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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Online investing and savings service Wealthify introduces its new Chief Executive Officer Richard Ambrose.
Ambrose will succeed Andy Russell, who has served as CEO of the company for the past four years.
Wealthify made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in London in 2017.
U.K.-based online investing and saving platform Wealthify has appointed Richard Ambrose as its new Chief Executive Officer. Ambrose replaces Andy Russell, who had served as CEO of the company since the summer of 2020.
“It’s been a privilege to lead Wealthify over the last four years,” outgoing CEO Andy Russell said. “I am very proud of our purpose-driven strategy, our culture of accessibility and quality, and the resulting growth we’ve achieved during this time.”
Most recently General Manager (GM) of Payments at Papaya Global, Richard Ambrose worked as CEO of Azimo for more than three years from 2019 to 2023. Before his appointment as Azimo CEO, Ambrose had been the company’s Chief Operating Officer for two years. He also held numerous roles during his nearly six-year tenure at PayPal, joining the company as Marketing Director for the U.K. in 2011 and eventually becoming Senior Director, Chief of Staff, EMEA.
“I am thrilled to join Wealthify as CEO,” Ambrose said in a statement. “Its mission to make investing more affordable and accessible for everyone is in the best traditions of fintech. Wealthify has built some great technology, and I’m proud to be joining its brilliant team.”
Wealthify is dedicated to using technology to democratize investing. The company offers a range of investment and savings solutions, from ISAs, GIAs, and SIPPs to an instant access savings account. Customers can open investing accounts for as little as £1 (£50 for pensions), and manage their funds via the Wealthify app or website. Wealthify uses passive investment vehicles such as mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to build different investment plans based on the investor’s risk tolerance. Ranging from “Cautious” to “Ambitious,” Wealthify also offers “Ethical” versions of each plan that use negative screening to exclude companies from industries such as tobacco, weapons, and gambling, as well as positive screening to include businesses that have demonstrated a commitment to corporate ethics, social justice, and/or sustainability.
Founded in 2014, Wealthify made its Finovate debut in 2017 at FinovateEurope in London. Wealthify began this year partnering with ClearBank, which now serves as the embedded banking partner for the company’s savings product.
U.S. Bank launched its Accounts Receivables platform, U.S. Bank Advanced Receivables, in partnership with Billtrust.
U.S. Bank Advanced Receivables will help businesses keep costs low and benefit from real-time visibility into cash flow and financial position.
U.S. Bank most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2021 in New York.
Courtesy of a partnership with Billtrust, U.S. Bank has launched its new comprehensive accounts receivable (AR) platform. U.S. Bank Advanced Receivables will help suppliers accelerate cash flow, lower costs via automation, and provide better payment experiences.
“Suppliers face many challenges from the time they receive an order until the cash is in their account. This includes numerous manual and paper-based steps, a cumbersome credit process, billing errors, and payment delays,” U.S. Bank Global Treasury Management Head of Product Alberto Casas explained. “With U.S. Bank Advanced Receivables, businesses can transform their entire receivables process to drive down costs and gain real-time visibility into their financial position and cash flow.”
U.S. Bank Advanced Receivables combines U.S. Bank’s payment and risk management capabilities with Billtrust’s AR technology. The new offering is comprised of five core solutions – invoicing, payments, cash application, collections, and credit – each of which enhances the B2B receivables process. U.S. Bank Advanced Receivables builds on the bank’s complementary digital payment solutions, such as U.S. Bank AP Optimizer, which automates accounts payable operations from invoice receipt to payment disbursement. Together the two offerings enable companies to digitize and automate their end-to-end payment processes.
With $680 billion in assets, U.S. Bancorp is the parent company of U.S. Bank National Association. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the firm serves millions of customers locally, nationally, and around the world with services including consumer banking, business banking, commercial banking, institutional banking, payments, and wealth management. Billtrust, which partnered with U.S. Bank to launch the bank’s new AR offering, is an integrated AR solutions provider whose technology is used by more than 2,400 companies worldwide. These clients range from Coca-Cola and FedEx to Staples and United Rentals.
Earlier this month, Billtrust announced that it had extended its collaboration with Visa to support its Business Payments Network (BPN). Introduced in partnership with Visa in 2018, BPN links suppliers to buyers via connectivity to their preferred bank and payables providers. Headquartered in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, and founded in 2001, Billtrust was acquired by EQT Private Equity for $1.7 billion in 2022.
U.S. Bank most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall in 2021. At the conference, the bank demoed its U.S. Bank Card as a Service (CaaS) solution. The technology enables fintechs and other businesses to extend corporate credit digitally, and to create a custom virtual payment experience for customers via API integration.
Financial services company Rabobank has turned to Zafin to optimize its pricing, billing, and invoicing capabilities.
The partnership will help Rabobank fulfill its mandate of becoming a 100% digital institution.
Zafin made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017. The company was acquired by Nordic Capital earlier this year.
Multi-national banking and financial services company Rabobank has tapped SaaS core modernization solutions provider Zafin to optimize its pricing, billing, and invoicing capabilities.
“Innovation lies at the heart of Rabobank’s digital transformation journey,” Rabobank Manager (Payments) Paul Wolda said. “It supports our mission of ‘growing a better world together’ and our goal to improve the everyday life of our customers.” Wolda praised Zafin’s reputation around the world and said that the partnership “reinforces our commitment to invest in innovative technologies that modernize our legacy applications, drive operational efficiencies, lower costs, and offer our clients a more personalized and sophisticated banking experience.”
The partnership comes as Rabobank pursues its mandate to become 100% digital. The firm will deploy Zafin’s platform, replacing its current pricing tools, and lowering the cost of creating, changing, and launching customized product propositions and pricing to its clients. Rabobank will leverage the platform to access a consistent view of product, billing, and invoicing data across channels. This will reduce revenue leakage and deliver real-time insights into preferences and needs of Rabobank’s diverse retail and corporate customer base.
“Our partnership with Rabobank is a significant milestone in our mission to deliver core modernization solutions for the banking industry,” Zafin SVP of EMEA Sales Hali Khan said. “For decades, Rabobank has maintained leadership in sustainability-oriented banking, and we are excited to help transform its pricing and billing capabilities in the Netherlands.”
Active in 37 countries, Rabobank is an international financial services provider offering retail banking, wholesale banking, private banking, leasing, and real estate services. Headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands, Rabobank was first established in 1895 as a local credit cooperative for farmers and even today maintains a market share of more than 85% in the country’s agrarian sector. Rabobank launched its first internet only savings bank, Rabobank.be, in 2002.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based Zafin demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2017. The company was acquired by Nordic Capital in February of this year. In May, Zafin co-founder Al Karim Somji announced that he would step down from the role of CEO after more than two decades in leadership.
“OrboGraph’s expertise in check fraud detection perfectly complements our expertise and, together, we can offer a powerful tool that seamlessly integrates check image display functionality and common check risk data sources,” Featurespace President of Americas Carolyn Homberger said.
Many consumers, especially younger consumers, have abandoned paper checks. In fact, some analysis suggests that paper checks represent less than 5% of transactions in the U.S. as of 2022 (compared to 17% for cash and more than 31% for credit and charge cards). At the same time, that relatively modest amount of paper check writing still amounts to $27 trillion in value. It is also worth noting that while paper checks have become less common in consumer transactions, paper checks are still used in nearly half of all B2B payments according to Paystand.
This means that there is an ample opportunity for fraudsters. In fact, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has reported that check fraud is becoming increasingly prevalent and, as of 2023, represents more than a third of all fraud at depository institutions.
To this end, the integration of Featurespace’s financial crime prevention technology with OrboGraph’s check processing automation and fraud detection software and services will enhance detection of fraudulent checks and reduce the number of false positives for banks and financial institutions in the U.K.
“Check fraud is a growing and concerning area of financial crime – we know banks and financial institutions are experiencing a rise in reports and are in need of more advanced tools that can tackle the issue,” OrboGraph CEO Barry Cohen said. “Combining our expertise with Featurespace will enable us to deliver a more robust and comprehensive fraud detection solution, helping financial institutions to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated check fraud schemes.”
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Cambridge, U.K., Featurespace made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016. The company returned to the Finovate stage later that year to demo its technology at FinovateFall in New York. Today, the company processes more than 50 billion events a year, and protects 500 million customers in 180+ countries from fraud risk. Featurespace’s signature solution, its ARIC Risk Hub, leverages Adaptive Behavioral Analytics and Automated Deep Behavioral Networks to model and predict individual behavior in real-time to enhance fraud prevention and anti-money laundering efforts.
This spring, Featurespace forged a partnership with The Knoble, an alliance of financial services professionals, regulators, and law enforcement that focuses on crimes such as human trafficking and elder financial exploitation. In May, the company announced the results of a pilot project with Pay.UK designed to defend consumers from Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud. Featurespace’s proof of concept detected more than $178 million (£138 million) in fraud with a 5:1 false positive ratio. Applying its Generative AI solution TalllierLTM enabled Featurespace to boost its fraud detection rates to 56%, identifying an additional $51 million (£40 million) in fraud.
“Fraud is the single largest crime in the U.K. It accounts for 40% of all crime and contributes to £2.3 billion in losses annually,” Featurespace CEO Martina King said. “But the UK is leading the charge to tackle this issue and the game-changing pilot with Pay.UK is one that the world has been watching. It shows the immense power of collaboration and technology, and the scale of positive change that is possible when the payments industry works together to tackle fraudulent activity.”
Featurespace has raised more than $108 million in funding according to Crunchbase. The company’s investors include Chrysalis Investments, MissionOG, and Insight Partners.
A nearly ten-year old acquisition may turn out to be Klarna’s secret weapon to improve security during the checkout process.
The Swedish payments company announced this week that it has integrated a new payment service into its Klarna PayNow product suite. The integration is designed to improve checkout security and has been made possible thanks in large part to Klarna’s acquisition of Germany-based Sofort in 2014.
“We are integrating Sofortüberweisung into the Klarna environment to offer consumers and merchants the best of both worlds: the familiar Sofort payment process combined with the smoother, more secure payment experience and global reach of Klarna,” Klarna Chief Commercial Officer David Sykes said. “The combined product is better for merchants and consumers, and (is) also a platform for Klarna to expand the functionality of Sofortüberweisung globally.”
Sofortüberweisung is a bank-to-bank payment service that Klarna gained access to by acquiring Sofort GmbH in 2014. Klarna has been incorporating Sofort’s technology into its solutions since 2017, and has launched the service in some of its other markets around the world, including the U.K. With this week’s integration, consumers will be able to track their Sofortüberweisung payments from within the Klarna app, as well as make payments without having to re-enter their payment information. This, combined with Klarna’s two-factor authentication, facilitates both greater convenience and increased security.
To that point, customers will need a Klarna account in order to take advantage of the Sofortüberweisung integration, and the company notes 95% of Sofort customers already have one. Klarna also reports that the “improved user-friendliness” of the integration has produced a 5% increase in conversion rates for consumers who use it.
Founded in 2005, Klarna made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2012. In the decade-plus since then, the company has grown into a major e-commerce and payments business with 150 million total active customers in its network – including 34 million in the U.S. With more than 500,000 total merchants using its technology, Klarna facilitates two million transactions per day.
The company also recently made headlines with word that it is preparing for an initial public offering in the U.S. as early as the first half of 2025. Also this month, Klarna announced that it had partnered with Adobe Commerce to make it easier for merchants on the platform to implement Klarna’s Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services.
“Consumers are embracing the flexibility that Buy Now Pay Later services can provide, with Adobe Analytics data showing over 11 percent growth this year,” Jason Knell, Adobe Sr. Director, Content & Commerce Partners, said. “Klarna’s global footprint enables Adobe Commerce merchants to meet the changing needs of their customers and stay competitive in today’s digital economy.”
Klarna is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Sebastian Siemiakowski is Klarna’s CEO.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in Brazil.
Brazilian fintech Materaraised $100 million in funding from U.S. investor Warburg Pincus. The investment gives Warburg Pincus a majority stake in the firm, and is designed to help fuel Matera’s expansion into North America.
A key part of Brazil’s PIX instant payments ecosystem, Matera offers core banking, instant payments, and QR code payment technology to more than 250 banks, credit unions, and financial institutions globally. The company includes two of the top three banks in the world and more than one-third of all banks in Brazil as its customers.
This week’s investment arrives as the company reports 2023 revenues of $77 million and 4x growth since 2020. Within a real-time payments system that accounts for more than 40% of all electronic transactions in Brazil, Matera alone processes more than five billion transactions a year.
“PIX set the standard for the digital finance revolution,” Matera CEO Carlos Netto said. “At Matera, we know first-hand the pressure for banks to modernize their infrastructure to keep up with innovative new payment methods such as instant payments and pay-by-bank. We’re honored to leverage our PIX expertise with proven solutions to help financial institutions across North America keep pace with their customers’ digital demands.”
Matera’s flagship solution for the North American market is Digital Twin, a high-performance ledger that sits on top of a bank’s existing core platform. Digital Twin responds to two particular issues: core banking modernization and the ability to create real-time digital user experiences. Additionally, Matera is introducing its QR code payments solution. The technology enables both billers and merchants to offer consumers QR codes to make payments via mobile phone. Matera’s QR code payments offering also enables consumers to generate QR codes from a mobile app in order to make payments.
Matera was founded in 1987 in Sao Paulo. The company also maintains offices in Rio de Janeiro, Maringá, and Campinas in Brazil; as well as in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
One of Finovate’s few Brazilian alums, Nubank, is also one of the biggest fintechs in the country. And while the company has received a great deal of acclaim for its efforts to promote financial inclusion, Nubank is also making inroads when it comes to integrating AI technology into its operations.
To this end, the company has acquired U.S.-based data intelligence start-up Hyperplane. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Nubank said that it will use Hyperplane’s AI technology in multiple ways, generating insights, improving decision-making, and enhancing the customer experience.
“Nubank’s mission since its founding is to fight complexity and empower fanatical customers,” David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank, said. “Our early investments in AI, coupled with the impressive infrastructure and talent that (the) Hyperplan team has been able to put together, will accelerate our mission. Consumers globally will access not only the very best financial products but also receive truly customized financial advice that empowers them to live a better life.”
Founded in 2013, Nubank made its Finovate debut at FinDEVrNewYork 2016. The digital banking platform serves more than 100 million customers in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia with solutions for credit and lending, investment, payments, and insurance. Last month, the company launched direct cryptocurrency transfers, and forged partnerships with Lightspark and fellow Finovate alum, Wise.
Helping fund the education of the country’s future medical professionals is Alume’s specialty. The company offers student loans to medical students in Brazil, as well as to newly graduated doctors. To date, the company has more than 4,000 clients and has disbursed $29 million in financing.
“Alume differentiates itself by combining technology with a deep understanding of the medical sector,” Alume Co-founder and CEO Pedro Silveira said. “Our medical-specialized accountants deliver a superior experience and tax savings for professionals.”
Alume offers three different kinds of student loans. The company provides financing of up to 80% of the student’s monthly tuition fees starting with the ninth semester of attendance onwards. Alume also offers an allowance of up to R$1,600 per month (approximately $287) to help pay for housing, food, and transportation expenses. Third, Alume provides financing for medical residency preparatory courses. Monthly interest rates start at 1.99%.
In addition to financing, the company is adding an accounting service to its offering. The service will be designed to assist doctors who serve as legal entities and will help them manage both their accounting and tax reporting.
Headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Alume was founded in 2019.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Accelerex, a digital payment services provider based in Nigeria, introduced its “Payment with Fingerprint” system.
Stanbic Bank Kenya upgraded its Temenos core in partnership with Temenos regional implementation partner Orion Innovation.
Nigerian fintech Fintava unveiled its banking-as-a-service technology.
Central and Eastern Europe
Estonia-based fintech Mifundo is awarded a $2.7 million (€2.5 million) grant from European Innovation Council.
Latvian multi-asset investment platform Mintos announced its entry into the Czech market this week.
Egyptian fintech unicorn MNT-Halan raised $157.5 million to support expansion outside the country.
Jordan Kuwait Bank teamed up with Mastercard and UAE-based fintech FOO to launch new prepaid digital wallet, eliWallet.
The Central Bank of Bahrain will require all licensed financial and banking institutions to adhere to the country’s Open Banking regulations by the first of September.
Central and Southern Asia
Indian startup TechFini secured approval from NPCI to facilitate UPI-based payment solutions to banks, financial institutions, and fintechs.
Paytech Paysys Labs and Raqami Islamic Digital Bank Pakistan partnered to enhance digital payments in the country.
Our Streamly series of interviews continues with four more conversations from fintech and financial services professionals who spoke at FinovateSpring earlier this year.
For more from Streamly and FinovateSpring, check out our blog post from last week, AI in Financial Services: Automation, Profitability, and Fraud Prevention.
Unlocking advertising potential: Financial services on Amazon
Chief Revenue Officer at Revive Media Danielle Shamos discusses strategies to reach targeted audiences and how the effective use of data can enable even further audience growth. Shamos also talks about the uniqueness of Amazon as an advertising platform.
How can community banks gain a competitive edge through technology?
Barb MacLean, SVP and Head of Technology Operations and Implementation at Coastal Community Bank, talks about how technology can help community banks secure a competitive edge. MacLean also discusses the importance of internal innovation and the challenges of banking-as-a-service.
Reimagining community banking: How can you adapt your strategy to changing customer needs?
John Waupsh, Chief Revenue Officer of Manifest Financial, explains why it is important for community banks to define their strategic purpose at a time of increasing competition. Waupsh also discusses the importance of adapting business strategies to ever-evolving customer needs.
Credit union solutions: What’s different about this landscape?
Managing Director at TruStage Ventures Sam Das discussed the unique challenges that confront credit unions today – from membership retention to cybersecurity. Das also explains that while there is demand from credit unions for tailored fintech solutions, fintechs needs to “come prepared” if they want to successfully partner with these financial institutions.
AI technology company Stratyfy announced a strategic partnership with cash flow underwriting and data analytics platform Prism Data.
Stratyfy will integrate Prism Data’s cash flow data and scoring to improve decision-making for lenders.
New York-based Stratyfy won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2022.
AI technology company Stratyfy has forged a strategic partnership with cash flow underwriting and data analytics platform Prism Data. Courtesy of the partnership, Stratyfy will put Prism Data’s cash flow data and scoring to work to help lenders make better decisions when traditional credit data does not provide enough information.
“Solely depending on traditional credit data can paint an incomplete financial picture of loan applicants, which results in lenders missing out on good, profitable customers,” Stratyfy Co-Founder and CEO Laura Kornhauser explained. “By combining our proprietary AI/ML technology with Prism Data’s CashScore, we can harness cash flow data to help lenders accurately and transparently identify credit-worthy customers who may have been overlooked otherwise.”
Prism Data’s CashScore solution analyzes thousands of financial data points that are often absent from traditional credit reporting. These factors include income, assets, expenses, volatility, and the ability to repay. CashScore simplifies complex cash flow underwriting to a three-digit score and can be used by lenders to approve or decline credit applications or as part of a process that includes traditional credit models and scoring.
“Prism’s CashScore enables credit decisions that are more accurate and more inclusive – allowing lenders to say ‘yes’ to up to 30% more customers without taking on additional risk,” Prism Data President Erin Allard said. “Paired with Stratyfy’s cutting-edge decisioning technology, we’re confident lenders will be better positioned to advance financial inclusion and boost profits at the same time.”
Founded in 2016, New York-based Prism Data launched its CashScore FirstDetect solution earlier this year. FirstDetect predicts the likelihood that a customer will default on a loan. The technology uses a variety of financial details as well as trend and pattern analysis to obtain a clear overview of the customer’s spending, earning, and saving behavior. FirstDetect is especially helpful in dealing with “first-party fraud” in which a customer applies for a loan in their own name, but does so with no intention of paying the loan back.
Headquartered in New York and founded in 2017, Stratyfy made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2018. The company returned to the Finovate stage for FinovateFall 2022, winning Best of Show for a demo of its Unbias solution. Unbias enables financial institutions and fintechs to “uncover, understand, and undo” bias in complex financial decision-making such as underwriting. The technology, delivered via API, is part of Stratyfy’s suite of machine learning tools to help institutions minimize bias, support inclusion, and enhance risk-adjusted returns.
ReceiptHero announced new funding this week, courtesy of investors including SeedX VC, LifeLine VC, and SuperHero VC, as well as angel investors.
The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
ReceiptHero made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany.
Finland-based ReceiptHero has secured new funding, the company reported this week. Participating in the round were SuperHero VC, SeedX VC, LifeLine VC, as well as angel investors and team members. The amount of the investment was not disclosed; prior to this week’s announcement, the company had raised more than $6.2 million (€5.7 million) in total capital.
ReceiptHero said that the funding will accelerate the company’s goal of eliminating paper receipts and creating greater value in the data that is available from real-time receipt delivery. To this end, ReceiptHero has stated that its goal is to serve more than a million payment terminals in Europe and the U.K., with the first retail pilots in the U.S. to launch within the next year and a half.
“When we founded ReceiptHero over five years ago, we had to spend a lot of time heavily educating the market on what a digital receipt is,” ReceiptHero CEO Saku Pihlajaniemi said. “Fast forward to today we see a large amount of merchants inquiring about our service and they have a clear strategy on how they want to deploy digital receipts across their stores.”
Receipt Hero made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany. At the conference, the company showed how its API platform enables receipts to be created and distributed via a variety of channels. Business customers benefit from the compatibility between digital receipts and their accounting software. Individual customers get not only an enriched transaction list in their mobile banking app, but also the ability to have that transaction data used to enhance their app’s budgeting and spending tools.
This year has been a big partnership year for the Helsinki-based firm. The company began 2024 by integrating with Shopify, bringing digital receipts to the e-commerce platform. In March, ReceiptHero announced partnerships with Finnish retailer HalpaHalli, ceramics and textiles brand Pentik, and cashless payment solutions company CoreGo. More recently, the company teamed up with cash register and payment terminal solution Solmio-kassa, and TuloPOS, a point of sale and ordering system for the hospitality industry.
For more, check out our Finovate Global interview with ReceiptHero Chief Operating Officer Scott Moore.
After months of deliberation, the finalists for the 2024 Finovate Awards have been selected!
In categories ranging from “Best Alternative Investments Solution” to “Top Emerging Fintech Company,” more than 130 innovative companies and individuals have made the short-list. We are now set for an exciting autumn showdown when winners are announced at Finovate Fall 2024 in New York in September.
“This year’s finalists are an amazing group!” Finovate VP Greg Palmer said. “From huge banks like JP Morgan, US Bank, and BNP Paribas, to cutting-edge fintechs like TodayPay, Kobalt Labs, and Wysh, there are amazing things happening all across the fintech ecosystem. The competition was intense for everyone who applied, and making it to the final round is an immense achievement. Congratulations to all of our finalists!”
Check out our finalists below. To learn more about the awards, visit our Finovate Awards hub.
Best Alternative Investments Solution
AlphaPoint Ctrl Alt Frec iCapital, Inc. Percent
Best Anti-Fraud/AML Solution
Credit Union of Colorado ING Turkiye JP Morgan AWM Mastercard Worldpay
Best Back-Office/Core Services Solution
FINBOA LoanPro Mastercard Cybersecurity Mitek Systems Taktile Zafin
Best Banking-as-a-Service Provider
B4B Payments Colendi Grasshopper Bank North Bay Credit Union Pathward, N.A.
Best Consumer-Facing Payments Solution
Engage People InPost Pay Pushpay Transact Campus Trustly
Best Consumer Lending Solution
JP Morgan AWM Jenius Bank Prosper
Best Corporate Payments Solution
BILL Global PayEx Helcim TransferMate TreasurUp US Bank
Best Customer Experience Solution
ACE Money Transfer DBS BAnk JP Morgan AWM Millennium BCP NF Innova – OTP banka Srbija Syfe
Best Digital Bank
Dave IndusInd Bank Papara Elektronik Para A.S. RCBC
APEXX Global Orum Papaya Global PayNearMe SWIVEL VGS
Best Financial Mobile App
BNP Paribas FINOM Industrial Bank of Korea JP Morgan AWM
Best Fintech Partnership
American Heritage CU and Datava Apiture and Newtek Bank Fnality International and Lloyds Banking Group Pagaya and US Bank Panacea Financial and Bankjoy Sunrise Banks and MoCaFi
Best Generative AI Solution
Bank of Montreal Intuit Credit Karma Nest Bank S.A. Socure Symphony AI Talkdesk
John Retting, BILL Sanjiv Yajnik, Capital One Chermaine Hu, Episode Six Jon Briggs, KeyBank Roben Dunkin, PGIM Nancy Langer, Transact Campus Matt Hawkins, Waystar Chris Hilliard, Winnow Solutions
Innovator of the Year
Matt Brown, CAIS Yelena Melamed, Catchlight Sindhu Joseph, CogniCor Josh Owen, Flourish Geralyn Hurd, K1x Ken Moore, Mastercard Kelly Uphoff, Tala Alex Matjanec, Wysh
Most Impactful AI-Based Solution
Brex Napier AI Pagaya Socure Uplinq Winnow Solutions
Open banking solutions provider Salt Edge has released the latest version of its Open Banking Gateway API.
The new version, the company’s sixth, features enhancements designed to make integration easier and quicker.
Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Salt Edge most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2019.
Canadian open banking solutions provider Salt Edge is back in the fintech headlines. This week, the company unveiled the latest version of its Open Banking Gateway API. Within the package, Salt Edge will make its Account Information API available initially, with its Payments API scheduled to be launched “in short order” afterward.
The latest release features a number of updates and enhancements, which the company says are a direct result of listening to clients, as well as the company’s in-house team. The new version provides endpoints optimization to make integrating with Salt Edge’s API easier and quicker. Salt Edge has also put in the effort to ensure the consistency of the API environment regardless of the license clients use. This facilitates easier and more accurate navigation through the documentation, and those clients that do use Salt Edge’s license will benefit from enhanced access and control with API V6. A third enhancement provides real-time updates, notifications, and event triggers, offering a more dynamic and responsive system that enables clients to monitor activity and quickly address issues as they arise.
Salt Edge’s product enhancement news comes one month after the Ottawa, Ontario-based fintech announced partnerships with Italian API-based e-document management platform A-Cube API and Moldovan financial institution Moldindconbank. A-Cube API, which had been using Salt Edge for its account information services, has now integrated Salt Edge’s Payment Initiation solution. This will facilitate the linking of A-Cube API’s e-invoicing system with account-to-account payments, making the invoicing process faster, more secure, and more accurate.
The company’s partnership with Moldindconbank will help the financial institution ensure that it meets regulatory requirements with regard to open banking. The bank, like all financial institutions in the country, has until February 2025 to comply with new open banking regulations issued by the National Bank of Moldova. To this end, Salt Edge’s full-stack Open Banking Compliance solution will enable Moldindconbank to, in the words of the bank’s Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board Mihail Iovu, “quickly comply with local open banking requirements while elevating our digital solutions, furthering our dedication to providing top-notch services to our clients.”
Founded in 2013, Salt Edge made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018 and returned the following year for FinovateEurope 2019. Garri Galanter is CEO.
