Bank of America continues to add functions to its digital banking and treasury management platform with its recent launch of Payments Insights.

“The direction of the platform is to continue to focus on intelligent self-service and what we like to call a connected treasury experience,” Tom Durkin, global head of CashPro, tells FinAi News on this episode of the “FinAi Podcast.”

Payments Insights, launched in September, adds to the CashPro suite of AI-powered insights, Durkin says. The payments analytics capability comes one year after the launch of Capital Markets Insights, which gives CashPro clients a centralized view of market and issuance data.

The ability to provide actionable insights to CashPro clients is built on volume and adoption of the platform, Durkin says, noting that CashPro facilitated 213 million payments in the first half of 2026, up 10% year over year.

Listen to Durkin discuss the direction of CashPro with insights at the forefront of the strategy.

Biz2Credit, an online lending marketplace and direct funding source for SMBs, views AI as a force multiplier for underwriting, pricing and portfolio management.

AI is especially effective for analyzing cash-flow data, which is crucial for SMB lending amid growing demand for alternative financing such as revenue-based models, Biz2Credit Chief Executive Rohit Arora says in the latest episode of the “FinAi Podcast.”

“In the case of revenue-based financing, the big difference is that it is based on your cash flow and a lot of small businesses are seasonal by nature,” he said.

"The idea there is that you are actually giving them access to credit where you can recalibrate those repayments. … By using AI, you can do better pricing on it.”

Most customers use open banking to connect their data directly to Biz2Credit’s AI-powered platform, which includes tools for underwriting, risk assessment and loan servicing, Arora said.

Biz2Credit has provided $8 billion to more than 200,000 businesses since its inception in 2007, with loans ranging from about $25,000 to $2 million, according to the company.

SMB funding volume in the United States increased 9.3% year over year in the second quarter, according to the company's Aug. 3 SMB financing report comprising internal and economic data.

Faster, smarter and more customized lending also is important given the economic challenges facing SMBs today, Arora said, highlighting recent pressures from higher interest rates and inflation.

“What happens in SMB lending, unlike mortgage lending in this country, is that SMB lending is benchmarked to the Fed rates and they're typically floating rates,” he said.

“So even if you have an existing small business loan or a line of credit, every time the Fed will increase the rate, the rate will go up.”

AI can help alleviate such challenges by providing deeper insights into businesses’ financial data, streamlining customer interactions and mitigating credit risk, he said.

Listen as Arora discusses the growing opportunities to deploy AI for SMB lending.

Loan servicing and software provider Sagent named Sridhar Sharmachief executive in September.

Sharma joined Sagent as president in February from loan servicing provider Mr. Cooper, he tells FinAi News on this episode of “FinAi Podcast.” Mr. Cooper was acquired by Rocket Companies in 2025.

Sharma brings experience in product, technology and AI leadership to Sagent, he says.

At Mr. Cooper, Sharma spent over a decade as executive vice president and chief information officer and later chief innovation and digital officer.

He solved complex problems, built and scaled technology and learned to prioritize innovation that was relevant to the business, he says.

He will continue to solve fragmentation and friction at Sagent.

His priorities as CEO include:

• Overseeing implementations of its end-to-end real-time mortgage servicing platform Dara;
• Keeping up with evolving technology; and
• Building out Sagent’s partner ecosystem with payment, title, insurance and tax providers.

Listen to Sharma discuss his experience in mortgage servicing and how he is using AI to solve complex problems.