Author: Gayathri

The open banking intermediaries market has shifted from data aggregation utilities to full-scale orchestration engines. Between 2023 and 2024, leadership was redefined by vendors that embedded payments, broadened interoperability, and accelerated time-to-value through orchestration and AI-driven enrichment. In 2023, leaders were defined by aggregation depth, regulatory readiness, and multi-use-case support. By 2024, the criteria shifted toward operational AI, payments initiation with variable recurring payments, orchestration across ecosystems, and end-to-end compliance readiness. Vendors that added value-added services and improved developer ecosystems climbed; those reliant on traditional aggregation fell behind. What the SPARK Matrix Measures The SPARK Matrix benchmarks vendors across: Technology…

Synthetic Identity Fraud in Banking: A Humanized View of the Crisis Imagine being a compliance officer at a regional bank. An account that sailed through your KYC checks six months ago suddenly defaults on multiple loans. Investigators trace the details and discover the applicant never existed. The passport was generated by AI, the selfie was a deepfake composite, and the contact details were stitched from stolen data. The bank has lent money to a ghost. Now add another scenario: a mid-level employee receives a call from “the CEO” demanding an urgent wire transfer. The voice matches perfectly, but it is…

Picture this: it’s 7:42 p.m. on a Friday, and your phone buzzes with a message that looks eerily like your bank. The logo is crisp, the grammar flawless, and even the tone feels “just like” your relationship manager. Except it isn’t. It’s a deepfake-driven scam built with generative AI tools that cost less than a dinner out and it’s about to drain your account via a real-time payment rail. For a fraud investigator, this scenario is no longer hypothetical. It is the new baseline. Fraud is moving faster, feeling smarter, and sounding more human than ever before. What Is Agentic…

The life and annuity (L&A) insurance industry is at a critical inflection point, moving beyond mere digital transformation toward a more agile, composable, and data-driven operating model. In the last year, the focus has shifted from simply automating legacy processes to enabling rapid product innovation and personalized customer experiences. This evolution has redefined what it means to be a technology leader, pushing vendors to adopt more open, modular architectures and operationalize advanced intelligence. The SPARK Matrix is a strategic performance assessment and ranking of key market participants, measuring them on two core axes: Technology Excellence evaluates the core product capabilities,…

The financial services industry has always been a heavy consumer of computational power. From calculating derivatives and forecasting risk to detecting fraudulent transactions, the sector thrives on the ability to process massive volumes of data quickly and accurately. Traditionally, this reliance has been served by high-performance computing (HPC) clusters and, more recently, GPU-accelerated systems. However, now another frontier is opening up: quantum computing. While true large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum systems are still years away, global banks and fintech vendors are not standing still. They are running pilots, partnering with technology providers, and experimenting with both quantum algorithms and supercomputing infrastructures to…

The Geopolitical Shock to Global Payments Imagine you’re the treasurer of a multinational electronics firm. Overnight, the inputs for your next product run, rare earth metals critical for chips and batteries, are caught in a tariff crossfire. Simultaneously, your bank informs you that suppliers now prefer to settle in renminbi rather than dollars, citing Beijing’s retaliatory policy shifts. Suddenly, you’re not only navigating supply shortages but also asking whether your cross-border payments engine, sanctions screening, and risk models are ready for an RMB-first future. This isn’t a hypothetical exercise; it is the new reality emerging at the intersection of geopolitics…

Introduction: Why Lending Needs More Than Speed In 2025, fintech lending is no longer a side business; it is the engine driving consumer and corporate finance. Commercial Loan Origination Systems (CLOS) and Retail Loan Origination Systems (RLOS) form the backbone of digital-first banking. It enables everything from instant BNPL approvals to AI-based SME credit scoring. Yet beneath this innovation lies a fragile foundation: fragmented, inconsistent, and unsecured data. Borrowers often get mis-scored because their financial history is split across banks, wallets, and credit bureaus. This leaves lenders with incomplete or outdated records that stall approvals and inflate rejection rates. In…

In 2025, India has become the benchmark for digital finance. Consumers here can pay, borrow, and send money almost instantly, which makes financial services feel like second nature. Meanwhile, countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and those in the European Union still rely on systems that are slower, more regulated, and filled with friction. This article explores how India built financial experiences that are simple, fast, and inclusive, while the West continues to emphasize security and compliance at the cost of consumer ease. Instant Payments: UPI Adoption in India Compared to Real-Time Payments in the West India’s…

Cloud FP&A has spent the last two years growing from “cloud economics plus smarter forecasting” into a genuinely operations-aware performance platform. The 2024 SPARK Matrix spotlighted that by elevating account reconciliation, rule-based automation, and in-product RPA from nice-to-haves to selection drivers. 2025 doubles down on those expectations by rewarding vendors that can operate FP&A with embedded AI. It also includes scaling across multi-entity models, and interoperates natively with ERP, CRM, HCM, and BI estates. This blog is more than a leaderboard shuffle. It’s a signal that finance transformation is now measured by closed-loop execution, plan → actuals → variance →…

Introduction: Can Banks Keep Pace With Launderers? Every year, billions of dollars move illegally across borders, disguised under layers of transactions. Regulators are tightening their grip, levying record fines on financial institutions that fail to comply. In this high-stakes environment, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) software is no longer optional, it is essential. The global AML software market is projected to surpass $5.8 billion by 2027, fueled by rising financial crime, AI innovation, and stricter cross-border regulations. From AI-powered risk scoring to cloud-native compliance platforms, solutions are evolving quickly. But with so many vendors, how do institutions know which tools deliver real…