Payment Expert’s Fintech Unwrapped delivers the latest and developing news that has shaped the sector over the course of the week.
This week, HSBC announced a partnership with Google that will focus on leveraging and investing in AI for the next several years to deploy new use cases and infrastructure changes to how the bank will use AI among its teams.
Also this week, Checkout.com will power Microsoft’s payments across a key region for the tech giant, FintechOS credits global expansion for profitable Q1, and SumUp announced market entry into its 38th country.
HSBC leverages Google’s AI to develop new use cases
HSBC and Google Cloud announced a multi-year AI partnership on 17 June to hyper-personalise wealth management for the bank’s customers.
Announced during Google Cloud Summit in London, HSBC will integrate Google’s AI infrastructure and collaborate with Google DeepMind engineering teams on new AI-powered tools and programmes, with access to Google’s latest agentic AI capabilities, including Gemini models.
The partnership will develop 200 new AI use cases across the next two years, which will also involve findings in how AI can be deployed in financial crime risk management. It will also look to uncover how AI can be used by banking teams for the automation of manual tasks.
Georges Elhedery, HSBC Group CEO, said: “AI is becoming one of the defining technologies of our time, allowing us to create a personalised experience for each customer, delivered in real time and at scale, while keeping human judgement, decision-making and accountability at the core.
“A partnership like this one with Google Cloud helps us empower our colleagues with the tools they need to be future-ready, and supports our work in building a simple, agile, faster and more personal HSBC.”
Mollie to invest €350m for European cross-commerce growth
Mollie has committed €350m over the next five years for its European product expansion, following the official launch of its services in Croatia and Iceland.
The two European market launches means Mollie is now available in every European Economic Area (EEA) country as the financial services company seeks to consolidate the fragmented local payment sector across Europe.
Mollie stated it intends to solve this issue by providing business with native language support for customer onboarding, easy access to local payment methods and currencies, and a frictionless onboard setup with ID verification.
The company has 12 physical European offices such as in its home market of Amsterdam and is planning new hubs in Lisbon, Milan, Stockholm and Warsaw.
Koen Köppen, CEO at Mollie, said: “With full coverage across all 30 EEA markets and a €350 million investment in Europe, we’re proving that it’s possible to build truly pan-European financial infrastructure. Our ambition is to be the financial backbone of European commerce, ensuring businesses grow across borders without the complexity that has traditionally held them.”
Checkout.com to process Microsoft payments across EMEA
Checkout.com announced on 18 June Microsoft selected it to process its digital payments across key products in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.
The payment processor will enable card acceptance for Microsoft products, including Xbox, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft will gain access to Checkout.com’s digital payments platform, connecting to Microsoft’s Payments API. This enables the company to route payments through a single system for a seamless payment experience for Microsoft’s global customers.
The tech giant will also utilise Checkout.com’s acquiring services to process its payments in the EMEA region. As part of the collaboration, Microsoft will also use Intelligent Acceptance, Checkout.com’s AI-powered optimisation engine, to reduce failures.
Guillaume Pousaz, CEO and Founder of Checkout.com, said: “Supporting a company with this depth of legacy and forward momentum requires payments infrastructure that is resilient, adaptable and engineered for continuous innovation. This is a testament to the performance and flexibility our platform delivers, and we’re proud to play a role in powering the commerce layer behind the technologies millions rely on every day.”
FintechOS revenue increases without sacrificing expansion
FintechOS has reached profitability, along with 40% year-on-year recurring revenue growth in Q1’ 2026.
The growth was driven primarily by FintechOS’ expansion in the US, as well as expanding its AI-powered digitalisation services across the UK and Continental Europe.
The company is targeting annual recurring revenue of $35m in 2026, following a period of consolidation in 2023 and 2024. FintechOS revealed gross margin has grown significantly, allowing the company to reach profitability.
The company’s growth coincided with the launch of the latest version of the FintechOS platform, built around AI. The platform embeds AI directly into the way banks and insurers design, launch and manage their products.
Teo Blidarus, Co-Founder and CEO of FintechOS, said: “Growth and profitability go hand in hand, not at the expense of one another. This year’s numbers are the consequence of things we built correctly over the past years, and now the results are showing.”
SumUp enters Canada with two POS devices
SumUp announced its launch in Canada marking the Maple Leaf country as the 38th market the point-of-sale (POS) hardware company is active in.
In Canada, 98% of small businesses make up the total amount of businesses. SumUp aims to bring competitive pricing, payment tools, and merchant care built for small businesses.
As part of the launch, SumUp is launching the SumUp Go card reader built for merchants for on-the-spot payments to reduce checkout wait times.
With Payment Links, the device enables merchants to collect payments from anywhere by creating and sending a secure link that can be shared via text, email or social
Andrew Helms, CEO of SumUp North America, said: “Canada has an incredibly vibrant small business community and we see a huge opportunity to give these merchants the tools they need to thrive, without the complexity or hidden costs they have come to expect from legacy providers. At SumUp, we’re in it for the merchant. When they succeed, we succeed.”
