Abound, NEAR AI build AI financial autopilot for NRIs

Abound has partnered with NEAR AI to develop an AI-powered “financial autopilot”, aimed at automating and optimising cross-border financial management for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), as FinTech platforms increasingly shift toward execution-led, goal-based systems.

The planned capability is designed to function as an autonomous financial agent, moving beyond traditional transaction-based services and dashboard-driven tools. The system will monitor foreign exchange rates, bank balances, recurring payments, and investments, and execute actions based on user-defined financial goals.

The initiative reflects a broader industry trend toward agentic AI in financial services, where platforms are evolving from providing recommendations to directly executing financial decisions. This is particularly relevant in the NRI segment, where users often manage fragmented financial activities across multiple jurisdictions, accounts, and currencies.

According to Nishkaam Mehta, the goal is to simplify cross-border financial management by enabling users to define outcomes while the system handles execution. Sunit Agarwal added that the platform is being designed to act on behalf of users, rather than simply offering insights.

Initial features are expected to include automated remittances triggered by favourable exchange rates, monitoring and management of Non-Resident External (NRE) and Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) accounts, autonomous bill payments for recurring obligations, and a unified view of assets across geographies.

NEAR AI will provide the underlying infrastructure, focused on secure and scalable AI systems. George Zeng said the collaboration is intended to enable reliable, goal-driven automation in cross-border finance.

Abound currently serves more than 800,000 NRIs and processes over $300 million in remittance volumes. The rollout of the AI Financial Autopilot is expected to take place in phases, beginning with remittance optimisation before expanding into banking, investments, and bill payments.

The move highlights a broader shift in FinTech, as providers look to embed AI deeper into financial workflows to deliver automation, improve efficiency, and address the complexity of managing finances across borders.