AI & Finance™ | News for the Week Ending 4/10/26

As artificial intelligence and data-driven technologies continue to evolve, the fintech industry is accelerating its transformation towards automated and systematic infrastructure. Companies are building next-generation technology frameworks using algorithms and data models to improve decision-making efficiency and support more complex application scenarios. 

Against this backdrop, AccuQuant announced the completion of a $20 million funding round. The round was led by seasoned investors from the digital asset and fintech sectors. 

The funds will primarily be used to advance the company’s ongoing development in artificial intelligence technology, system architecture, and automated infrastructure, further enhancing the system’s capabilities in data analysis, execution efficiency, and stability. 

Alloy, a leading identity and fraud prevention platform provider, today announced a partnership with Plaid, a global data network powering the digital financial ecosystem, to provide more financial institutions with improved digital tools to fight back against AI-driven fraud. In the past two years, the amount of money stolen by scammers and fraudsters rose 9.2%, largely driven by use of artificial intelligence. As financial institutions combat this increasing threat, the partnership enables Alloy clients to more easily build a holistic picture of customer identities from the start, lowering fraud losses and automating more of their KYC/KYB/AML workflows to reduce manual reviews. 

According to Alloy’s 2026 State of Fraud Report, only 24% of financial institutions and fintechs detect fraud at the time of onboarding. That leaves most organizations detecting fraud only after bad actors are in the system and money has already been stolen. To reduce these losses, companies need to build a robust, data‑rich view of customer identities at onboarding and continue to monitor those identities on an ongoing basis. Rather than relying on a single data provider, Alloy’s data orchestration enables institutions to layer and test hundreds of identity, fraud, and compliance solutions in parallel and adapt strategies as threats evolve. 

Plaid Protect combines machine learning models with cross-institutional insights to help detect fraud throughout a user’s lifecycle. Through the partnership, mutual customers can securely access Plaid Protect’s network‑level fraud intelligence directly in their Alloy workflows. In addition, the Alloy platform will now also include access to Plaid’s tools for verifying identities and assets and streamlining onboarding to build safer, more resilient experiences at scale. Clients can add these Plaid products directly from the Alloy platform, experiment with how they interact with other data sources, and roll out the combinations that best fit their risk appetite and growth goals. 

Avant Garde Trading Securities today announced the official launch of its new trading platform, a next-generation investing experience designed to combine advanced technology with access to differentiated investment opportunities. The newly launched platform is available starting today and introduces a fully redesigned interface, AI-embedded investment research and support, equity and full complex options trading, and new access to curated private placements for qualified investors. 

At the core of the new platform is Avant Garde’s mission: to combine advanced technology with access to differentiated investment opportunities. The launch marks a major step forward in delivering a more intelligent, intuitive, and powerful trading experience for both professional traders and novice investors. 

The new platform features AI-embedded investment research and support, giving users smarter insights, faster analysis, and on-demand assistance to help evaluate opportunities with greater clarity. By integrating AI directly into the user experience, Avant Garde aims to make sophisticated research workflows more accessible and actionable in real time. 

BetaNXT, a leading provider of wealth management technology solutions with real-time data capabilities and an enhanced advisor experience, today announced the next wave of its ongoing investment in artificial intelligence (AI). The launch of InsightX, BetaNXT’s enterprise AI platform, and the creation of the BetaNXT AI Innovation Lab, designed to fast-track the delivery of AI solutions, represent the latest milestones in the company’s commitment to democratize access to AI-driven insights. As the company previously announced, ongoing AI innovation efforts will concentrate on four key areas: data aggregation, workflow automation, business intelligence and predictive analytics. 

BetaNXT’s AI strategy centers on intentional innovation: translating AI into practical applications that solve essential client needs, rather than deploying new technology for its own sake. The company’s focus is on making AI accessible and valuable to operators, advisors and leaders – not just technical users – through actionable intelligence seamlessly embedded into natural workflows. 

While AI innovation has initiated change for every industry, within the highly regulated world of financial services, it has been especially challenging for firms to move from experimentation to operationalization. Progress for many enterprise teams has stalled due to strict regulatory requirements, complex technology stacks, legacy systems and siloed access to AI. 

The 2025-2026 tax season arrives with heightened stakes. The IRS enforces stricter compliance with elevated penalties for filing errors. New provisions under the “One Big Beautiful Bill” introduce opportunities—and complexity—with four key deductions: enhanced senior deductions (up to $6,000), tax-free tips (up to $25,000), tax-free overtime (up to $12,500), and car loan interest deductions (up to $10,000). 

Accessing these benefits requires meticulous record-keeping and precise form completion. Misreporting triggers IRS Automated Underreporter (AUR) cross-checks against W-2 and 1099 data, resulting in CP2000 notices and penalties. As tax policies evolve, filing is no longer form-based—it depends on accurate, well-organized documentation and long-term retention. 

CamScanner, a scanner app trusted by 300 million users, introduces AI-powered workflow designed to transform tax preparation from paperwork burden into accurate, streamlined process. 

Finastra, a global leader in financial services software, today announced a strategic partnership with Marketnode to digitize and automate the credit agreement onboarding process for corporate lenders. The collaboration brings together Marketnode’s LLM/AI‑powered intelligent document automation and Finastra’s Loan IQ platform through the Loan IQ Nexus Build module. It enables FIs to digitize the credit agreement onboarding process via an integrated, automated workflow. 

The partnership was formed to address long-standing operational challenges faced by lenders, where credit agreement onboarding has traditionally involved manual data entry, fragmented processes, and operational risks. By combining Marketnode’s advanced document extraction capabilities with Loan IQ’s robust syndicated and bilateral loan servicing infrastructure, the partners are transforming a previously labor-intensive workflow into an automated, accurate, and seamless digital experience. 

Marketnode’s Smartflow technology uses LLM/OCR and AI/ML to interpret both structured and unstructured data in complex credit documentation. When integrated with Loan IQ Nexus Build’s APIs, these capabilities allow banks to automatically map extracted data into Loan IQ and rapidly set up deals in the system. The combined solution can reduce processing time from two hours to just 10 minutes, significantly cutting operational overhead while enhancing accuracy and compliance. 

Kikoff, a fintech company helping millions of Americans build credit and achieve financial security, today announced the launch of Fynn, an AI-powered credit coach designed to give users clarity on their credit journey and a personalized path toward achieving their financial goals. 

Fynn brings together financial guidance and action into a single experience. Acting as the intelligence layer within Kikoff, it helps users understand their financial profile and highlights what matters most for their goals. This allows Fynn to surface tailored next steps and connect users directly to the tools and services that help them move forward, all within Kikoff. 

While more consumers are turning to AI for financial guidance, Fynn goes beyond general advice by analyzing a user’s credit report and financial profile to deliver highly personalized answers and connect them directly to solutions that help them take action. 

KX, a global leader in real-time, time-series, and AI-driven analytics, today announced the general availability of KDB-X, a unified compute engine designed to bring real-time AI into production for capital markets. By integrating time-series, vector, and GPU compute in a single runtime, KDB-X eliminates the fragmentation between research, backtesting, and live trading, enabling firms to deploy AI-driven strategies and agentic workflows with speed and control. 

KDB-X introduces GPU-accelerated analytics for time-series workloads, delivering 10x to 25x performance gains on core operations such as joins, aggregations, and model scoring. Built on the kdb+ engine, the platform also continues KX’s leadership in industry benchmarks, where KX consistently outperforms alternative architectures in high-volume tick analytics in the STAC MS benchmark. 

KDB-X unifies structured market data with unstructured alternative data in a single environment, combining deterministic analytics with generative AI grounded in temporal context. This allows firms to build, test, and deploy intelligent trading and risk systems without moving between separate systems for time-series, vector search, and AI compute. 

Majesco, the insurance industry’s foremost innovator in cloud and AI-native software, today announced its Spring ’26 Release, a bold step forward in helping insurers simplify and optimize operations, move faster, and unlock greater business value from their core systems. Built on customer feedback, this release addresses key pain points across Majesco’s product portfolio enabling insurers to eliminate operational friction and time to focus on high-value activities that deliver business and customer value amid evolving market demands. 

Built around the theme Redefine Possible, the Spring ’26 Release introduces new capabilities designed to reduce friction, improve visibility, increase operational, and make AI more actionable across the insurance enterprise. The release brings together meaningful innovation across the core suite, including reimagined task management, faster performance, embedded analytics, customer-driven enhancements, and new Agentic AI capabilities that provide intelligence on tap, help operational teams streamline and eliminate work so they can focus more on what matters most. Spring ’26 is about redefining and expanding what customers can expect from their core solutions to move faster, work smarter, respond with greater confidence, and meet increasing demands of transparency and auditability that together unlock greater value and outcomes across their business. 

This release expands Majesco’s leadership in delivering modern insurance technology that does more than support the business; it helps move the business forward. 

Modus, an AI-native audit technology platform & holding company today announced that it has raised $85 million in Seed & Series A funding, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Comma Capital and Garry Tan. The capital will be used to accelerate Modus’s technology development and to support its strategy of investing in and partnering with growing audit-first accounting firms. 

Modus is empowering the AI-native accounting firm, combining proprietary artificial intelligence, deep regulatory expertise, and a disciplined investment strategy. The company partners with established accounting firms to preserve their heritage, people, and client relationships while equipping them with modern technology designed to improve audit quality, efficiency, and scalability. 

Modus’s technology is purpose-built to help accounting firms perform complex audits, enabling auditors to automate manual procedures, enhance risk assessment, and focus more time on judgment-driven work. By combining technology with strategic investments, Modus aims to create a scaled platform capable of serving accounting firms that deliver audits for sophisticated clients while maintaining the trust and rigor the profession demands. 

Much announced today the launch of its Tech Innovation, Data & Financial Regulation practice, expanding the firm’s capabilities to help clients navigate incredibly complex legal and regulatory environments. Dara Tarkowski, former Managing Partner at Actuate Law, joins Much as a principal and chair of the new practice. Joining her are attorneys Andrea Halverson, Stacy Rodriguez, Maureen Ryan, and James Ward. 

The launch of this practice comes at a pivotal time as businesses embracing new technologies and artificial intelligence face increasing compliance challenges and regulatory risks. The new attorneys will provide clients with the full spectrum of legal needs, from day-to-day compliance and regulatory strategy to complex transactions, government advocacy, and high-stakes litigation. 

Tarkowski’s team brings decades of experience in financial services and fintech, digital assets and crypto, data privacy and security, information governance, artificial intelligence, advocacy, and litigation. 

Options Technology, a leading provider of mission-critical infrastructure and connectivity solutions for global financial markets, has strengthened its presence in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region by adding direct connectivity to the Japan Alternative Market (JAX), a Proprietary Trading System (PTS). The integration marked a strategic expansion of Options’ market access offerings across Japan and APAC. 

JAX’s entry into Japan’s financial ecosystem introduces greater diversity in liquidity sourcing and enhances price discovery for both trading participants and the broader buy-side community. As a founding partner, Options Technology supported JAX from its market launch and has played a key role in enabling seamless, low-latency access to its trading and market data feeds. 

Through this integration, Options customers gain direct, managed access to JAX’s market data feeds via AtlasFabric, the company’s high-performance global network. Engineered for ultra-low latency and reliability, AtlasFabric enables seamless delivery of real-time data, empowering firms to integrate JAX feeds efficiently into their trading, risk, and analytics platforms. This enhancement supports faster decision-making and expanded market reach across Japan and the broader APAC region. 

Riskified, a leader in ecommerce fraud and risk intelligence, today announced a partnership with Outpayce from Amadeus. This partnership boosts Outpayce’s trusted travel payment platform with Riskified’s AI-powered fraud prevention suite and Chargeback Guarantee model, creating a game-changing solution for airlines worldwide. The landscape of airline payments is evolving, and we’re proud to share a major milestone that will reshape the way airlines approach fraud management. 

Outpayce from Amadeus is a global travel payments orchestrator and specialized fintech enabler, empowering airlines and travel merchants to streamline complex payment processes, optimize costs, and enhance customer experiences. Purpose-built for the travel industry, Outpayce delivers innovation, flexibility, and seamless integration within the Amadeus ecosystem, supporting secure, efficient, and scalable payment operations across the entire traveler journey. 

With Riskified integrating into Outpayce’s ecosystem, carriers all over the world can benefit from AI-decisioning and a risk management solution that creates revenue predictability through guaranteed defined approval rates, while significantly reducing complexity and the cost of fraud. With this new partnership, Riskified becomes the first chargeback guarantee solution in Outpayce’s ecosystem, elevating its value to airlines across the globe. 

ProCap Financial, Inc. (Nasdaq: BRR) (the “Company”), the first publicly traded agentic finance firm, today launched ProCap Insights, the first agentic research offering in finance. 

Leveraging the latest artificial intelligence technology, ProCap Insights delivers institutional-grade research to help independent investors make more informed investment decisions. Reports cover single-name stocks, thematic trends, and macro analysis across sectors and asset classes. 

Research may also draw on trends derived from the proprietary and anonymized data captured by Silvia, ProCap Financial’s free consumer product that tracks more than $30 billion in assets across thousands of users with an average net worth exceeding $2.5 million. 

RGP (Nasdaq: RGP), a global professional services firm, today announced the appointment of Jessica Block as Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer. Block will advance RGP’s internal AI capabilities, expand the solutions RGP can provide for clients, and help clients continue to learn, integrate and expand their use of AI effectively to accomplish their objectives. 

The new role positions AI at the core of who RGP is; not simply adopting the latest tools but helping employees develop the knowledge and judgment to understand what is changing in RGP’s work, in its clients’ businesses, and in the market around them. Block will lead the implementation of AI for RGP and its clients in a thoughtful manner that protects confidential information and ensures responsible use. A key part of the role will be connecting AI across teams to ensure that knowledge and innovation flow across the organization in ways that expand RGP’s AI capabilities and impact. 

Block’s 20 years of leadership and hands-on AI experience across consulting, legal services, technology, and transformation will enable RGP to tackle a broader range of problems for clients, as well as innovate and evolve how it solves those problems. 

SRM, the independent advisory firm that has delivered measurable value to over 1,000 financial institutions worldwide, today announced the appointment of Jody Guetter as Chief Marketing Officer. The role reflects the firm’s deliberate decision to elevate marketing as a strategic lever for market differentiation, business growth, and client success. 

The appointment comes as SRM enters a defining period of growth, as the firm expands aggressively through the addition of strategy, technology, payments, data-as-a-service and emerging technology advisors and capabilities, as well as the acquisition of a leading UK-based payments consultancy to strengthen its European operations. In this role, Guetter will serve on the executive leadership team, overseeing brand, demand generation, digital marketing, corporate communications, and expansion across the firm’s North American and European operations. 

SRM has spent thirty years letting the work speak for itself. Guetter was hired to make sure the market is listening. She has built brands and demand-generation engines within a high-growth fintech, led strategic marketing for firms at pivotal inflection points, and brought a practitioner’s lens from her years inside a financial institution. Her work spans B2B enterprise and B2C consumer markets, with a deep focus on data, product marketing, marketing technology, and innovation strategy. She holds the CFMP designation and has completed executive programs at MIT, Wharton, and Purdue focused on artificial intelligence and fintech innovation. 

Suralink, the agentic platform for accounting firms and their clients, today announced the launch of Financial Statement Tie Out, a new AI-powered solution designed to modernize the final stage of the audit and eliminate one of the industry’s most manual and risk-prone processes. 

Financial statement tie out is the last and most critical step of the audit process, the point at which speed and accuracy are both critically important. Despite this, many firms are still bogged down in lengthy manual procedures to verify the accuracy of their final deliverables. The process takes significant time and remains prone to human error, putting firm reputation and engagement profitability at risk. With Financial Statement Tie Out, firms can significantly reduce the time required for this process while strengthening confidence in the final output. 

Unlike other tools, Financial Statement Tie Out replaces manual review with agentic AI-powered validation across four core areas: mathematical accuracy, internal consistency, prior-year consistency, and version comparison. These capabilities enable audit teams to quickly confirm accuracy, identify discrepancies, and deliver the highest quality final report possible. 

Vestmark, Inc., a leading provider of wealth management technology and services, today announced the appointment of Freedom Dumlao as Chief AI Officer. Dumlao will continue in his role as Chief Technology Officer while expanding his responsibilities to lead the firm’s AI strategy as a member of the executive leadership team. 

In this expanded role, Dumlao will continue to lead the development and deployment of AI capabilities across the Vestmark platform, building on efforts already underway to embed intelligence at scale. These initiatives focus on advancing core workflows, including portfolio management, trading and rebalancing, compliance monitoring, and tax-aware investment processes. 

As Chief AI Officer, Dumlao will guide Vestmark’s efforts to unify compliance oversight, optimization, and automation into a single operating model. The goal is to help firms scale efficiently while maintaining the precision, transparency, and fiduciary standards required in wealth management.