Payman AI Receives ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator Banker’s Choice Award

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Payman AI Receives ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator Banker’s Choice Award

2026-08-05 21:31 Last Updated At：21:41

DURANGO, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 5, 2026--

Payman AI, a fintech building AI agents for financial institutions, announced it received the Independent Community Bankers of America ® (ICBA) ThinkTECH Accelerator program’s Banker’s Choice Award. The Banker’s Choice Award honors the most promising solution from the cohort, as voted by community bankers who participated in the most recent ThinkTECH Accelerator program.

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“Agentic AI is changing the way we interact,” ICBA Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer Wayne Miller said. “With Payman AI, community banks have a solution that harnesses the power of agentic AI within their existing secure environments. This is precisely the type of community bank-centric solution that the ThinkTECH Accelerator helps advance, and we are thrilled that community bankers embraced this offering as a top product choice.”

Payman AI deploys AI that executes real banking transactions—payments, transfers, and account analysis—through voice or text on a bank’s existing rails, with configurable policy controls, approvals, and full audit trails designed for regulated environments.

Payman AI was presented the Banker’s Choice Award during the ThinkTECH Showcase on July 24 at the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado in Boulder. The showcase highlighted the latest ThinkTECH cohort, focusing on community bank-specific fintech solutions covering a broad range of key areas, including artificial intelligence (AI), payments, data strategy, fraud prevention and detection, customer experience, and more.

“We’re thrilled that we were chosen as the Banker’s Choice,” said Tyllen Bicakcic, co-founder and CEO of Payman AI. “We see agentic banking as the future of financial services, and community bankers as a key partner to advancing innovation in this area moving forward. The input we received from community bankers during the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator allowed us to more fully appreciate the ways we can support community banks nationwide. We look forward to continuing our relationships and supporting more community banks on their innovation journeys.”

Since its inception, the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator has promoted bank-enabled technology solutions designed specifically for community banks and their customers. Through this program, ICBA advances community bank innovation by focusing on cutting costs, driving customer engagement, increasing revenue, and maximizing go-to-market strategies. Payman AI received mentorship from a distinguished network of industry leaders in an immersive 10-week program.

For more information on Payman AI, visit PaymanAI.com. For more information about the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator, visit icba.org/thinktech.

About Payman AI

Payman AI builds the orchestration infrastructure that enables banks to deploy AI agents securely at scale. By enabling conversational AI to work securely with existing core banking systems, Payman translates natural language intent into validated financial operations while maintaining full auditability and controls. Banks can deploy AI-powered financial automation without replacing their existing infrastructure.

Learn more at paymanai.com.

About ICBA

The Independent Community Bankers of America ® has one mission: to create and promote an environment where community banks flourish. We power the potential of the nation ’ s community banks through effective advocacy, education, and innovation.

As local and trusted sources of credit, America ’ s community banks leverage their relationship-based business model and innovative offerings to channel deposits into the neighborhoods they serve, creating jobs, fostering economic prosperity, and fueling their customers ’ financial goals and dreams. For more information, visit ICBA ’ s website at icba.org.

Stocks add to their records on Wall Street and crude oil prices edge higher

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are climbing in the early going on Wall Street, while oil prices ticked higher. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% Wednesday, adding to the record it set a day earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 381 points, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.4%. The Walt Disney Co. rose after reporting results that beat analysts’ forecasts, helped by “Toy Story 5.” SpaceX sank after increasing its spending on artificial intelligence. European and Asian markets were higher. Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. The price of Brent crude rose 1% to just over $80 a barrel.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock futures edged higher Wednesday morning, helped by strong corporate earnings reports and hopes for a deal setting the stage for talks that might eventually end the fighting in Iran.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.3%, while S&P 500 futures added 0.4%. Nasdaq futures gained 0.2%.

The Walt Disney Co. reported on Wednesday that a $1 billion box office haul from “Toy Story 5,” as well as strong results at its U.S. theme parks, helped drive up profits in the quarter ended in June. The stock gained 3.4% in the premarket.

Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill rose 1.8% in the premarket, a day after sinking nearly 10%. The restaurant chain said Tuesday it removed jalapeños from some of its restaurants after determining the peppers could potentially be tied to a salmonella outbreak public health officials are investigating.

Offsetting those gains were losses for SpaceX, which shed more than 10%. Late Tuesday SpaceX reported a smaller loss than Wall Street expected along with a surge in revenue in its first quarterly report as a public company. Capital expenditures reached $18.4 billion, with the vast majority of that spending going toward AI. That spending reached nearly $16 billion.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could come as early as Wednesday, as Iran and Oman inched toward an agreement on the critical waterway that could ease pressure on the global economy.

Still, oil prices resumed their ascent. Brent crude, the international standard, reversed early losses, gaining 1.15% to $80.28 per barrel early Wednesday. On Tuesday, it sank 5.3% as hopes rose for progress toward a full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices swung between $72 and $102 through July on uncertainty about when calm in the Middle East would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again to deliver crude around the world.

Benchmarks jumped more than 3% in Tokyo and Seoul as shares in computer chipmakers and other AI-related companies advanced.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 3.7% with chipmaker Kioxia surging 4.2% while chip testing equipment maker Advantest soared 8.8%.

The Kospi in Seoul shot up 3.8%, led by a 5.8% gain for memory chipmaker SK Hynix. Tech giant Samsung Electronics advanced 2.5%.

“Clearly today the market is rallying on the back of AI stocks. You look across the other sectors, there’s a bit of activity here and there, but really the focus has been back on semiconductors, technology and AI,” said Neil Newman, head of strategy for Astris Advisory Japan.

Elsewhere in the region, the Shanghai Composite index picked up 1.5% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3%.

In European trading, Germany’s DAX rose 0.2% while the CAC 40 in Paris edged less than 0.1% higher. Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.02%

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 shot up 1.8%, topping its prior all-time high set in June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.7% to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.6%.

Associated Press writer Mayuko Ono in Tokyo contributed to this report.