Nexa Cards eyes OX Agency buy to boost AI identity checks

Nexa Cards’ planned acquisition of OX Agency is one more data point in a broader consolidation trend: fintechs are bringing key AI identity and biometrics capabilities in‑house instead of relying on third‑party APIs.([globenewswire.com](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/12/25/3210426/0/en/Nexa-Cards-Enters-Acquisition-Discussions-with-OX-Agency-to-Enhance-AI-Based-Identity-and-Security-Capabilities.html?utm_source=openai)) For the race to AGI, identity might sound mundane, but robust, low‑friction verification is a prerequisite for deploying powerful models responsibly in payments, DeFi and neobanking. As models become more agentic and capable, platforms will need iron‑clad assurance about who is initiating actions and under what risk profile.

Strategically, Nexa is positioning itself as not just another crypto card issuer, but as an AI‑secured payments stack with proprietary facial recognition and risk models. That can improve margins over time by reducing fraud‑related losses and decreasing dependence on external KYC/KYB vendors. It also creates a proprietary data moat: continuous biometric and transaction telemetry that can be fed back into risk models and, potentially, agentic financial assistants.

For the broader ecosystem, this underscores how AI identity and security technology is becoming fundamental infrastructure, on par with card networks or core banking. Expect more M&A as fintechs, exchanges and neobanks race to own their verification stacks in an era where deepfakes, synthetic identities and autonomous agents are proliferating.