Societe Generale will become a majority stakeholder in U.K.-based payment processor PayXpert.
The acquisition will help Societe Generale adapt to new consumer behavior stemming from the use of new technologies such as Buy Now, Pay Later.
In turn, PayXpert’s merchant clients will benefit from additional payments, financing, and insurance solutions.
France-based investment bank Societe Generaleannounced today it will become a majority stakeholder in U.K.-based payment processor PayXpert.
The acquisition aims to help Societe Generale adapt to new consumer behaviors stemming from new technologies and tools such as Buy Now, Pay Later and integrated insurance services. “Societe Generale constantly adapts its offering and innovates to address new customer journeys,” the company said in a blog post announcement.
Specifically, PayXpert’s technologies will help Societe Generale broaden its offering for retail and online merchants and continue in its quest to be a leading player in payment acceptance in Europe. As a result of the acquisition, PayXpert’s merchant clients will benefit from additional payments, financing, and insurance solutions.
“The acquisition of PayXpert would enhance our payment solutions offering by providing increasingly comprehensive and innovative services to our retail and online merchants,” said Aurore Gaspar Colson, Deputy Head of Societe Generale Retail Banking in France. “It reflects our determination to maintain an integrated approach to payments and is consistent with Societe Generale’s long-standing and innovative policy of cooperation with fintechs.”
Founded in 2008, PayXpert offers point-of-sale technologies for both online and in-person transactions, as well as solutions for subscription and recurring payments, data management, business intelligence, and more. Among the company’s clients are Uber, Santander, and Gucci. PayXpert was a finalist in the for the Best Mobile Payments Solution category in the 2020 Finovate Awards.
The over valued dollar and what the impact will be.
As far as lenders are concerned the only story worth talking about at the moment is the current and completely unjustified strength of the US dollar against practically every other currency. Of course in the UK and the Eurozone there are other complicating factors which may well be giving people sleepless nights. It is plain to me that the mainstream press don’t really know what “traders” do as is borne out be some of the inane comments which they have published. Similarly economists who tell us what they think is going on. I write as I find and the bizarre events afflicting the markets from the end of last week are strictly for the birds. Everyone seems to have gone absolutely potty. Of course these are unusual times with Putin talking about nuking everything. A complete U turn in Uk Policy, a new right wing government in Italy, turmoil in Russia, Iran, these are indeed interesting times as the Chinese curse says.
Let’s start with the UK. Last Friday UK Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng introduced a new budget. The package included cancellation of planned increases in UK taxation and some modest cuts together with a whole raft of supply side incentives for businesses. The hope is that this will encourage economic growth. It is a gamble but not an enormous one. The other thing of note was that consumers already had wind of a support package to help consumers through the anticipated high gas prices this winter. A few weeks ago some newspapers said this could top £ 200 billion. But by last Friday gas and crude were falling fast and in any case practically every other European country was providing some kind of direct report. Nevertheless the pound took a hit on Friday 23rd.September even against the euro and this was seized on by left wingers in the UK as reckless. It was reported in some right wing newspapers that if the pound fell to parity with the dollar Tory MPs would cease to back the new PM. Needless to say this did not help by causing a sense of imminent crisis In any case when markets opened in the Far East Sterling fell like a stone. It seems that Kwasi caused this by the mere suggestion that there might be more tax cuts to come. When London opened it regained most of the ground it had lost presumably leaving some speculators with very large losses. This kind of hysterical reaction has nothing to do with economic fundamentals. Economists screamed that the markets were worried about debt levels. It needed to be pointed out that the UK had one of the lowest GDP/total debt ratios. Lower than France, Spain, Italy, Japan and the United States itself. The Eurozone improved against sterling. Can anyone tell me why? Does anyone think that the US or the eurozone is being managed well?
The hysterical over reaction is causing mayhem. The dollar is far too high and looks frothy but those leveraged countries with dollar debt on their books are going to have start tightening or face a day of reckoning. Banks holding these sovereign debts will also have enhanced risk on their books. Time for some stress testing. As if this mayhem weren’t enough to be going on with Italy elected a new right wing government. God knows what she is going to do but Italy is getting on for double the UK’s debt GDP ratio. If bondholders are worried about the UK introducing a pro growth package then what are they going to do about Italy doing roughly the same thing but without the political stability and having suffered years of stagnation. Rows with Brussels would be unwelcome and Italy might find itself unable to pay the enhanced rates of interest. The ECB has done nothing but buy Italian debt for the past three years and Germany is not going to gallop to the rescue. Looks like another Eurozone crisis is on the way and this time fine words will not cut the mustard. Big challenges are on the horizon.
I have always argued that the levels of global sovereign debt are far too high. None of these countries have enough clout to ever repay their debt and now that the days of ultra low interest rates are disappearing fast some solutions are necessary but I can’t see any. Plate spinning will be in order for the next couple of years until possibly the whole house of cards comes crashing down. The wealth funds, family offices , hedge funds, who have benefitted for the last decade from QE might find out that a massive dam is going to break transferring wealth from where it is currently to where it should be with the taxpayers. In the meantime what is left of the banking markets will need to try and requip itself with a skill set that that recognises true innovation and combines it with credit skills and common sense.
Private Equity Firm EQT has agreed to acquire B2B accounts receivable and payments company Billtrust.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year for $1.7 billion.
This move will take Billtrust back to a privately-held company, following its public debut on the NASDAQ in 2020 after closing a SPAC merger.
B2B accounts receivable and payments company Billtrustannounced today it has agreed to be acquired by EQT Private Equity for $1.7 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.
Once finalized, the deal will take Billtrust from the public markets. The company went public in 2020 in a SPAC merger valued at approximately $1.3 billion. Billtrust is currently listed on the NASDAQ and has a market capitalization of $1.52 billion.
“This transaction marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Billtrust, our customers and employees while providing shareholders an immediate and substantial cash value with a compelling premium,” said Billtrust Founder and CEO Flint Lane. “We believe B2B payments and accounts receivable continue to be ripe for massive disruption and innovation, and our partnership with EQT will provide us with greater resources and flexibility to build on our leadership position.”
Billtrust was founded in 2001 to offer a suite of solutions that simplify and automate B2B commerce through cloud-based software and payment processing solutions. In 2018, the company launched its Business Payments Network (BPN) that connects buyers, suppliers, and financial institutions to simplify and streamline electronic payment acceptance. The company also offers tools for credit risk managers, ecommerce solutions for wholesale distributors and manufacturing businesses, payments acceptance tools, and more.
For EQT, a Sweden-based private equity firm with $100 billion in assets under management, this marks its third fintech deal. Others in the firm’s fintech portfolio include SaaS cloud banking provider Mambu and payment acceptance company Mollie.
“The Billtrust platform features modern solutions, a compelling value proposition, and, like EQT, a commitment to innovation and transformation in the digital era,” said Arvindh Kumar, Partner and Co-Head of EQT’s Global Technology Sector Team. “Additionally, the Company operates at the intersection of software, fintech, and payments—sectors in which EQT has deep familiarity and a track record of success. With proprietary end-to-end solutions that generate value for all stakeholders and across economic cycles, Billtrust is poised to advance its leading offering in the underpenetrated accounts receivable automation space.”
Teslar Software is preparing to launch a new indirect lending solution for community banks. The Springdale, Ark.-based software-as-a-solution (SaaS) platform showcased its new product, which automates and digitizes the underwriting process, during the recent FinovateFall 2022 in New York City. “The goal is under 30 minutes that banker underwrites, makes a decision, and it goes […]
Investments in fintechs dropped in the first half of 2022 compared with high funding volume in 2021 as interest rates continue to rise. However, investors are setting their sights on financial technology firms that have strong proven business models. Fintech startups raised $50.7 billion in the first half of 2022, down 23% year over year, […]
Open banking platform BankiFi has named Danny Piangerelli its chief technology officer. BankiFi launched in North America in June and is looking to digitize and automate processes for small businesses, Piangerelli told Bank Automation News. “Small businesses don’t care about the minutiae of accounting, they care about getting paid and understanding where their money is, […]
This is a sponsored post by Tim FitzGerald, EMEA Financial Services Sales Manager, InterSystems, Gold Sponsors of FinovateFall 2022.
In today’s fast-moving landscape, financial services firms are under increasing pressure to remain competitive and generate more revenue by developing new products and services faster, while still leveraging their existing resources.
In recent years, this has seen many financial services organisations turn to external fintech solutions to help accelerate innovation and quickly obtain new digital capabilities. And so, fintech partnerships have become critical components of financial institutions’ growth strategies, rather than the technology experiments they started out as.
To ensure innovation success, it’s vital that financial services organizations can easily leverage and provision new fintech services and applications by seamlessly integrating with their existing production applications and data sources. But the true value and potential of fintech solutions can’t be unleashed until integration is quick and easy.
As many firms will attest, arduous and costly integration can see the value of such initiatives dwindle before their very eyes – sometimes to be lost altogether. Common challenges can range from unforeseen issues tying up precious IT resources, to costs spiraling out of control and timescales sliding drastically from what was planned or what is desirable. Ultimately, these delays can result in the loss of any competitive edge as rivals launch similar solutions much faster.
Ensuring successful integration
Fintechs have become increasingly attractive as they incorporate the latest technologies, modern application methodologies, and deployment platforms. However, for banks to make effective use of these opportunities, those technologies need to be woven into its existing infrastructure, much of which is likely to be based on legacy technology.
Consequently, successful integration requires an understanding of the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of those legacy systems. It also demands knowledge of the underlying data architecture and how to connect the new technology to systems that weren’t built to be connected to in such a way. While this isn’t an unsurmountable problem, getting it right will take resources, budget, and time.
Careful consideration is also needed when undertaking the integration to ensure that the resulting architecture doesn’t become overly complex. After all, if it comprises multiple technology layers from different vendors, all with differing versions and releases, any future change could impede the bank’s ability to take advantage of the benefits they set out to achieve.
Next will be to determine how data from existing systems will be fed into the new system and in what format. To get around this, it’s all too easy to layer extraction tools upon a myriad of other tools, including transformation tools, data lineage, master data management, databases, and data lake technologies. However, what firms are then left with is a multi-headed monster that no one person truly understands. This approach to data integration is also complex and costly to design, deploy, manage, and maintain. Fortunately, adopting a smart data fabric approach, a next generation architecture, can provide a way for financial services organizations to overcome these challenges.
Achieving bidirectional connectivity
By leveraging a smart data fabric, it is possible for institutions to connect and collect real-time event data and obtain unmatched integration capabilities using just one holistic platform. This approach eliminates the complexity and inefficiencies of manual integrations and other legacy approaches to integration and enables firms to integrate applications faster and more efficiently. It does this by essentially creating a dynamic real-time, bidirectional gateway between cloud-based fintech applications and their own production applications and data assets.
The smart data fabric integrates real-time event and transactional data, along with historical and other data from the large number of different back-end systems in use by financial services organizations. It transforms the data into a common, harmonized format to feed cloud fintech applications on demand, thus providing seamless, real-time, bidirectional connectivity and integration with the bank’s existing legacy enterprise data, production applications, and data sources.
Not only does this help firms to realize faster time to value and achieve simpler implementation that is easier to maintain, but it also gives financial services institutions the agility needed to innovate faster and keep critical initiatives on track. Additionally, it helps to futureproof their architecture by making it easier to incorporate any fintech applications and technologies available in the marketplace, thereby empowering them to react to new opportunities and changes in their environments.
Ultimately, there is immense value to be unlocked from fintech solutions and applications. However, that is only possible through swift and simple integration. By implementing a smart data fabric-enabled data gateway, financial services organizations can quickly and easily integrate new solutions within their existing infrastructure to ensure they are able to keep pace in a rapidly evolving landscape.
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires the adoption of EU Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) to be developed by EFRAG. In this context, EFRAG has prepared a first set of 13 exposure drafts of draft ESRS and EFRAG expects to finalise the draft ESRS, and submit them, in the form of a technical advice to the European Commission by mid-November 2022.
Important industry news, of course. We hope that the taxonomy architectures of ISSB and EFRAG will be compatible.
Earlier this month, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) ran two live webinars on the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Taxonomy and its current request for feedback. It is seeking input that will help set the direction for future work on this XBRL taxonomy, which will enable global digital reporting of sustainability information according to the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards currently under development.
The ISSB is already well ahead in the XBRL taxonomy building business, it seems.
“The world is grappling with dramatic shifts in climate change, environmental, social, and geopolitical events. In a world of rapid digital transformation, how do companies, investors, regulators, standard setters, and ordinary citizens respond to these shifts?” asks Christine Tan in a recent guest post at ESG Today.
Financial decision making has relatively low dimensionality compared to ESG conscious decision making with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its 169 sub-goals. It should come as no surprise to anyone that a lot more comparably well structured, granular data is required to achieve those goals.
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Christian Dreyer CFA is well known in Swiss Fintech circles as an expert in XBRL and financial reporting for investors.
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Workers’ compensation (WC) claims can significantly dent a business’s productivity and margins. Out-of-work employees coerce company leaders to manage with inadequate workforces while training replacement staff and augmenting employee safety. The average cost for a WC claim is $41,003.
A leading WC risk is ergonomics-based incidents, including manual material handling and repetitive upper extremity movements that cause musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). MSDs are the most frequent and severe workplace injury type. In the US, nearly 2 million workers suffer from MSDs annually, causing 30% of all WC costs. Employers spend as much as $20 billion a year on direct costs for MSD-related WC. Those with no remedies around poor ergonomics fail to protect their employees and bottom line, from this threat.
Emerging technologies, from water sensors to telematics, promise a broad, positive impact on insurance risk reduction. Many companies have seen the advantages of automation powered by AI and are reaping the benefits this technology offers in reducing workplace injuries.
Examples of advanced technologies to mitigate risk in the workplace include:
Ergonomic wearable sensors to track employee’s movements throughout a job task.
Shifting focus from manual observation to analysis through virtual, real-time data .
Sensors and video amplifying data available for businesses to reduce the potential risks.
Since the start of COVID-19, the WC industry has undergone significant technology transformation. Payers have had to navigate an onslaught of new challenges, from changing regulations to unprecedented staffing shortages. Many companies continue to chase opportunities to increase automation. The top findings from a recent survey are:
Telemedicine & Electronic Payments/Billing are the top technologies invested in throughout 2021.
Mobile Apps for Injured Employee Communication are the main focus, with the goal of improving communication and the return-to-work process.
While most of WC has been focused on using technology to solve immediate issues from the COVID-19 pandemic, going forward, the industry is turning its attention to improve the injured employee experience, keeping claims moving forward and allowing employees to return-to-work faster. Using technology to improve communication with injured employees can deliver major benefits including:
Improved adjuster productivity by ensuring they have access to information they need in a timely manner.
Facilitating more engagement with injured employees, simplifying administrative processes, providing a channel to communicate with case managers and more.
Providing pertinent information, such as assisting injured employees in getting prescriptions filled in a timely manner.
For frontline workers in the industrial workforce, the Internet of Things and wearable technology are being incorporated into WC policies, that curtail claims from happening in the first place. Insurance carrier Nationwide has partnered with Kinetic Insurance, a wearable device company, to deploy wearables for workers compensation insurance.
NEXT Insurance offers a pay-as-you-go offering that provides small businesses the option to bundle purchases by using Stripe Financial Connections to link a customer’s bank account, thus making payments frictionless. It pulls data from over two hundred payroll partners and integrates directly into providers like Intuit QuickBooks, Gusto and Square. Small business owners get access to a variety of post-purchase benefits for efficient policy servicing.
Pay-as-you-go offers valuable benefits that can help better manage coverage, avoid risk, and stay compliant. Cash flow payments are spread out, improving budgeting and cash flow. Minimal down payments help by keeping money interest earning. Comprehensive reports are provided during pay periods to show gross wages, exempt wages, and premium totals for each employee. When premiums are based on actual payroll figures, audit non-compliances are passe.
Market research projects that the WC sector will grow by $33.73 billion by 2025. As that growth materializes, the intuitiveness of solutions based on sophisticated behavior based safety models, will be key to success. Such solutions can be expected to drive down accidents and fatalities towards the ultimate goal: near-zero.
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Traditionally, we’ve talked about Amazon, Google, Apple, and Meta (formerly known as Facebook) as big tech companies with the potential to rise up as competitors in the banking and fintech space. However, there is one giant that is worth adding to this list– Walmart.
Walmart is not a fintech company, or even a tech company, it’s a retail firm. Or at least that’s what it was when Sam Walton founded it in 1962. But what does Walmart’s future look like? The company has made it clear that it will not only begin offering financial services, but will also evolve into a super app. On examining the company’s ambitions, it appears that Walmart may have what it takes to ascend as a competitor in the fintech space.
Below are five aspects of Walmart to consider when evaluating it as a potential competitor.
User base
As one of the most recognizable brands across the globe, Walmart comes with a large, built-in user base. The company sees 265 million customers worldwide each week, and many of those shoppers seek out Walmart as their primary retailer. Walmart+, the company’s $99 annual subscription service, counts 32 million members.
Once Walmart begins its formal foray into financial services in earnest, it will certainly not count all 32 million members as users right away. However, having a built-in, captive audience will help jump-start its user base and will lower customer acquisition costs.
In-app rewards
In both retail and financial services sectors, rewards create stickiness. As one of the oldest retail companies, Walmart has figured this out. Leveraging a partnership with Ibotta Performance Network, Walmart recently launched Walmart Rewards, a way for Walmart+ members to earn additional savings toward their future purchases at Walmart.
Checking account
Earlier this month, Bloomberg unveiled that Walmart plans to launch a digital bank account to serve its shoppers and 1.6 million employees. While no specific details have been released, it is clear that the digital bank will stem from One, which Walmart acquired in early 2022. One is a neobank that offers a debit card and boasts non-traditional products and services such as earned wage access, fee-free overdraft protection, and digital wallet integration.
Currently, One relies on Coastal Community Bank to provide banking services. It is not clear whether Walmart will continue to use that model, or if it will seek its own banking license. Walmart initially pursued a banking license in 2005. After two years, the company withdrew its application after receiving opposition from bankers and other credit institutions. Given hurdles involved in earning a banking license, my guess is that Walmart will rely on its relationship with a traditional bank like Coastal Community Bank.
For more clues into Walmart’s banking ambitions, I checked out job advertisements on LinkedIn. Walmart is currently hiring for a range of positions within its financial services arm. “We are starting some exciting ventures as we expand our financial services in various ways to engage and provide capabilities to our customers,” one of the job descriptions states.
Physical presence
Walmart has 11,501 physical retail stores across the globe. The largest U.S. bank, JP Morgan Chase, has fewer than half that number at around 5,080 physical bank branches. And for customers who are not into doing business IRL, Walmart has them covered, as well. The company just launched Walmart Land, a new immersive experience in Roblox.
If Walmart truly wants to become a large competitor in the financial services world, it already has more than enough physical infrastructure to do so.
Part of why this matters isn’t the sheer number of physical locations or square footage. Having these physical stores will impact who Walmart is able to serve, just as much as it will impact how many people it is able to serve. That’s because Walmart stores are typically located in rural and suburban areas– in other words, Walmart stores are close to non-urban customers who may not rely on their mobile devices as much as city dwellers, and therefore may not be comfortable maintaining an account at a digital-only bank. No smartphone? No problem, just drive down to Walmart and open up an account.
Super app
The term “super app” is used quite lightly in the fintech sector these days. However, Walmart is one of the few firms in the U.S. with the potential to evolve into a true super app. In a piece published earlier this year, Chief Research Officer at Cornerstone Advisors Ron Shevlin summarized Walmart’s potential as a super app. “Walmart’s DNA is efficiency and cost control—and that’s the ultimate promise of a super app for the supercenter,” said Shevlin.
Currently, the company’s app offers Walmart+ subscribers online grocery and retail shopping with free shipping; access to Scan & Go, a tool that enables shoppers to scan barcodes as they shop, pay with their phone using their card on file, and scan a QR code at the cash register before they exit the store. Subscribers also benefit from discounts of up to 10 cents off per gallon of fuel at 14,000 gas stations; and free access to stream movies and shows at Paramount+.
As it stands, Walmart’s app with the above services does not constitute a super app. In a blog post last year, I detailed a list of ten elements required for a super app. Here is what Walmart has and where it needs improvement:
Ecommerce: currently offers
Health services: currently offers vaccination services and provides medical care at locations in four U.S. states.
Food delivery: currently offers grocery delivery, but not prepared food delivery
Transportation services: currently offers fuel discounts and in-app fuel payments
Personal finance: does not offer, but is actively working on plans to do so
Travel services: does not offer
Billpay: does not offer
Insurance: does not offer
Government and public services: does not offer
Social: does not offer
Using that summary, Walmart receives a score of 4.5 out of ten on the super app scale, and it will likely progress in the next few years. Walmart has made it clear that it plans to create a super app. As Omer Ismail, CEO of Walmart’s One, told the Wall Street Journal, the company’s strategy “is to build a financial services super app, a single place for consumers to manage their money.”
Blend and PNC Bank announced a strategic partnership to help the bank digitally optimize its online mortgage process.
The partnership between Blend and PNC Bank comes in the wake of Blend’s Instant Home Equity product, launched in August.
Blend made its Finovate debut in 2016 and is also an alum of Finovate’s developer conference, FinDEVr.
A strategic partnership between PNC Bank and cloud banking software company Blend will help the financial institution digitally optimize its online mortgage application process. With its new mortgage application platform, PNC will enable its customers to digitally apply for a mortgage and import information such as bank and payroll data directly into the application simply by providing their credentials. Customers further will benefit from a single portal for tracking the status of their mortgage application, completing any additional tasks, as well as reviewing and electronically signing loan documentation. The portal also allows PNC’s mortgage loan officers to collaborate in real time with customers.
PNC EVP and Head of Mortgage Peter McCarthy called the partnership “an ideal combination of digital self-service technology and support for our customers as they navigate one of the biggest and most important purchases in their lifetimes.”
The strategic partnership announcement comes just over a month after Blend announced the launch of its automated instant home equity product. Integrating a range of recent enhancements to its mortgage suite, the solution provides income and identity verification, title, decisioning, property appraisal, and notarization. Lenders can use Blend Instant Home Equity to provide borrowers with a personalized offer that can be approved instantly and closed within a few days.
“Leveraging all that we’ve built on the Blend platform – for both Mortgage and Consumer Banking solutions – we’re able to deliver an instant home equity experience to help our customers ensure a seamless experience for applicants, grow their home equity businesses, and reduce costs to originate in a challenging marketplace,” Head of Blend Nima Ghamsari said.
Blend demonstrated its Data-Driven Mortgage solution at FinovateSpring 2016 and returned later that year to present its technology at our developers conference FinDEVr Silicon Valley. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Blend enables financial services companies to process an average of more than $5 billion in transactions a day. The company leverages low-code, drag-and-drop design tools to enable developers to build new products quickly. Its platform is integrated with trusted services ranging from eSign to identity verification to help financial institutions deliver seamless customer experiences.
PNC Bank is a part of the PNC Financial Services Group, one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the U.S. Offering retail banking to more than 12 million consumers and small businesses across the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest, PNC Bank also provides asset management services to affluent and ultra-affluent individuals and families, as well as corporate and institutional banking. As of June of this year, PNC Bank had $320 billion in assets under administration.
HSBC has tapped Nova Credit to integrate the company’s Credit Passport, a cross-border credit data product.
As part of the partnership, Nova Credit received $10 million in a Series C investment, bringing its total funding to more than $79 million.
HSBC deployed Nova Credit’s Credit Passport at HSBC Singapore in May and plans to expand its use of the solution later this year to cover more country bureaus.
Consumer-permissioned credit bureau Nova Creditreceived $10 million in a Series C funding round this week. The investment, which boosts the California-based company’s total funds to over $79 million, came from HSBC Ventures.
Under the strategic partnership, Nova Credit will provide HSBC with access to Credit Passport, its cross-border credit data product. Credit Passport essentially translates consumer credit across geographical borders, providing residents who are new to a country with access to financial products that require credit, such as loans or mortgages.
By leveraging Credit Passport, HSBC will have access to a customer’s translated credit history, after receiving permission from the customer. This not only increases HSBC’s potential client base, but it also increases the speed of the bank’s decisions.
“Accessing credit in a new market can be a challenge and is something we’ve been helping customers with for years,” said HSBC Group Head of Retail Banking and Strategy, Wealth and Personal Banking Taylan Turan. “We’re excited to be partnering with Nova Credit, to improve our ability to do this even more, with its innovative digital Credit Passport. We’re proud to be the first organization to offer this to customers in Singapore.”
HSBC Singapore integrated Credit Passport in May, enabling its applicants to offer the bank permission to access their global credit record and credit score. HSBC Singapore’s implementation of the tool also marked the first use of Credit Passport outside of the U.S.
HSBC elected to launch the use of the product in Singapore because thousands of its Singapore-based clients have recently moved to the country from India, where they have credit history. The bank plans to expand its use of the solution later this year to include customers with a credit history in Australia, the U.K., and the Philippines, and plans to cover more country bureaus in 2023.
Nova Credit launched in 2016 and has since built relationships with credit bureaus in more than 20 countries. Partnering with the credit bureaus has given the company consumer-permissioned access to over one billion credit profiles. Nova Credit also has partnerships with lenders including American Express, SoFi, Yardi, and Verizon.
Core provider Finastra is partnering with Visa on a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) solution that will give its clients access to cross-border payments around the globe beginning in 2023. The solution will integrate into the Visa network through Finastra’s FusionFabric.Cloud using the open development platform’s APIs, Barry Rodrigues, executive vice president and head of payments at Finastra, […]
The $727 million Security State Bank in Winters, Texas, recently chose FI-Mobile banking platform, according to an FI Navigator report provided to Bank Automation News. The following credit unions also switched mobile banking providers: $114 million New Castle Bellco Federal Credit Union in New Castle, Pa., selected CU Mobile apps; $114 million CBW Schools Federal […]
JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s UK digital lender has attracted 1 million customers in its first year of operation, making it one of the UK’s most popular neobanks. Chase UK clients hold an average of £27,000 ($29,084) in their Chase Saver account, according to a statement Wednesday. The lender said it has processed about 92 million […]
This week’s Finovate Alumni Profile is a salute to Hispanic Heritage Month, an opportunity every year to recognize the achievements of Americans whose ancestors came from Central and South America, as well as Spain, the Caribbean, and Mexico.
Here are some of the Latino and Hispanic fintech leaders who have demonstrated their company’s innovations on the Finovate stage since our return to live events in the fall of 2021. We’re also taking this opportunity to highlight recent Finovate alums that are headquartered in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Able (FinovateFall 2022) empowers commercial lenders to quickly collect data from borrowers, streamline the loan process, and book loans faster. The company was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Co-founder Diego Represas led the company’s demo at its Finovate debut earlier this month at FinovateFall.
Incognia (FinovateSpring 2022) is a privacy-first, location identity company that offers frictionless mobile authentication to banks and fintechs to help them lower fraud losses. Founded by CEO Andre Ferraz, Incognia is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company’s appearance at FinovateSpring in May of this year was Incognia’s Finovate debut.
Rillavoice (FinovateSpring 2022) offers conversation intelligence software that leverages AI to record, transcribe, and analyze conversations between bank branch associates and customers. The technology helps make bank managers more productive and enables reps to improve conversion rates by 30%. The New York City-based company was founded in 2019. CEO Sebastian Jimenez led the company’s FinovateSpring 2022 demo – Rillavoice’s first time on the Finovate stage.
Nufi (FinovateFall 2021) calls itself “the Legos of fintech.” The firm empowers companies to build financial products quickly while remaining compliant with relevant regulations. Specializing in markets in Latin America, the company’s Finovate debut in the fall of 2021 was led by Chief Operating Officer Ilich Nuñez. Nufi is headquartered in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and was founded in 2020.
With its Tap on Phone technology, Symbiotic (FinovateFall 2021) allows anyone with a cellphone to accept contactless card payments. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in San Pedro, San Jose, Costa Rica, Symbiotic is the first company to secure the PCI-CPoC certification of the Tap on Pone technology on the American continent. CEO and founder Javier Chacón led Symbiotic’s FinovateFall 2021 demo of the technology.
Snap Compliance (FinovateFall 2021) is a regtech company that provides holistic compliance and risk management solutions. A one-stop shop for compliance management, Snap Compliance offers a pay per consumption subscription model that adapts to the customer’s risk models with multiple integration options – including no integration at all. The Costa Rica-based company was founded in 2019, and FinovateFall 2021 was its first live demo on the Finovate stage. Snap Compliance founder and CEO Alex Siles, along with Head of Expansion & Product Development Katherine Morales, led the company’s presentation.
Masterzon (FinovateFall 2021) offers a platform that transforms commercial documents into negotiable securities. The technology operates in real time efficiently and transparently, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Co-founded by Elio Rojas in 2016, Masterzon is based in San José, Costa Rica. FinovateFall 2021 marked the company’s Finovate debut.
Fintech software developer IMPESA (FinovateFall 2021) includes some of the largest banks in Central America and the Caribbean among its B2B corporate customers. In its Finovate debut, IMPESA demonstrated its P2P payments app that offers customers card controls and gives banks new revenue opportunities. Mario Hernández, CEO and co-founder, co-led the company’s FinovateFall 2021 on stage demo. IMPESA is headquartered in San José, Costa Rica, and was founded in 2013.
Infocorp (FinovateFall 2021) was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay. The company’s smart omnichannel platform and best of breed digital channels give banks fast and flexible solutions to enhance the customer experience. At the company’s FinovateFall demo in 2021, CEO Ana Inés Echavarren and Product Manager Gonzalo Laguna demonstrated Infocorp’s App of the Future, a user-centric, mobile native banking app.
Fresh off a $21 million funding round, London-based regulatory technology provider SteelEye is expanding into the U.S. as it anticipates increased demand for compliance technology amid heightened scrutiny from lawmakers. SteelEye’s series B on Sept. 8 marks the largest raise by a European regtech firm in 2022. The company has raised a total of $43 […]
Bank of America launched a new QR code sign-in for its CashPro offering.
Paired with biometrics, the new sign-in option takes advantage of the trend in favor of QR code technology as a verification and log-in solution.
Bank of America’s CashPro has received recognition from Celent, Global Finance magazine, The Asian Banker, and Treasury Management International (TMI).
One of the surprising fintech trends of the past few years has been the deployment of QR codes as an option to facilitate payments in an increasingly wide range of contexts. Today, Bank of America announced that it has launched a new QR code sign-in for its CashPro solution. This will enable Bank of America’s 500,000 CashPro users to scan a QR code with their mobile device and use their biometric information via the CashPro App in order to access the CashPro website. The new option will also alleviate the need for users to manually enter passwords.
“QR sign-in is a technology that’s familiar to our clients from their personal lives, and now they can use it to seamlessly access CashPro,” Global Product Head for CashPro in Global Transaction Services Tom Durkin said. “The technology kicks off a schedule of enhancements we plan to introduce to CashPro over the next 18 months that will further improve the simplicity and security of our award-winning platform.”
Bank of America’s CashPro offers a complete digital platform for managing payments, receipts, investments, FX, and trade. The technology enables users to conduct their banking business from anywhere via the CashPro App, viewing balances, approving payments in less than a minute, depositing checks remotely, and making payments. Businesses can leverage the CashPro API to access a wide range of treasury activities including payments, fraud prevention, liquidity optimization, and more. CashPro also has a forecasting feature. Powered by machine learning and predictive analytics, CashPro Forecasting provides visibility across all customer accounts – including accounts at other institutions – and helps firms better manage future cash flows. The technology, embedded in CashPro and unveiled at the beginning of the year, provides customizable, machine-generated, daily, weekly, or monthly forecasts and learns over time to make predictions smarter and increasingly accurate.
“Many companies today rely on manual, repetitive work to forecast their cash needs, leaving little time to analyze the data for making strategic decisions, which is the actual objective of the forecasting exercise,” Co-head of Global Commercial Banking, Global Transaction Services for Bank of America Ken Ullmann said. “With CashPro Forecasting, companies can automate their forecasting process while improving the accuracy of their predictions, all without making any IT investment.”
Among the world’s leading financial institutions, Bank of America serves 67 million consumer and small business clients with 4,000 retail financial centers. Bank of America also provides a digital banking experience with 55 million verified digital users. Serving customers throughout the U.S. and its territories, as well as 35 countries around the world, Bank of America is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BAC. The institution has a market capitalization of $250 billion.
Bank of America on Monday announced the launch of QR and biometrics sign-in capabilities through its CashPro app, enhancing the identification and authentication process for its users. CashPro, which allows businesses to access their payments, cash management and trade finance operations, had more than 44,000 password reset requests come through its customer service team in […]
Executives from tech-forward financial institutions at Bank Automation Summit Fall 2022 last week addressed the industry’s evolving technology environment, including moves to the cloud, strategies to reuse code and leveraging data to improve overall client and employee experience. Some key takeaways from the event: Cloud compliance is a journey Regulators and banks in overwhelming numbers […]
