As the ABF market continues to grow, the collaboration between Cardo AI and ELF will set new industry standards, making structured credit more accessible, data-driven, and efficient.

ELF brings cutting-edge structuring and credit risk management expertise to asset-backed credit facility and forward flow purchase program investments, while Cardo AI delivers advanced technology to streamline deal execution, enhance risk monitoring, and improve transparency for all stakeholders.

“Our partnership with Cardo AI represents a major step forward in the evolution of asset-based finance,” said Geoff Beard, CEO & Chief Investment Officer at ELF. “By integrating technology-driven solutions into our investment and surveillance processes, we are accelerating transactions and enhancing overall market efficiency.”

“As we strengthen our presence in the U.S. market, we are excited to collaborate with ELF to redefine the way structured credit operates” said Altin Kadareja, Co-Founder and CEO at Cardo AI. “With our intelligent technology and the ELF team’s expertise in structuring asset-backed credit facilities and forward flow purchase programs, we are creating a more transparent, scalable, and investor-friendly ABF ecosystem.”

This partnership is just the beginning of a transformative shift—one that will empower originators, institutional investors, and the broader structured finance ecosystem to capitalize on the full potential of asset-based lending in the non-bank specialty finance sector.

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79% of respondents expressed preferences for a mix of human and AI interaction when managing their pension accounts, highlighting a strong preference for a hybrid approach. Making up that figure, 11% of all respondents said they would be comfortable with AI taking the lead. 34% preferred mostly human agents with AI acting as support while a further 34% expressed a preference for an equal mix of humans and AI working together. In contrast, only 16% preferred entirely human support and a further 5% said they were unsure.

AI gains trust, but transparency is key

The nationally representative survey of 1,000 UK adults revealed a broad acceptance of AI in pension services, provided it works alongside human agents rather than replacing them. Around eight in ten (82%) respondents expressed either a positive or neutral stance on AI-assisted pension support, while only 18% were opposed. This indicates that, for most savers, AI is seen as a useful tool to streamline customer service rather than a replacement for human expertise.

Demand for transparent AI decision-making

Transparency remains a key issue. 79% of those surveyed said it was important that AI tools used in pension support are transparent about how they make decisions, with 45% stating that full disclosure of AI-driven determinations is essential. In contrast, just 3% believed transparency was unimportant, demonstrating a strong demand for clarity and accountability in AI’s growing role within financial services.

Round-the-clock support is AI’s biggest selling point

When asked about the main advantages of AI in pension support, 34% of respondents cited 24/7 availability as the most compelling benefit, while 23% valued faster response times. Others highlighted improved accuracy (14%) and AI’s ability to handle repetitive tasks (16%) as key advantages. However, 12% saw no benefits at all, showing that while AI integration is widely accepted, scepticism remains among some pension savers.

Luis Mejia, VP of Data at PensionBee, said: “These results confirm what we’ve long suspected, that UK savers see AI as a valuable tool, but not a substitute for human expertise.

“Savers want the best of both worlds – faster service and round-the-clock availability, but with the reassurance of human oversight. The challenge for pension providers is to ensure AI-driven services remain transparent, reliable and truly enhance the customer experience.”

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The new DIY ISA will allow UK-based clients to build and manage their own investment portfolio within a tax-free ISA wrapper. Users can choose from over 1,000 assets including UK-listed stocks as well as ETFs, mutual funds and bonds with global exposure.

The DIY ISA adds to the managed ISA already available on the eToro platform, which is also powered by Moneyfarm, allowing users to choose between the two or use both depending on their investment needs. Both ISAs allow users to work towards their goals with a dedicated Moneyfarm expert. Clients are also able to transfer existing ISAs to their eToro ISA, which will be handled by Moneyfarm at no cost.

Existing eToro clients who open an ISA (DIY or managed) and invest at least £1,000 between 4 February and 30 April 2025 are eligible to receive 2% cashback on everything they invest, up to a maximum cashback value of £5,000. The offer runs until the end of April, meaning that clients can take advantage of two years’ annual ISA allowance.

Dan Moczulski, Managing Director of eToro UK said: “As the most tax-efficient investment vehicle in the UK with an annual allowance of up to £20,000, ISAs are an essential tool for investors, especially with the capital gains tax allowance now limited to just £3,000.

“While eToro is a global platform, we are constantly tailoring and localising our products to meet the specific needs of clients. With the introduction of our new DIY ISA alongside our existing managed ISA, we’re giving UK investors the flexibility to choose the approach that best suits their goals. Whether they want to hand-pick stocks or opt for expertly managed funds, customers can easily access both options through our app and invest tax-free easily.”

Fabio Zampaglione, Chief Commercial Officer at Moneyfarm said: “The launch of the eToro DIY ISA is a continuation of our collaboration with them. Our commitment to evolving our B2B2C solutions remains a key area of growth for Moneyfarm. We are dedicated to delivering exceptional value to our clients and look forward to the continued success of our partnership with eToro.”

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The partnership integrates Data Zoo’s comprehensive global data assets into Alloy’s orchestration platform, enabling financial organizations to seamlessly incorporate both traditional and non-traditional data sources into their onboarding processes–whether for new or existing clients– while extending their international reach through a single API.

The integration allows clients to leverage data as a primary or complementary method for identity verification, which is an effective tool to mitigate the impact of synthetic identity fraud and to reduce friction in the onboarding process.

Alloy’s clients can now leverage Data Zoo’s solutions to onboard consumers across the world with a single API integration, reducing operational costs and accelerating time to market in new geographies.

“Data Zoo’s mission is to empower businesses with critical access to identity data globally to boost financial inclusion and block out bad actors,” said Charlie Minutella, CEO of Data Zoo. “Partnering with Alloy allows us to bring our extensive global data into an established platform that is trusted by financial institutions and fintechs, helping them mitigate identity risks while expanding their customer base safely.”

As financial institutions increasingly seek solutions to balance an effective global customer onboarding experience while maintaining compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations, this partnership brings together the strengths of two industry leaders. Data Zoo’s vast global data coverage allows Alloy clients to access critical identity data from multiple markets, ensuring more accurate identity verification across borders.

“Alloy’s platform is designed to prevent fraud without hindering business growth,” said Keith Kettell, CRO at Alloy. “By integrating Data Zoo’s global data coverage, we are giving our clients the ability to confidently onboard more users in new geographies while staying compliant with regulatory standards.”

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The collaboration will combine PwC’s deep financial crime expertise and Fenergo’s award-winning AI-powered CLM technology into a single offering, empowering financial institutions around the world to unlock revenue potential through accelerated operational excellence. Financial institutions seeking to digitally transform financial crime operations will benefit from Fenergo’s best-of-breed technology and PwC’s extensive experience leading transformational financial crime, regulatory and compliance projects.

The agreement is part of PwC’s broader strategy to leverage a range of digital and technology partnerships to deliver tailored solutions for financial crime and regulatory challenges.

Mark Hunter, Partner, PwC, says: “Fenergo’s AI-powered platform is uniquely positioned to serve mid-market to large multinational organizations, offering the scale, flexibility, and advanced capabilities needed to manage complex regulatory environments and high volumes of transactions across global operations. This collaboration is enabling us to deliver even greater value and sustained outcomes to our clients. Clients choose PwC to drive growth, transform and create value – and that includes interventions with technology. Our approach focuses on how Fenergo’s software can add value to our clients’ organisations holistically. Our teams across our global practice have experience implementing Fenergo solutions at scale, and across multiple jurisdictions. We’ve invested in our own multi-disciplinary teams, who are now Fenergo-certified and have specialist functional capabilities and technical expertise to configure the Fenergo platform.”

Matt Edwards, Global VP Partnerships and Alliances, Fenergo, says: “The synergy between Fenergo and PwC creates a powerful value proposition for financial institutions seeking to streamline financial crime operations and increase efficiencies in the face of accelerated regulatory change. The collaboration enables Fenergo to tap into PwC’s industry leading consultancy and implementation services to deliver an optimum target operating model for CLM. The result is a premium solution which empowers financial institutions to efficiently mitigate financial crime risk while driving growth and efficiency gains.”

Services complementing Fenergo’s CLM solutions include PwC’s Target Operating Model design, end-to-end customer experience journey mapping, operational readiness, data migration, systems integration and business change management.

For further information, please visit https://www.fenergo.com/partners/pwc

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“In our market, which is very credit union-heavy, staying competitive technologically while maintaining our focus on member service is crucial,” said Garrett Laws, chief lending officer at Granite Credit Union. “Financial calculators are often the first step in a member’s lending journey, but traditional calculators provide limited value. Appli’s guided experience gives members the confidence to move forward with applications while helping those who might not initially qualify understand their path to approval. Even if someone isn’t ready for loan approval today, being able to show them a path forward aligns perfectly with our mission of helping people be confident in their financial future.”

Granite Credit Union will implement Appli’s technology to help members better understand their borrowing options and loan qualification potential before submitting formal applications. Starting with auto loans, including its unique “vanishing rate auto loan” program that rewards members with rate discounts for consistent on-time payments, the credit union plans to integrate the calculators throughout its digital presence – from its website and online banking portal to new member onboarding communications. Future phases will expand to personal loans and credit cards, with plans to explore mortgage and business lending applications.

“Granite Credit Union is a perfect example of the innovative, member-focused approach we designed Appli for,” said Tim Pranger, CEO of Appli. “Their commitment to serving diverse communities and helping members build financial confidence through technology makes them an ideal partner as we continue expanding our platform’s capabilities.”

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Bucking the trend, Allica has invested in building a proprietary technology platform specifically to support its relationship manager model as it grows, allowing its customers to receive insight and help tailored to their business. As one of the UK’s fastest-growing fintechs, this development reflects Allica Bank’s continued focus on bringing back the relationship manager for established businesses (those firms with 5-250 employees) as a core part of its strategy.

Expanding to 60 people from the 22 it started the year with, Allica Bank is deepening its relationship manager footprint in existing locations and branching into new ones. The hires will be made in locations including Bristol, the North East, Newcastle, Norwich, Cambridgeshire, South Wales, Oxford and Scotland.

Allica’s success has seen it named the fastest-growing UK company in 2024 in The Sunday Times 100, and the fastest-growing fintech ever, according to Deloitte UK’s Fast 50 rankings. It announced late last year that it has now lent over £3 billion to established businesses, and is seeing rapid take-up of its business current account, the Business Rewards Account.

Ovais Ahmed, the owner of Kinder City Nursery in Luton and an Allica Bank customer, commented, “there can be a lot of anxiety as a business owner, especially when making big decisions about the future of your business and how you’re going to finance it. The people you employ and, in our case, the parents and their children we serve, rely on you. With my relationship manager Wahid’s support, I have someone I can call and talk things through with. It puts my mind at rest that I’m making the most informed decision I can.”

Wahid Nawaz, Ovais’s relationship manager at Allica Bank, said, “A relationship manager can make a world of difference for a business. Thanks to our technology, we’re able to offer tailored expertise and guidance to business owners who often don’t have that banking and finance expertise in-house. At Allica, we also like to think of ourselves as connectors; bringing business people together and exploring how we can help our customers beyond just their banking.”

Stephen Aucott, owner of Knebworth-based Odyssey Health Club & Spa, who Wahid also supports as a relationship manager, said, “Having a personal point of contact is a clear departure from how the other banks are now operating. Under Wahid’s guidance, I have been able to complete a management-buy-out of my business after many years of trying. Wahid helped me through the process in a simple, common sense way, which I have really appreciated. He made the impersonal, personal.

“It is always frustrating to have to chase emails and calls, but this has never been how Wahid operates. He’s always been available when I need him.”

Speaking about the expansion of Allica’s relationship management team, John Harrison, Head of Relationship Management at Allica Bank, commented, “Established businesses are such crucial parts of our local communities as employers, service providers, and community hubs. They in fact make up a third of the UK economy and employ a third of our workforce. It’s therefore so important that banks give them the support they need to thrive. Sadly, in most cases, this is rarely the case, with these relationship managers often being replaced by chatbots or call centres.”

“Allica Bank’s Relationship Managers are core to our strategy. They are our brand ambassadors, our connection to our customers and the beating heart of the bank. They quickly become more than just a banking partner to their customers, often acting as a go-to resource for support, guidance and local business connections.”

“The expansion of our team is a signal to the market that Allica is doubling down on our commitment to give our established business customers that relationship-based support that is lacking elsewhere. Central to this will be the continued development of our technology platform, which empowers our relationship managers to provide tailored insight and connect with our customers in ways they have never been able to before. Combined with our business current account, which actually rewards customers for using it, it’s proving to be a powerful combination.”

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“We are undergoing a technology transformation journey to ensure that we continue to offer robust, digital Sharia-compliant services that meet our customers’ needs when and where required,” said Hamad Al Kubaisi, Group Chief HR Officer at Al Rayan Bank. “The next step in this journey is to upgrade our banking core with a solution that provides us with the necessary agility, rich functionality and advanced technology to keep pace with our customers’ needs.”

Stuart Rennie, Group Operating Officer at Al Rayan Bank added, “After an extensive selection process, we decided to extend our longstanding partnership with Finastra due to its robust and future-proof solution, and the trust we have in their team. By migrating to Finastra’s next-generation core banking solution, we look forward to providing our customers with a streamlined, fully integrated offering and seamless user journeys.”

Finastra Essence is a core banking solution that combines deep functionality and advanced technology to increase enterprise agility, reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. Powered by an open, microservices architecture, the solution’s rich, broad and deep banking functionality enables institutions to rapidly deploy market-leading products and services. It caters for both conventional banking and the specific needs that Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) have when offering Sharia-compliant products and services.

“Finastra has been a close strategic partner with Al Rayan Bank for more than 16 years, which demonstrates our commitment to the bank’s growth and success,” said Siobhan Byron, EVP, Universal Banking at Finastra. “A key part of our customer-centric offering is being agile when it comes to how we work and deliver our solutions. This ensures banks like Al Rayan Bank can reimagine banking by delivering financial services that align with their customers’ expectations and values.”

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As the number and complexity of AI agents grow, organisations of all sizes face a new set of challenges: managing their deployment, ensuring their security and compliance, optimising their impact, and managing costs. Without a centralised approach, they risk fragmented operations, increased security risk, and difficulty measuring the true value of their AI investments.

The Agent System of Record will provide an efficient, secure way to onboard new AI agents, define their roles and responsibilities, track their impact, budget and forecast their costs, support compliance, and foster continuous improvement. By providing a single system for managing AI agents being used across a company’s workforce, Workday will give IT and business leaders transparency and control over the impact of AI agents on work.

“The workforce of the future will include both humans and AI agents, and businesses that don’t learn to manage this incredibly complex reality will fall quickly behind,” said Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and executive chair, Workday. “We believe no company in the world is better positioned than Workday to usher in this new era of workforce management in a trusted, ethical way. Our deep understanding of human skills and roles naturally extends to managing digital labour. The future is here, and just like with the transition to the cloud, we’re ready to help our customers get there first.”

“At Workday, we believe that humans and agents should peacefully coexist in a way that amplifies human performance,” said Carl Eschenbach, CEO, Workday. “As the system of record for more than 10,500 organisations around the world, there is no one better than Workday to manage every part of the workforce – employees, contingent workers, and agents – on our trusted platform.”

Unlock the Full Potential of AI Agents

With decades of experience in handling sensitive data and managing complex workforce processes, Workday is a recognised leader in responsible AI development. With the Agent System of Record, organisations will be able to leverage the best AI agents for their needs—whether they’re from Workday, Workday customers, or partners— while maintaining centralised control, governance, and visibility.

Key benefits of the Agent System of Record include:

• Centralised Management: Manage all AI agents within a single system to gain transparency into their impact and effectiveness.
• Streamlined Agent Onboarding: Quickly onboard new agents with defined roles, skills, and secure access to relevant data, accelerating time to value.
• Managing and Optimising Costs: Budget, forecast, and optimise the ROI of AI agents to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in delivering business outcomes.
• Support Secure and Compliant Deployment: Deploy agents with confidence, leveraging automated configuration, access controls, and policy enforcement to mitigate risk.
• Real-Time Operational Visibility: Monitor agent activity, enforce policies, and track costs in real time to optimise performance and ROI. Maintain continuous agent oversight with real-time identity verification, agent orchestration, and financial cost monitoring for optimal performance.

New Role-Based Agents Transform Entire Business Processes

Workday also announced new role-based AI agents that customers will be able to easily deploy and manage through the Agent System of Record. While most agents in the market today are task-based and follow specific step-by-step instructions, Workday’s role-based agents contain a configurable set of ‘skills’ that give them more autonomy and the ability to more fully support people in their roles. The agents can perform hundreds of individual tasks. Workday’s previously announced role-based agents including Recruiting, Talent Mobility, Succession, and Optimise Agents.

New Workday agents announced today include:

• Contracts Agent: Continuously analyses contracts across the enterprise, surfaces obligations and opportunities buried in unstructured data, and drives business actions to capture value and mitigate risk.
• Payroll Agent: Identifies and updates invalid payroll data. Automates audit workflows, surfaces insights, and recommends fixes. Monitors compliance and delivers system updates.
• Financial Auditing Agent: Increases efficiency and mitigates risk during the audit experience by connecting complex business documents to monitor transactions, reconcile balances, and review internal controls. Allows audit firms to develop apps that connect directly to their Workday customers.
• Policy Agent: Continuously reads a company’s latest corporate policy details, then seamlessly and proactively sends that information to employees and managers wherever they are asking questions or doing work. Delivers a simplified self-service user experience, more compliant transactions, and deflection of tactical case volume, allowing the HR help desk to focus on more complex cases.

Discover and Deploy Industry-Leading AI Agents Through Workday Marketplace

AI Agents from Workday and Workday partners will be featured in Workday Marketplace, making it easy for customers to discover and deploy agents that meet their business needs. In the future, customers and partners will also be able to augment, customise, and complement AI agents that integrate seamlessly with Workday through Workday’s developer platform, Workday Extend.

The Workday Agent System of Record and new role-based AI agents are currently in development and are expected to become available later this year.

Support for the Workday Agent System of Record

“More and more business leaders are deploying agents in their organisations and considering how digital labor can help them scale,” said Adam Evans, EVP and GM, Salesforce AI. “Workday is making it easy to incorporate and manage AI agents right alongside human workforces to augment employee bases with always-on digital labour. Last year, Salesforce and Workday partnered to develop agents for employee service use cases, and soon, Agentforce agents will be available on the Workday Marketplace to even more HR and finance professionals who use Workday to manage their human – and now agentic – workforces. We look forward to continuing to innovate together and empowering more businesses with digital labour.”

“AWS is powering the future of AI agent development through Amazon Bedrock’s comprehensive foundation model ecosystem and enterprise-grade development framework,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of Data and AI, AWS. “With Workday’s Agent System of Record, organisations will be much better positioned to ethically manage all these agents. We’re excited to collaborate with Workday to reshape the future of work through agentic AI. Together, we’ll empower organisations to unlock exponential value while maintaining our shared commitment to security and responsible AI.”

“The rise of AI agents in the enterprise has created an urgent need for a centralised system of record to manage and govern this increasingly complex landscape,” said R “Ray” Wang, CEO and Principal Analyst of Constellation Research. “Most of the executives we’ve spoken with seek solutions that provide the tools they need to harness the power of AI while maintaining security, compliance, and control. Digital workforce management capabilities will be a significant step forward for the industry.”

“The Workday Agent System of Record is a game-changer for enterprise AI adoption,” said Winston Weinberg, CEO & Co-Founder, Harvey. “By centrally managing agents and ensuring they adhere to the same strict access controls and compliance standards as human employees, Workday is building the foundation for a truly trusted and secure AI-powered workforce. This is paramount for widespread enterprise adoption.”

“At Team Car Care, we’ve already experienced firsthand the power of Workday’s AI capabilities, which are making a real impact on our bottom line,” said Matt Castonguay, CFO, Team Car Care. “That’s why we’re so excited about the Workday Agent System of Record. As we continue to explore the potential of AI, having a comprehensive platform like this will be critical.”

“Digital colleagues, or AI agents, will become an increasingly common addition to the workforce, and Workday’s Agent System of Record is well positioned to help organisations meet the moment of monumental change,” said Steve Chase, Vice Chair of AI and Digital Innovation, KPMG LLP. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with Workday to help our shared clients manage the new digital workforce with confidence just as they do full-time employees and contractors.”

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