The brakes are off, but the steering still matters
Few firms have had to earn their second chance more publicly than America’s biggest banks. Among them, Wells Fargo has been on one of the longest and most punishing roads to redemption in recent financial history.
Over the last few years, the bank has been busy rebuilding from within: restructuring leadership, simplifying its operations, modernizing technology, and tightening its risk controls. This reinvention wasn’t voluntary. Back in 2018, the Federal Reserve imposed a strict limit on Wells Fargo’s total assets, capping them at $1.95 trillion. This was all following a series of scandals, which included, most infamously, the creation of millions of fake customer accounts to meet sales targets.
Wells Fargo was barred from increasing its balance sheet because of the cap, which meant it could not:
Take on more deposits from customers (especially large commercial clients).
Make more loans to individuals or businesses beyond a certain level.
Expand trading books or grow in capital-intensive areas like investment banking.
Scale new business lines quickly, even if market demand exists.
Why it matters: In banking, growth typically comes from expanding assets: more deposits in, more loans out, more products sold, more capital at work. The cap froze Wells’ growth.
During 2018-2025, Wells Fargo likely had to:
Turn away new customers or shed low-yielding assets to make room
Prioritize efficiency and capital-light business areas (like wealth management or advisory)
Focus on fixing internal controls instead of aggressively competing in the market
In June 2025, that cap was finally lifted. After more than seven years, the bank is no longer under the growth restrictions that defined its post-scandal trajectory. This is more than regulatory housekeeping; it marks the end of Wells’ painful chapter and opens up the beginning of a new era of competitiveness.
But this development also raises a critical question: What did it cost Wells to get here? And what exactly does it plan to do with its regained freedom?
Financial institutions are losing an average of $100 million annually due to a fundamental disconnect between fintech innovation and traditional financial systems. A phenomenon FIS and Oxford Economics have termed the “Harmony Gap.”
“We hear a lot from people about the challenges and friction they see in the money lifecycle,” explains FIS CTO, Firdaus Bhathena, at his firm’s Emerald Conference at the end of May in Orlando, Florida.. “But we had not been able to quantify that.” His firm’s collaboration with Oxford Economics is changing that, providing hard data on what many suspected but couldn’t measure.
The new research, based on surveys of 1,000 executives across the US, UK, and Singapore, reveals that disharmony in the financial system is a costly reality affecting everything from cybersecurity to operational efficiency. As Margaux McLoughlin of Oxford Economics puts it, “When there are disruptions across the money lifecycle, that’s what we call disharmony.”
Understanding what the research describes as a Harmony Gap requires examining how the modern financial ecosystem operates, why the human cost extends far beyond corporate losses, and what organizations can do to bridge the disconnect between innovation and implementation. The path forward requires a rethinking of how financial institutions approach systemic challenges in an interconnected world.
The concept of the “money lifecycle” forms the foundation of understanding disharmony. McLoughlin breaks it down into three critical stages: “money put to work” (trading, lending), “money at rest” (core banking, digital banking), and “money in motion” (payments, wire transfers). When money flows seamlessly across these stages, the system operates in harmony. When it doesn’t, the costs add up quickly.
Oxford Economics’ research identified nine key sources of tension disrupting this flow, with cyberthreats emerging as the dominant factor. “About a third of [the $100 million in costs] is coming from cyber threats,” McLoughlin notes. “So that’s probably the top concern for organizations right now.” Other significant contributors include fraud, illiquidity, operational inefficiencies, and regulatory compliance issues.
For Bhathena, this data validation was crucial. “Everything in our business is based on ROI and rate of return. It’s the financial industry after all,” he explains. “And so that’s why we turned to Oxford Economics and we said, help us figure this out.”
The human cost of financial friction
The impact extends beyond corporate balance sheets to individual consumers. Bhathena shared a personal example that illustrates how disharmony affects real people: while attending the FIS conference, he was dealing with a wire transfer that was holding up closing on his home. “My wife is sending me anxious text messages saying, it’s actually going to happen, right?” he recalls.
This human element underscores a broader truth about financial disharmony. “The people who suffer the most are the people we care about the most,” Bhathena emphasizes. “Our friends and family, our consumers, all around us.”
McLoughlin echoes this sentiment, noting that disharmony “not only affects an organization, it affects their customers as well. If their money isn’t able to move to where they want it to go, if a cyber threat occurs, or if there’s fraud within an organization, they lose trust.”
The awareness gap
While organizations can quantify the costs they’re experiencing, there’s a significant gap in understanding how to address these challenges effectively. “They are able to identify where the sources are coming from,” McLoughlin observes. “With cyber threats or fraud, every organization is aware of them. They have training on them. They have technologies in place to try and deal with them. But there’s still a lack of a strategic approach.”
This awareness paradox reflects a broader challenge in the industry: knowing problems exist but struggling to prioritize solutions. Bhathena frames it in practical terms: “You’re always competing for resources. How do you prioritize? If I go to Stephanie, our CEO, and I say we need to make a certain investment, I better be prepared to explain why.”
The research provides that justification, offering a framework for understanding not just what the problems are, but how much they’re costing and where to focus remediation efforts.
Strategic solutions for systemic problems
The research points to three key strategies for addressing the harmony gap.
Organizations need to prioritize and integrate advanced technology, particularly AI and machine learning. “So many of these technologies can be used not only to protect from cyber threats or fraud,” McLoughlin explains, “but they can also increase operational efficiency and decrease human errors.”
Firms need to ensure that organizational talent is educated on areas of disharmony. Traditional training approaches aren’t sufficient given the pace of technological change. “We all have to do those fraud and cyber training every year,” McLoughlin notes, “but we found that it’s just not enough.”
Strategic partnerships can provide technology integration capabilities, and talent that organizations may lack internally. Finally, organizations need to understand their specific points of tension to act effectively.
Bhathena emphasizes the importance of industry collaboration, even among competitors. “Sometimes that might mean working with people that you actually compete with in certain areas,” he says. “But I’m a big believer in the platform approach where a rising tide lifts all boats.”
Fighting technology with technology
Industry leaders know that many of the tools causing disruption can also provide solutions. Bad actors, as Bhathena notes, “are not in a regulated industry. They’ve got nobody sitting over there watching. They’ve got all the tools and no regulations.”
The response requires sophisticated technology deployment rather than avoidance. “Telling people stop using all these things is not going to work,” Bhathena explains.
Instead, the path forward involves “awareness, technology, the right training for your people and the right processes.” It’s a comprehensive approach that acknowledges the complexity of modern financial systems while providing concrete steps for improvement.
Nine months into her role as Chief Product and Technology Officer at Temenos, Barb Morgan is focused on a simple principle when it comes to product strategy: quality over quantity. “We want to build less, but build it better,” Morgan said during a conversation at the Temenos Regional Forum Americas 2025 held May 28-30 in Miami.
Temenos’ approach centers on co-creating meaningful solutions with bank customers rather than rushing to market with multiple products. Morgan emphasized that the company is “really focused on making sure that whatever we put out there is meaningful,” as the industry navigates what she calls the “AI hype curve.”
Morgan’s insights reveal why many banks struggle with AI adoption despite the technology’s promise. The real barriers aren’t about computing power or algorithms — they’re messier problems involving decades-old data systems that were never designed for AI and organizational cultures that haven’t caught up to the pace of technological change.
Her conversation also detailed Temenos’ bet on bringing innovation closer to customers, such as through its new hub in Orlando designed for co-creation, and why the company is taking a strategic and deeply integrated approach to AI that enables banks to deploy AI-powered solutions faster and safer.
Temenos has structured its AI approach around three core components: Gen AI embedded directly into its platform and products, agentic AI with a first solution for sanctions screening already live at one Tier-1 bank, and an AI studio for custom use cases. “We have a lot of customers coming to us with very unique use cases, and so we want to provide them a platform that’s pre-built with banking modules,” Morgan explained.
The company’s focus on embedded AI addresses a common industry challenge. “Having it embedded, versus our customers trying to figure out how to bolt it onto our product, is really important to us,” she said. This approach allows banks to access AI capabilities without investing too many resources into integration.
Banks are ready for AI – their data isn’t
One of the biggest obstacles to AI adoption isn’t fear of technology, but foundational data issues, shares Morgan. “A lot of banks over the past 10 to 15 years went through this huge digital transformation, but what they didn’t transform was the data in the back end,” Morgan noted. “In order to leverage the power of AI, you have to have your data clean.”
This reality has shifted many of Temenos’ client conversations toward data readiness rather than AI capabilities. “Our clients also want to leverage their own data systems. So how clean is your data? Is it really ready? Because for secure AI products, you have to have your data in order,” she said.
Cultural change is the harder challenge
Beyond technical hurdles, banks face significant organizational resistance to AI implementation. “I was talking with one of our US banks last week, and he said I underestimated the amount of cultural change that’s necessary, because so many people are afraid of AI,” Morgan shared.
The fear stems from job displacement concerns rather than technological limitations. “They think it’s going to take my job away, versus thinking of it as augmenting their job and being more of a side by side partner,” she explained. This cultural aspect has to become a major focus for banks that want to succeed with their AI implementations.
A gradual approach to AI deployment
Temenos’ strategy acknowledges these cultural and technical challenges by allowing banks to phase in AI adoption. Morgan described how one tier-one bank using their agentic AI product FCM AI Agent started with just 5% of its traffic, then gradually increased it to 20%. “It wasn’t because they didn’t trust the technology. It was because they were getting the rest of the organization comfortable,” she said.
This incremental approach extends to customer-facing applications as well. “A lot of people, it seems, have their favorite [Gen AI] tool on their phone,” Morgan observed. “I think maybe the banks have underestimated that the customers are actually ready to interact with AI.”
Bringing innovation closer to customers
Part of Temenos’ US expansion includes the opening of its Orlando Innovation Hub, designed specifically for co-creation with bank customers. “Instead of just expanding one of our existing offices, we’re actually going into a brand new building,” Morgan said. “It’s all about being able to do the design workshop, but then the space can transform to doing co-development together.”
The facility will include spaces that can replicate bank branch environments. “There’s a space where we can make it feel like you’re walking into the branch of the bank, and so we can actually recreate exactly what it’ll feel like for their customers,” she explained.
Market-centric over centralized delivery
The Orlando hub represents a broader shift in Temenos’ delivery model. “Over the past 30 years, we have had a pretty centralized delivery team, and this is about bringing it closer to our customers,” Morgan said. “Versus centralized delivery, it’s more about market-centric innovation.”
This approach is driving the firm’s hiring, with plans underway to recruit for 200 positions at its Orland Innovation Hub. “At a recent hiring event, every candidate who received an offer accepted,” Morgan noted. “They were really excited about the co-innovation and the ability to actually work how we want and bring our best selves.”
Building products that actually ship
Morgan has instituted a new discipline around product announcements, moving away from proof-of-concepts toward deliverable solutions. “We’re only going to announce things when they’re live and ready to use now,” she said.
The company has also allocated 25% of its development capacity specifically to customer-driven features. “We’ve actually allocated about 25% of our capacity to just listening to customers and putting their needs on top of what we would already have planned,” Morgan explained.
This customer-centric approach extends to the broader organizational transformation Morgan is leading.
Non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) are capturing more and more market share in SME lending by leveraging technology to offer quicker lending solutions. This puts pressure on FIs to evolve their approaches while managing costs and improving service quality.
Finastra’s Principal Product Manager Kristen Lista joins the Tearsheet podcast today to discuss the most critical areas where FIs need to focus: consolidating technology to improve efficiency, decreasing the time between application and access to funding, enhancing back-office operations, and creating more client-centric experiences.
Lista offers a valuable look inside the complex web of challenges that FIs are facing when trying to improve the SME lending products. From technology integration strategies to practical advice on process improvement, Lista offers an actionable blueprint that can help FIs better compete in the SME lending space, driving growth and customer loyalty.
Limited credit history, lack of collateral, and sitting outside FI’s credit box prevent SMEs from tapping much-needed financial resources.
Addressing these barriers requires financial institutions to embrace digital transformation: “To overcome these barriers, FIs have to innovate and embrace digital transformation, and that helps to provide faster, more efficient lending decisions, ultimately getting to that time to say yes much quicker to provide for the SMEs funding needs.”
The threat of new entrants
Traditional financial institutions face significant challenges competing with more agile non-bank lenders in the SME space. Lista points out that NBFIs have gained market share by utilizing technology to streamline the lending process.
“Traditional FIs really are struggling to compete with non-bank financial institutions in the SME lending space, because NBFIs leverage technology to offer faster, more flexible lending solutions,” Lista noted. She added that financial institutions also face a tighter cost basis in the SME lending space, which means they need to find ways to reduce costs without compromising service quality, which is very tough to do.
But beyond technology and cost challenges, FIs may be overlooking a chance to diversify their offerings: “There’s really an opportunity and a need for FIs to grow into different asset classes as well, such as moving from SME lending into commercial and syndicated lending, which can help FIs diversify their risk and open new revenue streams.”
How technology can help FIs build better CX
CX and bank office efficiency play a critical role in the relationship SMEs have with their FIs – technology in validating financial statements, automating underwriting, and enhancing loan servicing capabilities all contribute to the quality of service SMEs receive from their FIs.
Lista also highlighted a frequently overlooked area, loan servicing. It’s here that FIs have a particularly important investment to make: “Loan servicing is kind of an afterthought in digital transformation, but it really can’t be an afterthought anymore. Loan servicing capabilities have to have that digital transformation, as well, and provide for better communication and transparency for bank clients.”
The importance of modernizing back-office operations
One reason why FIs have struggled to keep up with the pace of their competitors is their historical underinvestment in back-office operations.
“FIs really haven’t focused on the back-office servicing operations of the SME lending process,” Lista said. “There’s a lot of reasons for that. Primarily, they’ve been underfunded because banks thought that the back-office was not revenue generating, and so they would really focus their resources and their budget going towards client-facing systems.”
Blueprint for customer retention and growth
At a time when FIs have to play catch up with their NBFI counterparts, the key to their success may lie in focusing on customer needs, expectations, and experience.
On the revenue front, Lista noted that while SME loans are typically lower in value, they’re higher in volume, creating a unique opportunity: “In order to grow their revenue, they have to prioritize the customer experience to get that retention and loyalty, and if they do that, they may see an approximate two and a half times increase in their revenue growth compared to those who do not prioritize customer centricity.”
To-do list: What FIs can do to better serve their SME customers
FIs that want to improve their SME customer experience can take the following steps:
– Gain a full system view: Undertake a detailed overview of the systems involved from loan initiation through servicing and termination. “Key systems that you should look at are customer portals, your borrower portals. You should be looking across the ecosystem at KYC, AML systems, loan origination systems, loan documentation systems, and, of course, your loan servicing system.”
– Evaluate potential for automation: Integration between these systems that contribute to the loan servicing process is crucial: “It’s important to look at what they’re doing, what the purpose is, but also, how do you automate and integrate these systems together and piece them together in an automated way throughout the ecosystem?”
– Don’t overlook KYC and AML – they impact CX: KYC and AML processes have a significant impact on turnaround time and customer experience. When considering modernization strategies, this is a critical area of evaluation with a CX lens. Complex KYC and AML processes can impact onboarding success and impact client retention. “If they don’t have smooth transitions from a portal to a KYC system, for example, the borrower is going to feel the delay and the impact,” said Lista.
– Find technology partners that can technological lift in automation: Tools like Finastra’s offerings can help FIs create a consolidated and streamlined lending ecosystem.
“Finastra offers a lot of solutions to enable this consolidated and streamlined end-to-end ecosystem,” Lista said. “Our products help FIs to digitally transform their ecosystems to provide those right SME offerings and mirror up with their demands and expectations.”
– Integrate teams into SME strategy: “FIs must not only look at the technology, but they must also integrate their people and processes within the technology as well,” Lista advised. “Enhancing collaboration across business segments—the front office, the back office, the middle office—and also working with their IT departments and their technology departments internally. That collaboration is key.”
To read more about what FIs can do to build competitive lending experiences and products for SMEs and find partners that can accelerate modernization efforts and positively impact bottom lines, please visit Finastra’s website.
In the early 2010s, Wise (then known as TransferWise) made a name for itself by targeting the bloated fees of international money transfers. Its brand was scrappy and distinctly European. But over a decade later, the company’s next chapter isn’t being penned in London or Tallinn, but on Wall Street.
Earlier this month, Wise announced it plans to shift its primary stock listing to the US, a move both strategic and symbolic that underscores tectonic shifts in the global listings landscape.
From crown jewel to continental drift: The primary London listing exodus Before zeroing in on Wise’s decision, let’s take a step back to analyze the situation at the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The past five years have seen a steady drip of high-profile companies leaving the LSE in favor of the US, a migration that now totals over $100 billion in market cap.
Marsh & McLennan, a professional services provider in risk, strategy, and HR, announced its plan to delist from the LSE in October 2023 and cancel its listing on the Official List of the UK Financial Conduct Authority. The company cited the disproportionate costs and administrative burdens of maintaining a secondary listing in London, given that the majority of its trading occurs on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The delisting took effect on November 27, 2023. Similarly, other firms like construction supplier Ferguson and pharmaceutical firm Indivior have all either moved or are moving primary listings to US exchanges.
The reasons cited are familiar: lackluster liquidity in London, persistently lower valuations, and limited index inclusion options for growth companies. Despite the UK’s post-Brexit ambitions to become a tech and finance hub, its primary exchange seems increasingly less appealing to the very firms that represent its future.
Wise’s situation fits this mold, but also tells us more.
From payments to investments: The divergent paths of AI transformation
It’s a new week of the 10Q edition, and the conversation around AI isn’t slowing down. And judging by the pace of innovation, companies are in no mood to rest.
We track two new AI developments this week from well-known public companies: Square, the payments and commerce unit of Block, and legacy bank Morgan Stanley.
AI In Payments: How Square’s Conversational AI Assistant signals a shift in SMB tech — and why it matters
Square has introduced a conversational AI assistant, Square AI, to help sellers by answering questions about using Square’s business technology platform and providing insights into their own business trends.
In a time when nearly every company is racing to slap AI onto a product label, Square’s latest move feels different, not because it’s more technically sophisticated, but because it directly addresses a chronic pain point for small business owners: decision paralysis in the face of complexity.
Fintech lending dives deeper into the algorithm age
Wall Street loves a good buzzword, but when AI appears on quarterly earnings calls and product roadmaps, it’s not just talk – it’s a pivot. Over the past week, some of the non-headline-grabbing public financial firms have moved their advanced AI efforts into production, beyond the lab phase and into frontline operations.
We look at how Pagaya and Upstart fit into today’s narrative, which goes beyond their AI initiatives to focus on how they are operationalizing those efforts and gradually integrating AI into their company architecture.
Pagaya’s AI engine is now powering a $300 million BNPL push
For anyone watching the mechanics of modern consumer finance, Pagaya is making an effort to become one of the critical AI players in the lending world.
Founded in Israel and listed on the NASDAQ [PGY], Pagaya built its name on a very particular skill: using artificial intelligence to underwrite “second-look” loans, the kind traditional lenders might decline at first glance. The company’s bread and butter is partnering with financial institutions that want to expand credit access without eating a mountain of risk. Its AI models pore over alternative data and make fine-tuned credit decisions that don’t rely solely on FICO scores.
Recent AI developments
i) BNPL Bond Issuance: In the past week, Pagaya made a big move: it issued a $300 million bond backed by buy now, pay later (BNPL) loans, a first for the company. It did this in partnership with Klarna, the Swedish BNPL giant that’s been revamping its financials ahead of a possible IPO. The bond deal, arranged by J.P. Morgan Chase and Apollo’s Atlas, gives Klarna more flexibility to offload credit exposure while allowing Pagaya to flex its AI muscle in a hot but volatile space. The bond was oversubscribed and included AAA-rated tranches yielding about 1.75 percentage points above Treasury bonds, indicating strong investor demand despite higher risk premiums compared to competitors like Affirm.
What makes this interesting is that Pagaya is applying its AI underwriting system to a new frontier, point-of-sale financing, where risks are nuanced, margins are thin, and speed is everything. Klarna handles the consumer touchpoints; Pagaya, behind the curtain, crunches the credit decisions and helps get the funding flowing.
ii) Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) Issuances: This isn’t Pagaya’s first rodeo in asset-backed securities…
What we’re seeing now is Pagaya expanding its model, not pivoting. The BNPL-backed bond is less about jumping on a trend and more about applying its proven tech stack to an adjacent product, one that’s booming in retail but increasingly scrutinized for risk.
A conversation on Remitly’s financial performance, platform integration, & conversational AI developments
The tech world loves a good shake-up story, especially when it comes to payments. But when the goal is only to upend an industry, things can get lost in translation. While speed and innovation are great, and one of the essential aspects of payments, for many, even small barriers to sending money can feel like an insurmountable challenge. That’s the market Remitly has focused on. The payments firm is solving a more fundamental problem — how to make sending money home a little more predictable, a little less frustrating.
Earlier this month, Remitly shared its Q1 2025 financial results. First quarter revenue was $361.6 million, up 34% YoY, and active customers increased to over 8 million, up 29%.
A week before its earnings release, the company announced its integration with WhatsApp. Through WhatsApp, Remitly users can send, monitor, and control their international transfers without downloading another app. Remitly’s goal isn’t necessarily to get users to only use the app — it’s to keep them in the Remitly ecosystem, regardless of channel.
I spoke with Matt Oppenheimer, co-founder and CEO of Remitly, to discuss the Q1 earnings highlights, and with Ankur Sinha, Chief Product and Technology Officer, to learn more about the new WhatsApp integration and what this launch signals about the future of remittances and fintech UX.
We also explore the role of Remitly’s conversational AI in enabling users to send money directly within WhatsApp, check live exchange rates and fees before sending, and track transfers — all while receiving support in a single conversation thread.
Matt Oppenheimer, Co-Founder and CEO, Remitly
Q: What key strategies contributed to Remitly’s Q1 2025 positive outcome?
Matt Oppenheimer: Our strong Q1 results reflect the compounding effect of three core drivers:
Investment in data is the hallmark of successful Gen AI implementations, according to Citizens’ Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Krish Swamy.
Giving us a system wide view of how Citizens is leveraging Gen AI, Swamy joins the podcast to talk about harnessing the power of data to drive decision-making, enhance customer experiences, and navigate the complexities of digital transformation in the banking sector.
Our conversation delves into the challenges and opportunities of building a data-driven culture within a traditional banking environment, and how Citizens is positioning itself at the forefront of financial innovation through strategic analytics initiatives.
Swamy, who also heads the firm’s Generative AI Council, shares his vision for the future of data in banking and the tangible ways Citizens is turning data insights into meaningful actions that benefit both the institution and its customers.
Citizens’ approach to Gen AI is best described as cautious and optimistic. While the firm is not rushing into any use case and is instead taking a methodical approach to evaluating every time a process or task can be improved by Gen AI, it is also sketching out what role the technology could play in the future for its employees and customer experience.
“We’re not just taking a process, or a component within a process, and applying Generative AI there. While that might be the starting point, the end game is always going to be: How does this function three or five years from now? How do we work towards that end game?” said Swamy.
Strong data based foundation as a differentiator
Swamy is a firm believer in using a comprehensive data infrastructure as the scaffolding for new technological implementations. “When we invest in data, when we make data easily available, and when we teach people how to use data, I think they become a lot more effective at being able to self-serve. So creating that foundation is an area of differentiation,” he shared.
One area where this focus helps the bank drive powerful results is fraud, which has seen a significant uptick since the pandemic, according to Swamy. “We’ve spent a lot of time overhauling the fraud infrastructure and the fraud platform itself. There are multiple sub components around fraud detection, claims processing, case management, which all are parts of the overall fraud value chain. And we made investments to improve the quality of those platforms,” he said.
Helping the fraud team stay ahead of bad actors, is the firm’s move to the cloud, which should be completed by the end of this year. “We are almost 80% migrated to AWS, and it makes it easier to get access to data and we are able to bring better data when it comes to our fraud defenses,” he said.
Having a centralized source for the data also ensures that fraud teams that include analysts and contact center employees are working from the same source of information. This allows these teams to be more effective and coordinated when trying to spot trends and undertake fraud mitigation strategies, he shared.
Another area where the firm is applying data-led Gen AI strategies is the call center. “A lot of the customers’ questions tend to be fairly narrow, almost esoteric and [call enter employees] have to reference procedure documents to be able to give that answer,” he said.
In the past, call center employees have used keyword search to access this information, but now the firm is using Gen AI and helping call center agents learn how to prompt more effectively to reach information,” he said.
Similarly, the firm is also using the tech to help its developers take care of some of the most frustrating parts of coding: documentation and testing. “Those are areas where we’ve been able to find a lot of leverage from giving software development engineers the right tools to be able to do the testing, documentation, sometimes even writing code, and become more efficient at that,” he shared.
Citizens’ partnership strategy
When it comes to assembling the right technology partners, Swamy believes building consistency across the organization is the golden rule. “For instance, there are multiple teams that need the ability to have machine learning platforms, and it is conceivable that everybody then goes out and figures out their own thing. That would be a really bad outcome, because I think that would lead to proliferation of costs and would lead to loss of control,” he said.
“What you do need to do is make sure these solutions are all integrated with all of the other solutions, which is a lot of work for sure. The place where we have spent a lot of time on homegrown solutions is on managing our data. Those are critical assets which are unique to us, which we would not be comfortable leaving completely in the hands of a commercial solution or a bought out solution,” he said.
The growth paths of 2 fintechs through their recent quarterly earnings
The earnings cycle has commenced, and companies are beginning to report their first set of financial results for this year.
A week ago, Affirm disclosed its financial results. We assess the firm’s performance, tracing its evolution and exploring what likely lies ahead for the BNPL provider.
AFFIRM
Affirm’s roots run deep in the desire to rethink how we interact with money, specifically when it comes to buying stuff we want, but perhaps can’t always afford upfront.
In an increasingly digital world, it’s a business model that resonated with consumers seeking flexibility.
A look at Q3 2025: Still on the up and up Now, let’s talk shop. For Q3 2025, Affirm posted strong numbers that got the analysts sitting up a bit straighter. The company reported a revenue increase of 36% to $783 million in revenue, topping expectations. GMV growth accelerated, up 36% YoY to $8.6 billion. The active consumer base reached approximately 22 million, with nearly 2 million new users in the last quarter. Repeat users still accounted for 94% of all transactions.
What stands out about Affirm’s performance this quarter is the momentum they’ve built in key growth areas. Consumer spending is bouncing back, and Affirm’s BNPL service is benefiting from that as people are increasingly seeking more control over their finances. But there’s more going on under the hood.
