Author: Gayathri

If you could get a loan approved in seconds without paperwork, would you expect anything less next time? For millions of consumers, that expectation has already become reality. The global digital lending market, valued at over $400 billion in 2024, is moving into its next phase, one defined by instant credit, AI-powered underwriting, and lending embedded directly into everyday platforms. This transformation, known as Digital Lending 2.0, is rewriting how credit is delivered, consumed, and managed. It’s not just about speed; it’s about intelligent decision-making, hyper-personalization, and a seamless user journey. But as opportunities grow, so do challenges, from compliance…

Digital identity is no longer just a gateway to customer onboarding; it’s a continuous process of building trust. As regulations tighten and fraud tactics grow more sophisticated, Know Your Customer (KYC) platforms are undergoing a seismic shift from point-in-time verification to perpetual, AI-powered risk intelligence. The SPARK Matrix 2025 for Know Your Customer (KYC), published by QKS Group, highlights the most significant vendor movements, strategic advancements, and innovation gaps in comparison to the 2024 edition. This year-on-year analysis uncovers which platforms have advanced, stagnated, or exited, and why the KYC market is now being reshaped by orchestration, explainable AI (XAI),…

Ever feel like your transaction monitoring system throws up more noise than insight? You’re not alone. In 2025, financial institutions and fintechs are navigating an increasingly complex web of compliance demands, fast-evolving fraud tactics, and real-time payment rails. Traditional systems are struggling to keep up. The ability to detect suspicious behavior, whether it’s mule accounts, layering schemes, or crypto-financed terror networks, can no longer rely on static rules and delayed reports. This blog cuts through the clutter. We break down how transaction monitoring (TM) technologies are evolving and which platforms stand out today. Whether you’re a compliance head at a…

There was a time when open Banking was a regulatory checkbox. But today, it’s a competitive game. Earlier, during the time of PSD2 in the EU, OBIE in the UK, and CDR in Australia, most banks considered open banking as a regulatory burden. The rules said “open your APIs,” so they did with limited utility. Fintechs built apps on top of those APIs. But the value remained mostly transactional. It was compliance-led, not customer-led. But everything changed in 2025. Open Banking is entering a second phase. We call it as Open Banking 2.0. This evolution is not driven by regulators…

Is your compliance strategy stuck in the past? If your organization is still relying on quarterly audits or spreadsheet-based tracking, then you’re not alone. Many fast-growing SaaS companies, fintechs, and healthcare tech firms are waking up to the harsh reality: periodic compliance checks no longer cut it. In a world where infrastructure changes daily and regulations evolve weekly, businesses need to prove they’re secure, not sometimes, but all the time. Enter Continuous Compliance. It’s not just another techie word. It’s a seismic shift in how modern cloud-first organizations build trust, reduce risk, and automate their path to audit readiness. This…

In the evolving world of digital banking platforms, the gap between front-end channel modernization and true platform transformation is growing. The SPARK Matrix™ for Digital Banking Platforms 2025 highlights leaders in banking technology, contenders, and the impact of innovation inertia. This blog gives a comprehensive year-on-year comparison of the 2024 and 2025 SPARK Matrix reports. It also unpacks how and why vendors moved, and what it means for the broader market. What is the SPARK Matrix? Developed by QKS Group, the SPARK Matrix™ evaluates digital banking platform vendors based on two essential dimensions: The matrix offers a strategic perspective by…

Introduction Here’s a simple question: How do you stay compliant when your customers, transactions, and threats span 20+ countries, each with its own rules? Cross-border AML compliance isn’t just an add-on to a domestic program anymore. It has become its high-stakes discipline. As we move through 2025, financial institutions are under mounting pressure. Crypto-led payments, digital onboarding, global P2P flows, sanctions, and data localization laws have all converged to form a perfect storm. This blog explores the real-world challenges global banks and fintechs face in achieving anti-money laundering compliance across jurisdictions. We’ll break down what’s broken, why legacy systems struggle,…

Digital identity is no longer just a compliance requirement; it’s a competitive differentiator. From remote onboarding and KYC to fraud prevention and AI risk scoring, Identity Capture and Verification (ICV) has moved from being a security layer to a full-fledged orchestration hub for modern enterprises. In a market shaped by regulatory overhaul, deepfake threats, and user experience demands, the Q2 2025 SPARK Matrix™ by QKS Group reveals just how fast vendors have had to adapt. The 2024 Matrix established a foundation where biometric matching, document validation, and facial liveness detection were considered differentiators. By 2025, those features are table stakes.…

What happens when a ransomware attack spreads across five regions in under ten minutes? This situation is not hypothetical. For many global enterprises today, high-risk events occur faster than legacy GRC tools can respond. And this is precisely where Cloud-Native Integrated Risk Management (IRM) platforms step in. Built on modern cloud architectures like AWS, Azure, or GCP, cloud-native IRM tools are redefining how organizations detect, analyze, and respond to risk. Businesses are shifting from legacy, on-prem systems to cloud-native platforms for agility, scalability, and real-time visibility, because reactive risk management just doesn’t cut it anymore. In this blog, we will…

Ever picked a tech solution that looked great on paper, only to realize it didn’t fit your real needs? You’re not alone. In today’s high-stakes fintech environment, where core banking transformations, AI-led fraud platforms, and regulatory risk systems shape enterprise performance, buying the wrong software is no longer just inefficient. It’s costly, risky, and deeply frustrating. From Banking CIOs wrestling with fragmented stacks to Heads of Wealth Management struggling to find real-world validation for digital advisory tools, leaders across the fintech value chain are tired of theoretical vendor rankings and glossy demos. What they need is context. Precision. Transparency. That’s…