Payfinia, a fintech firm known for its open payments framework, is teaming up with Early Warning Services (EWS) to bring Paze, a tokenized online checkout solution, to more financial institutions. The move kicks off with Star One Credit Union—one of the nation’s largest credit unions—as the first to onboard Paze through Payfinia’s infrastructure.

In a payments landscape dominated by tech giants like Apple and PayPal, this partnership signals a strategic push by traditional financial institutions to reclaim ground in the digital wallet wars—with an emphasis on security, speed, and trust.

What’s Paze and Why It Matters

Developed by Early Warning Services—the same firm behind Zelle—Paze is a bank-backed digital wallet designed to streamline eCommerce checkout while adding a layer of tokenized security. Unlike traditional online payments, actual card numbers are never shared with merchants. Instead, tokenized credentials are used, reducing fraud risk and enhancing user trust.

The differentiator? It’s offered directly by banks and credit unions—an approach that resonates with users. According to EWS’s recent Paze Pulse report, a hefty 82% of Americans trust their bank’s security more than third-party wallets.

That trust is the lever. And Payfinia, acting as the middleware, gives financial institutions a clean, compliant, and privacy-first way to activate Paze across their digital channels.

Payfinia’s Role: The Infrastructure You Don’t See

Under the hood, Payfinia provides a confidential computing layer that enables institutions to securely share and process sensitive user data. This ensures Paze can be deployed quickly and safely—without violating the tight regulatory boundaries surrounding consumer financial data.

“Processing and analyzing financial data in a safe environment is critical,” said Nizar Jamal, CTO of Payfinia. “Our architecture makes it possible to do that at scale and at speed.”

For Star One Credit Union—with over $9 billion in assets and 132,000 members—this is the next step in an ongoing digital transformation. Minal Gupta, Star One’s president, sees Paze as a natural extension of the credit union’s digital-first strategy: “We’ve already seen how modern payment infrastructure boosts member engagement. With Paze, we’re taking that further—offering an eCommerce experience that fits the way people shop today.”

Digital Wallets in 2025: A Crowded Battlefield

Paze is entering a crowded and highly competitive space. But its unique value proposition—financial institution-driven, tokenized, and trust-centric—could make it a strong alternative to Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal, especially for consumers wary of handing over transaction data to Big Tech.

It’s also part of a wider trend in which banks are looking to own more of the digital commerce stack. From FedNow’s real-time payments launch to Zelle’s continued evolution, incumbents are no longer content playing defense.

Eric Hoffman, Chief Partnerships Officer at Early Warning, emphasized the broader implications: “Payfinia’s technical capabilities and deep roots with credit unions make them an ideal partner to extend Paze’s reach.”

The Bottom Line

With Payfinia handling the tech stack and Early Warning providing the product, Paze could become a powerful new tool for credit unions and community banks trying to keep up with digitally native financial experiences.