In a significant move in the fintech space, NMI, a leading payment fintech, has agreed to acquire its peer, Dwolla. This acquisition is poised to enhance Account-to-Account (A2A) payments, an increasingly popular method that allows merchants to bypass card fees. This development comes as real-time processing becomes more widespread and consumers seek alternatives to credit cards.
Details of the Acquisition
NMI’s move to acquire Dwolla, a fintech that specializes in payments and offers A2A technology as part of its suite, was announced on Tuesday. Although the terms of the deal have not been disclosed, it aims to widen the distribution of various payment types. Initially, the focus will be on the intersection of A2A payments and real-time processing.
A2A payments, also known as “pay by bank,” have been experiencing a surge in popularity. Global A2A transactions reached $91.5 trillion in 2025 and are expected to hit $195 trillion by 2030, according to Juniper Research.
“We’ve been focused on moving upmarket, to bring A2A to mid to large enterprises that want to modernize their platforms,” said Dave Glaser, CEO of Dwolla.
The Impact of the Deal
Dwolla’s Glaser will join NMI’s executive leadership team as Chief Operating Officer to ensure continuity for Dwolla’s customers, partners, and employees. He will also guide the integration of Dwolla’s capabilities into NMI’s embedded payments platform. Embedded payments enable checkout directly within a merchant’s shopping experience, without the need for navigating to a separate payment page. This feature is a key use case for A2A transactions.
“The acquisition gives us a sophisticated A2A flow that allows us to embed NMI’s platform in a way we could not in the past,” said Steve Pinado, CEO of NMI.
The acquisition will blend NMI’s mix of payment acceptance, onboarding, and merchant services with Dwolla’s application programming interfaces that support A2A payments, real-time processing, and open banking. Dwolla’s existing 400 clients will be integrated into NMI’s white-label payment platform.
“With NMI, we can move deeper into international processing, we can bring in more businesses that are using A2A payments,” stated Glaser.
NMI processes more than $600 billion annually and serves about 6,000 clients, including banks, SaaS platforms, independent sales organizations, and payment facilitators that use NMI’s systems to support in-app, in-store, and mobile payments.
NMI’s Expansion Efforts
The acquisition of Dwolla is the latest in a series of strategic moves by NMI to bolster its payment technology. In December, NMI launched NMI Business Capital, a merchant lending product, in partnership with Celtic Bank and technology firm Parafin. NMI has also invested in advanced technology such as AI and blockchain to enhance payment processing.
With the addition of Dwolla, “We’ll [also] be able to participate in the next generation of money movement, including agentic payments, stablecoin-enabled settlement, remittances, and other emerging payments,” said Pinado. “We can help our partners deliver more choice, flexibility, and control over how money moves through one single platform.”
Why A2A is Important?
A2A payments refer to transactions conducted directly between bank accounts, such as between a consumer and a merchant. These payments do not necessitate a card and, therefore, allow the parties in a transaction to circumvent interchange fees.
Large payment and technology firms have shown interest in this product. For example, Fiserv and FIS recently launched agentic operating systems that enable their bank clients to offer AI-driven A2A services. Even card companies like Visa and Mastercard have invested heavily in A2A technology to derive revenue from transactions that do not involve credit cards.
The NMI/Dwolla deal “is an important step in mainstreaming the use of A2A rails in e-commerce,” said Aaron McPherson, principal at AFM Consulting. “NMI already supports cards, so this adds FedNow and ACH to its list of supported payment methods. This is an opportunity for banks to expand utilization of their FedNow investments, although it may put some pressure on the card side of things. Still, they can make some of that revenue back by charging for instant settlement.”
For more information, check out the original article here.
