Treasurers expect embedded FX to double despite automation barriers

Corporate treasurers expect a sharp move away from manual FX execution over the next five years, but most still face substantial technical barriers to automating currency workflows, according to research from Integral. 

Its report, ‘The programmatic shift: How APIs, embedded FX, and AI will redefine FX distribution’, draws on surveys of 67 corporate treasuries and 76 banks and other institutional market participants. Among corporate respondents, 67% were large domestic or multinational companies. 

Manual or voice execution and multi-dealer platforms are currently tied as treasurers’ most-used FX channels, each accounting for 34% of the reported mix. Integral expects manual and voice trading to fall to 10% within five years, while embedded FX integrated into ERP and treasury management systems rises from 12% to 26%. 

User-triggered APIs are projected to increase from 6% to 16%. Multi-dealer platforms are forecast to remain important, edging to 37%, while single-dealer platforms fall from 14% to 11%. Together, embedded FX and APIs would account for 42% of corporate FX execution, up from 18% today. 

The attraction is less time spent processing transactions. If banks can provide the features needed to automate FX execution, 65% of corporate treasurers said they would redirect resources towards broader risk management, while 29% would put more focus on liquidity optimisation and 19% on strategic funding decisions. 

One mid-market corporate respondent said: “All transactional risks should be covered automatically to free up time for analytics and strategy optimisation and a more dynamic hedging approach.” 

Implementation remains the sticking point. Some 83% of corporate treasurers reported barriers to full automation, despite 53% of banks expecting direct APIs to become the dominant FX distribution channel. 

Problems differ by company size. Among large corporates and multinationals, 56% cited legacy architecture, fragmented domestic systems and complex treasury technology as the main obstacle to importing real-time API feeds. Among mid-market and growth companies, 43% pointed instead to banks’ API readiness, including complex and non-standardised integration requirements. 

Artificial intelligence is further from day-to-day use. Only 8% of corporate respondents are actively piloting AI within treasury, while 67% remain at the monitoring or conceptual stage. Even so, half expect autonomous agents to handle more than a quarter of their FX workflow within five years. 

Potential applications include identifying exposures, requesting quotes and executing within parameters set by treasury, alongside internal netting and validation of exposure reporting. One upper-mid-market corporate respondent said: “Execution is one thing, but more and more, management wants data driving the decisions behind hedging. That’s the real frontier.” 

Greater automation does not imply handing over treasury decisions entirely. Another multinational respondent said: “We don’t believe in agents deciding for our corporate and treasury strategies, AI must assist, propose but not ever make decisions.” 

Integral’s findings suggest the near-term shift in FX may depend less on autonomous AI than on resolving a more basic connectivity problem. Treasurers already expect more execution to move inside ERP and TMS workflows, but legacy corporate systems and uneven bank APIs still stand between that ambition and routine automation.

 

Swift delays ISO 20022 structured address deadline

Swift has delayed the next phase of its ISO 20022 payments migration, extending the deadline for structured postal addresses after banks, payment infrastructures and corporate users asked for more time.

More than 98% of payment instructions are now sent in ISO 20022 format following last year’s move away from the MT standard. Attention had therefore shifted to Standards Release 2026, which was due to introduce structured address requirements for payment messages in November.

Readiness remains uneven across all regions, however, with large parts of the industry still unable to meet the requirement. Swift said several communities formally requested an extension, prompting it to consult domestic payment market infrastructures before changing the timetable.

As part of the revised approach, all payments changes planned for Standards Release 2026 will be deferred. Swift will spend the coming weeks consulting banks, central banks, payment infrastructures, market practice groups and corporates on the timing and implementation of structured addresses, with an update due by December at the latest.

Other payments changes originally scheduled for November will be phased separately.

The delay is significant because structured address data is intended to improve automation, compliance screening and transparency in cross-border payments. Moving away from free-format address fields should make information easier to validate and process consistently across institutions, but only if banks, market infrastructures and corporate systems are ready to send and receive the richer data.

Finance and treasury teams that had already prepared for the November deadline will not need to reverse those upgrades. Swift said structured addresses can already pass across its network and is encouraging institutions to continue implementation rather than wait for the new cutover date.

That matters for corporates whose payment files, ERP systems and treasury platforms feed beneficiary and originator information into bank channels. For multinational groups, the challenge can span numerous banking relationships, local payment formats and internal data sources.

Delayed industry-wide enforcement gives teams more time to clean address data, adjust message formats and test connectivity, but it also prolongs a period in which counterparties may be operating at different levels of readiness.

Securities, trade and other Standards Release 2026 changes will move on a separate timetable. Those updates, including changes linked to T+1 settlement in some markets, are now expected to go live in the first quarter of 2027, with an exact date due by mid-September.

Swift’s decision avoids forcing a November cutover while readiness remains fragmented, but it does not change the direction of travel. Corporate payment data will still need to become more structured, and firms that use the extra time to resolve data quality and system integration issues should be better placed when the revised deadline is set.

 

Bank of England to gain payments innovation objective

The Bank of England is set to receive a new secondary objective to support innovation in payment systems and emerging forms of digital money, while financial stability remains its primary responsibility.

Under government plans, the Bank will be required to consider how regulation can create conditions for innovation across systemic payment systems, including those using digital settlement assets such as stablecoins. The objective will sit below the Bank’s existing financial stability mandate.

City Minister Lucy Rigby said: “Developments in digital payments technology, including tokenisation and DLT, have the potential to transform financial markets across the globe.”

The change extends an approach already applied to the Bank’s regulation of central counterparties and central securities depositories. A secondary innovation objective for those market infrastructures was introduced through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023.

Payment systems would now be brought within the same framework. Government proposals will require the Bank to report annually to Parliament on how it is advancing the objective, providing a formal measure of how its supervisory approach responds to technological change.

Sarah Breeden, deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, said the objective would support innovation “without compromising on financial stability”.

For payments providers and corporate users, the significance lies in how the Bank balances new forms of settlement with the resilience requirements applied to critical infrastructure. Tokenisation, distributed ledger technology and stablecoins can introduce different operating models for moving value, but adoption at scale depends on regulatory treatment, interoperability and confidence in settlement.

The Bank already supervises systemic payment systems alongside other critical financial market infrastructure. Extending an innovation objective to that remit could give firms greater clarity that new payment models will be considered within the regulatory framework, rather than treated solely through the lens of existing infrastructure.

Financial stability will nevertheless take precedence. The new objective will not require the Bank to support innovation where doing so would undermine its primary mandate.

Implementation is expected through amendments to the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which is due to be debated in the House of Lords on 7 and 9 September.

The move adds another formal policy strand to the UK’s broader payments modernisation agenda. For corporates, the practical test will be whether it leads to clearer rules and faster progress on settlement models that can improve liquidity movement, payment availability and integration with treasury systems without weakening resilience.

 

Australian corporates accelerate real-time payments planning

Australian corporates are moving more quickly from awareness of real-time payments towards implementation, with 43% now having a transition plan in place, according to research from Crisil Coalition Greenwich and Australian Payments Plus. 

In its Q3 2026 report, Ready for real-time? The state of Australia’s corporate payments transition, awareness of the industry’s longer-term move away from the Bulk Electronic Clearing System rose to 73% from 51% last year. The proportion with a plan to move to another system such as the New Payments Platform increased to 43% from 29%. 

Preparation is uneven. Among organisations already working on the transition, 19% said implementation was complete or underway, 37% were actively planning and preparing and 44% remained at an early stage. Larger companies were further ahead, with 48% of corporates turning over at least AUD1bn having begun planning, compared with 28% below that threshold. 

Finance and treasury leaders see advantages extending beyond payment speed. Half of large Australian corporates said accelerated settlement and always-on availability would directly benefit their organisation, while respondents also highlighted faster access to incoming funds, better visibility over payment flows and greater certainty over when money has arrived. 

Improved access and visibility could change working capital management by reducing idle balances and strengthening cash forecasting. One natural resources respondent said: “Speed, efficiency, we have more information at hand, easier reconciliation, easier to manage cash flow, helps us with forecasting and pooling.” 

Richer payment data is also expected to support automation. Respondents identified easier reconciliation, fewer manual processes and stronger alignment with ISO 20022 as potential benefits, alongside more timely payments to suppliers and employees. 

Implementation, however, reaches well beyond connecting to a faster rail. Companies cited integration with ERP and treasury management systems, internal technology capacity, testing, revised controls and organisational change as key requirements. 

Faster and irrevocable payments also raise the bar for payment governance. Finance teams are reviewing approval processes, fraud controls and operational oversight, while Confirmation of Payee was cited as a way to strengthen account validation. 

Building the business case remains another hurdle. CFOs and treasury teams are weighing technology and integration costs against expected gains, with some looking to incorporate payment modernisation into planned ERP or treasury system upgrades rather than treat it as a standalone programme. 

Crisil Coalition Greenwich surveyed 682 Australian organisations between February and April 2026, including large corporates with annual turnover above AUD500m and institutions managing more than AUD10bn. 

Results suggest the transition is moving into a more operational phase. As awareness broadens, the challenge for finance teams is increasingly how to redesign systems, controls and liquidity processes so faster settlement translates into better cash visibility rather than simply quicker payments.

 

FIX and IA set digital equity issuance framework

FIX Trading Community and the Investment Association have published an industry framework designed to move equity capital raising towards fully electronic workflows.

Recommended practices set out how the Financial Information eXchange protocol can be used to digitalise bookbuilding and deal allocation during equity raisings, beginning with Accelerated Bookbuild Offerings. The framework covers both direct orders and those placed through vendors or intermediaries.

Equity issuance remains one of the few areas of capital markets where orders are still frequently communicated by email, telephone or chat. FIX and the IA argue that these manual processes create inefficiency, increase the risk of human error and make it harder to maintain consistent records throughout a transaction.

Developed by buy-side firms, sell-side institutions and technology providers, the guidance is designed to be both vendor-agnostic and system-agnostic. Investment managers, syndicate banks and platform providers would therefore be able to communicate through a common standard without relying on a particular technology stack.

Initial work focuses on accelerated bookbuilds, but the intention is to extend the framework across IPOs and secondary placements. The longer-term goal is to enable buy-side traders to submit orders for primary issuance using FIX in much the same way as they already execute secondary-market trades.

For companies raising equity, greater automation could make the issuance process faster and easier to monitor, particularly where multiple banks and investors are involved. More structured order and allocation data could also give issuers and advisers a clearer audit trail through bookbuilding, improve transparency and reduce operational risk. Consistent electronic records may also support stronger compliance and post-deal analysis.

Finance teams may also benefit from more predictable execution processes around capital raising, especially when equity issuance forms part of a broader funding strategy alongside debt and liquidity planning. Standardised electronic workflows could help reduce manual handoffs at a point when timing, investor demand and allocation decisions can move quickly.

Work by the FIX Equity Issuance Working Group is intended to continue across a wider range of equity capital markets transactions, with the eventual aim of supporting a fully electronic IPO process.

 

Philips prices €650m EU green bond ahead of maturity

Philips has priced a €650m green bond due in 2034, in what the company says is the healthcare industry’s first issuance under the European Green Bond Standard. Fixed-rate notes were issued under Philips’ European Medium Term Note programme at 99.655, with a 4.0% coupon and yield of 4.055%. The 7.8-year tranche was 2.7 times oversubscribed.

An amount equivalent to the gross proceeds will be allocated to taxonomy-aligned economic activities set out in Philips’ European Green Bond Factsheet. The company said the financing will support its 2030 sustainability ambitions.

Balance-sheet impact is expected to be temporary. Gross debt will rise until Philips repays an existing bond maturing in May 2027, but the transaction is not expected to increase net debt, effectively placing the new funding ahead of that maturity rather than adding to leverage on a net basis.

Refinancing an approaching maturity through the capital markets gives Philips longer-term funding visibility while extending part of its debt profile. Demand reaching 2.7 times the amount issued also indicates substantial investor appetite for the deal.

Current ratings stand at BBB+ from S&P and Fitch, both with stable outlooks, alongside Baa1 from Moody’s with a stable outlook. Philips said it remains committed to maintaining a strong investment-grade credit rating.

Settlement and issuance are scheduled for 28 August 2026. Philips has applied for the notes to be listed on the Official List of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and admitted to trading on its regulated market.

Once the 2027 bond is repaid, the deal will have added a green-labelled instrument to Philips’ funding mix without increasing net debt. For corporate finance teams, the combination of refinancing, long-dated funding and taxonomy-aligned use of proceeds shows how green debt can sit within an existing maturity-management programme rather than operate as a separate financing exercise.

 

CFOs urged to shift capital towards monetisation

CFOs should direct more capital towards monetising existing assets and building platform-based business models as companies look for more efficient sources of revenue growth, according to Gartner.

The research firm analysed 1,180 growth-related investments across more than 500 large enterprises in 10 industries. Around 70% of recent initiatives were centred on monetisation and platformisation strategies, while just 21% focused primarily on new product and service innovation.

Vaughan Archer, senior director analyst in the Gartner Finance practice, said: “CFOs and executive leaders must adapt to a world where product innovation alone, especially without clear monetisation and customer retention pathways, is no longer sufficient.”

Gartner argues that companies are increasingly looking to generate more value from assets, capabilities and customer relationships they already possess. Pricing, personalisation, subscriptions and platform-based models are becoming more important as digital technology makes new products easier for competitors to replicate.

Archer said: “Companies are now more commonly seeking growth from monetising and scaling existing assets and customer relationships rather than by product innovation alone.”

The preferred route varies by sector. Financial services, real estate and utilities are more likely to seek growth by monetising data, capabilities and established customer relationships, while technology and digital businesses tend to favour platform strategies that can deepen engagement and create network effects.

For CFOs, the shift changes how growth investment is assessed. Capital allocation decisions increasingly need to test not only whether a project creates a new product or enters a new market, but whether it has a credible path to recurring revenue, stronger retention or better use of existing assets.

Archer said companies demonstrating efficient growth are those that have “most effectively monetised their existing assets and capabilities, while developing platforms that drive broader, deeper, more sustained customer engagement.”

Gartner describes the trend as an “innovation plateau”, where new products alone are becoming less effective at creating lasting competitive advantage. That puts greater emphasis on how finance measures returns from assets already inside the business. That does not remove product development from the growth agenda, but it raises the hurdle for investment that lacks a clear route to value capture.

Finance leaders may therefore need to compare growth projects on a broader basis, including monetisation potential, customer economics and the ability to scale through existing platforms. Gartner’s analysis suggests the strongest growth strategies are increasingly those that combine innovation with a clearer mechanism for turning existing capabilities into durable revenue.

 

TD tests tokenised payments through Project Agorá

TD has completed a real-value tokenised payment between two of its US entities using the Project Agorá platform, with BNY acting as clearing bank and intermediary. The transaction moved US dollar funds between TD New York Branch and TD Bank, N.A., using tokenised money issued on the Agorá platform. TD said the payment settled instantly and atomically, meaning the linked parts completed together or not at all.

Project Agorá is a public-private initiative led by the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance. It is testing whether tokenised commercial bank deposits and central bank reserves can improve wholesale cross-border payments while preserving regulated money.

Real-value testing involved 28 central banks and financial institutions across Asia, Europe and North America. Participants completed 17 transaction scenarios worth around CHF800,000 in total, with individual transactions ranging from CHF9,000 to CHF125,000 or local currency equivalents.

Agorá’s shared platform records tokenised versions of commercial bank deposits and central bank reserves while allowing central banks to retain control over their currencies and operations. The prototype also tested automated payment instructions, shared data standards and tools intended to reduce manual processing and reconciliation.

Jo Jagadish, head of digital and payments and consumer deposits at TD Bank US, said the project showed “what’s possible when the public and private sectors come together with a shared ambition to make global money movement faster, safer and more efficient.”

For corporate treasury teams, the relevance lies in whether shared programmable infrastructure can reduce steps in moving liquidity across borders, improve payment visibility and provide greater certainty over final settlement.

Atomic settlement is significant where multiple legs of a payment must complete together. Reducing the risk that one leg settles while another fails or is delayed could improve certainty around cross-currency and interbank transactions.

Carolyn Weinberg, chief product and innovation officer at BNY, said Project Agorá highlights “the potential of tokenised deposits making cross-border payments more efficient, transparent and resilient”.

The next test is whether these capabilities can move beyond controlled trials into scalable bank infrastructure. Corporate adoption will depend on how tokenised payments integrate with existing treasury systems, liquidity processes, compliance controls and legal frameworks across jurisdictions.

 

RBC unifies transaction banking across Canada and US

Royal Bank of Canada has formally created a unified Global Transaction Banking business, bringing together transaction banking capabilities from its commercial banking operations in Canada and the US with those in RBC Capital Markets.

Under the new structure, cash management, payments, trade finance, foreign exchange and liquidity management will sit under a single strategy and leadership model. RBC said the reorganisation is intended to connect client coverage, product expertise, technology and execution across the bank.

Sean Amato-Gauci, group head of commercial banking, and Derek Neldner, chief executive and group head of RBC Capital Markets, will jointly lead the business. Kartik Kaushik has been appointed head of product, platforms and solutions, while Michael Klopchic will lead client coverage.

RBC Clear, its US digital cash management platform, and RBC Edge, its Canadian equivalent, will sit within the broader transaction banking proposition. The bank said the combined business will support domestic and international clients across working capital needs, alongside payments, trade and FX services.

Bringing these capabilities together could simplify access for corporate clients operating across markets, particularly where treasury teams currently manage cash, liquidity and transaction banking relationships through different parts of the bank.

Deposit gathering is also part of the strategy. RBC said Global Transaction Banking is central to efforts to generate additional deposits that can help fund the bank’s next phase of growth.

Despite the structural change, RBC will not alter its financial reporting. Results will continue to be reported within existing business segments.

RBC already describes itself as the leading transaction bank in Canada, with the country’s largest wholesale deposit portfolio and a leading payments franchise, while it is also seeking to expand in the US.

Corporate clients will ultimately judge the reorganisation on whether it produces more consistent cross-border service, easier access to liquidity and payments capabilities and stronger integration across cash management, FX and trade finance.

 

Tieto and Siirto simplify Finnish e-invoicing

Tieto and Siirto have partnered to simplify e-invoicing in Finland by allowing businesses to retrieve customers’ e-invoice addresses and send invoices directly to their online banking services.

Combining Siirto’s newly launched centralised registry with Tieto’s Multichannel B2C e-invoicing solution, the service will let businesses identify a customer’s e-invoice address without requiring the recipient to provide it separately, reducing friction at the start of the billing process.

Consumers can receive and pay invoices inside existing bank apps rather than using a separate application. Siirto has more than 1 million registered users in Finland.

Direct delivery into online banking could also help businesses reduce reliance on paper invoices and improve the consistency of digital billing. Fewer manual address checks may make onboarding and first-time invoicing easier, particularly for companies managing large volumes of consumer payments.

Cleaner routing of invoices can support faster processing and reduce exceptions caused by incorrect or missing e-invoice details. That can improve reconciliation and give businesses greater confidence that invoices have reached the intended recipient through an established banking channel.

Closer integration between invoicing and banking also reflects the broader convergence of invoicing and payments infrastructure. As instant payments and digital banking become more closely linked, businesses may be able to shorten the path between issuing an invoice, receiving payment and reconciling the transaction.

Practical benefits will depend on adoption among billers, how effectively the registry integrates with companies’ existing billing and finance systems and whether it reduces failed delivery or manual intervention at scale.

 

Deutsche Bank backs Squadron Energy refinancing with A$160m

Deutsche Bank has committed A$160m to a refinancing for Squadron Energy covering five operating wind farms in Australia and the Uungula Wind Farm, which is under construction in New South Wales.

Squadron Energy, the renewable energy platform of privately owned Australian investment group Tattarang, develops, owns and operates renewable assets across the country. Its portfolio comprises around 2GW of wind capacity across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

The refinancing provides flexible, non-recourse financing for approximately 1.5GW of operational wind farms alongside Uungula. The structure can also accommodate future growth, including potential investment in battery energy storage projects.

Non-recourse financing limits lenders’ claims primarily to the financed assets and their cash flows, rather than the wider corporate balance sheet. For Squadron, the portfolio approach allows several operating assets and a project under construction to sit within the same funding structure.

Additional capacity for future battery projects could give the company flexibility to pair storage with renewable generation as its portfolio develops.

For Deutsche Bank, the A$160m commitment deepens an existing financing relationship with Squadron Energy and extends its exposure to Australian renewable infrastructure. The transaction shows how portfolio-level financing can support established assets and expansion without requiring a separate funding structure for each new project.

 

DBS and Stripe expand cross-border payments partnership in Asia

DBS and Stripe have formed a strategic partnership covering cross-border payments, liquidity management and the development of agentic AI capabilities for businesses across Asia. Under the agreement, Stripe will use DBS’ digital banking, money movement and cash management services to support merchants on its platform. The arrangement is intended to improve collections across markets while helping Stripe manage liquidity and cash positions between its corporate entities.

DBS will meanwhile explore using Stripe’s global platform and embedded finance capabilities to extend its own cross-border network. Institutional clients could gain access to a broader range of payment and currency corridors as the bank connects more closely with Stripe’s infrastructure.

Agentic commerce is another area of collaboration, with McKinsey projecting up to US$5 trillion in global consumer commerce by 2030. The two companies plan to examine AI-powered capabilities that could allow DBS customers to transact more efficiently and securely as automated agents take a larger role in commerce.

The partnership reflects rising demand for cross-border payment infrastructure in Asia. Money20/20 and FXC Intelligence project outbound cross-border payments from the region will reach US$24 trillion by 2033, up from US$13.5 trillion in 2025 and representing 36% of global outbound flows.

Stripe said more than half of its users in Asia already sell across borders, giving the relationship an immediate focus on businesses operating internationally rather than purely domestic merchants.

Practical value will depend on how far the tie-up improves settlement, liquidity visibility and access to local payment rails without adding complexity for finance teams. Better connectivity between Stripe’s merchant infrastructure and DBS’ banking network could help businesses collect funds in more markets and move cash between entities more efficiently.

As agentic commerce develops, the same infrastructure may also need to support new controls around automated payments, including authorisation, fraud prevention and transaction oversight.

 

Nacha names Finastra preferred partner for ACH modernisation

Nacha has named Finastra a Preferred Partner for ACH Experience, ISO 20022 and risk and fraud prevention, recognising the company’s payments technology for financial institutions using the US ACH Network.

Finastra’s Global PAYplus and Payments To Go platforms are designed to help banks move from traditional batch processing towards more scalable and adaptive ACH operations. The systems support Same Day ACH as transaction volumes and processing speeds increase.

The partnership also covers ISO 20022 readiness, reflecting the growing importance of richer payment data and more consistent messaging standards alongside domestic ACH processing.

For financial institutions, the designation highlights three priorities increasingly shaping ACH infrastructure: handling higher payment volumes, improving automation and maintaining operational control as processing windows shorten.

Same Day ACH continues to expand, increasing pressure on banks to support faster processing without weakening resilience or fraud controls. Modernising older batch-based systems can also make it easier to introduce new payment services and adapt to changes in Nacha rules.

Finastra’s role as a Preferred Partner does not change Nacha’s rules or network governance. The programme is open to technology providers whose products align with Nacha’s strategy for advancing the ACH Network.

For corporate users, the impact is indirect but relevant. Better bank-side ACH infrastructure can support faster payment execution, more reliable processing and richer transaction data, particularly where companies are sending large payment files or using Same Day ACH for time-sensitive flows.

 

Ant International-backed R2 expands embedded credit into Brazil

Ant International-backed R2 has entered Brazil, extending its embedded credit technology into Latin America’s largest economy. R2 will work with digital platforms, marketplaces, payment providers, e-commerce companies and other businesses serving small and medium-sized enterprises and gig workers. Its technology allows those platforms to offer working capital directly within their existing services without building their own credit operations or taking on credit risk.

Using transaction data, R2 assesses business performance and tailors financing offers. In Brazil, widespread use of Pix is expected to provide a rich source of real-time payment data, including transaction volumes, revenue patterns and payment behaviour.

As of the second quarter of 2026, eligible businesses across R2’s existing markets received funding in an average of 0.7 hours, while up to 70% of eligible applicants were pre-approved. Origination volume had increased 2.5 times year on year by July.

R2 said its platform analyses more than 10.3bn transactions each month, giving it visibility into more than 7.3m merchants across the region. Transaction data supports underwriting for businesses that may lack the documentation typically required by traditional lenders.

Ant International is supporting the Brazilian expansion through investment in R2’s growth and additional funding capacity for embedded credit programmes. The payments group processes more than 20m transactions daily and connects more than 150m merchants with over 2bn user accounts globally.

Brazil also extends Ant International’s existing activity in the country, where it already provides embedded financing and credit technology through partnerships with e-commerce platforms and local fintechs.

For platforms, the attraction is the ability to add financing as a service and create an additional revenue stream. Merchants and independent workers can meanwhile access working capital based more directly on actual digital revenues.

R2 plans to continue expanding through partnerships with marketplaces, logistics companies, payment providers and software platforms across the region.