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Jenius Bank has surpassed $2 billion in deposits by focusing on “evolved banking” — providing personalized financial insights through account aggregation while eliminating fees to help customers gain financial confidence and make better decisions.  John Rosenfeld, President of Jenius Bank, a division of SMBC MANUBANK said, “We developed two concepts within a paradigm, if you will, where there’s core banking, which is what every bank does, allows you to put money with them, allows you to go online, see how much you have, see how much you’re earning, allows you to move money in and out, review your statements, read your terms and conditions, all that stuff that every bank does. We call that core banking. We developed the concept of evolved banking, which encompasses everything beyond core features that not every bank offers. And we grouped all this into something we call the Jenius views. So, if you download our mobile app, you’ll find this tab at the bottom. And within this space, you’re able to link your accounts from other banks, other brokerages. You can view credit cards and your entire financial picture in one place. Again, this allows the consumer to give us access to their other information, enabling us to consolidate and provide them with valuable insights. While there are some banks that are doing this, what we call aggregation services, many of them are doing it to gain a view of the customer’s financial situation and then potentially use that information to try to figure out what else they can sell them. We took a different approach. We said, what if we used all that information to actually give customers insights and help them avoid fees, making smarter and more confident financial decisions? Now, why would a bank do such a thing that’s not necessarily going to bolster their profits? We thought about this and concluded that if we could establish a new level of trust with consumers, the next time they have a financial need, we hope they’ll come back to us first. The idea that money is such an emotional driver that it has nothing to do with how much you make or don’t make, but rather whether you are making good decisions.  With the capabilities that are evolving in the data space and analytics and machine learning and AI, if a consumer gives someone full access to every penny that they have and not access to move the money, but access to the information, think of how much you can do with technology to identify those things that you may not have noticed. The lack of fees on our savings or a loan product was really driven by wanting to create something better and more compelling than what’s available in the industry. We created a bank that’s incredibly efficient because we don’t have buildings, we don’t have paper, we don’t mail things. So, we don’t spend any money on postage. The target was really what we call high-potential digital optimizers. And we call it that because high potential means they’re going somewhere and are ambitious. They want to progress in building a better lifestyle and achieving more.

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Stash has secured $146 million in a Series H funding round to deepen its investment in AI for its financial guidance platform. The investment will accelerate product innovation, drive subscriber growth, and further develop Stash’s AI capabilities. Central to this strategy is Money Coach AI, an advanced financial guidance platform that translates expert-level investing strategies into real-time, personalized recommendations for everyday users. Money Coach AI has already reshaped how millions of Americans engage with their money and think about their personal finances. From helping customers pick their first investment to providing personalized diversification guidance, Money Coach AI helps customers get started and make saving and investing a habit that sticks. With 2.2 million user interactions already, Money Coach AI will serve as the cornerstone of Stash’s renewed commitment to help users build savings, invest consistently, and make smart financial decisions. Notably, 1 in 4 customers who interact with Money Coach AI go on to take a positive action, such as making an investment, depositing funds, diversifying, or turning on or adjusting Auto-Stash, within 10 minutes of interaction, demonstrating its tangible impact on behavior. Through its scalable approach, Stash is demonstrating that AI can do more than automate; it can empower users by helping them make informed financial decisions in real-time.

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FINRA is looking to lighten the supervision burden on nearly 80 firms that reached settlements before the start of the year over messages sent using WhatsApp and other texting systems. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority executives said they’re considering revisions to the “heightened supervisory plans” that 77 industry firms were subjected to as part of settlements reached over their use of so-called off-channel communications. Concerns over fairness gave rise to FINRA’s proposal to modify the regulatory requirements imposed on firms that reached settlements pre-2025. FINRA’s blog post, written by CEO Robert Cook and Executive Vice President Greg Ruppert, notes that firms that reached settlements after the start of this year were subject to far less onerous terms.  Those companies, which included Charles Schwab, Blackstone and the private equity giant KKR, avoided various other mandates imposed on other firms. They, for instance, don’t have to file an application to continue their membership in FINRA and agree to a heightened supervision plan (HSP) meant to prevent further violations. FINRA’s blog cautions that the contemplated changes won’t make things equal between firms that reached settlements this year and those that did before. “FINRA cannot do that because of the differences built into the SEC settlements,” according to the blog. “In addition, under applicable rules FINRA cannot eliminate the HSPs altogether for the pre-2025 settling firms.” Cook and Ruppert wrote in FINRA’s blog that they were initially planning to ask the SEC to eliminate heightened supervision plans for member firms fined for off-channel violations. But that can’t be done now that the SEC has rejected the request to modify the initial settlements. FINRA, a self-regulatory organization deputized by the SEC to oversee the brokerage industry, has no power to alter SEC deals on its own.

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In an era where differentiation in banking is increasingly difficult, Ally Bank has emerged as a leader in creating exceptional digital banking experiences.  Sathish Muthukrishnan, chief information and technology officer at Ally Financial said, “The intent behind launching our technology strategy was to ensure that technology will continue to be relevant in an all-digital bank, but more importantly, to create differentiation and drive significant business outcomes. We categorized our strategy into six different pillars. The first is security. Our second pillar was driving tremendous experiences. The third pillar is how I know my experience is working. That’s when data analytics came in. Measure what consumers do, but more importantly, measure what they don’t do. Our operational pillar involved migrating to cloud, driving automation and consistency in how we develop and deploy code. And then we needed to preserve our culture and take care of our talent. These pillars laid the foundation for our transformation. We now have about 75% of our applications running on the cloud and about 95% of the enterprise data in the cloud. This allows us to learn from consumer behaviors, understand what they’re expecting and create experiences in real time so consumers think they are our only customer. We had our cloud strategy and data in the cloud warehouse. At the beginning of 2022, we redefined our network. As we were thinking about AI, we launched our chat assistant, Ally Assist. We created Ally AI because we knew technology was fast-evolving, but there were concerns about sending data to external LLMs. To address this, we built an AI platform that could connect to external LLMs but with added security — it removes PII, tracks all transactions and rehydrates PII for context. Our platform can connect to multiple LLMs — from GPT to FLAN to Bedrock. We can pick the right LLM depending on the use case or combine answers from several LLMs. Our content creation LLM is different from what we use for code generation or risk assessment. We have different models for different use cases. My advantage is that the product team, UI/UX team and technology team are all part of the same technology organization. We rolled out savings buckets — your deposit account with multiple savings buckets that you can name yourself.  If you start questioning why roadblocks exist and how to solve them, your brand becomes more relevant to consumers. You become their next best experience, deepening relationships.”

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Marqeta’s Interim CEO Mike Milotich wants to boost the processor’s non-Block revenue and expand its embedded finance offerings via a new mobile app for customers. “We have several innovative things that we’re doing, and we are constantly growing the capabilities we offer. For us it’s two things our investors are clamoring for. We have one very large customer, Block. This past quarter, they were 45% of our revenue. We’re making progress growing our non-Block business, and so I would say that’s an area of focus: How quickly is our non-Block business growing? Our non-Block revenue is growing more than 10 points faster than our Block revenue. That’s something investors are watching. We still think there’s a lot of growth opportunity with Block and so it’s more, how quickly can we diversify the business outside of that? Another thing investors want to see is how successfully we move into embedded finance. How successfully were we able to attract these different kinds of companies and get them on our platform and show the difference that we can make, versus maybe what has been done in the past.  We still think there’s a lot of opportunity at Block and a lot of ways we can help them. We don’t necessarily target that percentage. We more target non-Block growth. We want to drive non-Block growth, but if Block grows really fast, that’s not a bad thing on our platform. We support Square, we support Afterpay, we support Cash App. They’ve talked a lot about getting Afterpay inserted more into Cash App directly. So there’s things that we can help them with. They haven’t done a true credit card yet, and these are all things that they could do seamlessly with us. In addition to that, we obviously are trying to grow our business as much as we can with other partners.  We’re happy integrating with multiple players. hey’re looking for a more holistic offering. We’re providing a lot more value-added services, risk services that they can adopt. We announced we’re building a white label app, so that the decision maker for this card program, one day they might want to embed it into their existing company app, but that takes a lot of selling internally to get people to commit resources that way. So a lot of them are saying, I’m going to build a standalone app that looks and feels and easily syncs with our main app. But it can allow me to get traction in the market, and then maybe one day later, embed it directly.  I think the big change that we see coming, that a lot of people are interested in, is where you would do more from their experience. You’re inside their app, and there are things you can do. If you were an airline, why wouldn’t you be able to do some things directly from their application, as opposed to leaving it, and so I think that’s personalized rewards. One of the things we’re working on in credit is credit platforms. Today, the reward is the same for you as it is for me, but there’s no reason why.  What would be on (each) website would be very different, and we believe there’s no reason why card benefits and rewards couldn’t be similar, where they are somewhat tailored to your preferences and your needs.”

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Web3 is the next evolution of the internet, where decentralized networks, blockchain, and digital assets are reshaping how we interact, own, and transact. In 2025, Web3 is a key part of the digital economy, with blockchain technology powering applications beyond cryptocurrencies. Major institutions like BlackRock have embraced its potential, with CEO Larry Fink comparing tokenization to “email itself” for assets. Real-world assets, such as stocks and real estate, are now easily tokenized and traded, offering faster, transparent transactions. Investing in Web3 offers access to a rapidly growing ecosystem of decentralized technologies that aim to transform industries ranging from finance and gaming to supply chain management and digital identity. Web3 assets, including cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance tokens, and non-fungible tokens, provide opportunities for diversification beyond traditional stocks and bonds. Blockchain technology ensures that transactions are secure and verifiable, while decentralized platforms reduce reliance on intermediaries. There are seven ways to invest in Web3 in 2025: buying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Solana, exploring decentralized AI platforms, investing in tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), decentralized finance investments, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), crypto ETFs, play-to-earn (P2E) gaming, and joining decentralized autonomous organizations. Cryptocurrencies can be bought on exchanges like Coinbase or Kraken, while DeFi platforms enable peer-to-peer transactions, instant loans, and trading without brokers. Play-to-earn gaming allows players to earn crypto through gameplay, and joining decentralized autonomous organizations offers a chance to participate in Web3 governance and decision-making. Understanding these options can help build a diversified Web3 investment strategy.

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Startups that succeed in the agentic AI space are betting on vertical specialization, digital labor and new kinds of software primitives. Rather than broad platforms, these companies are zeroing in on deep domain challenges and embedding AI agents where judgment, context and autonomy matter most. Instead of retrofitting yesterday’s SaaS models, HOAi focuses on a labor-intensive, highly contextual domain: Homeowner association management. That clarity of focus enables the company to design agentic systems with three core components: cognitive reasoning engines, seamless integration with existing workflows and a flexible orchestration layer for agents. By targeting labor spend rather than IT budgets, startups such as HOAi create new categories of digital workers that operate alongside humans. This shift enables access to budgets that are 10–20 times larger than traditional enterprise IT, according to Haoyu Zha, founder and chief executive officer of HOAi. To distill the lessons from HOAi and similar innovators, here are five keys to building a successful agentic AI startup, according to Zha: Go vertical in nuanced markets: Specialized agents can capture untapped value in industries with unique operational needs. Follow the labor spend, not the IT: Labor budgets are significantly larger than IT budgets and far less saturated. Empower decisions over tasks: Build agents that enhance human judgment, not just automation. Decision intelligence is the new strategic edge. Rethink software: Go agentic: Don’t retrofit software-as-a-service blueprints. Design end-to-end workflows with autonomous, context-aware agents from the ground up. Visibility fuels viability: In a crowded market, discovery matters. Build brand awareness early or risk being invisible, regardless of how advanced your tech is.

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Startups that succeed in the agentic AI space are betting on vertical specialization, digital labor and new kinds of software primitives. Rather than broad platforms, these companies are zeroing in on deep domain challenges and embedding AI agents where judgment, context and autonomy matter most. Instead of retrofitting yesterday’s SaaS models, HOAi focuses on a labor-intensive, highly contextual domain: Homeowner association management. That clarity of focus enables the company to design agentic systems with three core components: cognitive reasoning engines, seamless integration with existing workflows and a flexible orchestration layer for agents. By targeting labor spend rather than IT budgets, startups such as HOAi create new categories of digital workers that operate alongside humans. This shift enables access to budgets that are 10–20 times larger than traditional enterprise IT, according to Haoyu Zha, founder and chief executive officer of HOAi. To distill the lessons from HOAi and similar innovators, here are five keys to building a successful agentic AI startup, according to Zha: Go vertical in nuanced markets: Specialized agents can capture untapped value in industries with unique operational needs. Follow the labor spend, not the IT: Labor budgets are significantly larger than IT budgets and far less saturated. Empower decisions over tasks: Build agents that enhance human judgment, not just automation. Decision intelligence is the new strategic edge. Rethink software: Go agentic: Don’t retrofit software-as-a-service blueprints. Design end-to-end workflows with autonomous, context-aware agents from the ground up. Visibility fuels viability: In a crowded market, discovery matters. Build brand awareness early or risk being invisible, regardless of how advanced your tech is.

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Citi appointed Wyatt Crowell as Head of North America Citi Commercial Bank (NAM CCB). Wyatt will assume his role in May 2025, and will report to the Head of CCB, Tasnim Ghiawadwala and Citibank N.A. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Head of NAM, Sunil Garg. Based in New York, Wyatt joins Citi from HSBC where he has been the Head of U.S. Commercial Banking since 2015. Prior to joining HSBC, Wyatt was at Barclays and served as the Co-Head of U.K. and Ireland Corporate Banking Coverage as well as Head of Global Multinational Corporates. He started his career at J.P. Morgan in investment banking, holding various roles in M&A and mid-corporate investment banking. In his more than three decades in the banking industry, Wyatt has accumulated extensive knowledge of multiple client segments and has a deep understanding of banking products and solutions. He is a proven leader that drives growth with a focus on client experience and operational excellence. Wyatt will focus on the execution of the strategy and accelerate CCB’s growth in North America. He will propel the business through growing client relationships and delivering innovative client-centric solutions.Wyatt has an MBA with honors from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from Colgate University. Wyatt is on the Board of Directors for Eve’s Fund, a small non-profit organization promoting hope and wellness for young Native Americans living on and near the Navajo Nation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

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Mat Ishbia, CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), the top U.S. mortgage lender, unveiled  the company’s ambitious goal to reach $280 billion in mortgage production by 2028. That is more than double the $137.8 billion UWM originated in 2024, a year in which the wholesale lender posted a 28% year-over-year increase despite heightened competition and persistently high mortgage rates. The target also far exceeds the combined 2024 production of the year’s second- and third- largest lenders. Pennymac, second in the ranking and best known for its correspondent business, originated $115 billion in 2024, up 16.5% year over year. Rocket Mortgage, which does the bulk of its business as a direct-to-consumer lender, ranked third with $95.8 billion, a 25.9% increase from 2023. Ishbia has reiterated that UWM plans to achieve its growth organically, rather than through mergers and acquisitions like some of its peers.  The lender has been steadily increasing its operational capacity and is positioning itself to benefit from refinancing opportunities when rates decline. UWM is also in hiring mode, with a long-term focus on growth. After peaking at 8,000 employees in 2021 and dipping to 6,000 in 2022, its workforce grew to 6,700 in 2023 and surged to 9,100 in 2024. Ishbia announced plans to promote 4,500 employees—about half of UWM’s current workforce—within the next three years. UWM is also investing heavily in technology, product innovation, and operational processes to better support its broker partners. Ishbia set a goal for the broker channel to reach a 33% market share within three years, up from its current 27.8%. In response to the competitive dynamics in the market, UWM has decided to bring its mortgage servicing operations in-house, following the termination of its relationship with Mr. Cooper after the latter’s $9.4 billion deal to sell to Rocket. UWM aims to achieve a 90% “perfect service” score from brokers and borrowers in three years. 

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