NCR Atleos has partnered with FCTI, a trusted provider and partner to 7-Eleven, to bring Atleos’ Allpoint Network to more than 4,000 7-Eleven stores across the United States providing expanded, more convenient access to everyday banking transactions for its issuer members and their cardholders. By enabling Atleos’ Allpoint Network surcharge-free cash withdrawals and cash deposits at thousands of 7-Eleven stores, FCTI is fulfilling on its “ATM as a Destination” strategy aligning their services with the tools to grow consumer foot traffic at 7-Eleven’s stores. Additionally, Allpoint member issuers will continue their long-held access at over 3,000 Speedway branded store locations. “Growing foot traffic through the enhanced features and capabilities of our networked ATMs is core to FCTI’s mission,” said Masanori Sakaguchi, CEO of FCTI. “Implementing Allpoint aligns with our strategy and commitment to power the success of FCTI’s partners.” “Utility banking solutions are growing globally,” said Stuart Mackinnon, EVP & COO for Atleos. “Aligning with an established operator in FCTI presents Atleos and the Allpoint issuers we serve with significantly more endpoints to complete cash in and out transactions.”
Etsy blends human-recommended listings with ML and LLMs to expand the listings 20X and create an aesthetically cohesive collection that represents product variety and meets quality standards
Etsy is doubling down on a hybrid approach to artificial intelligence that keeps humans in the loop and ensures shoppers find what they want. The company is pursuing a strategy it calls “algotorial curation,” which blends recommendations by Etsy’s staff with advanced machine learning algorithms to scale curation across its inventory, Chief Product Officer Nick Daniel said. The process starts with human experts identifying trends and selecting listings that are examples of these trends. “After a collection is identified, our engineers use machine learning to expand it from roughly 50 human-curated listings to about 1,000. Finally, we use LLMs to make sure the full collection is aesthetically cohesive, represents a variety of products and meets our standards for quality.” The company uses Google’s Gemini multimodal model to power these experiences. Despite advances in generative AI, Etsy isn’t looking to eliminate humans from the equation. Instead, the company sees AI as a way to enhance human insight at scale, Daniel said. “Rather than removing human expertise from our merchandising work as AI becomes more powerful, we’re leveraging these tools to amplify the expertise of our team and create a more personalized experience. We’re putting human touch — from our buyers to our teams of employees to our sellers — at the center of shopping on Etsy. Because each item on Etsy is listed individually by a real seller, the data we have isn’t uniform — we’re not like a traditional eCommerce marketplace with a catalog or SKUs. AI can help us bridge this gap. We’re leveraging LLMs to extract key product details, like size and color, from listings, which improves search and helps connect the right items to the right buyers,” Daniel said. This strategy has yielded measurable results, boosting visibility and sales. “We used LLMs to generate alt text for listings that didn’t already have it and saw a nearly 5% increase in SEO visits and a nearly 3% increase in conversions to sales attributed to those visits,” he said.
Shopify’s first-quarter revenue surges 27% aided by the rapid checkout feature, Shop Pay’s 57% YoY growth processing $22 billion in GMV and by 64% penetration for Shopify Payments
Shopify’s first-quarter earnings results showed double-digit growth in gross merchandise volumes (GMV) and a continued movement toward streamlined checkout online and further inroads made in offline commerce. revenues were up 27% to $2.4 billion; GMV surged 22% to $74.8 billion. Offline GMV increased 23% and B2B GMV delivered triple-digit growth, up 109% from the year-ago first quarter, said President Harley Finkelstein. With a nod to the current fluid state of tariffs, Finkelstein pointed out that the company’s managed markets products give U.S. merchants “more options with our merchant of record service for collecting and remitting duties and taxes while managing other markets independently. This means if new duties are announced, most merchants can achieve compliance within hours. Later this month, we’ll introduce duty inclusive pricing, allowing merchants to set international prices that include duties in the product price. This ensures transparent pricing from the start and helps customers avoid surprise fees at checkout,” Finkelstein said. “Shopify Payments continues to be our largest product offering and a key driver. We made great progress in Q1, with payments GMV penetration hitting 64%,” Finkelstein said, as Shopify Payments expanded into new markets in Europe. Shop Pay, the rapid checkout feature, saw 57% growth year on year, processing $22 billion in GMV in the quarter. The Shop App continued its momentum in Q1, hitting over 94% year-over year growth in what Finkelstein termed “native GMV, an impressive acceleration and 84% growth last quarter.” Additionally, merchants are using Sidekick, the platform’s AI powered assistant, in increasing numbers, he said. The company expects current quarter revenues to grow in the mid 20% range year over year. As lower margin payment products are part of the mix, he said, gross dollar profit growth will come in at a rate lower than revenues; non-cash charges will also factor into margin impact.
FICO’s AI framework, enables Bradesco Bank to execute instantaneous credit and fraud decisions once managed by entire departments
FICO and Bradesco Bank are collaborating closely to embed responsible, real-time AI decisioning into core financial operations, enhancing fraud detection, credit modeling and customer experience. “For FICO, responsible AI consists of four major pillars,” said Scott Zoldi, chief analytics officer of FICO. “It’s around building the AI responsibly, which means building it correctly. It’s around explainability and interpretability. It’s around ethics, ethical AI, and then accountability and auditability of that AI.” One such case study in responsible, purposive AI adoption is Brazil’s Bradesco Bank. With FICO’s AI framework, the bank executes instantaneous credit and fraud decisions once managed by entire departments. However, with this power comes an absolute demand for transparency and accuracy. Customers won’t tolerate unexplained decisions, especially in financial services. For Bradesco Bank, responsible AI isn’t a bonus — it’s business-critical, according to Rafael Cavalcanti, CDAO & CRM director at Bradesco Bank. “I do think that this golden age brings high expectations of customers as well,” he said. “They want to have that same experience that they have when using streaming solutions or while doing online shopping. They want banks to do that. We need to combine these techniques, and at the same time, understand that what we do has a core value that is privacy and responsibility, and that’s what we do in Bradesco.”
Amazon’s newest AI tool is designed to help merchants improve their listings automatically suggesting product titles, attributes, descriptions, and missing details
Amazon said Thursday it is releasing a new generative AI-powered tool to help merchants improve their listings with missing details or attributes. Sellers often have hundreds of products listed on Amazon, and they need to update information related to them from time to time, which can be a cumbersome task. The e-commerce tech giant wants sellers to use its new AI-powered tool, called Enhance My Listing, to make the chore easier. The tool automatically suggests product titles, attributes, descriptions, and missing details to sellers based on seasonal trends. Sellers can accept, reject, or modify these suggestions before updating the product listing in Amazon’s catalog. Amazon said it uses its own Amazon Bedrock service for generative AI models to get insights from customer engagement on the platform. Enhance My Listing is rolling out to select sellers in the U.S. starting today, with an expanded rollout scheduled for the coming weeks. The company introduced generative AI tools for sellers starting in 2023 with a feature that helped them write product descriptions. In March 2024, Amazon added a tool that allowed sellers to create a listing by inserting a product URL from their websites. That feature also lets sellers upload a single image or write a few words to generate a listing. Amazon said that over 900,000 sellers have used its generative AI tools to date. The company added that over 90% of the time merchants accept AI-generated content without any edits.
That’s not necessarily an endorsement of the tools’ accuracy, to be clear — it could be that some sellers aren’t reviewing the outputs closely.
Forward-flow funding offers a reliable way to offload credit exposure and tap into short-duration, yield-generating assets by using granular, behavior-based data to underwrite and monitor risk
Forward-flow funding is emerging as a key capital access strategy for FinTech-enabled SMB lenders, offering a structured, upfront capital commitment from investors to support continuous loan origination and efficient risk offloading. For SMB lenders, particularly those in the FinTech space, this model provides a reliable way to offload credit exposure and recycle capital quickly. For investors, it offers predictable access to loan assets under predefined terms, often backed by real-time or near-real-time performance data. The appeal of forward-flow funding lies in its structural elegance and practical utility. Rather than waiting to secure capital post-origination or bundling loans into pools for one-off sales, lenders can secure capital commitments upfront. This allows them to maintain a continuous lending cadence, a crucial advantage in markets where speed and responsiveness define customer retention. What sets FinTech-enabled forward flow apart from its traditional counterparts is the use of alternative data to underwrite and monitor risk. This granular, behavior-based data creates a dynamic risk profile for SMB borrowers, enabling forward-flow buyers to evaluate and price credit risk with unprecedented precision. In turn, this has opened the door for more agile, customizable forward-flow structures — with investors opting for specific credit boxes or sectors, and even fine-tuning risk-return profiles based on real-time triggers. Forward-flow agreements offer a way to tap into short-duration, yield-generating assets while retaining some control over credit exposure. Merchant cash advances, invoice factoring, equipment financing and revenue-based financing are all seeing similar structural integrations. As underwriting models evolve, these products are increasingly being bundled into forward-flow arrangements to cater to investors with specific sectoral or product appetites. By integrating funding at the infrastructure level, these platforms can offer seamless, data-driven credit products that scale efficiently.
New BNPL platform connects merchants and BNPL providers in over 25 countries using a single API and intelligent routing supporting SMEs to choose the right provider
Germany-based fintech GreenBanana has launched its BNPL platform, blplx.io, to optimize the retail sector for both merchants and customers. The platform connects merchants and BNPL providers in over 25 countries using a single API and intelligent routing. It supports SMEs and international enterprise retailers, allowing them to choose the right provider more easily and at scale. The platform uses machine learning to route transactions in real-time to the most suitable providers, ensuring an optimal customer experience and increasing merchant approval rates. BNPL is an evolving payment solution in Germany, with the market expected to grow by 11.7% annually to reach USD 69.55 billion by 2025.
Credit risk transfers comes to complex CRE loans helping banks lower the concentration risk and improve the bank’s CRE ratio, converting a portion of loan portfolio into marketable securities
A financial tool that has made waves in recent years could resurge with a different purpose. As scrutiny of lenders with high concentrations in commercial real estate loans continues, credit risk transfers could offer a way out for the banks. Banks have used the financial instruments for years to free up room on their balance sheets, and the transactions became more popular in the U.S. in 2023, when regulators seemed poised to increase capital requirements. Now, the potential burden of stricter capital rules seems to be in the rearview mirror, but the risks associated with large exposures to commercial real estate loans remain under the regulatory microscope. Credit risk transfers could be a strategy for banks to bring down their concentrations in those assets. Last month, Third Coast Bank in Texas struck a $200 million securitization secured by interests in a portfolio of loans to finance the construction of 11 residential planned communities across Houston, Dallas and Austin. EJF Capital, a global asset management firm, structured the transaction to transfer the risk from the bank’s balance sheet. Bart Caraway, president and CEO of Third Coast, called the $5 billion-asset company’s first securitization “a landmark achievement” in a prepared statement at the time. The transaction should “improve the diversity of the bank’s on-balance sheet loan portfolio.” “By converting a portion of our loan portfolio into marketable securities, we have not only reduced our concentration in commercial real estate, a key focus for regulators and source of potential risk, but also improved our risk-based capital ratios,” Caraway said last month. “The securitization allows us to redeploy capital more effectively into new lending opportunities.” While prior credit risk transfers were focused on solving for a bank’s total amount of capital, the novelty of the Third Coast deal was its goal of reducing the bank’s CRE ratio, said Matthew Bisanz, a bank lawyer at Mayer Brown, which represented EJF in the deal. Before Third Coast’s recent deal, its CRE exposure was around 350% of capital. The transaction brought that ratio down some 10 to 25 basis points, Chief Financial Officer John McWhorter said. Third Coast is also deep in construction and development lending — an area that regulators see as risky if concentrations exceed 100% of total capital. As of the first quarter, the Texas bank’s ratio was 146%. The deal with EJF helped reduce that metric to near 130%, Third Coast’s CFO said. The Texas bank may consider future securitizations, depending on investor demand, McWhorter added. But credit risk transfer deals, especially those focused on bringing down CRE exposures, are far from ubiquitous.
Walgreens micro-fulfillment centers that use prescription fulfilemt robots generated approximately $500 million in savings by cutting excess inventory and boosting efficiency
Walgreens is expanding the number of its retail stores served by its micro-fulfillment centers as it works to turn itself around and prepares to go private. Those centers use robots to fill thousands of prescriptions for patients who take medications to manage or treat diabetes, high blood pressure or other conditions. Relying on those centers frees up time for pharmacy staff, reducing their routine tasks, eliminating inventory waste and allowing them to interact directly with patients and perform more clinical services such as vaccinations and testing. The centers offer Walgreens a competitive edge, as independent pharmacies and some rivals don’t provide centralized support for their stores. Walgreens aims to free up time for pharmacy staff, reducing their routine tasks and eliminating inventory waste. Walgreens hopes to have its 11 micro-fulfillment centers serve more than 5,000 stores by the end of the year, up from 4,800 in February and 4,300 in October 2023. As of February, the centers handled 40% of the prescription volume on average at supported pharmacies, according to Walgreens. That translates to around 16 million prescriptions filled each month across the different sites. To date, micro-fulfillment centers have generated approximately $500 million in savings by cutting excess inventory and boosting efficiency, said Kayla Heffington, Walgreens’ pharmacy operating model vice president. Heffington added that stores using the facilities are administering 40% more vaccines than those that aren’t.
Mastercard partners broker to offer Business Bonus Scheme small business owners access to personalized advice from expert mortgage advisers on their end-to-end mortgage needs in one streamlined, digital journey
Habito has partnered with Mastercard’s Business Bonus Scheme to make mortgage support faster, simpler, and completely free for SME owners across the UK. Business owners will now be able to access Habito’s team of expert mortgage advisers at no cost, whether they’re buying a home, refinancing, or investing in a rental property. The goal? To give entrepreneurs the clarity and support they need to make confident decisions, without jargon or unnecessary paperwork. This partnership means Mastercard Business Bonus Scheme members can explore a huge range of mortgage options through Habito’s platform, get personalised help from qualified advisers, and secure deals that match their unique circumstances, all in one streamlined, digital journey. Ying Tan, CEO of Habito, said:“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Mastercard to support the UK’s business community. Running a business is hard enough. Your mortgage shouldn’t be. SME owners deserve smart, reliable advice that just works, without the stress or the sales pitch. That’s exactly what we’re delivering with this partnership.” Whether they’re buying for the first time, refinancing their home, or growing a portfolio, Mastercard SME customers can now feel more in control of their mortgage choices with Habito on hand to guide them through every step.