Bitcoin financial services company Fold has selected Stripe, the programmable financial services company, to power the upcoming launch of the Fold Bitcoin Credit Card™, a bitcoin-only rewards product designed to turn everyday spending into a direct path to bitcoin ownership. The card enables users to accumulate bitcoin with every purchase, offering a simple and consistent way to build long-term wealth. Issued on the Visa network and powered by Stripe Issuing, the Fold Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card delivers up to 3.5% back on every purchase, with no categories and no deposit requirements. Cardholders earn an unlimited 2% back instantly, plus up to 1.5% back when they pay off purchases using their Fold Checking Account with qualified activity. In addition, cardholders can earn up to 10% back with top brands in the Fold rewards network, including Amazon, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Uber/Uber Eats, Starbucks, DoorDash, Best Buy, and hundreds more. Fold’s reward system is designed to be simple and transparent, offering bitcoin-only rewards without the complexity of tokens, staking tiers, or exchange lock-ins. Fold’s integration with Stripe Issuing marks a key milestone in Fold’s product development and reflects growing demand for digital asset integration in consumer financial tools. With Stripe’s infrastructure in place, Fold is positioned to bring the Fold Bitcoin Credit Card™ to market with the reach and reliability users expect.
Bank of America, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank now offer predictive checking account insights and forecasts based on transaction patterns, helping customers manage finances and potentially encouraging them to consolidate banking relationships
Bitcoin financial services company Fold has selected Stripe, the programmable financial services company, to power the upcoming launch of the Fold Bitcoin Credit Card™, a bitcoin-only rewards product designed to turn everyday spending into a direct path to bitcoin ownership. The card enables users to accumulate bitcoin with every purchase, offering a simple and consistent way to build long-term wealth. Issued on the Visa network and powered by Stripe Issuing, the Fold Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card delivers up to 3.5% back on every purchase, with no categories and no deposit requirements. Cardholders earn an unlimited 2% back instantly, plus up to 1.5% back when they pay off purchases using their Fold Checking Account with qualified activity. In addition, cardholders can earn up to 10% back with top brands in the Fold rewards network, including Amazon, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Uber/Uber Eats, Starbucks, DoorDash, Best Buy, and hundreds more. Fold’s reward system is designed to be simple and transparent, offering bitcoin-only rewards without the complexity of tokens, staking tiers, or exchange lock-ins. Fold’s integration with Stripe Issuing marks a key milestone in Fold’s product development and reflects growing demand for digital asset integration in consumer financial tools. With Stripe’s infrastructure in place, Fold is positioned to bring the Fold Bitcoin Credit Card™ to market with the reach and reliability users expect.
Crypto neobank Shield helps exporters accept payments from international buyers in USDT stablecoins and settle them as same-day U.S. dollar wires.
Shield raised $5 million in seed funding to continue building its neobank for global trade businesses. The company helps exporters accept payments from international buyers in USDT stablecoins and settle them as same-day U.S. dollar wires. “Businesses get the speed and cost savings of blockchain payments without the constant fear of account closures and unwarranted delays. It also enables them to trade in entirely new markets.” Shield processed over $150 million in cross-border payments in its first year and $40 million in the last month alone. With its new funding, the company will expand its licensing coverage, strengthen compliance, launch “USDT-friendly” bank accounts and other banking products, and enter new trade industries. “We see a world where global trade payments are as fast as domestic wires, where compliance opens doors rather than closes them, and where exporters from every corner of the world can enjoy a banking and payments experience that finally optimizes for them,” Shield said. “Shield will build the infrastructure to make it happen—and this raise is just the start.” Shield’s banking services are provided by Cross River Bank and Lead Bank through licensed partners, according to the post.
Alloy launches AI enhanced perpetual KYC solution, pairing scheduled refreshes with real-time reactivity to both third-party and first-party data, covering gaps in visibility and delays in responses
Alloy announced the launch of a perpetual Know Your Customer (pKYC) solution enhanced by AI insights. The pKYC solution will enable financial institutions and fintechs in the UK, Europe, and beyond to improve the customer experience and grow their business, while simultaneously meeting evolving regulatory requirements. Alloy enables UK banks, fintechs, and payments companies like Flagstone, IG Group, and Liberis to increase customer conversions and scale into new geographies while also preventing financial crime. When it comes to pKYC, many financial institutions in the UK and Europe still rely on pre-scheduled periodic reviews, which can leave gaps in visibility and delay responses to financial crime. Alloy’s pKYC solution raises that standard by pairing scheduled refreshes with real-time reactivity to both third-party and first-party data. Underpinning the solution is a dynamic customer risk assessment (CRA) that can be re-run in the event that a user carries out a suspicious activity or has a suspicious change to their personally identifiable information (PII). Alloy also partners with agentic AI providers Parcha and Greenlite to automate and accelerate ongoing financial compliance, including customer reviews. With Alloy’s pKYC solution, compliance teams can act more quickly, increase their straight-through-processing (STP) rates, and protect their customers from financial crime at scale. To help compliance teams automate responses to high-risk KYC checks, Alloy also now offers electronic ID (eID) verification as a new digital authentication method across multiple geographies. With more EU regulators beginning to mandate acceptance of digital identity wallets, Alloy clients can seamlessly integrate eID as a step-up into their KYC workflows—unlocking expansion opportunities in new European and global markets where the ability to verify eIDs may be required.
Microsoft introduces always-on collaborative and context aware agents using Microsoft Graph for automated SharePoint content management, Teams meeting coordination and task tracking.
Microsoft has unveiled a public preview of its collaborative agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing a suite of “always‑on” agents grounded in context for channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Viva Engage communities, and Planner workloads. At the center is the Knowledge Agent in SharePoint. It automates metadata tagging, classifies and organizes files, analyzes site content for freshness and relevancy, helps fix broken links, and surfaces content gaps based on actual search behavior. Microsoft said the goal is to ensure that content is AI‑ready so that agents and Copilot can reliably surface correct, grounded responses. The agent runs in the background and includes built-in privacy and control settings. Reports are available for site owners and admins to review the agent’s activity and suggestions, with the option to manually approve changes or let the agent act automatically in supported areas. User feedback tools are also included to help fine-tune performance. On the task management front, the Project Manager Agent helps teams turn high‑level goals into detailed task plans. It can generate a plan from goals, pull in relevant resources to provide context, assign tasks (including to itself), track progress, and generate status reports. The Project Manager Agent integrates tightly with Microsoft Planner, Project for the Web, Loop, and Teams. It also connects with the Facilitator Agent for meetings, enabling automatic tracking of action items discussed during calls. While still in preview, Microsoft plans to expand the agent’s capabilities and data sources over time. Microsoft says the agent is best used as part of a team-based workflow, rather than a personal productivity tool. To use it, organizations must have Microsoft 365 Copilot and either Planner Premium or Project licenses. The agent currently supports English and is rolling out gradually to commercial cloud customers.
Salt Security introduces MCP Protect and Agentic AI Governance controls integrated with CrowdStrike SIEM to secure proliferating agent-driven API interactions
With the rise of agentic AI, API exposure has proliferated. Agents fan out call paths and amplify traffic, effectively turning APIs into the enterprise “plumbing” of operations, according to Michael Callahan, chief marketing officer of Salt Security. This has created the “API fabric” — a complex, constantly moving mesh of connections that enterprises struggle to see, let alone secure. A large part of the API security conversation is on the role of MCP, an open standard championed by Anthropic PBC, and A2A, Google’s protocol for agent-to-agent interactions, according to Nicosia. Both sit atop existing APIs, acting as brokers to manage data retrieval and collaboration between agents. “For us, the visibility of the AIs and the MCPs … the protocols are so paramount because you can’t protect what you don’t know,” Nicosia said. “Having that visibility from either a zombie API or a zombie MCP protocol server, we give you that visibility. At least you’re aware of all of this proliferation that’s going on with the organization. And then how do you govern it? And then how do you protect against it?” Salt’s momentum has been bolstered by its close partnership with CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. The company is a Falcon Fund portfolio company and has integrated its API security solutions with CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform and next-generation security information and event management. Together, they provide customers with unified visibility across APIs and AI-driven workflows, Nicosia added.
SambaNova-LatticeFlow study proves guardrailed open GenAI models match closed-source security and are secure for enterprise adoption
A new evaluation led by LatticeFlow AI, in collaboration with SambaNova, provides the first quantifiable evidence that open-source GenAI models, when equipped with proper risk guardrails, can meet or exceed the security levels of closed models, making them suitable for implementation in a wide range of use cases, including highly-regulated industries such as financial services. The security scores of the open models jumped from as low as 1.8% to 99.6%, while maintaining above 98% quality of service, demonstrating that with the right controls, open models are viable for secure, enterprise-scale deployment. Many companies are actively exploring open-source GenAI to gain flexibility, reduce vendor lock-in, and accelerate innovation. But despite growing interest, adoption has often stalled. The reason: a lack of clear, quantifiable insights into model security and risk. The evaluations released today address that gap, providing the technical evidence needed to make informed decisions about whether and how to deploy open-source models securely. Key results: DeepSeek R1: from 1.8% to 98.6%; LLaMA-4 Maverick: from 33.5% to 99.4%; LLaMA-3.3 70B Instruct: from 51.8% to 99.4%; Qwen3-32B: security score increased from 56.3% to 99.6%; DeepSeek V3: from 61.3% to 99.4%. All models maintained over 98% quality of service, confirming that security gains did not compromise user experience.
FIS bolsters account origination offering by acquiring Amount- cloud-native, unified solution with embedded AI functionality simplifies the online account opening experience
FIS has completed its acquisition of Amount, a provider of unified digital banking origination and decisioning experiences for financial institutions of all types and sizes. With more than 150 million new account applications processed, Amount provides a best-in-class digital account opening experience for consumers and small businesses across lending, cards and deposits. Its cloud-native, unified solution with embedded AI functionality simplifies the online account opening experience for banks, lenders and credit unions, providing customers with a seamless, digital-first capability. With the addition of Amount, FIS strategically expands its portfolio of innovative solutions that support the world’s money lifecycle, encompassing when money is at rest, in motion and at work. At Rest: Simplifies account opening with secure processes that reduce fraud and ensure compliance; In Motion: Streamlines credit card issuance and payments with faster approvals and seamless customer journeys; At Work: Empowers institutions with tools to boost efficiency, expand offerings, streamline lending and deliver exceptional service. The Amount platform, integrated into FIS digital, core banking and card systems, will help FIS clients grow deposits, loans and card portfolios efficiently and securely.
GoDocs launches SBA Loan Docs automation eliminating 70% processing time overhead for 7(a) and 504 loans; while ensuring real-time regulatory updates and built-in compliance logic
GoDocs, announced the availability of GoDocs SBA Loan Docs, a powerful new solution that enables lenders to confidently and efficiently generate SBA and state-law-compliant, attorney-quality, lender-ready loan packages for SBA 7(a) Standard and 504 loans. GoDocs SBA Loan Docs eliminates manual bottlenecks by automating the complex documentation process, preserving guaranty eligibility and enabling lenders to scale SBA lending profitably. Whether lenders are expanding into SBA lending for the first time or optimizing an existing program, GoDocs SBA Loan Docs delivers a modern, scalable solution built for today’s compliance landscape. By combining legal-grade precision with intuitive automation, GoDocs empowers financial institutions to close more loans, serve more small businesses, and stay confidently ahead of regulatory change, all while accelerating speed to market. GoDocs SBA Loan Docs is purpose-built for the 7(a) and 504 loan program, offering: Full SOP and state-law compliance, protecting the SBA guaranty; Dynamic document generation, delivering complete packages in minutes, not days; Attorney-drafted documents, continuously updated to reflect policy changes; Built-in compliance logic, reducing audit risk and rework; and Scalable automation, enabling high-volume processing without increasing headcount.
Finastra launches modern ACH solution built on cloud-native microservices and Kafka-based event streaming for scalable, resilient ACH processing
Finastra has launched its modern ACH payment solution, marking a significant milestone in the US market. With this release, Finastra becomes one of the major providers to support all US payment clearings—including ACH, wires, and real-time payments, within a unified payment hub, Finastra’s Global PAYplus. The Finastra ACH Module is designed and built on a modern technology stack to help financial institutions deploy a forward compatible solution to streamline ACH processing, reduce operational complexity, and meet evolving regulatory and customer demands. It supports comprehensive functionality including same-day ACH, early pay, and late return handling, while offering rich APIs for operational control and integration. Its user-friendly interface, enhanced scalability, and the ability to handle large-scale transaction volumes make the solution easily adaptable to meet the unique needs of both large and small financial institutions. Benefits include: Modern Architecture – Built on cloud-native microservices and Kafka-based event streaming for scalable, resilient ACH processing. Advanced Risk & Compliance Controls – Includes exposure management, validation, monitoring, Positive Pay, pre-funding, and integration with fraud and OFAC systems. High Performance and Scalability – Optimized to process large volumes —including multiple batches and transactions across single or multiple files, ensuring reliable performance for high-volume ACH operations. Enhanced Customer Experience – Empowers financial institutions to deliver more transparent and reliable payment services, improving user satisfaction and trust through real-time insights and streamlined operations.