Travel and expense solutions provider Emburse added artificial intelligence capabilities to its product suite. Emburse AI is designed to alleviate common frustration in expense and invoice management, according to a Wednesday (Feb. 26) press release. “Finance teams handle hundreds of detailed processes every day, where even one seemingly minor error can lead to significant financial and operational consequences,” Emburse Chief Product Officer Paul Nagy said in the release. “With Emburse AI, we’re giving users a powerful tool to minimize manual effort, improve accuracy, and dramatically reduce time spent on managing expenses and invoices. This latest milestone for Emburse sets the stage for future AI enhancements, including agentic AI, to help finance teams operate more efficiently and strategically.”

Jack Dorsey is no stranger to playing the long game.But Block, the financial services and digital payments company formerly known as Square, missed Wall Street’s short-term estimates for its fourth quarter 2024 earnings and revenue numbers Thursday (Feb. 20), sending the stock down high single-digits in extended trading.Executives highlighted on Thursday’s investor call that Block, which was an early leader in providing point-of-sale systems for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), faces increased competition from FinTechs and a more dynamic landscape.Block’s leadership emphasized the strong engagement with Cash App, which saw gross profit per active user increase by 13% year over year to $76 in Q4 2024.“We expect to exit 2025 at a Rule of 40 run rate, ahead of schedule, and we continue to expect to deliver Rule of 40 in 2026 as this work compounds,” CEO Dorsey said.“We’re excited to share more about our progress with the investment community and look forward to holding an investor day later this year,” he added.During the call, Block outlined three primary product goals for 2025: increasing global economic access, enhancing openness and customer trust, and leveraging automation to boost creativity and efficiency. Central to its strategy is the creation of a “neighborhood network” connecting sellers, buyers and communities through its products.Strategic DevelopmentsFor the year ahead, and as it did for much of the past fiscal year, Block plans on doubling down traditional banking territory, pushing boundaries with its lending services and tools aimed at small businesses.For example, during 2024 the company transitioned Square from a payments solution to a comprehensive commerce platform, enhancing seller flexibility and streamlining onboarding through the new Square Point of Sale app. The app consolidates functionalities of five previous apps, with 50% of new sellers already adopting it.Executives also pointed to Cash App’s continued evolution, citing an expanded suite of banking features including high-yield savings, paycheck allocation to investments, and free tax filing. The Cash App Borrow service scaled up to nearly $9 billion in originations, demonstrating strong demand for micro-lending services.The company also emphasized efficiency gains through a functional organizational model, enabling faster product development and stronger integration between Square and Cash App ecosystems.For 2025, Block anticipates at least 15% growth in gross profit. The company projects $2.1 billion in adjusted operating income, representing a 21% margin on gross profit

The last half-decade of the 2020s looms, and for FinTechs and financial services in general, the dust has just started to be kicked up on Capitol Hill and in the White House in terms of new regulations and even a reshaping of the regulatory agencies themselves. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra was removed, and there is a bill in Congress afoot to abolish the agency itself. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a slew of consent orders that delve into AML and KYC. Thredd CEO Jim McCarthy told Karen Webster that a seismic shift will define the sector