Sardine and Helix Partner to Deliver Real-Time Fraud Monitoring and Compliance Capabilities to Sponsor Banks

Key Terms

embedded finance financial

Embedded finance integrates financial services directly into the products or platforms people use daily, such as online shopping or business software. It allows users to access services like payments, loans, or insurance seamlessly within those platforms, making transactions faster and more convenient. For investors, it represents a way for companies to generate new revenue streams and deepen customer relationships through integrated financial offerings.

bsa/aml regulatory

BSA/AML refers to laws and programs designed to detect and prevent money laundering, fraud and other illicit financial activity by requiring banks and related firms to verify customer identities, monitor transactions, and report suspicious behavior. For investors, strong BSA/AML controls reduce legal, regulatory and reputational risk—think of them as a company’s financial hygiene and security system that, if weak, can lead to fines, business interruptions or loss of confidence that hurt shareholder value.

api-first technical

Designing a product or service so its programmable connection points (APIs) are created and prioritized before any user-facing features, like planning plumbing and wiring before decorating rooms. For investors, an API-first approach signals easier integration with partners and customers, faster rollout of new features, and more scalable, reusable technology that can lower development costs and open additional revenue or partnership channels.

banking-as-a-service financial

Banking-as-a-service is a model where a licensed bank provides core financial services—like deposit accounts, payments, lending, and compliance—as modular software that other companies can plug into their own products. For investors, it matters because it lets nonbank firms sell banking features without building a bank from scratch, creating new revenue streams, faster user growth, and platform value, while also concentrating regulatory and credit risks for providers.

ach financial

ACH (Automated Clearing House) is an electronic network banks use to move money between accounts, like a digital mail carrier that delivers payroll, dividends, bill payments and other transfers. Investors care because ACH affects how quickly a company can pay shareholders, collect revenue or move cash for operations; slower or disrupted ACH flows can change available cash, timing of dividends and short-term liquidity assumptions.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sardine, the leading agentic risk management platform designed to protect companies from financial crime, today announced its partnership with Helix by Q2 (NYSE: QTWO), an award-winning, cloud-native core purpose-built for embedded finance. Through this partnership, Sardine will deliver real-time transaction monitoring, fraud interdiction, and BSA/AML compliance tools, helping Helix’s sponsor banks and fintechs strengthen risk management.

Sardine will integrate directly with Helix’s API-first core, providing an end-to-end fraud and compliance solution that spans onboarding, ongoing monitoring, and transaction risk management. The integration enables banks to stop suspicious activity across payment rails in real time, while giving fintech partners greater transparency and configurability across their compliance stack.

Sardine’s infrastructure allows Helix clients to monitor transactions across all payment rails, detect anomalies instantly, and automate BSA/AML workflows—reducing manual review time and compliance costs while improving overall protection and user experience.

“Modern money movement happens in real time and risk decisions have to keep pace,” said Ravi Loganathan, Head of Banking & Policy at Sardine. “Our integration with Helix gives sponsor banks a single intelligent layer to assess risk across every rail, including ACH, RTP, cards, and ledger transactions, before funds move. Together, we are enabling banks and fintechs to grow safely, remain compliant, and operate at the speed their customers expect.”

“Fraud prevention has long been a bottleneck for innovation in financial services,” said Ahon Sarkar, General Manager of Helix by Q2. “By partnering with Sardine, we’re giving our clients a best-in-class way to manage risk and compliance without sacrificing speed, efficiency, or customer experience. It’s a true example of how a modern core and modern fraud technology combine to deliver exponential value.”

“First Federal Bank of Kansas City is deeply committed to its fintech strategy, and the integration between Helix and Sardine is a strategic enabler of that vision,” said Josh Hofer, Vice President of Fintech at First Federal Bank of Kansas City. “The combination of Helix’s embedded finance infrastructure with Sardine’s advanced risk and fraud capabilities will help us deliver a safer and more scalable experience for our fintech partners.”

Helix by Q2 is an award-winning, cloud-native core and Banking-as-a-Service platform that provides the building blocks of banking to help fintech companies embed personalized financial experiences directly into their products. It powers innovative fintechs, brands, and financial institutions by offering a flexible, scalable core designed for embedded finance. Helix supports over 18 million accounts and $40B in transaction volume.

Sardine is the leading agentic risk management platform designed to protect companies from financial crime. Over 300 financial institutions and enterprises use Sardine to detect fraud in real-time and streamline compliance operations. To date, Sardine has protected over $1T in transaction volume for 503M consumers and 2.6M businesses.

To learn more about Sardine, please visit https://www.sardine.ai/.

To learn more about Helix, please visit helix.q2.com.

About Sardine
Sardine is the leading agentic risk management platform designed to protect companies from financial crime. Our integrated solution unifies data across risk teams to detect fraud in real-time and streamline compliance operations. Companies including FIS, GoDaddy, Deel, Checkout, and Brex rely on Sardine to secure and grow trust in their products. Learn more at sardine.ai.

About Helix by Q2
Helix’s award-winning Banking-as-a-Service platform gives innovative fintechs and brands the building blocks of banking—accounts, cards, payments, data and controls, admin tools, and monetization solutions—to make it easy to embed personalized financial experiences that integrate and scale. For more information on Helix, visit helix.q2.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and X to stay up to date.

About First Federal Bank of Kansas City
Since 1934, First Federal Bank of Kansas City has pursued its mission of helping people “build a better financial future" by developing lasting customer relationships and through a genuine commitment to supporting the communities it serves. As a mutual bank, community growth is company success. First Federal Bank provides consumer banking products and services, mortgage and construction lending, and a full range of business banking and treasury management solutions, serving more than 25,000 customers across 10 locations in the Kansas City metro area and thousands of mortgage customers nationwide.
Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.
www.ffbkc.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251217509767/en/

Media Contact

Maria Gari

Q2 Holdings, Inc.

maria.gari@q2.com



Media Contact

Mark Rieger | Chief Brand Officer

816.245.4177

firstfed@ffbkc.com



Media Contact

Aaron Berger

AM Partners (for Sardine)

917.355.8959

aaron@am.partners

Source: Sardine