Santander and Nvidia cut AI costs for banking
Hey Digital Banking Fanatic!
Bigger AI models aren’t always better, especially when you’re running a global bank and every interaction comes with a cost.
Santander is teaming up with Nvidia to build more specialised AI capabilities for banking, moving beyond large, general-purpose models towards smaller ones trained for specific tasks.
The results are already interesting. In selected experiments, Santander cut AI serving costs from €5 per interaction to around €0.03 while maintaining strong performance. In a customer service use case, the bank also improved conversation quality while reducing costs by more than 50%.
The partnership will explore more applications, including AI agents, fraud detection, anti-money laundering and real-time decision-making. The bigger idea is to match each task with the right model, rather than use the most powerful one for everything.
And as AI makes banking more efficient, it’s also changing how fraud operates. Incognia explains how AI-powered fraud farms scale their operations and how connecting device, location, and account data can help banks uncover the networks behind them.
Here’s what else is happening in digital banking today👇
See you tomorrow!
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
💡 How AI Is Changing the Economics of Fraud Farms, by Incognia CEO André Ferraz. AI is making fraud operations more scalable by automating account creation, app manipulation and account management. In one bank investigation, Incognia linked around 200 devices and more than 4,500 mule accounts to a single apartment. The article explains why banks need to look beyond individual accounts and connect device, location, and account activity to identify the infrastructure behind fraud and make it harder for the same operation to return. Read the full article here
NEWS
🌎 Mastercard partners with Extend to bring modern spend management to issuing banks. Extend joins Mastercard's financial operations platform partners in the US and Canada. Banks can offer virtual cards and automated reconciliation on existing card programs.
🇺🇸 Equifax expands its open banking solutions with Mastercard Open Finance insights. Lenders and FinTechs can now use Cashflow Analytics, Payment Risk Insights and Transaction Report alongside Equifax credit data. The move aims to broaden credit access for 76.1 million thin file consumers in the U.S.
🌍 Santander teams with Nvidia to build new AI banking capabilities. Santander's AI lab is developing tools to evaluate which AI models and agents suit each banking task. The bank is moving toward smaller, specialised models.
🇨🇴 Mexican FinTech Kapital gets initial approval for a bank in Colombia, expanding beyond business lending. The approval would let it offer deposit accounts, savings, and credit. Kapital serves about 350,000 customers and holds a $2B valuation.
🇲🇽 Plata reaches $1B in annualized revenue 3.5 years after launching in Mexico. September revenue of $85M set a $1B annual run rate, CEO Neri Tollardo said. Plata operates as a full bank and has 3.5M active credit card customers.
🌍 Revolut hits a $121.2 billion valuation mark, as IPO talk turns serious. Forge Global marked its shares at $2,125 on October 15, up from a $115 billion secondary sale in July. CEO Nik Storonsky says a public listing is now about two years out. Read more
🇬🇮 Revolut secures Gibraltar crypto licence to support international expansion. The Gibraltar Financial Services Commission granted a DLT provider licence to a new entity. Revolut Global Digital Assets Limited will support its international crypto services.
🇺🇸 World unveils World ID for banking and finance at Money20/20. The suite uses cryptographic proofs such as Proof of Human to enable AI safe experiences, including interactions with AI agents. Bain Capital, Pantera Capital and VanEck Funds are among the initial design partners.
🇺🇸 JPMorgan brings its JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum for institutional clients. Representing US dollar deposits held at the bank, the token enables 24/7 transfers within seconds and can support blockchain payments and settlement of tokenised assets
🇲🇾 Monfi Bank launches Monfi USD (MUSD), the only regulated stablecoin issued by a bank. It gives institutions and qualified private clients a digital dollar redeemable at par, powered by Estable and Hadron by Tether.
🇺🇸 NewtekOne's bank subsidiary launches Zelle for small businesses, adding instant payment options. Eligible clients can send and receive payments through the Newtek Advantage portal. Newtek Bank also joined the FedNow and RTP receiving networks.
🇳🇱 Dutch banks and firms are launching a digital ID wallet called MyCheck. Backed by ABN AMRO, Rabobank, ASN Bank, KPN, Achmea and Deloitte, the app will let people prove their identity, verify age and sign documents.
🇵🇭 Paymentology secures a strategic deal to power Asia United Bank's digital payments in the Philippines. Its issuing and real-time processing platform will support AUB's HelloMoney wallet, mobile banking and QR Ph.
🇩🇰 Saxo Bank partners with nine global athletes, including Lando Norris, Gareth Bale and Aryna Sabalenka. The Danish bank will explore their mindset and habits to examine how these principles translate into investing. The initiative is the first of its kind under new owner J. Safra Sarasin, which acquired Saxo this year.
🇬🇧 Morgan Stanley enters the UK savings market through a partnership with Raisin. The bank will offer savings products to UK customers through Raisin’s deposit marketplace, expanding its retail funding beyond its traditional wealth management business.
🇺🇸 Credit analytics startup Prism Data raises $20M in Series A funding. The company helps lenders assess credit risk using bank transaction data. Traditional credit reports can miss changes in borrowers' income and spending.
🇰🇷 Finda is set to become the first Korean FinTech to acquire a savings bank. The loan comparison platform agreed in June to buy Daewon Savings Bank for about 12 billion won ($9 million). Finda plans to turn the lender into an AI native bank.
🌍 Emirates NBD becomes first MENA bank to run OpenAI GPT models on local infrastructure. The bank is harnessing OpenAI's sovereign AI infrastructure. Its GPT models run on infrastructure hosted inside the country.
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