its own isn’t enough to scale.

    A new paradigm has emerged: collaboration, where interconnectedness is taking center stage. The implementation of new, disruptive technologies requires building dynamic, highly integrated ecosystems made possible by partnerships fueled by collaboration.

    The definition of success is shifting. Once, it was enough to launch a unique product. Today, especially in industries such as blockchain and virtual assets, isolated solutions often fall short. Real success comes from being part of a larger ecosystem, where startups, institutions and regulators combine their strengths to accelerate adoption, scale faster and establish trust across markets.

    Related: How Strategic Partnerships Catapulted My Business to 200% Growth — and How They Can Help You, Too.

    The case for a networked mindset

    Innovation thrives when diverse players come together, and integrated ecosystems can amplify this effect. To scale disruptive technologies like blockchain and AI, entrepreneurs must learn to build together, co-creating with regulators, pooling infrastructure with competitors and building trust with institutions.

    No company can scale in isolation. Partners, whether distribution channels, liquidity providers or trusted institutions, are crucial for transitioning from concept to mass adoption. Just as importantly, organizations that bring regulators and institutions into the process early gain a significant advantage. By co-creating with policymakers and aligning with market standards, entrepreneurs not only accelerate approvals but also distinguish themselves as builders of trust, the ultimate currency in industries where credibility is essential.

    Leverage networks, not just capital

    Traditionally, financial institutions raced to outpace their competitors. But virtual assets operate differently: Technologies like blockchain depend on shared standards and infrastructure. Tokenized securities, for example, require common frameworks for custody, compliance and settlement. Here, competing harder matters less than collaborating smarter. The entrepreneurs who will thrive are the ones who see that the future of finance, and business at large, can only be built together.

    In my own experience, even something as complex as obtaining a regulatory license, a process that can take years, can be dramatically accelerated by partnering with specialists. With the right expertise and network, what could take years can be streamlined into months, proving that collaboration isn’t just valuable, but also transformative.

    Related: How Collaboration Can Help Drive Growth and Propel Your Business to New Heights

    Think like an industry builder

    Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once said, “Move fast and break things.” The motto encouraged agility and captured the spirit of disruption: Launch first, ask questions later. But what may have worked in the early days of social media is far less sustainable in industries where the stakes are higher. Today’s technologies involve finance and governance, and they challenge systems that have remained unchanged for decades. In these spaces, collaboration becomes essential. Entrepreneurs who want to build with lasting impact must align with regulators, institutions and even competitors to create trusted, scalable and resilient systems.

    Research shows that companies engaged in close inter-firm partnerships experience significantly stronger outcomes in innovation. When JPMorgan wanted to test the tokenization of investment portfolios, it didn’t do it alone. It partnered with Apollo, Axelar, Oasis Pro and Provenance Blockchain as part of Singapore’s Project Guardian. The result was Crescendo, a prototype that proved tokenized assets could be managed seamlessly across blockchains. Examples like Project Guardian prove that when multiple players align, entire markets move forward. To make collaboration scalable, industries need permanent frameworks, a principle first captured in Henry Chesbrough’s concept of “open innovation.”

    The chamber model

    The concept of “open innovation,” coined by Henry Chesbrough of UC Berkeley, argued that companies should not solely rely on internal R&D but instead share ideas, technologies and resources across boundaries. In finance and virtual assets, this principle is evolving into structured collaboration.

    Regulatory sandboxes in the UK and Singapore have already shown how powerful these models can be: Startups involved were more likely to raise funding and survive long term. But sandboxes are temporary. What industries need now are permanent, neutral structures that turn collaboration into a repeatable advantage.

    Just as chambers of commerce once accelerated global trade, new chambers in finance and virtual assets are emerging as convening spaces where startups, regulators and institutions align on shared standards. These platforms have already supported multibillion-dollar projects, such as gold-backed securities, by bringing issuers, regulators and institutional investors under a common framework.

    Related: Not Tech but Collaborations to Be the Next Big Thing for Fintech Industry

    For emerging platforms, joining a chamber provides more than credibility; it creates immediate access to capital allocators, regulatory advisors and tokenization partners. As these chambers interconnect globally, they form a unified voice capable of shaping international policy, driving market confidence and speeding adoption worldwide.

    Finance has always been global, and so has collaboration. Chambers give entrepreneurs a seat at the same table as regulators and institutions. In a market defined by speed and credibility, those who embrace collaboration not as a concession but as a growth strategy will be the ones who shape the future of finance.

    Technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain are transforming business, governance and everyday life. Yet even while fintech startups continue to grow, their reach is still overshadowed by the global footprint of established financial institutions. That’s because innovation on its own isn’t enough to scale.

    A new paradigm has emerged: collaboration, where interconnectedness is taking center stage. The implementation of new, disruptive technologies requires building dynamic, highly integrated ecosystems made possible by partnerships fueled by collaboration.

    The definition of success is shifting. Once, it was enough to launch a unique product. Today, especially in industries such as blockchain and virtual assets, isolated solutions often fall short. Real success comes from being part of a larger ecosystem, where startups, institutions and regulators combine their strengths to accelerate adoption, scale faster and establish trust across markets.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Farbod Sadeghian

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  • Inside KeyBank’s fintech investment strategy

    KeyBank’s venture arm identifies investment opportunities based on pain points the bank wants to solve.  Once the $195 billion bank identifies an issue, it pinpoints five to 10 companies that could address the issue, Ken Gavrity, head of commercial banking, told Bank Automation News. The bank then determines how to integrate the outside technology into […]

    Vaidik Trivedi

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  • Transactions: FIS Q3 wins

    Technology provider FIS ended the third quarter with the acquisition of payment systems company Dragonfly Financial Technologies, a move that will boost the company’s digital offerings.  “Dragonfly complements our digital portfolio, expanding our digital offerings across large financial institutions, including some of the largest regional banks, for which we already have significant relationships,” Stephanie Ferris, […]

    The post Transactions: FIS Q3 wins appeared first on Bank Automation News.

    Courtney Blackann

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  • U.S. will be ‘more pro-crypto’ after this election, no matter who wins, says Ripple CEO Garlinghouse

    U.S. will be ‘more pro-crypto’ after this election, no matter who wins, says Ripple CEO Garlinghouse

    Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, speaks at the 2022 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 4, 2022. 

    Mike Blake | Reuters

    Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse has been skeptical of crypto regulation in the U.S., but he is feeling highly optimistic about the post-election environment around the corner.

    “This is the most important election we’ve had, but I also believe no matter what happens, we’re going to have a more pro-crypto, more pro-innovation Congress than we’ve ever had,” he said in a Wednesday conversation with CNBC at DC Fintech Week.

    Ripple, a veteran company in crypto known in part for its close association with the XRP token, operates a global payments business with banks and financial institutions as its main customers. About 95% of its business takes place outside of the U.S., which Garlinghouse said is partly a reflection of the contentious environment in Washington.

    In 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple, but last year the company scored a big victory for the industry when a judge determined that XRP is not a security when sold to retail investors on exchanges.

    On Wednesday, Garlinghouse offered a piece of advice to fintech startups in this changing time: “Incorporate outside the United States.”

    Nevertheless, he was upbeat about where the industry is heading in the long term.

    “Anybody who doesn’t believe that no matter what, we’re going to end up in a better place, is not paying attention … and [if in] 10 years we look back on how the U.S. got it wrong for years and years … It’s going to be a speed bump, and this industry is going to continue to thrive.”

    An approaching ‘reset’

    Ripple has donated at least $45 million to the Fairshake pro-crypto political action committee. Co-founder Chris Larsen recently donated $11 million to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. Garlinghouse pointed out he was intentionally wearing a purple tie on Wednesday.

    “Obviously, Trump came out early and very aggressively in a pro crypto [way] and said he’s the crypto president,” Garlinghouse said. “Team Harris have been more nuanced. This week, they had some of the most constructive things they have said publicly.”

    “Kamala Harris is from Silicon Valley, she has generally been pro technology over the years,” he added. “She has been relatively quiet on the topic, but I think no matter what happens, we’re going to see a reset.”

    Because of that contrast, sentiment in the crypto industry has grown increasingly partisan — even as it has previously applauded growing bipartisan support for crypto issues in Congress. Many pro-crypto voters fear that the Harris campaign would continue the “attack” on crypto, as Garlinghouse called it.

    Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC PRO:

    “No matter what happens, we’re going to leave behind a failed approach from the Biden administration,” he said. “It has been an attack, and it isn’t just the SEC. The [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] is hostile towards crypto; the Treasury is hostile towards crypto.”

    He highlighted banks becoming unwilling to work with crypto businesses in what many in the industry have referred to as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.” The term refers to an Obama-era project known as “Operation Choke Point,” which discouraged banks from serving risky but legal enterprises, such as payday lenders and online gambling businesses.

    “That is a hostile administration, and no matter what happens in this next election, we will have a reset,” Garlinghouse said. “We can debate the magnitude of that reset, and there’s lots of disagreement about that … We’re going to see forward progress, and I certainly am looking forward to that.”

    Though Garlinghouse hasn’t publicly backed any of the presidential candidates, he said that this week he endorsed John Deaton, an attorney seeking to unseat Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass). Warren has been critical of the crypto industry, seeking additional oversight of the space.

    Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

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  • Watch Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse speak live on legal battle with SEC and upcoming election

    Watch Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse speak live on legal battle with SEC and upcoming election

    [The stream is slated to start at 2:55 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]

    Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse will speak at DC Fintech Week in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday afternoon.

    Ripple, the largest holder of XRP coins, scored a partial victory last summer after a three-year legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This was hailed as a landmark win for the crypto industry as it established a precedent that could help determine when other cryptocurrencies might be deemed securities. The SEC appealed that decision earlier this month.

    Garlinghouse will discuss that lawsuit, along with Ripple’s role in informing U.S. crypto regulation more broadly. He will also speak about the upcoming presidential election and his donations to the Fairshake pro-crypto political action committee.

    The CEO will also talk about why his company is entering the burgeoning stablecoin space this year with the launch of Ripple USD (RLUSD).

    Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. 

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