Veris AI, a platform that lets companies safely train and test AI agents through novel high-fidelity simulated experiences, emerged from stealth and has raised $8.5M in seed funding. Veris allows developers to train agents using experience rather than prompt engineering and human-generated data. Veris’ dynamic, realistic, simulated environments gives enterprises a safe space for reinforcement learning and continuous improvement, ultimately helping them deploy and scale more accurate AI agents. Mehdi Jamei, CEO and co-founder of Veris said, ”We are building Veris to unlock the potential of agentic AI for enterprises – both by solving existing problems and improving the speed and quality in which new agents can come into production.”
Wells Fargo exits 2018 consent order that imposed limits on growth in total assets, having addressed requirements for improvements in board effectiveness, firmwide compliance, operational risk programs and a third-party independent reviews
Federal regulators moved to lift an unprecedented punishment that had handcuffed growth at Wells Fargo, a milestone in the bank’s efforts to repair its tarnished reputation after its fake-accounts scandal erupted nearly a decade ago. For the first time in seven years, the fourth-largest U.S. bank will be able to grow its balance sheet and redirect resources it had been pouring into efforts to fix itself. It will once again have the freedom to gather deposits, increase loans to companies and households and grow its Wall Street businesses or even do deals. The removal of the asset cap “marks a pivotal milestone” for Wells Fargo, said Chief Executive Charlie Scharf. The bank said it would give full-time employees a special $2,000 award. The asset-cap removal “reflects the substantial progress the bank has made in addressing its deficiencies,” the Fed said. Still, other provisions from the 2018 order “will remain in place until the bank satisfies the requirements.” The regulatory work has been all-consuming for the bank. The operating committee has for years started its meetings with sometimes hours long reviews of where the bank stood on its regulatory work. Now, executives will have the freedom to focus on broader operations and strategy. The bank can make more loans and keep them on its balance sheet. It will seek to expand its branded credit-card business and to draw wealth-management clients to other services at the bank. Wells Fargo also has more room to focus on the Wall Street businesses, such as dealmaking and trading, that Scharf has sought to grow. The bank plans to expand head count in the corporate and investment bank, where it has tapped Fernando Rivas as head and hired dozens of senior bankers. It will also likely cut costs. The bank has hired an army of 10,000 employees across its risk and control groups to address the regulatory orders. Last year, it spent roughly $2.5 billion more in those groups compared with 2018.
Citi’s GenAI solution CitiService Agent Assist wins Pega innovation award for enabling customer service agents to improve the accuracy and delivery of client queries
Citi’s Services business is enhancing the client experience with its award-winning innovation, CitiService Agent Assist, a generative AI-powered solution designed to help customer service agents deliver faster, more accurate responses to clients. The solution is a part of CitiService, a suite of capabilities aimed at delivering an exceptional client experience through advanced technologies, focusing on AI.
The CitiService Agent Assist solution has just received Pega’s Innovation award for financial institutions for its achievements in global service excellence, AI-powered automation and operational modernization. The solution enables customer service agents to improve the accuracy and delivery of client queries. Citi Services’ investments in innovative solutions are already delivering greater efficiency for their clients at the intersection of human and machine intelligence. Citi’s current AI capabilities have significantly enhanced decision accuracy, operational efficiency and scalability. With advanced tools and capabilities, Citi will continue to explore opportunities to further automate and streamline processes to better serve clients. Citi continues to innovate by investing in advanced technology, infrastructure, and automation to modernize the future of client service, while ensuring operational soundness and compliance. Citi’s Services AI capabilities are driving greater decision accuracy, operational efficiency, and scalability. CitiService Agent Assist is now live for Citi colleagues in 47 countries, transforming the customer experience. At Citi, we’re harnessing the power of AI to enhance how we serve clients and build the bank of tomorrow. “With solutions like CitiService Agent Assist, we’re eliminating manual processes, delivering faster responses, and creating a more seamless experience around the world. We’re committed to co-developing and innovating with our clients to streamline processes and support with global reach and efficiency”, said Naveed Anwar, Global Head of Platforms and Data Services, Services
Venmo Debit Card users can now earn 15% cash back with in-app offers, adds Tap-to-Pay, automatic transfers, Pay internationally and FDIC insurance up to $250,000 at each program bank
Venmo is supercharging its debit card rewards with new, limited-time cash back offers at some of its users’ favorite brands. Venmo Debit Card users can now earn 15% cash back from Sephora, Walmart, Lyft, McDonald’s, and Walgreens by activating their offers in the Venmo app to earn cash back on their eligible purchases in-store and online. New brand campaign reinforces accelerated expansion of commerce solutions with enhanced rewards in-store and online. Venmo Debit Card users can also enjoy these added features:
Tap-to-Pay: Add the Venmo Debit Card to your mobile wallet to conveniently tap-to-pay in-store.
Automatically add funds: Easily manage and top up your Venmo balance by setting up automatic transfers—either on a preset schedule or when your balance drops below a certain point.
Pay internationally: Use the Venmo Debit Card for purchases anywhere Mastercard is accepted around the world, with no international transaction fees on purchases.
Pass-through FDIC Insurance: With your Venmo Debit Card, your USD Venmo funds are held in Program Banks, where they are, subject to certain conditions, eligible for pass-through FDIC insurance up to $250,000 at each Program Bank. FDIC insurance protects against the failure of a Program Bank, not Venmo. Venmo is not a bank, does not take deposits, and is not FDIC-insured.
Morgan Stanley creates nine million lines of code, saving 280,000 hours of developer work with its OpenAI GPT based DevGen.AI which translates code in older languages into plain English
Morgan Stanley built its in-house AI tool to tackle a difficult coding problem: reworking old legacy code into more updated coding languages. Morgan Stanley introduced the AI tool, which is based on OpenAI’s GPT models, in January. The tool, called DevGen.AI, translates code in older languages, such as Perl into plain English, which developers can then use as a basis for rewriting the code into newer languages like Python. Mike Pizzi, Morgan Stanley’s global head of technology and operations, told WSJ that in the five months since its launch, DevGen.AI has worked through nine million lines of code, saving the firm’s 15,000 developers roughly 280,000 hours of work. Pizzi said that Morgan Stanley opted to build the tool itself because tech companies didn’t have any solutions that could fit Morgan Stanley’s exact specifications. Commercial tools lacked expertise in deciphering older coding languages, especially those specific to a company. Morgan Stanley trained DevGen.AI on languages within its own code base, including languages customized for the company. However, the AI tool still has growing to do when it comes to full translation. Though the tool can, in theory, rewrite code from an older language to a newer one, it doesn’t know how to write the new code efficiently or as well as a human developer, Pizzi said. That’s why Morgan Stanley is keeping human developers involved in the process of translating old or legacy code to new languages. Pizzi disclosed that the firm will not be reducing its software engineering workforce as a result of the AI tool.
JPMorganChase’s LLM Suite wins American Banker’s 2025 Innovation of the Year Award Grand Prize; LLM Suite acts as an internal AI portal that integrates LLMs into daily workflows
American Banker announced JPMorganChase’s LLM Suite as the 2025 Innovation of the Year grand prize winner during a live reveal at the annual Innovation of the Year Awards Dinner held at DIGITAL BANKING. LLM Suite, the first generative AI platform deployed at scale across a major U.S. bank, is now used by over 200,000 JPMorganChase employees to streamline tasks across legal, sales, and client services. Developed by Chief Analytics Officer Derek Waldron and his team, the LLM Suite acts as an internal AI portal that integrates large language models such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 into daily workflows—reducing costs, boosting efficiency, and transforming client experiences. The system allows the bank’s employees to analyze contracts, draft presentations, prepare client emails, and automate reporting, all while containing costs through a unique, pay-as-you-use compute model. “LLM Suite embodies the bold vision and disciplined execution required to harness AI for meaningful business transformation,” said Penny Crosman, Executive Editor, Technology at American Banker. “JPMorganChase’s approach sets a new standard for large-scale AI adoption in the financial sector, and the impact is clear: thousands of hours saved, smarter workflows, and stronger client engagement.” 2025 Innovation of the Year Honorees:
- Generative AI: LLM Suite – JPMorganChase (Overall Winner)
- AI + Analytics: Truist Client Pulse – Truist
- Cybersecurity + Fraud: Triangle of Fraud Protection – Western Alliance, Digital Disbursements, ClaimScore
- Digital + Mobile-First Banking: Under 18 Financial Empowerment – Nubank
- Embedded Finance: Delivering Embedded Finance to Contract Workers – Starion Bank, Fiserv, Central Payments
- Open Banking + Open Finance: Citizens Open Banking API – Citizens
- On-Chain Finance: Citi Token Services – Citi
- Payments: High-Fidelity ACH – First Internet Bank, Increase
- Regulation + Compliance + Risk Management: Regulatory Inquiries Compliance Platform Automation – Morgan Stanley
- Other Innovation: Faster Payments for a Network of Community Banks – United Bankers Bank, Pidgin
PayPal adds new physical card issued by Synchrony to its digital offering, PayPal Credit for in-store purchases, featuring limited-time travel offer and six-month promotional financing on PayPal purchases over $149
PayPal announced that PayPal Credit can now be used everywhere with the introduction of a new physical card, issued by Synchrony. This expands its popular digital PayPal Credit offering to use both online when checking out with PayPal and in-store and everywhere Mastercard® is accepted. When using the new physical card, customers will also have access to a limited-time offer to pay for travel purchases over six months with promotional financing and no minimum spend1. This gives account holders a more manageable way to pay for qualifying travel purchases like flights, hotels, cruises, and ride shares, which can be spread over time to best suit their budget and needs. This is PayPal’s next flexible payment innovation that caters to customers looking to take PayPal Credit everywhere. In addition to the limited-time travel offer, customers can continue to enjoy six-month promotional financing on PayPal purchases over $149. Customers looking for flexibility at checkout can also apply for a PayPal Buy Now Pay Later loan which lets them break purchases into smaller payments over weeks or months. The physical card will be rolling out in the coming weeks to US customers.
CrowdStrike and Microsoft partner to create a shared mapping system for cyber threat intelligence that links adversary identifiers across vendor ecosystems without mandating a single naming standard
CrowdStrike Holdings and Microsoft have announced a strategic collaboration to address confusion in identifying and tracking cyberthreat actors across security platforms. The partnership aims to create a shared mapping system that aligns adversary attribution across both companies’ threat intelligence ecosystems, eliminating ambiguity caused by inconsistent naming. The “Rosetta Stone” for cyber threat intelligence links adversary identifiers across vendor ecosystems without mandating a single naming standard. This enables defenders to make faster, more confident decisions, correlate threat intelligence across sources, and better disrupt threat actor activity before it causes harm. The collaboration will start with a shared analyst-led effort to harmonize adversary naming between CrowdStrike and Microsoft’s threat research teams. Microsoft and CrowdStrike aim to continue working together to expand this effort and maintain a shared threat actor mapping resource for the global cybersecurity community.
Deutsche Bank to integrate Mastercard’s open banking tech into its platform, to enable merchants to leverage Request to Pay (R2P) service as a preferred payment method
Deutsche Bank and Mastercard announced a strategic partnership designed to accelerate the evolution of open banking and redefine the payment experience for merchants and consumers across Europe. The collaboration will elevate Deutsche Bank’s Merchant Solutions offering, particularly its Request to Pay (R2P) service, by introducing new levels of choice, flexibility, and efficiency with account-to-account based payments on Mastercard’s trusted open banking network. This partnership positions Deutsche Bank and Mastercard at the forefront of payment innovation enabling merchants to offer “Pay by Bank” functionality through Deutsche Bank’s Merchant Solutions. The partnership empowers merchants to leverage R2P as a preferred payment method giving consumers the ability to authorize payments directly from their bank accounts with real-time processing and immediate confirmation. Mastercard’s open banking technology will be fully integrated into Deutsche Bank’s platform, supporting faster settlement, enhanced reconciliation, and greater payment transparency.
OatFi is building a credit network to address the opposing cash flow conundrum in B2B payments by embedding its underwriting, origination, and funding capabilities directly into the platforms within their AP, AR, and commercial charge card workflows
Fintech infrastructure startup OatFi has raised $24 million in Series A funding to build a credit network for business-to-business payments. In traditional B2B transactions, buyers and suppliers often operate on opposing cash flow incentives. Suppliers seek fast post-delivery payments to recover working capital, while buyers look to delay payments to preserve operating cash and liquidity. By embedding its underwriting, origination, and funding capabilities directly into B2B payment platforms within their AP, AR, and commercial charge card workflows, OatFi’s APIs enable platforms to facilitate B2B transactions with built-in financing at the point where it’s needed most. “B2B payments are not just a money movement challenge—they’re a data and workflow challenge,” says Michael Barbosa, CEO, OatFi. “That’s why we’ve focused on deep API integrations that offer working capital solutions within the platforms that businesses already rely on to pay and get paid.”