FinTech Strategy

The US insurance industry is on the cusp of a broad AI-driven transformation. Generative AI, deep learning and autonomous systems are being deployed to streamline claims processing, personalise pricing, detect fraud, and enhance customer service. According to a 2024 Deloitte survey, 76% of US insurance firms have implemented GenAI in at least one business function, with the focus shifting from pilot projects to firm-wide integration in 2025.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been making headlines as it moves from a future-facing concept to a modern reality. From fraud detection and credit scoring to customer service automation and risk modelling, AI systems are increasingly shaping real-world outcomes, particularly within the financial services industry.

For most of the digital commerce era, businesses have focused on designing experiences for human customers. Websites, apps and checkout journeys have been optimised to make it easier and faster for people to discover products and complete purchases. Artificial intelligence is beginning to change that assumption. As AI tools become more capable, they are moving beyond recommendation and analysis towards autonomous execution.

By Ramon Villareal, payments industry lead, financial services, and Armin Warda, global FSI architect and digital assets lead, Red Hat Stablecoins are moving beyond experimentation and into the financial services mainstream. Fiserv launched its FIUSD stablecoin in July, Mastercard recently acquired BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, and Visa has started offering stablecoin advisory services.

For decades, finance organisations have been striving towards the “self-service revolution”. Yet, despite all the efforts, a significant “human integration layer” remained – with teams spending their lives sourcing data, reconciling and manually building reports. Today, that era of stagnation is over – the revolution is no longer a distant horizon; it is being delivered – not because dashboards have become prettier, but because AI has made self-service reporting genuinely intelligent.

Cash now accounts for less than and is expected to fall below 4% over time. As transactions move almost entirely through digital channels, the way money flows through businesses is becoming more structured, more visible and more demanding to manage. In sectors like hospitality, which are already dealing with rising costs and tight margins, businesses continue to absorb pressure from business rates alongside the removal of pandemic-era support.

BVNK and Marqeta, Inc announced a partnership to deliver stablecoin-backed card capabilities to crypto-native and non-crypto companies. The integration will enable Marqeta’s customers to embed stablecoin capabilities into wallets, cards and everyday financial products. Together, the companies are unlocking stablecoin spendability to allow users to transact in digital dollars at millions of merchants globally with a standard payment card.

TerraPay, a global money movement company, and Alipay+, Ant International’s unified wallet gateway, today announced a strategic partnership to enable seamless cross-border QR payments for digital wallets, significantly enhancing global payments interoperability for users across Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Once a niche FinTech experiment, Open Banking (OB) is now embedded in the daily lives of more than 15 million people and businesses across the UK. It delivers faster, more personalised financial experiences and continues to show far lower fraud rates than the wider payments industry – 0.013% versus 0.045% But beneath these low figures, fraud is quietly reinventing itself.

For years, Fintechs have approached regulation as a compliance challenge. When a new rule arrives, firms typically turn to compliance teams, legal advisors and consultants to understand what has changed and what needs to be done. The assumption is that once the requirements are understood, the hard part is largely over. Increasingly, that assumption no longer holds true.