Acoru, a cybersecurity firm, has launched its operations after securing €4 million seed funding in 2023. The company aims to revolutionize fraud prevention in the financial sector by developing a NextGen platform equipped with generative AI, enhanced analytics, and a configurable intelligence network. The platform excels at tracking account changes and detecting mule accounts by leveraging pre-fraud indicators and continuously monitoring and classifying account types over time. Acoru’s platform leverages advanced technology to process both structured and unstructured data, delivering insights through an intuitive, user-friendly interface. The platform’s intuitive interface, easy customization, and effectiveness in identifying pre-fraud signals have driven rapid adoption. Acoru’s founders, Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo and David Morán, bring over 20 years of expertise in cybersecurity and fraud prevention. The company plans to use the funding to continue its international expansion.
Google Wallet may let you add a card just by NFC tapping it to your Android phone, instead of scanning or manually entering card information
Google appears to be working on a new feature that would allow users to add a credit card to Google Wallet simply by tapping the card to their phone. The current process of adding a card to Google Wallet typically involves either scanning or manually entering card information, then going through some sort of verification with your bank. It’s not a difficult process, but it’s one that Google seemingly wants to simplify by letting you add a card by tapping it to your phone. Code added to the latest Google Play Services update directly explains a process in which you “hold your card” to the back of your phone, using NFC to add it to Wallet. This new code was apparently found alongside the existing “Add payment method” screen, taking out any doubt that it’s for anything but adding a new payment card to the app. Presumably, users will still need to verify with their banking institution and complete other steps, but this would provide a quick and easy way to end the card information. It’s also a fairly familiar process as some banking apps, the Capital One app as one example, use NFC to interact with physical cards.
Sprive’s tech automates using cash-back offers, discount vouchers and spare cash from everyday shopping towards mortgage overpayments
Fintech startup Sprive is a “mortgage overpayment” platform aimed at the U.K. market that helps users repay their mortgages faster using automation and cash-back rewards. It claims to save users an average of £10,000 each over the lifetime of the mortgage. Sprive said the app works by letting homeowners pay off their mortgage faster through their everyday shopping, by automatically putting spare cash toward overpayments and continuously scanning the market to help customers find better mortgage deals. Users can pay toward their mortgage from a bank account linked to the Sprive app by shopping as they would normally with mainstream U.K. supermarkets. They then use cash-back offers, discount vouchers, and more in order to pay off a mortgage faster. It does this by allowing the user to save money on the interest on the mortgage and shave potentially years off the mortgage term. CEO Jinesh Vohra said Sprive gives lenders a more efficient digital means of being able to acquire new customers. “Every time someone shops or switches mortgages, we make money. Within 15 minutes of shopping, you get money towards your mortgage, and we scan the market every day for better mortgage deals. Every time a customer refinances, we get commission from the mortgage lender.”
Mastercard is partnering crypto exchanges and fintechs to unveil end-to-end acceptance and payments capabilities of stablecoins such as wallet enablement, card issuance and digital commerce
Mastercard is doubling down on stablecoins, unveiling new global end-to-end acceptance and payments capabilities with an integrated 360-degree approach to allow consumers and businesses to use stablecoins as easily as the money in their bank accounts. The company has partnered with a host of crypto natives such as MetaMask, Kraken, Gemini, Bybit, Crypto.com and Binance on wallet enablement and card issuance and acceptance. Now it is working with OKX to launch the OKX Card, providing millions with easy access to their funds. Mastercard is also teaming up with Nuvei and Circle to give merchants the option to receive their payments in stablecoins such as USDC, regardless of how a consumer chooses to pay. It already offers this functionality across Paxos-issued stablecoins. “When it comes to blockchain and digital assets, the benefits for mainstream use cases are clear,” says Jorn Lambert, chief product officer, Mastercard. “To realise its potential, we need to make it as easy for merchants to receive stablecoin payments and for consumers to use them. We believe in the potential of stablecoins to streamline payments and commerce across the value chain.
FIS next-gen enterprise treasury platform runs on public cloud and enables harnessing data from multiple sources such as ERP systems and bank APIs, to enable cash-management analysis in real time
FIS has launched its next-generation enterprise treasury platform, Treasury and Risk Manager – Quantum Cloud Edition. This cloud-native solution can support increased workloads, larger transaction volumes, and increased enterprise connectivity, scaling these capabilities to provide CFOs and corporate treasurers with greater visibility of risks; improved data-driven decision-making; and faster, more efficient money movement. FIS is launching its enhanced solution as CFOs and corporate treasurers increasingly need to accelerate performance across their technology infrastructure. According to EY, 65% of businesses have made strategic investments in the cloud, but only 32% are achieving their goals for the technology, a dynamic that reinforces the importance of true scalability for more effective cloud-based ecosystems. By running on a public cloud, this solution not only features stronger data processing power and connectivity, but also can provide a new level of flexibility for quicker implementations, faster product upgrades and more seamless rollouts of new capabilities. In addition to leveraging the power of the public cloud, this version of FIS’ treasury and risk management solution offers a new Liquidity Hub module for harnessing data from multiple sources – such as enterprise resource planning systems and bank APIs – to enable cash-management analysis in real time.
Socure launches advanced pre-fill solution achieving a 91% match rate—far surpassing the industry average of 66% achieved with device intelligence, ID Graph Intelligence, and multiple layers of authentication directly from the carriers
Socure, has launched Socure’s Advanced Pre-Fill, a groundbreaking solution that redefines the customer onboarding experience, leveraging RiskOS™. Socure’s Advanced Pre-Fill dramatically streamlines onboarding by pre-populating application forms with the highest-verified identity information available—delivering speed, security, and scalability like never before. Socure’s Advanced Pre-Fill eliminates that friction by requiring minimal input from users, all while achieving a 91% match rate—far surpassing the industry average of 66%. This performance leap translates into higher conversion rates, faster time to fund, and reduced customer drop-off. Unlike legacy systems that rely heavily on limiting phone or credit header data, Socure’s solution taps into a vast array of authoritative signals—phone and carrier data, device information, graph intelligence, multi-bureau, tax, public records and more—to construct a rich, multi-dimensional view of identity. Socure’s Advanced Pre-Fill is available via client-side and server-side SDKs and APIs, making it easy to integrate into any digital application experience. Socure’s Advanced Pre-Fill accelerates customer onboarding by implementing form fill automation with authenticated data. Device Intelligence, ID Graph Intelligence, and multiple layers of authentication directly from the carriers not only ensures the best possible population coverage and entity resolution, but additionally plays a role in enabling instant fraud decisions. Socure Advanced Pre-Fill delivers measurable business impact through: Enhanced User Experience, Operational Efficiency, Improved Security
PayPal’s new Offsite Ads, lets advertisers to tap into its transaction graph to reach millions with display and video advertising
PayPal is announcing the launch of Offsite Ads, a new way for advertisers to tap into the power of PayPal’s transaction graph and reach millions of consumers across the open web through display and video advertising. Offsite Ads is built on PayPal’s extensive two-sided network that connects millions of merchants and consumers, bringing a new level of precision to advertising by making cross-merchant transaction insights available — all while respecting consumer privacy. Unlike traditional approaches that rely heavily on browsing behavior or probabilistic models, PayPal Offsite Ads is powered by actual purchase data across millions of merchants. This enables brands to reach highly relevant audiences based on real shopping intent, not just inferred interest. For the first time, advertisers can leverage PayPal’s understanding of when and where people actually buy — across a wide range of categories — to inform smarter media buying decisions. PayPal allows brands to connect with audiences in a different and more relevant way than standard third-party cookie-based or contextual targeting methods. Publicis Media will be the first agency partner to offer Offsite Ads to brands, enabling advertisers to bring more precision, rigor and performance to advertising across platforms. PayPal Offsite Ads are available through leading channels, allowing advertisers to activate campaigns at scale across premium websites, apps, and CTV environments, while ensuring seamless integration with existing media buying strategies.
Paze checkout reports loading 150 million debit and credit card accounts; partners Fiserv to attract more banks to offer the digital wallet
Paze, the digital wallet launched last year by Early Warning Services, has loaded 150 million debit and credit card accounts onto its nascent system. Now, those bank customer card holders can opt into the wallet if they’re interested in using it. More big banks are expected to link to Paze later this year, Early Warning’s Chief Partnership Officer Eric Hoffman said. He spoke alongside Deva Annamalai, Fiserv’s head of client strategy and solutions for digital payments. The processor is partnering with EWS to attract more banks to offer the digital wallet to their customers for online purchases. With Fiserv, there is “exposure to thousands of banks,” Hoffman said, explaining how additional banks will disclose working with Paze as they announce that the service is available to those banks’ customers. As Fiserv helps bring its bank clients onto the Paze system, it will benefit from the increased transaction volume it processes through the digital wallet. Some 70% of U.S. consumers don’t use a digital wallet so there is a broad opportunity to attract new users without having to do battle with some of the long-time rivals in the field, namely Apple Pay and PayPal, Hoffman said. Paze will be directed at consumers between 35 and 65 years-old who tend to be wealthy, and have been “protectionist” in their thinking about digital wallets, Hoffman said. This group has generally avoided using digital wallets so far, but they’re likely to sign up for Paze if it’s offered by their banks, just like they did with Zelle, he said.
FTC order requires Workado to offer competent and reliable evidence to support the 98% accuracy and efficacy claims of its AI content detection product
The Federal Trade Commission issued a proposed order requiring Workado, LLC to stop advertising the accuracy of its AI detection products unless it maintains competent and reliable evidence showing those products are as accurate as claimed. The settlement will be subject to public comment before becoming final. The order settles allegations that Workado promoted its AI Content Detector as “98 percent” accurate in detecting whether text was written by AI or human. But independent testing showed the accuracy rate on general-purpose content was just 53 percent, according to the FTC’s administrative complaint. The FTC alleges that Workado violated the FTC Act because the “98 percent” claim was false, misleading, or non-substantiated. The proposed order settling the complaint is designed to ensure Workado does noat engage in similar false, misleading, or unsupported advertising in the future. Under the proposed order, Workado: 1) Is prohibited from making any representations about the effectiveness of any covered product unless it is not misleading, and the company has competent and reliable evidence to support the claim at the time it is made; 2) Is required to retain any evidence it uses to support such efficacy claims; 3) Must email eligible consumers about the consent order and settlement with the Commission; and 4) Must submit compliance reports to the FTC one year after the order is issued and every year for the following three years.
Mastercard’s Agentic Payments Program applies tokenization to integrate trusted, seamless payments experiences into the tailored recommendations and insights already provided on conversational AI platforms
Mastercard announced the launch of its Agentic Payments Program, Mastercard Agent Pay. The groundbreaking solution integrates with agentic AI to revolutionize commerce. Mastercard Agent Pay will deliver smarter, more secure, and more personal payments experiences to consumers, merchants, and issuers. The program introduces Mastercard Agentic Tokens, which build upon proven tokenization capabilities that today power global commerce solutions like mobile contactless payments, secure card-on-file, and Mastercard Payment Passkeys, as well as programmable payments like recurring expenses and subscriptions. This helps unlock an agentic commerce future where consumers and businesses can transact with trust, security, and control. Mastercard will collaborate with Microsoft on new use cases to scale agentic commerce, with other leading AI platforms to follow. Mastercard will also partner with technology enablers like IBM, with its watsonx Orchestrate product, to accelerate B2B use cases. In addition, Mastercard will work with acquirers and checkout players like Braintree and Checkout.com to enhance the tokenization capabilities they are already using today with merchants to deliver safe, transparent agentic payments. For banks, tokenized payment credentials will be seamlessly integrated across agentic commerce platforms, keeping card issuers at the forefront of this rapidly evolving technology with enhanced visibility, security, and control. Mastercard Agent Pay will enhance generative AI conversations for people and businesses alike by integrating trusted, seamless payments experiences into the tailored recommendations and insights already provided on conversational platforms. By identifying and validating a customer using Mastercard’s tokenization technology, a retailer will be able to offer a meaningful and consistent shopping experience, layering on relevant and personalized benefits, such as recommended products, free delivery, rewards, and discounts. Mastercard will work with Microsoft to integrate Microsoft’s leading AI technologies, including Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Copilot Studio, with Mastercard’s trusted payment solutions to develop and scale agentic commerce, addressing the evolving needs of the entire commerce value chain.