Banking-as-a-Service bank Griffin is opening up access to a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, providing a way for AI agents to autonomously perform tasks on behalf of customers. Griffin, which secured a full banking licence in March last year, says the initiative is the beginning of massive technological platform shift, which will see people delegating more and more of their work to AI. “We think there is much further to go…but to get there, the financial system has to be fundamentally rewired to accommodate a world in which agents can freely transact — while still retaining appropriate safeguards.” Potential use cases cited include end-to-end wealth management, payment admin and transactional capabilities. “This is early for us – we’re in beta – but it shows the power of what’s possible,” says the bank. “You can use the Griffin MCP server to have an agent open accounts, make payments, and analyse historic events. You can also use it to build complete prototypes of your own fintech applications on top of the Griffin API – which we’re already seeing customers doing in real time.”
Fintech OneBanx’s APIs enable banks to integrate cash deposit and withdrawal capabilities into their mobile banking apps via OneBanx kiosks
UK-based fintech OneBanx is integrating cash deposit and withdrawal capabilities into partner banks’ mobile apps, aiming to bridge the gap between digital banking and physical cash access. The company is developing secure APIs to enable customers to initiate and complete cash deposits and withdrawals from OneBanx kiosks using their existing mobile banking apps. This integration complements existing digital payment solutions, providing a more comprehensive service offering. OneBanx’s joint white paper with Enryo highlights the importance of a long-term strategic approach for cash users. Benefits for Banks and Their Customers : Enhanced Customer Experience: Customers can enjoy a unified banking experience, managing their finances and accessing cash through a single, familiar platform. Increased Digital Engagement: Introducing cash access features within bank apps can serve as a gateway for customers who are less digitally active, encouraging gradual adoption of digital banking services. Cost-Effective Infrastructure: Banks can extend their service reach without the overhead of maintaining traditional branch networks, leveraging OneBanx’s kiosk infrastructure.
Nasdaq’s private company dataset and API to deliver real-time pricing on private, pre-IPO companies, integrating primary round, secondary transactions, and accounting data
Nasdaq has partnered with Nasdaq Private Market (NPM) to provide greater price transparency and valuation visibility into private, pre-IPO companies, including unicorns and startups. The Tape D private company dataset, available through API integration via Nasdaq Data Link, addresses critical transparency challenges by helping investors evaluate private holdings with greater confidence, enabling banks to structure private transactions more effectively, supporting wealth advisors and shareholders in managing liquidity needs, and equipping private companies with valuable insights for capital raises and tender offers. The comprehensive data product delivers real-time private market pricing by integrating primary round data, secondary market transactions, and accounting data. The launch of this data partnership marks the latest step in Nasdaq’s commitment to enhancing transparency, access, and portfolio management capabilities across the public-to-private investment spectrum.
Coinbase to launch ‘crypto operating account’ for small businesses; new Coinbase One Card will be powered by the AMEX offering up to 4% bitcoin back on every purchase; Coinbase with Stripe to enable stablecoin payments on Shopify
Coinbase plans to launch a “crypto operating account” for startups and small businesses later this year. The Coinbase Business platform will let these users send and receive payments, manage crypto assets and automate financial workflows. The company invited businesses to sign up on a waitlist for early access to the Coinbase Business alpha. Crypto and stablecoins offer “fast, global and low-cost money movement” that solves problems commonly faced by startups and small businesses, such as paying global talent; dealing with credit card fees, interest rates and chargebacks; and facing long settlement cycles. It’s why one in five small- and medium-sized businesses familiar with stablecoins already use them to streamline their operations. Coinbase Business will allow users to accept customer payments in crypto; pay vendors, employees and partners; trade and manage crypto; and earn rewards on their USDC stablecoins. The platform will also provide streamlined accounting reconciliation into platforms like QuickBooks and Xero.
Edward Jones partners CAIS to enable HNWIs and advisors to manage alt investments in addition to mutual funds and ETFs through unified managed accounts
Edward Jones plans to provide a variety of private investment options through a deal with CAIS, which provides technology designed to unlock alternative investments for advisors and their clients. The service will be offered starting on May 5 through a business line called Edward Jones Generations, which is open to investors with $10 million or more in assets, but will eventually be extended to more of the firm’s clientele. Russ Tipper, principal and head of products at Edward Jones, said it’s too early to say what the criteria for investing in alternatives will eventually be set at. Rather than choosing a fixed investable asset threshold for all accounts, Edward Jones is more likely to look at every client’s portfolio individually and decide if alts have a place. “We’re going to make sure it’s an appropriate portion of a client’s portfolio, which could be as little as zero to as high as 20% depending on the objective they’re trying to solve for.” Edward Jones has roughly 9 million clients but doesn’t say how many have more than $10 million in investable assets.
Elavon and Jscrambler partner to strengthen PCI DSS compliance for merchants for requirements of 6.4.3 and 11.6.1
Elavon and Jscrambler have partnered to help merchants comply with PCI DSS requirements 6.4.3 and 11.6.1. Through this agreement, Elavon’s network of more than 400 merchants can leverage Jscrambler’s Client-Side Protection and Compliance Platform to safeguard their business from escalating web skimming attacks. Using Jscrambler’s Client-Side Protection and Compliance Platform and PCI DSS solution, merchants can meet PCI DSS requirements while preventing web skimming attacks, securing payment pages, and maintaining compliance efficiently. Now, through this collaboration, the two companies combine Elavon’s extensive experience as a global leader in payment processing with Jscrambler’s innovative technologies to address the critical need for robust payment security. Jscrambler’s PCI DSS solution delivers the following capabilities: Script Management: Auto-discovers and authorizes payment page scripts, reducing manual approvals by grouping vendor behaviors. Skimming Prevention: Blocks unauthorized data access in real-time, protecting against web skimming and formjacking. Tamper Detection: Monitors HTTP headers and page content, alerting on unauthorized changes via email, SIEM, or Slack. Hybrid Architecture: Supports agentless and agent-based deployment for flexibility, enabling rapid compliance for complex or acquired payment pages. PCI DSS Expertise: Provides direct access to former PCI Security Standards Council members and a strong bench of PCI DSS experts. QSA Alliance Program: Provides access to enablement sessions, assessor forums, and inventory reports to streamline audits. Andrew McCarroll, PCIP Customer Payment Security Executive, Elavon said “By partnering with Jscrambler, Elavon is offering merchants easy access to Jscrambler’s PCI DSS solution.”
Sakana’s Continuous Thought Machines (CTM) AI model architecture uses short-term memory of previous states and allows neural synchronization to mirror brain-like intelligence
AI startup Sakana has unveiled a new type of AI model architecture called Continuous Thought Machines (CTM). Rather than relying on fixed, parallel layers that process inputs all at once — as Transformer models do —CTMs unfold computation over steps within each input/output unit, known as an artificial “neuron.” Each neuron in the model retains a short history of its previous activity and uses that memory to decide when to activate again. This added internal state allows CTMs to adjust the depth and duration of their reasoning dynamically, depending on the complexity of the task. As such, each neuron is far more informationally dense and complex than in a typical Transformer model. CTMs allow each artificial neuron to operate on its own internal timeline, making activation decisions based on a short-term memory of its previous states. These decisions unfold over internal steps known as “ticks,” enabling the model to adjust its reasoning duration dynamically. This time-based architecture allows CTMs to reason progressively, adjusting how long and how deeply they compute — taking a different number of ticks based on the complexity of the input. The number of ticks changes according to the information inputted, and may be more or less even if the input information is identical, because each neuron is deciding how many ticks to undergo before providing an output (or not providing one at all). This represents both a technical and philosophical departure from conventional deep learning, moving toward a more biologically grounded model. Sakana has framed CTMs as a step toward more brain-like intelligence—systems that adapt over time, process information flexibly, and engage in deeper internal computation when needed. Sakana’s goal is to “to eventually achieve levels of competency that rival or surpass human brains.” The CTM is built around two key mechanisms. First, each neuron in the model maintains a short “history” or working memory of when it activated and why, and uses this history to make a decision of when to fire next. Second, neural synchronization — how and when groups of a model’s artificial neurons “fire,” or process information together — is allowed to happen organically. Groups of neurons decide when to fire together based on internal alignment, not external instructions or reward shaping. These synchronization events are used to modulate attention and produce outputs — that is, attention is directed toward those areas where more neurons are firing. The model isn’t just processing data, it’s timing its thinking to match the complexity of the task. Together, these mechanisms let CTMs reduce computational load on simpler tasks while applying deeper, prolonged reasoning where needed.
Monzo’s new ‘Undo Payments,’ holding window feature offers a configurable delay, ranging from 10 to 60 seconds, before a payment is finalised, during which the sender can halt the transaction
Monzo has started rolling out a new feature that allows users to cancel a bank transfer shortly after initiating it. The tool, known as ‘Undo Payments,’ offers a configurable delay, ranging from 10 to 60 seconds, before a payment is finalised, during which the sender can halt the transaction. The launch follows internal research by the bank showing that around 30% of UK adults have sent money to the wrong person or entered the incorrect amount in the past year. More than three-quarters of those who made a payment error reportedly realised the mistake within one minute. The Undo Payments feature acts as a brief holding window after a transfer is authorised. During this time, users can reverse the transaction directly from the payment confirmation screen, the home screen, or the specific transaction detail page. If the undo option is selected within the chosen time frame, the funds remain in the user’s account and the intended recipient is not notified of the attempted transfer. The default setting gives a 15-second window, though users can adjust this to 10, 30, or 60 seconds, or disable it entirely. According to Monzo’s data, simple mistakes such as typing errors, often involving an extra zero, were responsible for 68% of misdirected payments.
Citi’s Token Services enable real-time cross-border payments and trade settlement through clients’ existing methods without requiring them to hold tokens via API or online portal
Citi’s treasury and trade solutions customers were asking for multinational cash management and trade services available 24/7 and that’s where Citi Token Services was born. “The pain point was our clients wanted 24/7, always on, liquidity and payments,” said Ryan Rugg, Citi’s global head of digital assets, treasury and trade solutions. Ambrish Bansal, Citi’s global head of liquidity and cash concentration solutions, liquidity management services in the bank’s treasury and trade solutions unit, said the initiative stemmed from clients’ requests. “It’s really important for us to ensure that our clients can leverage cutting-edge technologies and new developments and move their treasury management into the real-time world,” Bansal said. “The whole idea behind Citi Token Services was born out of this pressing need by our clients to ensure that their money can move around the global ecosystem in as [close to] real time as possible.” The bank uses a private permissioned distributed ledger and a distributed database with embedded business logic to enable a range of services from intraday lending, cross-border payments and conditional transfer of funds to supply chain financing, trade settlements and fractional ownership to identity verification and know-your-customer compliance. Citi Token Services adheres to the ERC-20 technical standard — a community-created framework for creating smart contract-enabled fungible tokens on the ethereum blockchain. The bank owns and manages all the blockchain technology infrastructure it’s using for its token services, which will be integrated into the bank’s global network. Clients will be able to access Citi Token Services through its CitiDirect online portal or API connectivity. Rugg said multinational companies with hundreds, if not thousands, of accounts with Citi and other banks can use the program to manage liquidity and payments across the globe. Before, they would have to forecast and leave money in different branches as well as keep track of cut-off times and holidays around the world when money can’t be moved.
Pagaya the provider of AI-driven underwriting technology brings $1 billion in additional POS BNPL funding capacity through securitization
Pagaya Technologies has launched POSH (Pagaya Point of Sale Holdings Trust), a new asset-backed revolving securitization program focused on point-of-sale financing (“POS”), which will enable Pagaya to be a growth catalyst for point-of-sale providers in the U.S. By combining increased funding capacity through POSH with Pagaya’s embedded AI-driven underwriting technology, lenders can approve more customers at the point of sale. This boosts merchant satisfaction, broader adoption and activation. The inaugural transaction, POSH 2025-1, is a $300 million AAA-rated deal, with an 18-month revolving period, and is expected to close next week. The revolving nature of the deal structure allows Pagaya to reinvest capital as loans are repaid, significantly expanding overall lending capacity, while also increasing capital efficiency. The POS product is optimized for loans with shorter durations – typically six months – and credit profiles in the 600+ range, empowering lenders to approve more customers without additional credit risk. As demand continues to surge across the POS ecosystem, Pagaya is delivering new capital solutions to drive the next phase of lending partner growth. Sanjiv Das, Co-Founder and President of Pagaya said “It enables Pagaya to support our existing POS lending partners at scale by powering more customer approvals, which in turn drives greater merchant satisfaction and activation. These results are delivered seamlessly through our API integration into our partners’ origination systems, making it easy to unlock value for both lenders and merchants.