Clusia, an AI-native assurance firm serving financial technology companies and banks, has acquired Optim ACH Solutions, an automated clearing house audit and risk assessment practice. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
The transaction establishes Clusia's ACH audit practice and expands its customer base to more than 60 fintech companies, third-party senders and third-party service providers. Optim ACH Solutions will continue operating as Optim ACH, a Clusia company, with existing clients retaining their current service teams.
Clusia also announced the appointment of Brian Stearns as managing director of assurance operations and Optim founder Debbie Arai as managing director of ACH audits. Stearns joins Clusia after more than a decade at Wespay, where he most recently served as senior vice president and supervisor of risk management services, and will oversee improvements to audit delivery operations and support expansion into additional assurance services. Arai has been an Accredited ACH Professional since 2007 and brings experience in payments risk management and regulatory auditing.
According to the source, the acquisition supports Clusia's strategy of combining experienced compliance professionals with proprietary AI-powered software to automate portions of the audit process while maintaining independent professional oversight. Clusia currently provides ACH audits and Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering testing for financial institutions and companies involved in payment processing. Its technology collects and organizes audit evidence from client documents and connected systems, reducing the manual effort required to prepare for regulatory reviews, and enables auditors to examine larger transaction samples than traditional manual processes may allow. Clusia's audit professionals remain responsible for reviewing results, investigating exceptions and approving final reports.
"AI is going to increase both the volume and complexity of work that requires independent assurance, and the firms doing that work today can only sell the hours they have," said Reed Switzer, co-founder and CEO of Clusia. "Bringing in Optim establishes our ACH practice and expands our client base. Our ambition is to become the assurance firm companies rely on across their most important regulatory and financial obligations."
Clusia plans to expand its services by consolidating recurring compliance engagements and allowing relevant audit evidence to be reused across reviews. Over time, the company intends to move beyond periodic audits toward continuous independent assurance, using software to support ongoing monitoring and testing.