Advanced Authorization: Giving Fintechs the Control They Deserve

If you’re building in fintech, you know how important it is to own your user experience end-to-end. But when it comes to payments, banks often hold the keys, especially around authorizations on card transactions. Traditional authorization systems leave little room for the flexibility fintechs need to innovate.

Cross River’s new solution, Advanced Authorization, enables fintechs to implement customized transaction logic and rules within an approved framework, supported by our banking rails and compliance infrastructure.

What it actually does

Advanced Authorization lets you do any one or all the following¹:

• Apply your own fraud rules

• Decide when and how transactions get approved

• Integrate authorization directly into your app or platform

You get to build the product your users need, without waiting on a bank to catch up.

And because it’s built on Cross River’s proprietary real-time banking core and integrated with global networks like Visa, it’s enterprise-grade infrastructure that scales with you.   

Real-world example: Sightline Payments & Cross River

We recently partnered with Sightline Payments, a fintech focused on digital payments for the gaming industry.  

The problem: Gaming operators lose millions every year because of wallet churn. A user deposits $100, bets $20, then pulls out the remaining $80. That cycle repeats—and every transaction costs the operator money. Exacerbating the churn, the user doesn’t have access to any winnings for every day (or celebratory!) spend until they move them out of the gaming wallet into a separate account, usually at a separate financial institution.

The solution: Together, we built an advanced authorization system to power a branded debit card. This card lets users spend money directly from their gaming wallet anywhere, not just on bets.

That means:

• Less churn

• Lower transaction costs

• More brand loyalty

• A better experience for users

And it’s all powered by Sightline’s logic, not ours. They control the rules and the flow. We provide the banking infrastructure and compliance support.

Sightline chose Cross River because we own our tech stack, which is flexible, and we’re not afraid to co-create. This is the first time we’ve offered our Advanced Authorization solution, and it’s already opening doors beyond gaming.

Why now?

The market is ready. More enterprise platforms are managing balances, rewards, and funds in increasingly creative ways, and they need infrastructure that supports that creativity, not stifles it.

Advanced Authorization builds on Cross River’s existing capabilities: a flexible, API-native core platform, proven compliance infrastructure, and a strong foundation as a licensed financial institution. We’ve layered in the partner-facing tech: real-time message forwarding, reconciliation, and a fully documented integration path.

It’s ready when you are. How will you use it?

We’re excited to see where this goes. Looking to build smarter, faster, and with more control?