Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) launched the North Haven Private Assets Fund (NHPAF), an SEC-registered evergreen investment fund designed to offer select investors the opportunity to obtain institutional-quality private equity exposure primarily through co-investments and secondaries in the lower middle market. This is MSIM’s first evergreen private equity offering and follows the introduction of retail private credit and real assets strategies over the last five years. NHPAF is managed by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Solutions, MSIM’s multi-manager private equity solutions platform, which has a 25-year track record and a longstanding network of relationships with GPs. Combined with the broader resources of Morgan Stanley, the Fund is expected to benefit from the potential for robust deal flow as well as meaningful diligence advantages. Neha Champaneria Markle, the Head of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Solutions, said:” We believe that the lower middle market offers a broad opportunity set characterized by lower entry valuations, greater potential for organic and M&A-driven growth, and more liquidity options compared to the large cap segment. We think this thematic emphasis, along with our demonstrated history of experience, and disciplined and careful manager diversification, will enable us to offer the potential for differentiated performance and downside risk protection.”
JPMorgan Chase and Capital One outpaced other banks in analyst Evident’s global AI hiring index; Bank of America, Citi and Wells Fargo round out Top 5
Despite broader industry job cuts, the world’s biggest banks are doubling down on their hiring of artificial intelligence specialists, according to new data from Evident. The benchmarking index’s April 2025 AI Talent Report, which claims to draw from millions of publicly available data points, shows that AI roles in banking have surged 13% over the past six months, marking the most significant jump in two years. The findings reveal that one in every fifty banking employees now works in an AI-specific role—a stark contrast to wider workforce reductions, with industry headcount declining by roughly 3% over the past two years. The numbers paint a clear picture: while many departments have reduced numbers, AI is fast becoming an island of growth and investment. JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup are leading the charge, topping Evident’s global AI hiring index. They are joined by Bank of America and Capital One, rounding out the top five AI employers. Together, the top ten banks account for nearly half (48%) of all AI roles in the banking sector.Notably, JPMorgan Chase and Capital One outpaced even this elite group, growing their AI talent pools faster than the overall Index rate. Evident co-founder and CEO Alexandra Mousavizadeh, an economist who also built Tortoise Media’s Global AI Index, said that AI roles in the banking sector “may be the only safe jobs right now.” AI Development, the domain responsible for building models and algorithms, saw a 6% rise. Data Engineering—covering the specialists who prepare and manage the vast datasets that feed AI systems—rose 14%. But the standout growth came from AI Software Implementation, which leapt 42%, albeit from a smaller base. This suggests a maturing phase, as banks shift focus from conceptual frameworks to scaled deployment of AI applications. Evident’s data also reveals that these top-tier banks report twice as many AI use cases as their peers and are 1.5 times more likely to measure and disclose return on investment from their AI initiatives. Evident commented that this correlation between talent and tangible results “signals a widening strategic gap between industry leaders and laggards”. BBVA stands out among the top ten for its comprehensive AI hiring. It surpassed growth benchmarks across all capability areas, expanding its AI workforce by 18%. The bank is aggressively scaling its “AI Factories” model, opening new centres of excellence in Mexico and Turkey as part of a broader push to embed AI across global operations. Behind the frontrunners, a new cohort of fast movers is emerging. CommBank, BNY, TD Bank, and Lloyds Banking Group all increased their AI headcount by more than 21%, suggesting a concerted effort to close the distance with the leaders. Capital One, in particular, is making targeted investments in Data Engineering to maintain its identity as a tech-first institution. JPMorgan Chase continues to scale advanced tools like its Quest IndexGPT, a system for generating personalised equity baskets. Meanwhile, Citigroup is focusing on infrastructure, leveraging partnerships such as its collaboration with Numerated to streamline borrower data collection. Wells Fargo and Bank of America are bolstering their AI Development teams, pointing to a strategy centred on retooling retail operations and strengthening mobile service offerings.
JPMorgan names new leadership for key commercial banking units- Innovation Economy (IE) sector and Specialized Industries (SI) sector
JPMorgan Chase has appointed Andrew Kresse and Brian Lamb to lead two key sectors in its commercial banking business, the largest U.S. lender said, as it continues to reorganize the unit. The move follows a greater leadership reshuffle in February in which Melissa Smith and Matt Sable were appointed co-heads of commercial banking, a unit that serves over 70,000 clients across 154 locations in the U.S. and Canada. Kresse, a two-decade company veteran, will co-lead the Innovation Economy (IE) sector, along with John China.
The IE sector employs 500 bankers serving nearly 10,000 venture capital firms, founders, and high-growth venture-backed companies across U.S. and Canada. Kresse has previously led the international expansion of the bank’s heritage Corporate Client Banking (hCCB) International business and established IE teams in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. He takes over the role from Smith. Lamb will head the Specialized Industries (SI) sector, which provides industry expertise and tailored solutions to businesses and organizations across a wide range of sectors.
Kresse and Lamb will both report to Smith and Sable.
Fiserv has become the nation’s first chartered merchant acquirer limited purpose bank (MALPB) to process card-based payment transactions with direct access to the payment card networks
The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance said that Fiserv merchant acquirer limited purpose bank (MALPB) has become the nation’s first chartered MALPB to process card-based payment transactions. The wholly owned subsidiary of Fiserv had its charter application approved by the Department on Sept. 27, received its permit to begin business from the Department on April 11 and processed the first payment transactions under its MALPB charter. The Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank Act, created an optional bank charter for merchant acquirers that provides direct access to the payment card networks without having to contract with a third-party bank sponsor. Georgia Governor Brian P. Kemp said that the step taken by Fiserv MALPB enables it and other companies to expand and keeps Georgia “the No. 1 state for processing payments.” “As the first-of-its-kind bank charter in the nation, this milestone also reinforces Georgia’s position as the leader in innovation when it comes to financial transactions,” Kemp said. Kevin Hagler, commissioner of Georgia’s Department of Banking and Finance, said: “The issuance of MALPB charters along with the Department’s robust regulatory oversight will help strengthen the vibrant and diverse economy of this state by permitting the safe and sound growth of this critical industry to Georgia.”
Robinhood’s cryptocurrency transaction-based revenues reached $252 million in Q1 2025, doubling year over year
Robinhood is aggressively expanding into cryptocurrency, with cryptocurrency transaction-based revenues reaching $252 million in Q1 2025, doubling year over year and accounting for more than 43% of Robinhood’s total transaction revenue. The company also has plans to acquire Bitstamp to broaden its global and institutional reach. Robinhood’s cryptocurrency transaction-based revenues reached $252 million in Q1 2025, doubling year over year and accounting for more than 43% of Robinhood’s total transaction revenue. “Bitstamp positions us to serve a much broader customer base with institutional-grade infrastructure and licensing across key international markets,” CEO Vlad Tenev said. The deal is expected to close midyear, pending regulatory approval, and would expand Robinhood’s international crypto footprint by adding nearly 50 licenses and registrations globally. The acquisition also marks a pivot from Robinhood’s original retail-only crypto focus to a more diversified, vertically integrated crypto platform. Robinhood is diversifying its offerings beyond trading, launching products like an AI-powered assistant (Cortex), a managed investment service (Strategies), and expanding its premium Gold membership, as it aims to be a comprehensive financial platform amid regulatory and market risks. For the quarter, revenue was up 50% year over year to $927 million and net income more than doubled; funded customer accounts grew to 25.8 million, and total platform assets rose to $221 billion, including $25 billion in crypto holdings.
Nuvo to extend B2B trade infrastructure- enabling companies to exchange critical trust signals, including verification status, creditworthiness, banking information, and trade history
Nuvo has raised $45 million to extend its B2B trade infrastructure into new verticals and deepen its reach in its core markets. Nuvo is building the infrastructure to transform how businesses connect, trade, and grow. By enabling companies to exchange verified profiles with potential partners, Nuvo provides instant access to critical trust signals, including verification status, creditworthiness, banking information, and trade history, allowing businesses to activate new partnerships quickly and confidently. With identity, connectivity, and trade data in one place, businesses can expand their customer and vendor networks more easily, scale faster with less risk, and unlock growth and resilience. The company’s infrastructure is used by more than 50,000 businesses to activate new partnerships with customers and vendors and manage their trade relationships. With the new funding, Nuvo will deepen its reach across core markets such as alcohol and beverage, building materials, chemicals, food service, distribution, and manufacturing, while extending into new verticals. As the network grows, modern payments infrastructure and AI systems will power the intelligent foundations needed to connect and coordinate trade between 50 million global businesses. “Continued innovation, growth and accessibility of goods in the global economy require a new kind of technology infrastructure, and that’s what we’re building at Nuvo,” Sid Malladi, co-founder and CEO of Nuvo, said.
Visa will enable developers to add an AI-ready card to APIs for agents-led ‘intelligent commerce’- shielding account data, eliminating the clunky step of keying in card numbers every time the agent hops to a new site
Visa unveiled the Visa Intelligent Commerce program which opens the network’s rails to developers building AI agents that search, recommend and now pay on behalf of consumers. “This is going to transform shopping and buying — we’re letting AI developers and engineers use the Visa network to allow AI agents to find, and buy, on [the consumer’s] behalf in a seamless and safe way,” Mark Nelsen, Visa’s global head of consumer products, told. At the center of the effort is an AI-ready card, a credential developers can spin up through a bundle of Visa application programming interfaces (APIs). As Nelsen put it: “The APIs will have an AI-ready card. In a hypothetical search for the cheapest flight to Cancún, for example, a traveler uploads an existing Visa credential, while in the background Visa authenticates the cardholder with payment passkeys, tokenizes the 16-digit number and seats the token inside the AI agent.” That behind-the-scenes swap shields account data, eliminating the clunky step of keying in card numbers every time the agent hops to a new site.
Affirm opens AI-powered POS promotion platform to merchants dynamically matching the right benefit to the right consumer at exactly the right moment
Buy now, pay later network Affirm is introducing its artificial intelligence-powered platform, AdaptAI, to its merchant partners. Merchants can provide shoppers with personalized, targeted, real-time promotions and credit offers at the point of purchase via the offering. “Unlike conventional credit card rewards — which are opaque, static and subsidized by the financially vulnerable — AdaptAI dynamically matches the right benefit to the right consumer at exactly the right moment,” Affirm Senior Vice President of Product Vishal Kapoor said. “Consumers no longer need to spend more, keep track of, or wait months to recoup their rewards. Now, they can immediately receive tailored, transparent value at the time of purchase. This is only made possible with Affirm’s AI-powered technology and real-time underwriting, and [it] builds on what we do best: delivering customized payment options that help consumers take their money further.” Consumers expect individualized experiences, particularly when paying, leading Affirm — and now its merchants — to offer payment solutions customized to consumers’ purchase and financial profiles.
Stripe’s Radar now protects ACH and SEPA payments from fraud- reporting a 42% reduction in SEPA fraud and a 20% reduction in ACH fraud
Stripe announced an expansion of Radar, Stripe’s AI-powered fraud prevention product, for ACH and SEPA payments. Radar assesses more than 1,000 characteristics of a potential transaction in order to determine, in less than 100 milliseconds, the likelihood that it’s fraudulent. On average, Radar users see a 42% reduction in SEPA fraud and a 20% reduction in ACH fraud. Ben Winfield, Radar product manager, wrote “Over the last year, we’ve seen a 40% increase in noncard payment volume on Stripe. Now, we’re extending Radar fraud protection to ACH and SEPA payments. We’ve applied the same AI architecture Radar uses for cards to new models that automatically screen and help block risky ACH and SEPA transactions.”
Cross River’s new International Payments platform for businesses is rail-agnostic, dynamically selecting the most relevant payment rails based on transaction size, currency, and corridor
Cross River Bank launched its new International Payments solution, now processing transactions with Aion, a modern business finance platform designed to simplify financial management. Leveraging Cross River’s proprietary banking core, API technology, and industry-leading compliance and AML/CFT integrations, this new International Payments solution offers seamless, efficient, and cost-effective cross-border transactions for businesses. Cross River’s International Payments platform is rail-agnostic, dynamically selecting the most relevant payment rails based on transaction size, currency, and corridor. This ensures businesses and consumers benefit from faster processing times so consumers receive their money when and where they need it. “Our goal is to simplify cross-border payments by removing technical barriers that limit global scalability,” said Luca Cosentino, Head of Product at Cross River. “Our International Payments capability uses a flexible, rail-agnostic approach to enable fast, cost-effective, and secure transfers—whether through SWIFT or local bank rails. Aion, an early adopter in B2B and B2C use cases, enables businesses to modernize cross-border transactions Satish Palvai, Founder and CEO at Aion said, “With Cross River’s International Payments, we’re leveling the playing field by giving growing businesses access to the same speed and efficiency once reserved only for large enterprises.” With strict adherence to regulatory standards, Cross River’s International Payments platform integrates advanced AML tools and compliance solutions. Fully routable subledgers and detailed customer records allow businesses to monitor transactions on a sub-entity level, ensuring security and reliability.