IBM and Bank of America Partner on Public Cloud for Financial Services

IBM and Bank of America Partner on Public Cloud for Financial Services

How serious is IBM about making an impact in fintech? The company, which demonstrated its wealth management technology at FinovateSpring in 2016, launched its first financial services-ready public cloud today and revealed Bank of America as its initial partner. The two companies have been working together on the project for more than a year, and the bank said it plans to host key applications and workloads on the platform to better serve its 66 million banking customers. According to reporting in The Wall Street Journal, Bank of America currently has 80% of its IT workload on a private cloud and has been planning a move to a public cloud since 2012.

The IBM financial services public cloud will help banks and other financial services companies more effectively engage with qualified technology vendors. In its statement, IBM highlighted the fact that the cloud will also help financial services firms meet regulatory, security, and resiliency requirements for working with fintechs. The company added that the solution is the only industry-specific, public cloud platform to provide preventative and compensatory controls for financial services regulatory workloads, multi-architecture support, and proactive and automated security.

Bank of America helped IBM develop the platform’s control requirements which, for example, will help both ISVs and SaaS providers of all sizes focus on their businesses rather than security, infrastructure, and compliance issues once platform controls are established.

Calling the pact, “one of the most important collaborations in the financial services industry cloud space,” Bank of America Chief Operations and Technology Officer Cathy Bessant explained that the bank expects to give as much as it gets from the relationship. “This industry-first platform will allow Bank of America to use the public cloud, putting data security, resiliency, privacy, and customer information safety needs at the forefront of decision-making,” Bessant said. “By setting a standard that addresses the concern of hosting highly-confidential information, we aim to drive the public cloud to a safety level that is unmatched.”

The IBM financial services-ready cloud will run on IBM’s public cloud. IBM’s public cloud leverages open source technologies, including a managed Red Hat OpenShift environment, to support more than 1,000 enterprise clients. The platform leverages more than 16,000 production clusters, provides industry-leading compliance for data encryption, and relies on integration with IBM Security to deliver threat monitoring and management from a centralized security dashboard.

“The financial services-ready public cloud represents an ongoing focus from Bank of America, IBM, and Promontory to help develop a technology ecosystem where regulations can be addressed,” IBM SVP for Global Industries, Clients, Platforms & Blockchain Bridget van Kralingen said. “Together we plan to help our customers address their ongoing compliance requirements, coupled with highly scalable, standardized capabilities that will be built to help serve today’s modern financial services industry.” Promontory is an IBM business unit focused on financial services regulatory compliance consulting that was brought in to ensure an environment that was compliant with relevant regulations.

In addition to its FinovateSpring appearance in 2016, IBM also participated in our developers conference, FinDEVrNewYork 2017. The presentation by CTO Tom Eck discussed how thousands of developers were successfully building and monetizing “cognitive-enabled” financial services apps quickly and at scale.

Founded in 1911, IBM is based in Armonk, New York. The company is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker IBM, and has a market capitalization of $122 billion.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Avaloq Seeks Exit: M&A or IPO?
  • eToro’s Latest Acquisition Boosts its Crypto Presence
  • IBM and Bank of America Partner on Public Cloud for Financial Services

Around the web

  • DefenseStorm names Chief Revenue Officer Steve Soukup as its new President.
  • NICE Actimize introduces its new Federated Learning capability that offers higher fraud detection via Collective Intelligence.
  • Fiserv inks global agreement with German grocery industry leader ALDI.
  • GoCardless to use TransferWise’s API, TransferWise for Business product, and provide TransferWise’s FX rates to its customers.
  • PayKey forms SBI PayKey Asia, a joint venture with SBI Holdings that will support the sales and market launch of PayKey across the region.
  • ThetaRay taps Moran Goldwein as SVP for Human Resources.
  • Infinex to integrate Jemstep’s Advisor Pro to deliver digital advice to Infinex’s client firms.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Ephesoft Drives Digital Automation in Thailand via Language Recognition

Ephesoft Drives Digital Automation in Thailand via Language Recognition

The newly-announced partnership between Ephesoft and Tokio Marine Asia demonstrates how fintech and insurtech are playing a role in the advancement of Thai language recognition technology. Tokio Marine Asia, the regional headquarters of Japan’s first life insurance company, will collaborate with the enterprise content capture and data discovery solutions provider to bring greater automation to the Thai insurance market.

Ephesoft’s technology leverages supervised machine learning to automate the classification and extraction of key information from unstructured data. The technology is sensitive enough to recognize document types and the machine learning system requires only two to five samples of the data in order to perform. Faster data extraction, with fewer opportunities for manual entry-based error, gives businesses in a variety of industries lower costs, deeper insight into business trends, and the ability to offer improved service to customers.

“We hope that by using Ephesoft, we will be able to alleviate manual data entry and streamline processes, accelerating our claim processing to provide better customer service,” VP and head of digital strategy of Tokio Marine Asia Hidemi Harada said.

In addition to bringing digital efficiencies to the Thai insurance industry, the partnership hopes to break new ground in the analysis of Thai language unstructured data. Pledging to overcome data, document, and language challenges that are “prevalent throughout Thailand,” Ephesoft CEO and founder Ike Kavas said, “Ephesoft has a strong commitment to meeting our customers where they are and addressing their unique challenges, regardless of geographic location.” Harada added that the collaboration will help them “gain a deeper level of understanding for characters and language, which has been a long-time challenge to international business in Thailand.”

The deal with Tokio Marine Asia is the latest partnership from Ephesoft, which unveiled a major alliance with Grant Thornton over the summer. That partnership will enable Grant Thornton to make Ephesoft Smart Capture available to its customers to improve back office operations such as invoicing, accounts payable, and contract management.

Last month, Ephesoft announced that it had partnered with IT, BPO, and consulting services firm Hexaware Technologies to help businesses successfully undertake automation-led, process transformations. In September, the company announced that it was collaborating with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) specialist Automation Anywhere to help customers take advantage of the combined benefits of RPA and document capture technologies.

Ephesoft demonstrated its smart document capture and analytics platform at FinovateSpring 2018, highlighting how the technology leverages data mining and analytics to enhance mortgage document processing. Founded in 2010, the company has raised $15 million in funding and includes Mercato Partners among its investors.

GoDaddy Adds SME Financing Option with Kabbage Partnership

GoDaddy Adds SME Financing Option with Kabbage Partnership

The “everyday entrepreneurs” of GoDaddy just got access to a new financing option. The web hosting innovator has teamed up with online lending and technology platform Kabbage to enable its business customers to apply for and receive a Kabbage line of credit of up to $250,000 in a matter of minutes if approved.

“Our customers tell us all the time that flexible funding is critical to grow and run their businesses; new opportunities make it important to be able to access capital, quickly whether for online marketing, inventory or purchasing new equipment,” Kabbage CRO Laura Goldberg explained. “They simply can’t afford to wait weeks or months for a loan approval.”

The flexible lines of credit also mean that business borrowers are not obligated to make withdrawals. There is no fee for applying for Kabbage funding, and borrowers pay nothing until they access the funds. “Our customer base of over 200,000 small businesses across the U.S. understands the value of accessing the exact amount of funding they need when they need it,” Goldberg said.

In a statement, Kabbage and GoDaddy highlighted the role that a lack of capital played in undermining small business digital marketing efforts, in particular. Citing a survey of 500+ entrepreneurs, the companies noted that small businesses typically pointed to a lack of money as the main reason for not growing their presence online.

“We know that a lack of capital for marketing and other core activities remains a major roadblock to accelerate growth,” GoDaddy VP of global market operations Melissa Schneider said. “Our partnership with Kabbage is key in our ongoing mission to empower our customers and provide them with the resources they need to fuel their business needs.”

GoDaddy has more than 18 million customers and 9,000+ employees around the world. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company had 2017 revenues of $2.2 billion and a net income that same year of more than $15 million. Founded in 1997, GoDaddy is publicly-traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker GDDY. The company has a market capitalization of $11 billion.

Founded in 2009, Kabbage demonstrated its Kabbage Card – which links directly to the customer’s Kabbage line of credit – at FinovateSpring 2015. More recently, the company announced that it was getting into the payments business with the launch of a new SME payments solution, Kabbage Payments. Also this fall, the Atlanta, Georgia-based company acquired fellow Finovate alum Radius, adding insights into millions of small businesses to its platform.

Kabbage is also an alum of our developers conference, FinDEVr SiliconValley 2015. At the event, the company’s Chief Technical Officer demonstrated how developers can use the Kabbage platform to accelerate the lending process.

Envestnet Adds Yodlee FinApps to MoneyGuide’s MyBlocks

Envestnet Adds Yodlee FinApps to MoneyGuide’s MyBlocks

Envestnet announced today that it is adding five Yodlee FinApps to MoneyGuide’s MyBlocks client-engagement tool. This will give financial advisors new resources to improve customer engagement as well as their customer’s financial wellness.

An interactive, digital experience, MyBlocks helps advisors engage clients on topics such as social security and retirement compatibility by breaking them into “bite-sized blocks” that are easier to understand, navigate, and manage. By adding Yodlee Finapps, advisors will also be able to offer clients a holistic view of their assets, insurance, and other financial information, as well. “Get clients engaged faster and keep them engaged,” Envestnet | MoneyGuide president Tony Leal said. “That’s the foundation of MyBlocks.”

The new five blocks include:

  • AI Fintech: AI-driven virtual assistant that measures financial health
  • Cash Flow Analysis: financial tracker that forecasts future expenses and income
  • Investment Holdings: portfolio viewer with ability to examine sectors and individual holdings
  • NetWorth Summary: aggregated, continually-updated snapshot of assets and liabilities
  • OK to Spend: cash flow optimizer that provides transparency on future income and expenses

This week’s announcement furthers the initial integration between MyBlocks and Yodlee FinApps announced over the summer. The new blocks are currently available to MoneyGuide customers who are subscribers to MyBlocks and have licensed Yodlee data aggregation. The offering is expected to be extended to all registered investment advisors using the Envestnet | Tamarac platform in 2020.

“This is another step in our journey to create a unified advice network that allows advisors and their clients to build better financial futures,” Envestnet interim CEO Bill Crager said.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Envestnet| Yodlee demonstrated its latest financial wellness data offering at FinovateFall in September. The new app enables users to structure their financial data in repositories called “boards” that leverage notifications, alerts, and insights to make it easier for users to manage their finances. Among other recent offerings from the company are its Intelligent APIs, unveiled just weeks ago, which take advantage of data science and machine learning to empower the development of “hyper-personalized” financial solutions.

Envestnet has more than 99,000 advisors and 4,100+ companies using its data aggregation and digital analytics platform and services. The company’s customers include 17 of the 20 largest U.S. banks, 43 of the 50 largest wealth management and brokerage firms, and 500+ of the largest Registered Investment Advisers. Recent partnerships with Envestnet include working with Voya Financial over the summer to help the firm launch a hybrid roboadvisory solution, and announcing a $500 million acquisition of PIEtech – the mother company of MoneyGuide – this spring.

Envestnet acquired multiple-time, Finovate Best of Show winner Yodlee in 2015 for $660 million. The company is publicly-traded on the NYSE under the ticker ENV, and has a market capitalization of $3 billion.

Finicity’s AssetReady Reports Accelerate the Prequal Process

Finicity’s AssetReady Reports Accelerate the Prequal Process

The new prequalification solution from Finicity will make it easier for lenders to qualify borrowers and improve the quality of the sales funnel for loan officers. The company’s AssetReady Report leverages consumer-permissioned data to identify a borrower’s assets during the prequalification process. This, as Finicity CEO Steve Smith explained, makes data available to lenders sooner “than ever before,” and paves the way for more personalization and customization in the borrowing process “from first interaction to close.” Finicity said its new offering provides a single-source solution for borrower verification that enhances lender workflow and maximizes ROI.

With the AssetReady Report, lenders will be able to access data like account balances without having to request personal borrower information such as a social security number or date of birth. Once qualified, borrowers can easily permission their data for Finicity’s verification solutions that leverage asset and employment information to continue the loan origination process.

The report features current account balances, as well as average balances over the past two and six months. AssetReady Reports also include any negative balances from the past six months and the most recent negative balance.

In the announcement, Lender Price CEO Dawar Alimi and Union Home Mortgage President and CEO Bill Cosgrove praised the prequalification solution for its ability to deliver “high-value data … earlier in the origination process,” and for its ability to work seamlessly with other Finicity verification solutions. “A single-source solution provider is a great fit for our business model,” Cosgrove said.

Finicity demonstrated its credit decisioning solutions at FinovateFall 2017. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, the company more recently launched its Verification of Income and Employment (VOIE) offerings which enables lenders to accelerate verifications via bank data and a scan of the borrower’s pay statement. This summer, Finicity introduced its Student Loan Account Verification solution, which helps streamline the verification process for employers who offer student loan repayment assistance programs.

Founded in 1999, Finicity has forged a variety of partnerships this year. The real-time financial data and insights company announced a collaboration with Pulte Mortgage this spring, teamed up with LendingQB over the summer, and last month partnered with American Financial Resources. Finicity has raised more than $79 million in funding from investors including Experian Ventures and Bridge Bank.

Revolut Advances in Asia with Singapore Launch

Revolut Advances in Asia with Singapore Launch

Digital challenger bank Revolut has chosen Singapore as its first entry into the Asian market. And now, after a successful beta period during which the company gained 30,000 new members and learned valuable lessons about the Singapore market and culture, Revolut is ready for business in Asia.

As of this week, Revolut Singapore customers will be able to instantly send and receive funds to and from fellow Revolut customers in Singapore, the U.K., Europe, and Australia for free. Revolut Singapore customers will also benefit from instant spending notifications, access to the real exchange rate in 150+ countries for fairer overseas spending, free international ATM withdrawals, and in-app currency exchange. PFM features like bill-splitting, round up payments, and budgeting and analytics will also be included.

“The journey to Singapore so far has been both exciting and challenging,” Revolut Head of Marketing and Communications Chad West wrote at the company blog. “For every new market into which we expand, there are different rules and regulations. The challenge for us is to build things that work as we, and our customers, want them to, while adhering to official guidelines. Not always easy, as you might imagine.”

The company’s expansion to Asia comes as Revolut fortifies its U.S. business via a partnership with Mastercard that will bring Revolut cards to the U.S. by year’s end. Other big deals for Revolut of late feature the company collaborating with Xero to enable real-time expense monitoring, teaming up with DriveWealth to offer commission-free trades to its cardholders, and working with financial API provider TrueLayer to support secure access of financial data via open banking.

This month Revolut announced that it had hired JP Morgan to manage its $500 million funding round, as well as issue the company a convertible loan for $1 billion. The company currently has more than $336 million in capital from investors including Index Ventures, Balderton Capital, DST Global, TriplePoint Capital, and Mastercard Start Path.

Founded in 2015 by Vlad Yatsenko (CTO) and Nikolay Storonsky (CEO), Revolut demonstrated its platform that same year at FinovateEurope. Since inception, the company has served more than eight million customers, and processed 350+ million transactions valued at more than $44 billion (€40 billion).

Stripe Goes Live in Mexico; Revolut in Singapore; Lidya in Poland

As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Fresh off a successful return to Singapore for FinovateAsia, we are happy to announce that FinovateMiddleEast will be back in Dubai next month, November 20 and 21. For more information about our upcoming fintech conference in the UAE, visit our FinovateMiddleEast page today.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Berlin-based, pan-European digital debt marketplace, CrossLend, picks up €34 million in round led by Santander.
  • Bank of Lithuania names IBM and Tieto as finalists in its LBChain technology initiative.
  • Islamic, mobile-only, challenger bank insha goes live in Berlin, Germany.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Partnership with Diebold Nixdorf helps Lebanese Bankmed become first bank in country to introduce cash recycling.
  • Bloomberg Intelligence recognizes the UAE as the world’s top Islamic fintech hub, with Bahrain as a rising challenger.
  • MAGNiTT and ADGM launch new publication focusing on fintech and venture capital funding in the MENA region.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Pakistan’s JS Bank launches chat banking via WhatsApp.
  • Western Union enables real-time payments and money transfers to India.
  • Paytm president Madhur Deora encourages Indian fintechs to appreciate the differences between Indian and Chinese markets “and adapt accordingly.”

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Stripe makes its Mexico debut.
  • Brazilian fintech Nubank reaches 15 million customer mark.
  • Posnet, a First Data/Fiserv company, helps Argentine consumers make purchases using digital wallets and QR codes.

Asia-Pacific

  • Revolut launches in Singapore after successful 30,000 customer beta.
  • CIMB Bank Singapore completes first structured trade finance transaction on blockchain.
  • In partnership with Compass Plus, Mongolia’s largest bank, Trade and Development Bank (TDB) introduces the nation’s first instant card issuance project.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Nigerian digital SME lender Lidya expands to Poland and the Czech Republic.
  • Fintech Futures features Absa’s Thabo Makoko on the challenges and opportunities in the African payment industry.
  • Ghana government makes plans for a cashless future.

Top image designed by Freepik

Challenger Bank Lunar Partners with Temenos to Fight Financial Crime

Challenger Bank Lunar Partners with Temenos to Fight Financial Crime

Danish challenger bank Lunar has chosen financial services software provider Temenos to tackle financial crime on its platform, reports Ruby Hinchliffe of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Ticking boxes such as watch-list screening and fraud prevention, as well as covering anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) services, Temenos will deliver on its comprehensive security promise by integrating with Lunar’s core banking and payments technology.

The mobile-only banking app bought the product, which is called ‘Financial Crime Mitigation’ (FCM) and runs on the cloud, in a bid to “address stringent regulatory demands” and to safeguard its customers and reputation, said Temenos in a statement.

“As a challenger bank it is crucial for us to be in full control and create a scalable and agile setup in the Nordics,” said Lunar’s COO Morten Sønderskov, who says the bank’s choice to go with Temenos will get it “ahead of the curve in financial crime prevention”.

“We are building a Nordic bank from scratch and realizing our vision of becoming a financial Super App,” Sønderskov added.

Founded in 2015, Lunar now has more than 100,000 users and recently secured its European banking license from the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority. The fintech now has plans to extend its offering even further throughout the Nordics.

Temenos said more than 200 banks depend upon its FCM product now. “[We] proudly support the momentum of challenger banks around the world,” said Temenos’ MD for Europe Steen Jensen.

Temenos was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The company demoed its Connect Mobile Banking solution at FinovateEurope 2015. Temenos is also an alum of our developers conference, presenting a discussion on its B2B Financial Apps Marketplace at FinDEVRSiliconValley 2015.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Revolut Advances in Asia with Singapore Launch.
  • Finovate Global: Stripe Goes Live in Mexico, Revolut in Singapore; Lidya in Poland.
  • Challenger bank Lunar Partners with Temenos to Fight Financial Crime.

Around the web

  • FinTech Global names Anorak to its list of the top 100 insurtech companies.
  • Onfido joins Dwolla’s partnership ecosystem.
  • Mortgage Cadence to integrate title and appraisal solutions from Covius into its platform.
  • Ondot opens offices in Atlanta, Georgia.
  • Email delivery and analytics specialist SparkPost appoints Sam Holding as Head of International.
  • RightCapital forges strategic partnership with Advyzon.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Raising Roostify: Santander InnoVentures Leads Expansion Round

Raising Roostify: Santander InnoVentures Leads Expansion Round

The fintech venture capital fund of Santander Group, Santander InnoVentures, is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to its support of mortgagetech. The VC fund is leading an expansion round for digital mortgage lending platform Roostify, following up on its initial investment in the company back in February 2018.

The amount of the round was not disclosed. Before this week’s announcement, Roostify’s total funding was estimated by Crunchbase at $33 million. The capital raised in this latest round will be used to support the company’s expansion into overseas markets in the U.K. and Europe, as well as a continued build-out of Roostify’s cloud-based lending platform. This includes enhanced decision-making and fulfillment capabilities, new data and machine learning tools, and more consumer lending solutions.

This latest funding for Roostify comes as the company announces monthly loan volume that has doubled over the past twelve months to nearly $20 million a month. The company notes that its bank customers have reported reductions in mortgage lending process time by an average of 20%.

“Digital transformation is a key strategic priority for banks worldwide, and industry-leading lenders are focused on delivering the best customer experience while managing costs,” Roostify CEO and co-founder Rajesh Bhat said. “The Roostify lending platform enables lenders to realize up to 300% growth in loan applications and a significant reduction (in) origination costs. The future is frictionless, everyone benefits when you optimize the lending process.”

Roostify demonstrated its lending platform at FinovateSpring 2018. The San Francisco, California-based company, founded in 2012, has forged a number of partnerships this year, teaming up with Glacier Bancorp in January, partnering with MORTECH and Docutech over the spring, and collaborating with HSBC Bank this summer. Earlier this month, Roostify’s Bhat was recognized by Goldman Sachs as one of its Top 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs at the investment bank’s Builders + Innovators Summit.

Kabbage Joins the Small Business Payments Processing Party

Kabbage Joins the Small Business Payments Processing Party

With the launch of Kabbage Payments, SME cash flow management solution provider Kabbage is ready to help small businesses get paid, as well as get funded.

“Since 2011, we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of small businesses access over $8 billion in funding,” Kabbage CEO Rob Frohwein said. “We know first-hand a primary need is to cover cash-flow gaps while waiting to be paid.”

Currently available to Kabbage customers and scheduled for public availability “soon,” the new payment solution from Kabbage will feature no-fee, unlimited, online invoicing; next-day deposits; low costs for card payments (cash and check payments free); and a dashboard that provides a view of all payments activity in a single location.

One standout feature of the new solution is a custom pay link that is especially geared toward SMEs that rely on invoice payments. Customers using Kabbage Payments will be able to create a unique URL for their business that enables them to send payment requests by text, email, or the web to collect card payments. With this secure, fast, and flexible option, there is no need to create new accounts manually or open new payment orders, and avoids having to do duplicate work for recurring invoices.

“Kabbage Payments not only expands our suite of products, but the very definition of our company. We deeply believe in the mission of small businesses and understand what they need to succeed – namely, more time building their businesses and less time worrying about cash flow,” Frohwein said.

Businesses interested in the solution can reach out to Kabbage Payments and request early access.

Kabbage demonstrated its Kabbage Card offering at FinovateSpring 2015. Part of the company’s “Kabbage Everywhere” product expansion, the Kabbage Card makes it more convenient for small business owners to use their Kabbage line of credit while on the go. More recently, the company has launched an interactive index analyzing U.S. SME revenue trends, acquired small business insights firm Radius Intelligence, and closed a new, four-year, $200 million revolving credit facility. This transaction followed Kabbage’s massive $700 million securitization – the largest ever by a small business online lending platform – announced this spring.

Earlier this month, Kabbage announced that its customers had accessed more than $715 million in funding via its platform in Q3, and that 42,000+ unique customers were added year-to-date, which tops 2018’s 37,000 total customer gain. At the same time, the company noted that the core of its funding activity comes from repeat customers, who represent more than 75% of all funding activity on the platform and more than $6 billion of the $8+ billion accessed to date.

“It’s essential to have a business model that’s built on scalable long-term growth, and repeat business is a critical metric,” Frohwein said. He praised the platform’s ability to “re-underwrite customers daily,” providing SMEs with a 24/7 source of funding. “Thanks to the speed at which our technology allows us to serve them, we’ve seen record highs,” Frohwein said, “serving nearly 1,900 small businesses who have accessed over $13 million in a single day.”

Founded in 2009, Kabbage is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.