Tink Founders Debut Agentic Compliance Platform Freda

Tink, an open banking platform, has unveiled its new compliance platform, Freda, which went live on September 23. The idea behind Freda stemmed from the challenges the founders faced at Tink, where compliance was a barrier to growth and innovation, according to CEO Daniel Kjellén. Kjellén explained that Freda aims to resolve this issue by providing an agentic compliance platform where users can explore all applicable frameworks and obligations for their business and construct customized programs to adhere to them.

The platform leverages AI to execute end-to-end workflows within existing systems, where work typically happens. According to a manifesto on Freda's website, the platform addresses the limitations of traditional compliance tools. These tools would provide businesses with generic checklists rather than tailored ones, only indicating what needed to be done without executing it.

Freda's AI can now understand, act upon, and complete compliance tasks at scale. Kjellén highlighted that Freda is not merely a repository for recording compliance work but actively performs the work. Sweden-based Tink, founded in 2012 by Kjellén and Fredrik Hedberg, was acquired by Visa in 2022 for $2 billion. Compliance expert Christopher Phillips, director of financial crime industry engagement at Flagright, discussed the impact of agentic AI in banking compliance.

He noted that unlike humans, AI agents are unaffected by fatigue or loss of focus and can provide consistent, audit-friendly outputs. However, Phillips stressed that human oversight is still necessary to explain and validate the AI's decisions.