Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

This week’s Fintech Rundown features partnership and expansion news from a handful of Finovate alums, as well as some interesting fundings in the cryptocurrency and charitable giving space.


Wealth Management

Digital wealth and payments company Mogo expands its relationship with data cloud company Snowflake.

U.K.-based wealth app Chip launches its first Cash ISA.

WiseAlpha unveils new wealth management portal and white-label solution.

Digital Banking

Segura Bank International (SBI), an FI based in Puerto Rico, launches a new digital bank powered by Temenos’ core banking platform.

North Carolina-based Mechanics & Farmers Bank has gone live on the nCino Cloud Banking Platform.

Indian payment solutions provider PayU migrates its credit service LazyPay to Thought Machine’s core banking platform.

10x Banking announces expansion to Africa, starting in South Africa.

Core banking provider Tuum raises $26.8 million (EUR 25 million) in Series B financing.

HSBC U.K. introduces its Cash Pod to expand customer access to cash in areas without bank branches.

Mortgagetech

Phoebus launches its SaaS-based mortgage servicing platform.

Raymond James Bank deploys ICE Mortgage Technology’s Encompass lending solution.

Payments

Atlantic Money secures authorization to bring its money transfer service to the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

Overflow, a fintech that facilitates charitable giving, raises $20 million in new funding.

Worldpay completes its separation from FIS.

Airwallex forges multi-year partnership with McLaren Formula 1 team to support its treasury management and cross-border payout operations.

MENA-based payment orchestration solution provider PayTabs Group partners with Saudi Arabian payment-infrastructure-as-a-service fintech Nearpay.

Lending

Pagaya secures a five-year, $280 million credit facility led by BlackRock, JPMorgan, and others.

Allica Bank completes more than £2 billion in lending to businesses in the U.K.

Challenger banking

LendingClub moves closer to fulfilling the requirements to launch a new bank.

Open banking / Open finance

MX and Jack Henry announce an expanded agreement to enhance data sharing.

Trustly integrates MX data enhancement as part of its Open Banking product suite.

Norway-based open banking company Neonomics teams up with credit management firm Lowell.

Expense management / BFM

The Boston Celtics name Brex as its corporate card and spend management partner.

Expense management platform Fyle forges new integration with American Express.

Cryptocurrencies / DeFi

Oobit, a cryptocurrency payments app based in Singapore, raised $25 million in Series A funding.

Fnality to bring its blockchain-based payment system to the U.S. following its successful launch in the U.K.

Embedded finance

EY announces an alliance with embedded finance platform MoneyLion.

Identity Verification/Management

Entrust confirms that it is negotiating a potential acquisition of ID verification firm Onfido.


Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Jack Henry Unveils Banno Business to Help Regional FIs Bring Banking Innovations to SMEs

Jack Henry Unveils Banno Business to Help Regional FIs Bring Banking Innovations to SMEs
  • Jack Henry has launched its cloud-native business banking solution, Banno Business.
  • The new solution will help community and regional banks bring modern banking solutions to small and medium-sized businesses.
  • A Finovate alum since 2010, Jack Henry was founded in 1976.

Jack Henry unveiled its cloud-native business banking solution, Banno Business, last week. The new offering enables community and regional financial institutions to bring the innovations of modern banking to SMEs.

“Banno Business centralizes the business banking capabilities and partnerships we’ve created over the years into a single platform,” Jack Henry Managing Director of Digital Solutions Julie Morlan said. “We’ve built our platform to be highly configurable and scalable, enabling banks and credit unions to compete across the business spectrum. With Banno Business, financial institutions can expand and monetize their market share – a $370 billion revenue opportunity – while making a continued impact in their communities.”

Banno Business combines business solutions – such as cash management and commercial lending – with embedded payment capabilities, cash flow tools, reporting, and other features to help business owners better manage their finances. SMEs can also link external accounts to their financial institution via an integration with Finicity (a Mastercard company). Banno Business empowers regional and community financial institutions to leverage their relationships with and knowledge of their local businesses and business owners.

Institutions like High Plains Bank of Colorado are using Banno Business to attract more small and medium-sized businesses as customers, while at the same time helping local businesses improve their finances. The bank’s Chief Experience Officer Brian Otteman praised the ease with which business owners can “manage permissions for their employees, simplify their money movement, and understand their cashflow.” Freedom First Credit Union, a community-based financial institution headquartered in Virginia, is leveraging Banno Business to ingratiate itself to the local business community. “Having a full business solution with the digital user experience that our members know and trust makes for an easy transition to new markets,” Freedom First CU President and CEO Paul Phillips said. “Banno Business positions us to mature existing member relationships and grow net new business; it’s a win for our deposit acquisition strategy and diversifies our portfolio.”

Headquartered in Monett, Missouri, and founded in 1976, Jack Henry made its Finovate debut at Finovate 2010 in New York. The company returned to the Finovate stage four years later at FinovateEurope in London. A leading fintech and solution provider for financial institutions, Jack Henry empowers banks and credit unions to attract commercial accountholders, grow revenues, improve efficiency, and bolster the financial health and banking experience of their customers and members. Jack Henry has approximately 7,500 clients, and more than 10.5 million registered users of its Banno retail platform, which supports the company’s Banno Business offering.

Jack Henry is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker JKHY. The firm has a market capitalization of $12 billion. Last week, Jack Henry announced that CEO and Board Chair David Foss will transition to a new role as Executive Board Chair at the end of June. The company will name current President and Chief Operating Officer Greg Adelson as CEO and President on the first of July.


Photo by Adrien Olichon

Maine’s Machias Savings Bank Partners with Jack Henry to Modernize Tech Stack

Maine’s Machias Savings Bank Partners with Jack Henry to Modernize Tech Stack
  • Maine-based Machias Savings Bank has partnered with Jack Henry to modernize its technology stack.
  • Founded in 1869, Machias Savings Bank has $2.4 billion in assets.
  • Jack Henry has been a Finovate alum since 2010. Newsweek named the company as one of America’s Greatest Workplaces in 2023.

One of the oldest banks in Maine, Machias Savings Bank, has turned to Jack Henry to modernize its technology stack. The financial institution will deploy Jack Henry’s core processing solution to help automate processes and improve efficiency. Machias Savings Bank also will take advantage of business process solutions like Jack Henry’s Enterprise Workflow, as well as access more than 950 API-integrated, third-party fintechs that are a part of Jack Henry’s ecosystem.

“Jack Henry’s innovative mindset positions us well for a technology transformation that will help us stay competitive throughout shifting market and economic conditions,” Machias Savings Bank COO and EVP Peter Greene said. He added that the partnership will help the bank reduce costs while better serving its commercial customers, which have been a special focus for the institution.

“These modernization efforts will help Machias Savings Bank strengthen its connection to a new generation of customers, compete with the big banks, and remain a strong pillar in their community,” Jack Henry SVP and president of Bank Solutions Stacey Zengel added.

A Finovate alum since 2010, Jack Henry serves community and regional financial institutions, providing both internally developed technology solutions as well as integrations with leading fintech innovators. With more than 8,000 clients, the Monett, Missouri-based company offers digital banking, payments, lending, financial crime, and financial health solutions to help banks, credit unions, and other financial services companies innovate faster and compete more effectively against larger rivals in both finance and tech.

Last month, Jack Henry announced its support for the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service. In June, the company launched its real-time payment fraud feature – Payrailz Fraud Monitor. The technology leverages AI and machine learning to identify and assess multiple fraud indicators to provide actionable scores on each payment transaction. The AI-based offering was made possible by Jack Henry’s acquisition of Payrailz in 2022. In addition to its partnership with Machias Savings Bank, Jack Henry teamed up with Platinum Federal Credit Union in May; First Community Bank, Sunrise Bank, and Today’s Bank in April; and virtual bank Greenpenny in January.

Jack Henry trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker JKHY. The firm has a market capitalization of $12 billion.

Machias Savings Bank was founded in 1869. The institution has $2.4 billion in assets, and 17 branch locations throughout Maine. Larry Baker is president and CEO.


Photo by Blue Arauz

Glia Partners with Jack Henry to Bring Innovations in Digital Customer Service to Banks and Credit Unions

Glia Partners with Jack Henry to Bring Innovations in Digital Customer Service to Banks and Credit Unions
  • Glia and Jack Henry announced a partnership this week that will integrate Glia’s Digital Customer Service into Jack Henry’s Banno digital banking platform.
  • The integration will enable a wider number of banks and credit unions to interact with their customers via digital channels such as voice and video banking.
  • Glia and Jack Henry are both Finovate alums. Jack Henry made its Finovate debut in 2010. Glia has won Best of Show at Finovate conferences six times.

A newly announced partnership between a pair Finovate alums will bring some of the latest innovations in digital customer service to more bank and credit union customers. Digital Customer Service specialist Glia announced this week that its technology is now available via Jack Henry’s Banno Digital Platform.

The integration will give financial institutions using the platform the ability to engage customers across all digital channels – from SMS and chat to voice and video banking. Glia’s acquisition of fellow Finovate alum Finn AI in June adds innovative virtual assistance technology to Glia’s offering – technology that will now be available to banks and credit unions on Jack Henry’s platform. The integration was facilitated by the Banno Digital Toolkit, which uses the same set of APIs upon which the Banno Digital Platform is built.

“Glia is making Digital Customer Service accessible to a growing number of banks and credit unions, empowering them with powerful tools to digitalize and transform customer service,” Glia SVP of Alliances Steve Kaish said. “Our integration with Jack Henry accelerates that mission, allowing more institutions to facilitate digital-first engagements within the digital domain.”

A six-time Finovate Best of Show winner, Glia most recently demoed its Digital Customer Service technology at FinovateSpring last year. At the conference, Glia showed how its latest innovation automatically connects customer inbound calls to the customer’s associated online browsing sessions to give customer service representatives context when handling the customer query. This helps improve the quality of the session, making it easy for the representative to collaborate online with the caller via features like co-browsing, screensharing, and one- or two-way video. This, according to Kaish, will help “community institutions create competitive advantage” versus their national and international rivals.

Founded in 2012, Glia is headquartered in New York City. Daniel Michaeli is CEO and co-founder.

With more than 9,000 customers in the U.S., Jack Henry offers banks and credit unions an ecosystem of innovative financial services solutions, as well as the ability to integrate with leading fintechs. Headquartered in Monett, Missouri, and founded in 1976, the company made its Finovate debut in 2010 and has since grown into a major technology and payment services company with $1.7 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021. Jack Henry is a publicly traded entity on the Nasdaq under the ticker “JKHY,” and has a market capitalization of $13 billion.

A Finovate alum since 2010, Jack Henry & Associates was featured in Computerworld’s “Best Places to Work in IT” list for 2023. This week, the company announced that it was adding automated policy management technology to its Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Suite. David Foss is President and CEO.


Photo by Yan Krukov

Jack Henry Acquires Payrailz for an Undisclosed Amount

Jack Henry Acquires Payrailz for an Undisclosed Amount
  • Jack Henry Acquired payments-as-a-service startup Payrailz.
  • Jack Henry anticipates the acquisition will enhance its payments-as-a-service strategy and offer its 8,000 clients the ability to enable embedded finance.
  • Financial details were not disclosed.

Core banking provider Jack Henry & Associates has agreed to acquire digital payments startup Payrailz. Financial details of the acquisition, which is expected to close at the end of this month, have not been disclosed.

Jack Henry anticipates the acquisition will support banks and credit unions by enhancing its payments-as-a-service (PaaS) strategy and offering its 8,000 clients the ability to enable embedded finance. Jack Henry currently has a virtual payments hub that consolidates money transfer tools which support numerous payment channels and types. Payrailz’s technology complements this hub by adding consumer and commercial bill pay; real-time person-to-person (P2P), account-to-account (A2A), business-to-customer (B2C) payments; and more.

“We are excited about the opportunity to add these next-generation solutions to our payments capabilities,” said Jack Henry President and COO Greg Adelson. “Our company is engaged in technology modernization that is supporting banks and credit unions with innovative solutions that enable them to respond to business opportunities and challenges, and to improve the financial health of their accountholders. Considering the importance of modern digital and payments strategies to financial institutions, we plan to acquire Payrailz as a strategic addition to our payments ecosystem, which enables our clients to simplify the complexity of payments, modernize their existing payment channels, and remain at the center of their account holders’ payment experiences.”

Payrailz consumer and commercial digital payment solutions help banks compete with third party players with its PaaS offering. The company was founded in 2016 and had since raised $24 million. Earlier this year, Payrailz integrated with Q2’s digital banking platform to enable Q2 clients to provide P2P payment services.

Founded in 1976, Jack Henry most recently presented at FinovateFall 2015 where the company showcased the Banno solution after acquiring Banno in 2014. Among Jack Henry’s other fintech acquisitions are Geezeo, iPay Technologies, and Stackfolio.


Photo by Albin Berlin

Jack Henry Partners with Victor Technologies to Boost Real-Time Payment Capabilities

Jack Henry Partners with Victor Technologies to Boost Real-Time Payment Capabilities
  • Jack Henry & Associates announced a partnership with Victor Technologies.
  • The partnership will help Victor Technologies move forward with its instant payments strategy.
  • Jack Henry & Associates serves more than 8,000 customers in the U.S. via its Jack Henry Banking, Symitar, and ProfitStars brands.

Financial services provider Jack Henry & Associates has partnered with Victor Technologies to help advance its instant payments strategy. A subsidiary of MVB Edge Ventures and part of MVB Bank, Victor Technologies leverages both its integrated risk management technology as well as APIs to enable fintechs to embed financial services. The company has added real-time payments (RTP) capabilities via Jack Henry’s JHA PayCenter, which will enable MVB Bank’s Jack Henry core to send and receive real-time payments.

“Instant payments 24/7/365 is now table stakes and offers a huge competitive advantage for our clients,” Victor Head of Strategy and Operations said. “The features of the RTP network provide payment finality and certainty, which reduces back-office reconciliation because transactions are now settled in real-time. This is especially true for key growth verticals like gaming and crypto where transactions need to be processed at any time regardless of banking hours. The addition of real-time payments gives end-users quicker access to their money.”

MVB Bank is the first Jack Henry client to go live using the company’s RTP Send functionality, and the bank intends to offer RTP Request for Payment services, as well. The ability to offer both solutions will make it easier for Victor Technologies to provide its customers with the kind of faster payment needs their businesses require.

A Finovate alum since 2010, Jack Henry & Associates serves 8,000 clients around the country via its three signature brands: Jack Henry Banking, Symitar, and ProfitStars. The company leverages these brands to deliver innovative solutions to community and regional banks, credit unions, as well as corporate entities and large-scale financial institutions. Founded in 1976 and headquartered in Monett, Missouri, Jack Henry & Associates’ partnership announcement with Victor Technologies comes just one month after Jack Henry announced that more than 250 financial institutions have taken advantage of its JHA PayCenter – and its connections to both The Clearing House RTP network and the Zelle Network – to execute their faster payment strategies.

“We strategically built JHA PayCenter to support the diverse faster payments strategies of Jack Henry clients, financial institutions using third-party core and digital platforms, as well as other fintechs,” Jack Henry & Associates VP of Payment Solutions Tede Forman said. “The payments hub virtually eliminates the inherent technology and staffing challenges experienced by financial institutions that elect to build and maintain direct connections to one or multiple faster payments networks.”


Photo by Fabrizio Verrecchia

FinovateSpring Best of Show Winner Array Teams Up with Jack Henry

FinovateSpring Best of Show Winner Array Teams Up with Jack Henry
  • Financial enablement platform Array announced a partnership with Jack Henry Associates to embed its credit management and identity protection solutions into Jack Henry’s Banno Digital Platform.
  • Among the institutions to adopt the technology is Washington-based Timberland Bank.
  • Array is a two-time Finovate Best of Show winner, earning its most recent award at FinovateSpring 2022 last week.

Array, a financial enablement platform that specializes in embeddable solutions for financial institutions, announced a partnership with fellow Finovate alum Jack Henry. The partnership will integrate Array’s credit management services, identity protection tools, and offer engine into Jack Henry’s Banno Digital Platform. The combination of technologies will give customers personalized credit and financial insights via their preferred financial institution partners.

“The financial services ecosystem exists to enable consumers to improve their financial health,” Array Director of Strategic Partnerships Jacob Bouer said. “This movement is both necessary and urgent. If financial institutions do not offer credit monitoring and identity protection products, consumers will find them elsewhere.”

By leveraging the Banno Digital Toolkit, Array has been able to help financial institutions better serve their customers and members by enabling them to securely access and monitor their credit directly from their bank or credit union. Not only does the integration give better service to customers, it also helps banks boost digital engagement, grow revenues, and expand opportunities for both new lending and credit. Among the institutions to take early advantage of Array’s technology is Timberland Bank, headquartered in Washington. The bank’s EVP and COO, Jonathan Fischer, praised the partnership for providing “the tools necessary to engage and educate customers on their credit health, which strengthens relationships and ultimately improves our community’s well-being.”

Among the solutions available to bank customers via the collaboration are customized credit score simulators, score factors, debt analysis, alerts, and more. The technology helps educate bank customers by giving them greater awareness of their credit information and history, and enables them to make better decisions on how to improve their financial lives.

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in New York, Array demoed its technology last week at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. At the conference, the company earned its second Best of Show award for its platform that democratizes data accessibility while simultaneously protecting privacy and ensuring consent. Martin Toha is founder and CEO.


Photo by DS stories

Bank of Charles Town to Digitize its Commercial Lending Experience in Partnership with Jack Henry

Bank of Charles Town to Digitize its Commercial Lending Experience in Partnership with Jack Henry

The latest chapter in Bank of Charles Town’s digital transformation was written today. The West Virginia-based financial institution announced that it is collaborating with Jack Henry & Associates to digitize its commercial lending operations.

“We selected Jack Henry’s lending platform because it supports our broader digital banking strategy,” Bank of Charles Town (BCT) Vice President Anthony J. Ranghelli said. “The platform will help us grow with scale and efficiency while improving everyone’s experience. Our immediate goal for the next few years is to expand our digital lending footprint geographically to support businesses in neighboring communities and diversify our portfolio.”

Bank of Charles Town has spent the past few years investing in digital banking solutions, including a new website, digital wallets, and mobile deposit functionality. This week’s announcement will enable the FI to move away from the manual backend processes that have governed its previous loan origination system. The new technology from Jack Henry & Associates will bring new efficiencies, an improved customer experience, and streamlined workflow for employees. Ranghelli noted that the partnership will enable BCT to better serve its small and medium-sized business customers, especially “niche industries” such as dentist offices and law firms which he called “a priority for our bank.”

Founded in 1871 by a coalition of Jefferson County, West Virginia farmers and business leaders, Bank of Charles Town has grown into a $511 million-financial institution serving communities in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia; Loudon County, Virginia; and Washington County, Maryland. BCT was named a Best Bank to Work For by American Banker in 2020 for a second year in a row. Alice Frazier is President and CEO.

A Finovate alum since 2011, when the company showcased its ProfitStars division, Jack Henry & Associates finished 2021 with new partners and new functionalities for its solutions. The company announced a collaboration with Envestnet | Yodlee in December and also reported that its Jack Henry Lending platform, the centerpiece of its partnership with Bank of Charles Town, has been upgraded to include tax return spreading capabilities. This move will further reduce the amount of manual work that typically burdens the lending process and will accelerate the time to loan fulfillment.


Photo by Marina Leonova from Pexels

Temenos, Jack Henry Secure New Bank, Credit Union Partnerships

Temenos, Jack Henry Secure New Bank, Credit Union Partnerships

Every week is a good week to be a Finovate alum. But for those alums that focus on forging partnerships to help credit unions and banks transition from legacy systems to modern, cloud-based environments, the first full week of December so far has been especially productive.

Westmark Credit Union, an Idaho-based financial institution with more than $1 billion in assets, announced yesterday that it will swap out its current core banking system for Jack Henry & Associates‘ Symitar. The credit union cited Symitar’s open and flexible architecture, including the ability to both use the core “as-is” as well as to introduce additional functionalities in the future should they choose to. Symitar will provide Westmark CU with built-in workflows to bring automation – and lower error rates – to key processes.

“Symitar’s workflows and connectivity provide the opportunity to realize significant financial and efficiency gains,” Westmark Chief Information Officer Don West said. “And most importantly, it gives us the optionality we need to integrate with the products and service providers of our choice. With Symitar, we can build the best technology plan for our unique business needs, fueling future growth and keeping a highly competitive pace with the accelerated speed of change in today’s market.”

The transition will also take Westmark from an in-house core banking system to one that leverages a private cloud environment instead. This will enable the credit union to focus less on managing the day-to-day tasks of core maintenance and hardware updates and more on improving their member experience.

Speaking to this point, Jack Henry & Associates VP and President of the company’s Symitar division, Shanon McLachlan noted, “Jack Henry has seen a significant movement from on-premise to the private cloud environment with approximately 30 existing customers a year making the move, and this isn’t limited to any asset size. While this shift continues to be a huge trend, so is the need to have a modern core that enables credit unions to provide their members with the options they need to succeed,” McLachlan said.

Jack Henry & Associates made its first Finovate appearance at FinovateFall in 2010. Headquartered in Monett, Missouri, the company announced a major collaboration with fellow Finovate alum Envestnet | Yodlee last week to enable financial institutions to access consumer-permissioned financial data.


Another major fintech/financial institution partnership announced by our Finovate alums in the first half of this week is the collaboration between Trusted Novus Bank, a Gibraltar-based institution, and banking software company Temenos. As part of a “complete, end-to-end digital transformation,” the bank will trade its legacy core banking and front office systems for Temenos Transact and Temenos Infinity on the Temenos Banking Cloud.

“We want to expand our retail, corporate, and private banking and scale fast to increase our customer base,” Trusted Novus Bank CEO Christian Bjørløw explained in a statement. “With the Temenos Banking Cloud, we can deliver personalized, real-time customer experiences on a scalable platform that will foster innovation and keep the bank at the forefront of technology, and at the same time be true to our vision and values.”

The oldest established bank in Gibraltar, Trusted Novus Bank was reorganized in 2020 with goal of growing its business and enhancing the digital experience for its customers, as well. With its new core and front office system and access to the Temenos Banking Cloud, the bank will be able to build and offer personalized, real-time customer experiences that are customized for its different lines of business. Trusted Novus Bank will also be able to take advantage of straight-through-processing (STP) and automation, enabling its professionals to prioritize value-added, customer-facing services rather than on time-consuming administrative tasks.

“With banking services powered by the Temenos Banking Cloud, Trusted Novus can dramatically reduce costs and turbocharge innovation to deliver outstanding customer experiences,” Temenos President of International Sales Jean-Paul Mergeai said. “Trusted Novus has exciting plans to extend its banking services on our platform, and we will be working closely to ensure rapid time-to-value.”

A Finovate alum since 2013, Temenos operates worldwide and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The company recently announced that it was moving its North American regional headquarters to new offices in Manhattan, New York.


Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Ten Finovate Alums Join FedNow Instant Payments Pilot Program

Ten Finovate Alums Join FedNow Instant Payments Pilot Program

More than two years in the making, the FedNow payments initiative – launched by the U.S. Federal Reserve to accelerate payments and transfers – is picking up speed. The project currently has more than 110 banks, financial services providers, and other organizations slated to participate, and among them are ten Finovate alums.

“We’re gratified by the industry’s tremendous interest and willingness to devote time and energy to help us develop the FedNow Service,” Esther George, executive sponsor of the Federal Reserve’s payments improvement initiatives, said. George, who is also President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, added that the pilot has had to “adjust” to accommodate greater than expected interest.

The idea behind the service is to expand the reach of instant payment services offered by financial institutions and enable businesses and individuals to send and receive instant payments, with full access to their funds within seconds. The FedNow Service will leverage the Federal Reserve’s FedLine network, which connects to more than 10,000 financial institutions directly or via their agents.

The pilot program is designed to review the technology’s features and functionality, assess the user experience, and greenlight the product for further testing and eventual general availability. Participating institutions will be retained, post-launch, to provide additional review and advice with regard to issues like adoption roadmap, industry readiness, and overall payments strategy.

“The FedNow Service marks a turning point in the industry’s move to making real-time payments a reality,” Booshan Rengachari, founder and CEO of Finzly, explained. Finzly is one of Finovate’s newest alums – most recently demoing its technology at FinovateWest Digital last fall – and is one of the participants in FedNow’s pilot program.

Rengachari further suggested that this “turning point” was a moment his company had anticipated. “We created our Payment Hub specifically to help FIs prepare and go to market faster with newer RTP networks,” he said. Finzly’s CEO added that this helps “address the challenges of offering single payment API for multiple payment networks without having to run disparate payment systems from multiple vendors.”

The 10 Finovate alums participating in the FedNow project are listed below.


Photo by Inge Wallumrød from Pexels

How Plaid Expanded its Network

How Plaid Expanded its Network

Earlier this year banking technology company Plaid launched Plaid Exchange, a new tool to facilitate open banking.

The new open finance platform offers banks a way to provide open banking connectivity to their clients while keeping their end customers’ data safe and giving them control of their data.

Plaid Exchange helps banks establish token-based API connectivity with the 2,600 third party apps in Plaid’s network. This single connection simplifies integration for banks, helping their clients connect with more third party providers securely. Plaid Exchange can help banks bring an API solution to market in 12 weeks. 

A couple of weeks back, Plaid formed a key partnership to help it reach more banks to access the Plaid network. The company is working with Jack Henry & Associates to enable Plaid Exchange for banks on the Banno Digital Platform.

The deal helps Plaid reach more than 350 institutions currently using Jack Henry’s Banno Digital Platform. These financial institutions can benefit by offering their accountholders access to Plaid-powered fintech apps. Plaid has designed the integration process to be simple and Banno clients will be able to access the technology for free.

The deal with Jack Henry comes as an extension of the Plaid Exchange Partner Program, which is aimed to get banking platform providers, API management platforms, and software development companies on board to offer Plaid Exchange to their bank clients.

The network effects of the Plaid Exchange Partner Program will be a boon to the San Francisco-based company. That’s because the more banks Plaid partners with, the more attractive Plaid is to fintechs.

Plaid works with thousands of third-party fintech apps such as TransferwiseBetterment, and Venmo to connect with their users’ financial institutions. The company made headlines at the beginning of 2020 after it announced it had been acquired by Visa for $5.3 billion and made the news again after the U.S. Department of Justice filed a suit to block the acquisition last month.


Photo by Pixabay on Pexels

Helping Secure Digital Identities; Managing Financial Crime Risk

Helping Secure Digital Identities; Managing Financial Crime Risk

Two of the biggest themes in fintech – digital identity and the rise of fintech in Central and Eastern Europe – meet in the latest announcement from biometric authentication specialist and Finovate Best of Show winner iProov. The company’s facial recognition technology now makes it easier for users of SK ID Solutions’ Smart-ID Service in countries like Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to renew their accounts without having to visit a physical bank branch.

“This is a major development for all digital identity providers,” iProov CEO Andrew Bud said. “Estonia has proved, for the first time, that a remote, automated, biometric ID verification service can deliver the highest possible levels of security.”

Recognized as equal to a handwritten signature throughout Europe, Smart-IDs enable users to authenticate themselves and provide permissions online using a smartphone app. iProov’s facial recognition technology adds a three-second scan to compare the image of the user to the image on their presented ID document to help defend against fraud and identity theft.

Smart-ID also leverages NFC-based ReadID document verification technology from InnoValor.

Financial crime risk management innovator Featurespace will be helping Enfuce combat fraud and money laundering courtesy of a newly announced partnership. Enfuce, a financial services firm based in Finland, will use Featurespace’s ARIC Risk Hub to enhance its ability to protect its customers from fraud and financial crime.

“Our clients deserve industry-leading services that allow them to freely and fully concentrate on the success of their core business, without worrying about ever-evolving fraud,” Enfuce co-founder and chair Monika Liikamaa said.

ARIC Risk Hub offers real-time transaction monitoring for fraud and financial crime, enabling institutions to identify and act against anomalous and potentially dangerous behavior as it occurs. The technology also reduces the number of false positives by as much as 70%, keeping anti-fraud processes efficient. Featurespace introduced its fraud-fighting technology to Finovate audiences at FinovateEurope 2016.


Here is a round up of recent news from our Finovate alumni.

  • Sezzle unveils new logo along with its first annual report.
  • Flybits expands its executive team in New York, Toronto, the U.K., and Dubai.
  • ID R&D updates voice biometric solution IDVoice.
  • M1 Finance surpasses $1 billion in assets on its platform.
  • Armor Bank selects Teslar Software’s automated workflow and portfolio management tools.
  • Mastercard partners with myPOS to boost adoption of card payment solutions among European SMEs.
  • Black Hills FCU selects nCino’s Bank Operating System.
  • Bazaarvoice launches partnership program with Yotpo as the piloting partner.
  • Keysafe inks partnership with Salt Edge to access tenants’ bank data without the need to acquire its own PSD2 license.
  • Lending Club appoints Annie Armstrong as Chief Risk Officer.
  • Assaray Trade and Investment Bank selects Temenos Infinity and Transact to power its digital transformation.
  • Long John Silver’s chooses Blackhawk Network for gift card program.
  • Trustly and Fly Norwegian team up to let travelers pay directly from their bank accounts.
  • Pindrop launches Deep Voice 3, the new version of its voice recognition technology.
  • Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga steps down, replaced by Chief Product Officer Michael Miebach.
  • Venmo to launch debit card for teens.
  • Almost 600 banks select Fiserv’s Turnkey Service for Zelle.
  • Finastra to offer ClickSWITCH’s account switching technolkogy to its clients.
  • Simmons Bank partners with Jack Henry to leverage its Banno platform to build a digital presence.
  • Currencycloud and Currensea team up.
  • Yseop and Automation Anywhere join forces to scale intelligent automation.
  • Lighter Capital appoints Kevin Fink at CTO and Patricia Elliott as CSO.
  • InComm launches Roblox gift cards in France and Germany.

Finovate Alum Features and Profiles

Revolut’s $500 Million Round Boosts Valuation to $5.5 Billion – Global financial platform Revolut has secured its place as the U.K.’s most valuable fintech.

Dealing with Deepfakes in Fintech – The fintech industry is ripe with security firms, such as iProov, that use AI to combat both video and audio deepfakes with anti-spoofing technologies.

Envestnet | Yodlee Acquires Indian Data Aggregator FinBit.io – Envestnet | Yodlee has acquired another asset in its strategy to further grow and develop its data aggregation and analytics business.

Meet Sonect: Cash Network Builder, Finovate Newcomer, Best of Show Winner – What’s better than having a large pizza with all your favorite toppings delivered to your front door? How about a side order of cash, saving you a trip to the ATM or bank branch?

Azimo Taps Ripple for Cross-Border Payments to the Philippines – Fueling these payment transfers is Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) solution that uses XRP to source liquidity and complete money transfers within three seconds.

Lendio Lands $55 Million to Match Small Businesses with Lenders – The investment more than doubles the company’s previous funding, bringing its total to $108.5 million.

SheerID Expands Identity Marketing Platform – The move enables brands to identify and acquire new customers across the globe.