Finovate

Last week, JPMorganChase CEO announced that the bank is banning third-party AI agents. OnePay is planning an opposite approach, building agent-friendly tools into its platform. Which is the right approach? Check out a summary of different approaches to AI agents and catch up on the latest fintech news in today's Finovate Weekly newsletter.

One engineer knew the code. The whole bank had to wait. 👀 Dive into the latest #FinovatePodcast to hear Greg Palmer talk with Ohad Kotler, CEO and co-founder of Tweezr, about his third Best of Show win at FinovateFall 2026 and why so many banks still feel stuck with legacy systems. They discuss: • Why modernization does not have to begin with a full migration • How Tweezr evolved from a code knowledge layer into a platform that can support end-to-end software development • Why many US banks feel more locked into their core providers than European banks • What it takes to modernize core systems without years of disruption • Why natural language could become the new interface for understanding and changing code 🎧 Listen now >> http://spr.ly/6043BHnxmB #Finovate #Fintech #BankingInnovation #BankingModernization

Cross River is bringing loyalty into the payments experience with its newest acquisition. Cross River has acquired Accrue, a fintech focused on helping merchants turn customer loyalty into a more integrated part of commerce. For years, loyalty programs and payments have largely operated as separate systems. Customers make a purchase, earn points or rewards, and potentially redeem them later. However, fintechs are looking for ways to bring those experiences closer together to connect how consumers pay with how merchants incentivize them to return. This brings an opportunity to merchants looking to strengthen customer relationships, encourage repeat purchases, and reduce reliance on traditional customer acquisition channels by integrating loyalty into payments. It is also good news for financial infrastructure providers like Cross River, as it creates another way to deliver value beyond simply moving money. The deal is a good example of how payments are becoming less about the transaction itself and more about the incentives surrounding it. Increasingly, differentiation comes from what a provider can enable before, during, and after that transaction. What do you think? Will loyalty and rewards eventually become a standard component of embedded payments? Read more on Finovate: https://lnkd.in/gcvV2vhA #Fintech #EmbeddedFinance #Payments #CustomerLoyalty #BankingInnovation

Despite the growth of stablecoins, it is clear that stablecoins won't become an everyday payment method until consumers can spend them as easily as the money in their bank accounts. That's the opportunity behind a new partnership between Mesh and Visa that aims to make stablecoin balances usable for everyday purchases. Mesh and Visa are working to make digital assets more useful without requiring consumers and merchants to fundamentally change how they transact. Most consumers don't want to think about blockchain networks, wallet compatibility, token conversions, or whether a merchant accepts a particular stablecoin. If consumers can hold funds in stablecoins but spend them through familiar payment networks, the distinction between traditional money and digital assets could become increasingly invisible at checkout. This is what mainstream adoption will ultimately look like: consumers will use stablecoins without needing to know they're using stablecoins. What do you think? Will stablecoins eventually become an invisible payment option at checkout? Read more on Finovate: https://lnkd.in/gNBS7eVs #Fintech #Stablecoins #Payments #DigitalAssets #Visa

🌎 It's Friday ... that means it time for the latest edition of Finovate Global! This week we travel to Scandinavia to look at recent fintech developments in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark! 🇸🇪 🇳🇴 🇩🇰 Featuring Neonomics Matters Seed Capital and more! https://lnkd.in/givKtQRj

Voice authentication company Illuma has secured new funding to expand its voice security technology for credit unions, helping financial institutions strengthen authentication while reducing friction for members calling their contact centers. Traditional call center authentication often relies on knowledge-based questions: your date of birth, the last four digits of your Social Security number, or other personal information that may already be available to fraudsters. Voice biometrics offers an alternative by using characteristics of a persons voice to help verify their identity without requiring them to answer a series of security questions. Illuma is specifically built for credit unions, which have traditionally differentiated themselves through personal service and trusted relationships. Making authentication more secure shouldn't come at the expense of making those interactions more frustrating, and Illuma's use of voice biometrics does just that. What do you think? As AI-powered voice fraud becomes more sophisticated, will voice biometrics become a standard authentication tool for financial institutions? Read more on Finovate: https://lnkd.in/gDn2ZBsd #Fintech #CreditUnions #FraudPrevention #VoiceBiometrics #BankingSecurity

Give your innovation the spotlight it deserves on fintech's biggest stage: FinovateSpring 2027 applications open now! 🚀 For 20 years, Finovate has been the place where what’s next gets discovered. ✨ 3,000+ technologies showcased. 🏆 300+ Best of Show awards. Seven minutes to demo live. No slides. No videos. No pitch deck. Just your technology in action and a room full of banks, credit unions, fintechs, investors, and potential partners ready to see it. Real technology. Real impact. Real opportunity. If you’ve built something that can move financial services forward, this is your chance to put it in front of the people who matter most and make invaluable connections 🤝 Apply to demo now 👉 http://spr.ly/6049BHyxMh #Finovate #Fintech #Innovation #FinancialInnovation

If your institution is still treating consumer and small business growth as separate plays, this episode will make you think again!🎙️ On the latest #FinovatePodcast, Greg Palmer, Host of Finovate, sits down with Goodbuy co-founders Cara Oppenheimer and Cary Telander Fortin to unpack how their company evolved from a local marketplace into an FI-branded community commerce platform 👏 🚀 From onboarding 1,500 businesses in 10 months to a pilot where 56% of businesses opened new products or grew deposits, they show what can happen when financial institutions connect community engagement to business growth. They also discuss: • Their unconventional founder story • Why the overlap between individual members and small business owners matters so much • How Goodbuy’s pivot created a new growth channel for community financial institutions • Where data and AI could help banks and credit unions sharpen SMB growth strategies Dive in here to learn more 👉 http://spr.ly/6043BHyWLH #Finovate #CommunityFinance #SMB #CreditUnions

Banks have spent years trying to eliminate screen scraping. AI agents may be about to bring it back in a much more sophisticated form. That's one of the concerns JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon raised in yesterday's third quarter earnings call. The banking industry has invested heavily in moving financial data sharing away from screen scraping and toward secure, permissioned APIs. The goal has been to give consumers greater control over their data while reducing the security risks associated with sharing login credentials. But AI agents introduce a new wrinkle. If an agent can log into a banks website, navigate its interface, and initiate actions just as a human would, it may not need a traditional API connection at all. That raises some difficult questions about authentication, authorization, liability, and ultimately, who controls the customer relationship. Banks face a new challenge of figuring out how to distinguish legitimate consumer-directed AI activity from potentially risky automated behavior. Blocking agents altogether may not be a sustainable answer if customers increasingly expect AI assistants to manage their financial lives. What do you think? Should banks allow consumer-authorized AI agents to access accounts through existing digital interfaces? Read more on Finovate: https://lnkd.in/gMXGmhZj #Fintech #AgenticAI #OpenBanking #DigitalBanking #AI

This week in the Finovate newsletter .... 🪙 Talking stablecoins with Nick Elledge of Stablecore! 🛒 Senior research analyst Julie Muhn looks at consumer attitudes toward agentic commerce! 🎙️ Finovate podcast host Greg Palmer interviews Best of Show winners from FinovateFall 2026! And more!