The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | July 28th

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.

Modern, agile, and customer-centric banking services

Apiture, a digital banking technology company, has launched real-time payments (RTP) capabilities for its network of community banks and credit unions to power modern, agile, and customer-centric banking services.

The newly integrated real-time payments functionality enables Apiture clients to offer instant money movement through both The Clearing House’s RTP® network and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow® Service. Available 24/7/365, this capability empowers consumer and business account holders to send and receive payments in seconds, meeting the growing market demand for fast, seamless, and secure financial transactions.

As digital transformation redefines customer expectations, the introduction of real-time payments positions Apiture’s clients to stay competitive against larger institutions. With more than half of U.S. businesses already leveraging RTP and FedNow in 2024 a figure expected to rise to 80% by 2026 community banks and credit unions are under increased pressure to modernise their payment offerings and deliver on-speed digital financial experiences.

Chetwood Bank is set to open a new office in Manchester, as part of its national expansion strategy and reinforcing its commitment to regional investment, operational resilience, and scalable growth.

The Manchester hub is set to support a growing number of roles across mortgage operations, technology, and risk, and will serve as a strategic anchor as the bank continues to grow its specialist lending and savings propositions. The expansion follows a period of exceptional momentum for Chetwood, with the bank’s balance sheet surpassing $6.7 billion, up from $4.2 billion in March 2024 and $5.4 billion by May 2025.

Chetwood’s Manchester office will play a key role in supporting the bank’s flagship intermediary mortgage brands, ModaMortgages and CHL Mortgages for Intermediaries, both of which have seen rapid adoption among brokers seeking specialist lending expertise paired with digital simplicity. The bank’s growth has also been supported by several forward-flow arrangements and a £2 billion investment portfolio that includes senior positions in warehouse financing structures, enabling broader support for UK consumer and SME lending markets.

Customer-centric innovation

Mastercard has launched an AI-powered Card Design Studio, a platform that enables banks and card issuers to create customised payment card designs quickly and efficiently. This tool enables users to upload logos, enter product details, and utilise AI-assisted features to create layouts that align with their brand. The finished designs can be downloaded instantly, significantly reducing the time it typically takes to bring new card designs to market—from weeks to just minutes.

The platform is part of Mastercard’s broader effort to modernise and simplify the card creation process. It leverages the company’s extensive experience in branding and card production, providing high-end design capabilities directly to its partners. Future updates will also allow consumers and small businesses to design their own personalised cards.

Currently, the AI Card Design Studio is available in North America, Europe, and Australia via the Mastercard Connect platform, with plans for a global rollout.

dLocal, a cross-border payments platform, has partnered with digital remittance provider RizRemit to enhance and scale payout operations across key markets in Africa and Asia.

This milestone collaboration marks a significant step toward simplifying remittance delivery, improving speed, and expanding access through next-generation local payment infrastructure. Under this partnership, RizRemit has integrated with dLocal’s single API platform to unlock seamless access to local payment ecosystems. This includes real-time connectivity to widely adopted eWallets such as OPay in Nigeria, JazzCash, and EasyPaisa in Pakistan, as well as traditional bank rails. The solution empowers RizRemit to deliver funds through channels that are both familiar and trusted by end users, helping to accelerate settlement times while minimising back-end complexity.

The collaboration reflects both firms’ commitment to customer-centric innovation and financial inclusion in underserved regions. By directly integrating with local financial systems, the partnership enhances user experience, boosts transaction transparency, and supports faster disbursement of funds all while reducing friction in cross-border operations.

What is the Buzz

Investec, a UK-based investment banking and wealth management firm, has partnered with Indian tech provider SunTec to enhance its pricing and billing operations for corporate clients. The bank has deployed SunTec’s flagship platform, Xelerate, to automate pricing, billing, and collections within its payments and collections business. The solution will also enable tiered pricing structures, supporting scalable and customer-centric growth. Investec opted for an on-premise deployment, while Xelerate also offers cloud and SaaS options. This move expands SunTec’s global footprint, which now includes over 170 clients across 50+ countries in sectors like finance, telecom, and insurance