Blockchain is opening up new money flows, cross-border transactions are speeding up, and artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising financial processes. At the same time, businesses are being forced by regulatory changes to incorporate compliance technology, which will ensure their resilience at a time of increased scrutiny.

B2B finance is at a turning point. In addition to changing the financial infrastructure, the convergence of these advances is radically changing how businesses control risk, streamline processes, and spur expansion.

Businesses that successfully use fintech solutions will have a competitive advantage, while those that don’t adjust quickly run the risk of becoming obsolete in the rapidly digitalised financial sector.

The quickening of business payments

As businesses seek quicker, more affordable solutions, the global payment infrastructure is changing. By the end of 2025, it is anticipated that the total number of cross-border blockchain transactions will have increased by 48% year over year to $5 trillion. The demand for smooth, real-time settlement solutions is expected to propel the worldwide payment processing industry, valued at $79.6 billion in 2024, to more than double, reaching $161.9 billion by 2030.

In addition to speeding up transactions, this development is forcing companies to reconsider their financial arrangements and hastening the use of financial products based on blockchain technology to improve liquidity management and maximise cash flow. This growing reliance on digital assets is ushering in a more automated and decentralised corporate finance ecosystem.

Digital asset usage in corporate finance is becoming a strategic imperative rather than just conjecture. Blockchain technology is used by financial institutions and global firms to improve security, liquidity management, and transaction efficiency.

Early blockchain projects were mostly limited to experimental pilots, but due to institutional demand, regulatory changes, and cost-saving advantages, corporate adoption has now moved to full-scale implementation.

Due to growing corporate adoption, the financial blockchain market is expected to reach $49.2 billion by 2030. Tokenisation is driving this change, as companies digitise financial instruments, commodities, and real estate to enhance liquidity and tradability.

Experts predict that the demand for tokenised assets will surpass $600 billion. Tokenised assets are already being incorporated by businesses into trade settlement, supply chain finance, and cross-border transactions, which lowers counterparty risks and shortens settlement times from days to seconds.

At the forefront of this change are institutions. Leading exchanges are modifying their models to include institutional-grade digital assets, while international banks and asset managers are introducing tokenisation platforms to enable blockchain-based financial instruments. The distinction between decentralised finance (DeFi) and traditional finance is starting to become less clear, opening up new avenues for investment vehicles and capital markets.

But there are still obstacles in the way of widespread acceptance. As different jurisdictions adopt varying approaches to digital asset monitoring and compliance regimes, regulatory uncertainty remains a major concern.

While some regions, like Singapore and the European Union, have taken proactive measures to set clear regulatory norms, others are still figuring out where they stand. Businesses’ approaches to risk reduction, security procedures, and compliance will be influenced by these changing policies.

Businesses that successfully integrate tokenisation into their financial strategy will be positioned for long-term success in an increasingly digitised and decentralised global economy, even though adoption will move at varying rates across industries.

The institutional shift and CBDCs

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are still developing, but more slowly than first thought. Citing the need for legislative clarity, interoperability testing, and risk assessment, about one-third of central banks have postponed their intentions to introduce digital versions of their currencies.

Most, however, are still driven to keep control over monetary policy and currency issuance and are dedicated to eventual adoption. The increase in cross-border wholesale CBDC initiatives over the past few years is indicative of an institutional focus on improving interbank settlements and simplifying international financial flows.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the European Central Bank (ECB), and the United States Federal Reserve are among the central banks that have started pilot programmes to test the infrastructure for digital currency transactions at the wholesale level. Project mBridge, which links banks in China, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia, is one of them.

Wholesale CBDCs are emerging as a more attractive option for large-scale corporate transactions, liquidity management, and cross-border trade financing as central banks concentrate on improving interbank settlements and simplifying international financial flows.

Adoption of CBDCs has important and encouraging ramifications for businesses. Reduced transaction costs, quicker settlement times, and less dependence on middlemen are all advantages for businesses involved in international trade.

By facilitating quicker settlement times and lowering reliance on intermediary currencies, wholesale CBDCs have the potential to lower foreign exchange risks, especially in emerging markets where operational difficulties are caused by currency volatility. CBDCs could reduce the risks related to foreign exchange swings in cross-border payments by facilitating direct currency exchanges and improving transparency in cross-currency transactions.

Despite these benefits, privacy laws, their influence on monetary policy, and cybersecurity issues remain major barriers to widespread adoption. The digital currency frameworks of some jurisdictions, like China and the UAE, are developing quickly, but others are still cautious and are waiting for more precise guidelines regarding the governance of CBDCs and their integration with current financial systems.

Businesses must keep up with changing technology and regulatory environments as CBDCs continue to grow. Navigating the next stage of financial digitisation will require an understanding of how digital currencies fit into global payment infrastructure, liquidity management, and corporate finance. This emphasis on ongoing learning and adaptation highlights the significance of remaining informed and proactive in the rapidly changing fintech world.

Future of enterprise finance and AI

Artificial intelligence is evolving from a tool for efficiency to a fundamental component of enterprise finance, changing everything from sophisticated financial modelling to real-time risk management. As businesses scramble to incorporate automation and machine learning into financial operations, investments in AI-driven compliance, fraud detection, and predictive analytics are increasing.

The B2B banking industry has proven AI’s usefulness for automated risk assessment. It enables businesses to examine large financial data sets to identify irregularities and make previously unheard-of credit risk predictions.

Real-time transactional behaviour analysis by AI-driven fraud detection systems, which are already integrated into international payment networks, can reduce financial crime losses by up to 50% by flagging questionable activity.

Corporate finance is also changing as a result of the emergence of generative AI. Complex legal documents, contract analysis, and regulatory compliance reporting are now processed by AI-powered automation, which can reduce processing times by up to 90%.

Businesses now face additional security and regulatory problems as AI develops. Although AI improves financial decision-making, authorities are examining AI-driven financial services more closely, so companies must use understandable AI models to ensure compliance and transparency.

For financial organisations, investing in AI is now a strategic need rather than an option. In an increasingly automated and data-driven economy, businesses that do not incorporate AI-powered financial solutions run the danger of falling behind.

Fintech adoption for compliance

Regulatory compliance is still a major concern as financial technology changes business interactions. Businesses are being forced to reconsider how they handle compliance as a result of the growing complexity of international financial regulations, as well as the emergence of digital assets, AI-driven financial services, and CBDCs.

Regulatory technology (RegTech), which offers automated solutions for risk assessment, fraud prevention, and real-time monitoring, is becoming an increasingly important part of enterprise fintech plans.

Several important causes are driving the need for RegTech. Businesses that conduct cross-border operations must adhere to several regulatory frameworks, which raises the cost and difficulty of reporting. Businesses may automate compliance procedures with AI-powered RegTech solutions, guaranteeing adherence to changing jurisdictional standards while lowering operational risks.

As businesses enhance automation to manage regulatory complexity, the RegTech industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.6% from its 2023 valuation of $11.7 billion to $83.8 billion by 2033, according to Allied Industry Research.

AI is already being used to expedite manufacturing, healthcare, and financial regulatory procedures. By automating risk assessments, fraud detection, and legal reporting, RegTech platforms powered by AI have been demonstrated to dramatically lower compliance costs. AI-based solutions have reduced document filing times in legal departments by 90%, improving operational effectiveness and reducing compliance expenses.

Initiatives for digital compliance are also being accelerated by governments and financial institutions, especially in light of the growth of digital currencies and decentralised finance (DeFi). Regulatory frameworks must change as blockchain-based transactions and CBDCs become more popular in order to adequately supervise these financial innovations.

Businesses that don’t incorporate automated compliance solutions run the danger of facing fines from the government, being investigated, and experiencing operational inefficiencies.

Businesses can lower compliance expenses, improve fraud detection capabilities, and increase the effectiveness of regulatory reporting by utilising RegTech. Integrating AI-powered compliance technologies enables businesses to manage changing regulations and reduce the dangers of financial crime.

Businesses that proactively deploy RegTech solutions will be better equipped to handle the increasingly complicated global regulatory environment as financial technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace.

In order to negotiate an increasingly complex legal environment, businesses must make sure that their infrastructure is ready for the integration of digital assets, engage in staff development to maximise AI applications, and have strict compliance procedures in place. Cybersecurity is still a major worry, and to protect digital transactions, firms must implement advanced risk mitigation techniques.

Despite the traditional lag in B2B financial technology adoption compared to consumer finance, 2025 represents a significant shift. Failure to integrate financial technology puts businesses at risk of operational inefficiencies and decreased competitiveness, especially as the sector transitions to full-scale digitisation. Moving from trial adoption to strategic deployment is now essential, making sure that technology investments solve particular operational issues and provide quantifiable corporate value.

Opportunities are being created by the quickening adoption of financial technology, but businesses that don’t make strategic plans may find it difficult to remain resilient in a setting that is changing quickly. Enterprise transactions in the future will be shaped by companies that adopt digital finance innovations now; those that do not run the risk of becoming permanently behind in a financial ecosystem that is changing quickly.

The post Fintech’s next revolution appeared first on International Finance.

Approximately, half of the companies that paid AML penalties last year were banks. Obviously, the losses for financial institutions that are hit with AML penalties are not limited to just the penalties themselves. They pay a heavy price in terms of declining revenues, customer dissatisfaction, collapsing stock prices, and loss of reputation and brand value.

Rules-based software that used to be deployed by banks to detect money laundering is inefficient and leaves analysts with too many alerts to deal with that could be positive or negative. Solutions based on artificial intelligence are much more efficient in detecting money laundering, compared to software-based on rule-based approaches.

Today deep neural networks can reveal complex interdependencies among money laundering activities across the world leading to fewer false alarms and more accurate recommendations. One such fintech startup that stands out for its artificial intelligence-based AML software is Silent Eight, which is also one of the many fintech companies founded in Singapore by European entrepreneurs.

In the case of Silent Eight’s solution, the recommendations are supported by a written narrative explaining in plain English the decisions. Silent Eight’s machine continually learns as time goes by, and updates its algorithms to constantly improve the quality of its recommendations. The result is that it significantly reduces analysts’ time to review cases and arrive at correct conclusions.

The rising number of global fintech entrepreneurs who are heading to Singapore to launch their fintech startups stands testimony to the allure of the city state’s world-class business environment, regulatory framework, and global mindset. Coming from Poland, Martin Markiewicz is the co-founder and CEO of Silent Eight. Based in Singapore, which is now a major regtech hub, Martin provides the vision behind the company’s AI-based advancements in fighting financial crimes.

Silent Eight is the winner of the FinTech Abu Dhabi Innovation Challenge and the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s 2017 Fintech Hackcelerator award. In 2018, it won a top fintech award in Australia. The same year, Standard Chartered announced that as part of its efforts to lead the way in the global fight against financial crime through the use of regtech, it had partnered with Silent Eight to deliver cutting edge capabilities to its Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) teams.

In 2019, Standard Chartered’s fintech and ventures unit, SC Ventures invested in Silent Eight’s oversubscribed Series A funding round, becoming a minority investor in Silent Eight and reaffirming the global banking giant’s trust in Silent Eight’s solution.

With an educational qualification in mathematics, Martin is a serial entrepreneur. Before launching Silent Eight, Martin had made his mark, creating a few successful startups in Europe and Asia, which includes a startup that saw a successful IPO.

In fact, Martin launched his first startup, Konsultant.it, which provided software and hardware development solutions for small and medium enterprises in 2001. In between, he was the strategic sales director of Wola Info, a leading European IT company. Later Martin established SevenFlow Investments – a multidisciplinary engineering company with a track record of landmark projects. SevenFlow Investments would finally become a part of a highly successful IPO.

With his 16 years of experience in software and artificial intelligence solutions covering a wide range of applications, Martin has taken the challenge of helping banks outsmart financial criminals and money launderers, who are gaming their transaction systems, headlong. In an exclusive interview with International Finance, Martin speaks about the Singapore fintech startup ecosystem, the value proposition that Silent Eight provides to its users, the Singapore fintech’s growth, and the future of AML software.

International Finance: Could you tell us more about the background of Silent Eight founders and the motivation to launch an anti-money laundering startup in Singapore?

Martin Markiewicz: Before we started Silent Eight, we took a company from startup to publicly traded in Poland. Our track record of creating a publicly-traded company from an idea gave us the confidence to try something new.

We were looking to do something significant, something that would help people. Our strengths are in engineering and problem solving, so we were looking for a global problem we could solve that would make the world better. It sounds a little cliched, but it’s what we wanted to do. We kept coming across money laundering, financial crime, the challenges that institutions face to run their business and ensure exactly who they were doing that business with.

In essence, we understood the global damage caused by all these activities. We saw the billions of dollars being spent every year to fight financial crime, and we also saw statistics after statistics that showed the bad guys won way too often.

The way we build is from the bottom up, working with a customer to solve a problem. This led us to Singapore, a global financial centre, to launch our business in supporting banks to combat global financial crime.

If you examine our clients, they are clients with a global scale and to match them, we are expanding globally with offices in Singapore, New York, Chicago, Seattle, London, Hyderabad, and Warsaw.

What are the key challenges that AML solutions face globally, especially the volume of false alerts? How do Silent Eight’s solutions minimise this challenge?

The false alerts are just one of the many problems. There are a lot of major lawbreakers and bad guys who are trying to get into the financial system and freely move around it. What financial institutions need to do is investigate existing and potential clients, vendors, and other partners in terms of their activities.
We help with false alerts.

We investigate 100 percent of the alerts for our customers and solve them. We do not suppress them nor are they weighted or partially solved; they are either solved or not. This is one of our key differentiators. Our IP does not decide whether an alert should be solved or not and which way it should be solved. Our AI acts according to the specifications of our clients.

The removal of false alerts is the first step to achieve our purpose, which is finding true alerts. Solving false alerts is challenging, and it’s important. Finding true positives is what we are here to do. We help our customers keep clear of terrorists, drug lords, and sanctioned people, and this way we also secure the interests of firms that protect our clients and the broader financial system. But ultimately, it’s even bigger than that in scope.

Each time we help a client refrain from financing a person with bad intent, we make it that much harder for the person with bad intent to hurt people at scale. That’s what we are about; solving false alerts gets you to true alerts and solving true alerts saves lives, money, and jobs. This is exactly what we were looking to do.

So, what are the implications of Standard Chartered’s investment in Silent Eight?

Standard Chartered is one of our minority shareholders. One of the implications is that they have invested in us and that gives us a vote of confidence. It’s always a good feeling when a client using your product says “hey, can I invest in your company?” I hope the implication of this is that we will do great in the future.
I feel that our product is differentiated, and it’s a great fillip for a global bank to invest with their capital in a company that provides them a critical product, not limit their commitment to just words.

With regard to regtech, ongoing developments like the US-China trade war are creating new sanctions lists. How is Silent Eight keeping up with these dynamic developments?

We do not create or maintain sanctions lists. Our customers have other excellent providers for that. Our AI leverages those lists and learns and grows each time an input changes, including a sanctions list. This approach means no matter what new sanctions are added or changed we are ready to support our customers in abiding by their directives.

In terms of minimising human effort and maximising productivity, can you quantify the gains that organisations can make by using Silent Eight solutions?

It’s clear that the AI can process data and solve alerts at a velocity unreachable by humans. However, we do not view it as a clear choice between human or AI solved alerts. We see it as a very traditional AI-human relationship in that a human sets the rules, the AI does the work, and another human checks the work. It is symbiotic with each component in the chain responsible for the part they are best suited.

The other key differentiator between AI and human solutions is the AI is incapable of making a mistake, either through poor training, or bias, or tiredness or any of the flaws that we are made of.

On a daily basis you may have thousands of alerts. So how does Silent Eight system ensure that it scales to meet the hundreds of thousands of alerts?

Our system is built under a scalable infrastructure with a capacity to handle hundreds of thousands of alerts every day. It’s designed to work with the biggest financial organisations in the world across multiple jurisdictions and languages.

With the number of machine learning based AML solutions available in the market, what is the unique value proposition offered by Silent Eight to financial institutions?

The first key differentiator is there is no opaqueness in how an alert is solved. We show clients each of the agent results that created the solution and which set of client rules it followed. And each alert is auditable.

It’s important to reiterate, we do not weight, or recommend, give probabilities, or suggest, and we definitely do not suppress. We follow the rules the clients give us. It is as simple as that.

Each time we solve an alert we tell the overseeing analyst exactly why the alert was solved without any black box challenges. We provide the solution and the explanation how it is worked out.

For example, it is harder for clients to trust a score generated by the machine stating that “this case has only 5 percent probability of something serious.” In my opinion, that approach doesn’t help very much. On the other hand, what helps is the machine saying “Hey this is a true case or a false case,” and then further explaining the recommendation with supporting information. With that, clients can agree or disagree with the recommendation and justify their final decision. The idea is to ensure that the machine generates transparent, reliable, and explainable information.

Which are your key markets and where do you see the most growth in the next five years?

We have big projects with European and US domiciled global banks underway and many regional banks especially in the US. We really see our target market as anyone who is worried about the accuracy and consistency of their AML processes and who could do with an AI-based helping hand.

What are the advantages and challenges of scaling a regtech startup in Singapore?

As I mentioned earlier, Singapore would be the best starting place for establishing a business. I think the fact that we started off in Singapore is an advantage because of its great regulatory and business environment.
Singapore offers a great platform for us to build something like this. Also, it is a pretty small market unlike the US — so the mindset is to go global right from the start. We are currently surrounded by like-minded people with a similar approach. That’s definitely an advantage.

In terms of developing technology, what are your plans for the next five years?

Our technology is receiving awards nearly every month, so we are very happy with the status quo. We, like any client-focused business, continue to develop based on client feedback and we have a full roadmap of client-driven requests.
Right now, we are on a certain version of the product, and the next version will be much, much better than the current one. We will ensure that the product only gets better across all use cases.

What does the future of machine learning-based AML solutions look like? How do you see the technology evolving in the future?

I think machine-learning will be increasingly adopted as the benefits become more well known as opposed to the ‘terminator complex’ that tends to often to spring to mind when people hear about AI.

The space we are in right now is complex. We are constantly stopping people from doing bad things. It is important to remember that these guys bring a lot of resources and power into play. They are also constantly trying to dodge our efforts.

So, it only makes us believe that we should keep improving and getting better at using advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence. I think the future in this space is tremendous. In the next five years, we are going to see a big shakeup in terms of who are the new market leaders. More and more players are coming up — offering advanced solutions that can be used by financial institutions without sacrificing their gains. In my view, this is the way to go. Mostly, we look forward to supporting our clients in redefining what it best looks like when it comes to keeping criminals away from the global financial markets.

The post Silent Eight: AML software that makes sense of alerts appeared first on International Finance.

Intertrust is a global leader in providing expert administrative services to clients operating and investing in the international business environment.

It surveyed over 500 executives to identify how firms are responding to increasing regulation and their use of technology.  Four-in-ten (38%) said they had invested in new technology solutions, with the same proportion increasing their use of external advisors and consultants.  Only 17% of firms said they had taken the step of simplifying their business operations to reduce the regulatory burden, preferring to dedicate extra resources to ensure compliance.

With corporates adopting a range of measures to respond to regulatory obligations, respondents believed that technology will play a pivotal role in maintaining compliance with new regulations, with 87% of firms predicting that demand for RegTech solutions will increase in the next two years.

Here, the leading driver was acquiring off-the-shelf products, cited by 63% of corporates, followed by hiring technology experts (50%), investing in research and development into proprietary technology solutions (33%), and undergoing M&A / JV activity to acquire new solutions (20%).

Jan Willem van Drimmelen, global head of corporate services at Intertrust Group, said, “Disruptive technology is playing an increasingly significant role in the development of corporates across all sectors for both compliance and day-to-day business operations. This presents a number of challenges for corporates that must decide how best to adapt to a changing environment and acquire the necessary technology and skills through M&A, off-the-shelf products, research and development or external support.”

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Intertrust, a global leader in providing expert administrative services to clients operating and investing in the international business environment, surveyed over 500 executives covering the asset management, corporate, capital markets and private wealth sectors to identify the impact of RegTech on mounting regulatory and compliance obligations.

40% of respondents said their company struggled with a skill shortage in RegTech and compliance. Given the deficit in RegTech expertise and resource, most organisations are turning to external organisations for assistance.

According to the research, respondents believe the best source of support for RegTech solutions is traditional administration services providers combining regulatory experience with tech-based solutions (31%). This is ahead of FinTech disruptors (23%), law firms with strong regulatory experience (16%), audit firms (14%) and management consultancies (8%).

Stephanie Miller, chief executive officer at Intertrust said: “Following the recent onslaught of real game changing tax and regulatory regimes such as GDPR, MIFID II and DAC 6, firms have become increasingly reliant on RegTech solutions. RegTech has evolved from being considered a very niche concept reserved for those big enough to support the investment to becoming a mainstream solution for every financial institution no matter the size or budget. This development is mostly driven by the availability of third party providers providing cost effective expert solutions allowing access to the best RegTech without requiring the capital investment. In terms of industry evolution RegTech is still in its infancy but, as our research shows, we are beginning to see some trends in the emergence of certain preferred partners.

Although start-ups may have made the most progression in terms of the technical capabilities of the solutions, it is in fact the traditional administrative services firms who are coming out on top. By combining reliability, experience and expertise in regulation with market-leading technology they are fast emerging as the favoured RegTech partner for banks, asset managers and corporates.”

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