The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | March 30th

By Puja Sharma

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

Replacing fragmented legacy systems

Luana Savings Bank has selected nCino to consolidate and modernise its commercial and agricultural lending operations, underscoring a broader shift among community banks toward unified digital lending platforms to improve efficiency and scalability.

The Iowa-based lender will deploy the nCino Platform across its lending functions, replacing fragmented legacy systems and manual processes that previously required repeated data entry across multiple stages of the loan lifecycle. The move is intended to streamline workflows, improve data consistency, and enhance transparency from origination through to underwriting and ongoing monitoring.

For smaller and mid-sized banks, particularly those with exposure to specialised segments such as agricultural lending, operational inefficiencies and siloed systems have long constrained scalability. By adopting an integrated platform, Luana Savings Bank aims to reduce processing times and operational friction while maintaining the relationship-driven model typical of community banking.

The deployment will include automation tools such as nCino Automated Spreading, which standardises financial data analysis and supports more consistent credit decisioning. This is expected to reduce manual errors and accelerate turnaround times, particularly in complex commercial and agricultural loan cases where documentation and risk assessment requirements are often more intensive.

Feedzai has introduced RiskFM, a new AI foundation model built specifically for tabular financial data, with the goal of improving how banks and financial institutions detect and prevent financial crime. Unlike traditional models that rely heavily on manual feature engineering or narrow datasets, RiskFM is trained on a wide range of financial activities, including customer onboarding, digital transactions, card payments, transfers, and anti-money laundering workflows. This broad training allows the model to provide more comprehensive coverage across different risk scenarios.

The model is designed to deliver three key benefits: it compounds intelligence by learning from diverse institutions and geographies, it performs effectively without extensive manual tuning, and it offers wide applicability across fraud detection and AML processes. Early testing suggests that RiskFM can match or outperform existing supervised models while reducing deployment time and costs. Feedzai highlights that financial crime is an adversarial domain where fraud tactics constantly evolve, making scalable and adaptive intelligence essential. RiskFM represents an attempt to bring the foundation model approach—popular in other AI domains—into financial crime prevention, offering institutions a more flexible and resilient tool for risk management.

Removing the need for debit cards

PayNearby has introduced a new service, UPI Cashpoint, enabling cardless cash withdrawals at neighbourhood retail outlets, targeting semi-urban and rural markets where physical cash continues to play a critical role.

The offering allows customers to withdraw cash by scanning a UPI QR code at participating stores, entering the withdrawal amount, and authenticating the transaction through their smartphone. The service removes the need for debit cards or Aadhaar-based authentication, aiming to simplify access to cash in underserved regions.

The backend infrastructure for UPI-based withdrawals is powered by IndusInd Bank, extending banking services through PayNearby’s retail distribution network. Customers can initiate transactions using third-party UPI applications, including PayNearby’s Saathi app, developed in partnership with YES Bank, as well as other supported UPI platforms.

The launch reflects a broader shift in the evolution of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which is increasingly being leveraged beyond peer-to-peer and merchant payments to support additional financial services. In markets where digital adoption coexists with continued reliance on cash, hybrid models that combine digital infrastructure with assisted, in-person services are gaining traction.

Adonis, a New York-based AI platform focused on revenue cycle management (RCM) in healthcare, has secured $40 million in Series C funding led by Quadrille Capital, with participation from General Catalyst and Bling Capital. This latest round brings its total funding to over $95 million since its launch in 2022. The company saw rapid growth in 2025, with revenues increasing more than fourfold and net retention rates exceeding 130%, signalling strong demand for its solutions and investor confidence in its ability to tackle inefficiencies in healthcare reimbursement processes.

The platform uses AI and autonomous agents to monitor revenue cycle activity, identify issues, recommend corrective actions, and move claims towards resolution, thereby reducing administrative strain and stabilising provider income. This funding comes at a time when U.S. healthcare systems are under pressure from rising denial rates, shifting payer rules, and policy changes that have increased the number of uninsured patients. Adonis intends to use the capital to expand its presence in health systems, accelerate product innovation, and grow its workforce, aiming to provide scalable solutions to challenges such as workforce shortages, denials, and underpayments.

What is the Buzz

Infosys has announced plans to acquire Stratus, a U.S.-based consulting and technology firm specialising in property and casualty (P&C) insurance solutions. Stratus is known for its deep expertise with Guidewire Software and offers services such as system integration, cloud migration, upgrades, and application management.

Through this deal, Infosys aims to strengthen its insurance technology capabilities and accelerate digital transformation for insurers worldwide. By combining Stratus’ Guidewire expertise with Infosys’ AI-powered Topaz and cloud-based Cobalt platforms, the company plans to deliver faster modernisation programs, improve underwriting and claims processes, and enhance fraud detection and customer experience. Leaders from both companies emphasised that the acquisition will help insurers adopt AI-driven solutions more effectively, positioning Infosys as a stronger player in the global insurance technology space.