Author: David Penn

American Express Teams Up with Billtrust to Streamline Virtual Card Acceptance

American Express Teams Up with Billtrust to Streamline Virtual Card Acceptance
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, American Express, Daily news
  • American Express and Billtrust announced a partnership that will leverage automation to enhance acceptance of AMEX virtual cards.
  • The collaboration is designed to meet the accounts receivable (AR) needs of suppliers who are experiencing faster payments and increased cash flow.
  • A Finovate alum since 2015, American Express recently partnered with i2c to help fintechs and financial institutions develop solutions on its payments network.

A partnership between American Express and B2B accounts receivable (AR) automation and integrated payments innovator Billtrust will make it easier for suppliers to accept payments via AMEX’s virtual cards.

The integration, announced late last week, will enable suppliers to automate and accelerate virtual card payments and to benefit from real-time insight into their outstanding invoices and current cash flow. The partnership, according to AMEX President of U.S. Global Merchant Services Colleen Taylor, is designed to help suppliers keep pace with both an increased demand for products and services, as well as a need for faster, more efficient payment processes. This is due, Taylor suggested, in large part to the trend of businesses “moving away from paper-based payments to electronic payments for the greater visibility and speed they provide.”

Unfortunately, this trend of faster payments and larger cash flows also means that many companies have existing AR systems that are often inadequate. The partnership between American Express and Billtrust responds to this challenge by giving suppliers a complete solution that covers all aspects of the AR process, including credit decisioning, ordering, invoicing, payments, cash application, and collections. The partnership also will give suppliers access to Billtrust’s Business Payments Network (BPM), which boosts invoice and digital payment efficiency by connecting them with hundreds of buyers and buyer portals.

“Both Billtrust and American Express recognize the need to support merchants and suppliers in responding to buyer demands for digital payment options,” Billtrust CEO Flint Lane said. “This collaboration brings automation to American Express merchants and suppliers, helping create better outcomes and increased customer satisfaction.”

American Express has been a Finovate alum since 2015, when the company presented The role of B2B payments in the evolving commerce ecosystem at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. The company’s partnership news with Billtrust comes in the wake of a collaboration with digital payment and banking technology company i2c that will make it easier for fintechs and financial institutions to develop and scale products on AMEX’s global payments network. American Express trades on the NYSE under the ticker AXP, and has a market capitalization of $127 billion.

Photo by Taras Makarenko

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Talking Best of Show with Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast – On Video!

Talking Best of Show with Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast – On Video!
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Best of Show, Finshape, Podcasting, SESAMm, Speaker series, Trulioo

Join Finovate VP and Host of the Finovate Podcast Greg Palmer as he shares his video conversations with Finovate Best of Show winning companies.

Greg Palmer talks with Irfan Khan, CEO, and James Goodwin, Director of Business Development, with mmob. FinovateEurope 2022 Best of Show winner. Demo video.

“What mmob does is solve the pain points on two sides of an ecosystem. On one side for third party product providers and service providers, we integrate all of their products and services onto our network. Then we also make that seamlessly accessible through to larger distribution channels so their products and services can be integrated natively.”

Greg Palmer catches up with Hal Lonas, Chief Technology Officer with Trulioo. FinovateEurope 2022 Best of Show winner. Demo video.

“(Identity verification) is very challenging, especially when you look at it as a global problem. Every region, every geography has a little bit of a twist. People may not have consistent addresses in some countries, or may not have a track record with a financial institution or a utility compared to some other places. So identity verification is very, very difficult and made much more complicated if you operate in a lot of countries or incorporate a lot of data sources.”

Greg Palmer talks with Sylvain Forté, CEO and co-founder of SeSAMm, which won Best of Show honors at FinovateEurope 2022. Demo video.

“We are an AI company focused on analyzing billions of articles and messages from the web in real -time using a technology called Natural Language Processing (NLP). We basically process text data and we derive insights that are consumed by financial professionals and corporates. We have the ability to screen an enormous, 20 billion articles and messages and to detect things like environmental, social, and governance risks; early warnings; analyzing competitors; measuring sentiment on companies and on concept.”

Greg Palmer chats with Tamás Braun, International Sales Director with FinovateEurope 2022 Best of Show winner, Finshape. Demo video.

“Finshape is a new brand in the digital banking market. It has come about with the merger of two companies: BSC (Banking Software Company) and W.UP. With the combined force of these two companies, Finshape now has about 700 people with a hundred banking clients across the globe as clients and partners across four continents. We’re very proud to have built this digital powerhouse and we’re looking to do a lot more in shaping the future of digital banking.”

Stay tuned for more videos from Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast’s Conversations with Best of Show winners.

Photo by Donald Tong

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Oh Canada! OneVest Secures $3.9 Million; Square Loans Arrives; CBDCs Garner Political Opposition

Oh Canada! OneVest Secures $3.9 Million; Square Loans Arrives; CBDCs Garner Political Opposition
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

This week on Finovate Global we’re taking a look at some recent fintech developments in Canada.

On the fundraising front, embedded wealth management platform OneVest announced a $3.9 million (CAD $5 million) seed funding round this week. The investment was led by Luge Capital and takes the Canadian fintech’s total funding to $5.5 million (CAD $7.1 million).

The funding will help OneVest, which was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, to grow its team, expand sales, and support product development. The company offers digital wealth management services that can be embedded into consumer-facing products via APIs. The technology integrates well with multiple fintechs and financial institutions, empowering them to combine wealth management and investment functionality into their own financial solutions.

“People are increasingly demanding a more seamless and simple experience where financial products are integrated into their everyday lives,” OneVest co-founder and CEO Amar Ahluwalia said. “Our mission is to make investing more accessible to everyone, and available anytime, anywhere and through any channel.”

The first company to take advantage of the new offering is Neo Financial, which leveraged OneVest’s platform to launch its new actively managed wealth platform, Neo Invest.

Square announced this week that it is bringing its financing solution to business borrowers in Canada. Square Loans leverages transaction data to create and bring customized offers to eligible sellers, giving them a straightforward, paperwork-free application process. Funds are available the next business day and businesses are charged a single, upfront loan fee that is paid back automatically as a set percentage of daily card sales with Square. This arrangement enables borrowers to make larger repayments when sales are strong and smaller repayments when sales are weaker.

“From our earliest days, Square has focused on building easy-to-use tools and services to empower entrepreneurs to succeed on their own terms,” Head of Square Alyssa Henry said. Since Square Loans launched in the U.S. and Australia, the company has provided more than $9 billion in financing to more than 460,000 businesses with an average loan size of $6,750.

For all the interest – an even enthusiasm in some quarters – over CBDCs, not everyone is on board. This week we learned that Pierre Poilievre, leadership candidate for Canada’s Conservative Party is not only unimpressed by the opportunities provided by CBDCs, he also wants to enact a ban on the technology.

But don’t mistake Poilievre for a Luddite. The man considers himself a blockchain backer and has, in fact, pledged to make Canada “the blockchain capital of the world.”

“A Poilievre government would welcome this new, decentralized, bottom-up economy and allow people to take control of their money from bankers and politicians,” the Conservative Party politician said in March. He added that an embrace of blockchain would “expand choice” and “lower the costs of financial products” as well as providing a wealth of tech-oriented jobs and opportunities for entrepreneurs in Canada.

As such, Poilievre’s CBDC skepticism seems to be more related to his attitude toward central banks than his opinion on blockchain technology. He has promised that, in addition to a CBDC ban, he would support an audit of the central bank’s balance sheet – a common commitment from conservative politicians in the post-Global Financial Crisis era. This would include a review of the central bank’s bond buying program during the pandemic. Poilievre has blamed the central bank economic response to COVID for the country’s currently high inflation rate.

Both a Canadian CBDC and a Poilievre mandate are some ways away, if that. The Canadian central bank has been working on a CBDC for year, with the project still in development stage. Poilievre, while the front runner to become the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, would nevertheless have to wait until 2025 at the earliest to challenge Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Photo by Brett Sayles

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Leveling Up Global Payments: A Conversation with Vivienne Hsu of Sokin

Leveling Up Global Payments: A Conversation with Vivienne Hsu of Sokin
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Interview, Women in Fintech

We recently caught up with Vivienne Hsu, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer with Sokin, a U.K.-based, global financial service provider and payments company. Originally slated for our Women’s History Month commemoration, our conversation includes both Hsu’s thoughts on “the State of Women in Fintech” and gender diversity in the industry, as well as her insights on Sokin, its contributions to fintech innovation, and what we can expect from the company in the future.

Joining Sokin in 2021, Hsu was previously co-founder and Partner at Anabasis Partners, an international marketing and communications advisory firm. Before that, Hsu spent more than seven years as an executive with Cognito, a London-based PR, marketing, and communications agency.

Can you tell us a little about Sokin and its place in the fintech industry?

Hsu: Sokin is a global payments fintech that is the first to offer a consumer subscription model for unlimited transfers for a fixed fee. We believe in straightforward, transparent currency exchange and money transfers and allowing as many people and businesses to have access to the global payments ecosystem. We are ethically conscious and focused on the positive impact we can have as a business, putting financial inclusivity and eco-friendly innovation centrally to our purpose while working to democratize and simplify the global payments process.

How long have you worked at Sokin? What do you enjoy most about being a part of its leadership team?

Hsu: I’ve been with Sokin since January 2021 and enjoy being part of a very fast-paced business that is constantly growing, innovating, and evolving. I’m surrounded by hard-working and exceptionally talented people where I continue to learn so much. The leadership team is experienced, grounded, and strategic, but also fun which makes being part of it such a privilege.

What are the biggest responsibilities you have as CCMO? Are there any accomplishments as Sokin’s CCMO that you are most proud of?

Hsu: The biggest responsibilities I have as CCMO is to build the Sokin brand and keep our name front-of-mind within the global payments and innovation industry. We have an incredible story to tell – one that really holds people at its heart – and great products and services to get out to market with.

I’m immensely proud of the team we have built and how quickly we have managed to scale the Sokin brand globally. We’ve nurtured our flourishing sports club partnerships very effectively and continue to enter new markets at pace with an extremely exciting proposition.

How has the pandemic impacted the work you do as CCMO? 

Hsu: The global pandemic changed how we work, but not what we need to do to deliver it. If anything, the change in working environment has forced us to innovate and collaborate in new and diverse ways. For example, as a global organization with a workforce across the world, we do not let time zones or geographies hold back progress.

Being able to build a good team culture and the creative spark is the only area which has been harder to achieve as our people are not always together. But overall, it’s not negatively impacted my role or the work we do at Sokin.

How would you characterize the “State of Women in Fintech and Financial Services” in 2022?

Hsu: The industry has improved, but there is still a lot of work to do. When I started out, it was not uncommon for only one or two women to have a seat in the boardroom. This, of course, has changed due to a shift in workplace attitudes and, as a result, we are seeing more women than ever moving up the ladder. However, this must only be seen as the beginning. It’s still not an equal men-to-women ratio, but it’s getting better.

Evidently, more attention and emphasis have been placed on supporting women in the finance industry over the years. I have seen more female leaders and experts working in finance and fintech compared to 10 years ago. It’s wonderful to see the glass ceiling starting to crack and I hope it grows in momentum.

What do you think the industry is doing right in terms of promoting gender diversity? What do we need to do better?

Hsu: I think fintech and financial services are having the conversation and pushing the agenda for gender diversity, which is really the first step. We need to get to a point where equality is part of a natural and organic system, not a forced issue as it is now – much like a box to tick.

I hope in the coming years we will not have to talk about gender diversity in the same way we do now, but instead it becomes something that’s actioned without question.

What can you do in your role as CCMO to help advance gender diversity?

Hsu: I think I can help in my role as a CCMO – and also as a senior female leader – by setting a good example, supporting, and mentoring others and driving a strong DE&I team and agenda at Sokin. Being part of a progressive and innovative company helps immensely, but also we have a culture where everyone’s opinion matters and can be shared which really can drive quick and necessary change.

It’s also about giving women the opportunities they need to succeed. The best way to create a rope ladder for other people to climb is to include them in your own journey. I’ve been exceedingly lucky to work with lots of incredible people over the years who did just that. By doing so, they pulled the best out of me which I did not see in myself. Before I knew it, I was involved in activities which, to me, seemed impossible, but those around me saw things differently. I will always be grateful for this, and I hope I can support the talent of today in the same way.

It may sound simple, but by doing so you naturally open opportunities and further responsibilities for those in your team. Providing an accessible platform to learn is fundamental in supporting others through their professional careers, especially in fast-paced industries such as fintech in which there are an plenty of chances opening every day. It’s about giving people both the confidence and, most importantly, access to pursue them.

Sokin is involved in multiple new initiatives. What excites you most about the direction of the company right now?

Hsu: I’m most excited about how the company is innovating and the way we are building our ecosystem and partnerships. It’s unlike any other organization I have worked! Sokin is at the forefront of several innovations such as taking payments into the metaverse and web 3.0, alongside what we can do with our existing and new partners.

Having only launched our Global Currency Account in August 2021, Sokin has rapidly expanded into 32 territories, and welcomed more than 120,000 Sokin customers with a further 175,000 currently on the global waiting list. At the end of 2021, we had transferred over $100 million around the world, delivered a multilingual app with five accessible languages, doubled the size of Sokin’s global workforce, partnered with five top-class football clubs including our first NFL team, and launched our exclusive sponsorship community, Sokin – Money Goals. To achieve this in a matter of months is astounding.

In short, we are leveling up global payments with the ambition to become the provider of choice for global transfers and currency exchange around the world. And I wholeheartedly believe we can and we will achieve this.

Photo by Max DeRoin

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Finovate Best of Show Winners Champion Financial Literacy

Finovate Best of Show Winners Champion Financial Literacy
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Banzai, FamZoo, Horizn, Kasasa, Launchfire, List series, Long Game, Zogo Finance

We recently took a look at Finovate alums that have put financial literacy at the top of their agendas. We also noted that our baker’s dozen of alums had more than its share of Best of Show winners. More than half of those alums featured won top honors from our Finovate audiences at least once.

Today, as we near the end of our Financial Literacy Month commemoration, we’re highlighting those Best of Show winning fintech innovators and the work they do in making financial education available to a broadening range of communities.

Provo, Utah-based Banzai made its one-and-only Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2018 in New York. At the event, the company won Best of Show for its offering that helps banks and credit unions boost customer engagement and ROI while providing financial education for their customers and members.

FamZoo demoed its technology on the Finovate stage twice – in 2011 and again in 2013 – winning Best of Show on both occasions. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California and founded in 2006, the two-time Best of Show winner offers a prepaid card and financial education for kids in a single family finance app.

When it comes to financial literacy, companies like Horizn help the financial services community help itself. Making its Finovate debut in 2017, Horizn earned a pair of Best of Show awards in its two most recent appearances in 2020 and 2021. The company offers a platform that helps financial institutions accelerate digital banking knowledge, fluency, and adoption for both customers and employees. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Horizn was founded in 2011.

Not many companies can boast of winning a Finovate Best of Show award in two different decades, but Kasasa (formerly known as BancVue) has done that and then some. The financial and marketing technology provider, based in Austin, Texas, and founded in 2004, won Best of Show in its Finovate debut in 2009. Nearly ten years later, the company picked up its third Best of Show award at FinovateSpring in 2018 (Kasasa also won Best of Show in 2011 in San Francisco). In addition to offering a variety of innovative fintech products – such as its “take-back loan” – Kasasa also launched an online game called MoneyIsland that helps instruct kids on the importance of sound money management.

One of two Best of Show winning Canadian companies with a commitment to financial literacy, Ottawa, Ontario-based Launchfire won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2019 in its second Finovate appearance. The company specializes in game-based employee and customer engagement for financial institutions. Most notably, Launchfire offers an employee engagement solution, Lemonade, that blends gamification with micro-learning, AI, and “surgical analytics” to educate financial services employees.

Long Game is one of Finovate’s newest alums and one of our more recent Best of Show winners, as well. The company, founded in 2015 and based in San Francisco, California, won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021 last September. Long Game offers a bank-branded mobile app that combines the best practices of prize-linked savings and mobile gaming to help banks and credit unions acquire new customers, increase customer engagement, and boost financial literacy.

Earning a Best of Show award in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019, Zogo Finance leverages behavioral economic research developed at Duke University to help improve financial literacy for young people. The company’s app transforms tricky financial concepts into smaller, easier-to-understand lessons, and offers rewards and incentives to users who complete them. The company announced 31 new financial institution partnerships in Q1 of 2022 alone, bringing its total partnership tally to more than 180 banks and credit unions.

Photo by Pixabay

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Fidelity Enters the Metaverse with New Financial Education Experience: Invest Quest at The Fidelity Stack

Fidelity Enters the Metaverse with New Financial Education Experience: Invest Quest at The Fidelity Stack
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Fidelity
  • Fidelity Investments announced the launch of its gamified, metaverse-based financial education experience.
  • The Fidelity Stack is an eight-story, virtual building that hosts a lobby, a dance floor, a rooftop for hanging out, and an Invest Quest challenge to help users learn about ETF investing.
  • Fidelity Investments’ new offering comes in the wake of the launch of a metaverse-themed exchange-traded fund (ETF), FMET.

Financial Literacy Month meets the metaverse movement as Fidelity Investments unveils a new gamified financial education experience located in Decentraland, a virtual world launched in 2020. The new offering, The Fidelity Stack, features a lobby, a dance floor, and a roof top hangout, as well as an Invest Quest challenge in which visitors gather “orbs” and learn the basics of investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) while moving through eight-story Fidelity Stack facility.

“We’re part of a dynamic shift as young people take control of their finances in new ways,” Fidelity CMO and Head of Emerging Customers David Dintenfass said. “The next generation seeks out financial education in all the places they spend time, whether physical or virtual. We’re committed to serve customers in these decentralized communities as they transform and grow.”

In a preview video of The Fidelity Stack in Decentraland, Fidelity in the Metaverse, the investment firm noted that while the new experience is “not our first metaverse rodeo” The Fidelity Stack nevertheless represents Fidelity as “the first brokerage firm to have an immersive, educational metaverse experience.” Locating its new offering in Decentraland also could help Fidelity Investments reach younger audiences; Decentraland is dedicated toward users in the 18-35 age range – a cohort that Reuters noted represented 3.8 million of the Fidelity brokerage accounts opened in 2021.

The Fidelity Stack comes hot on the heels of the launch of a new ETF from Fidelity Investments that enables investors to add exposure to companies that are building the metaverse to their portfolios. FMET, as the ETF is called, includes shares of companies such as Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Adobe, and NVIDIA. Unveiled along with another new ETF – the Fidelity Crypto Industry and Digital Payments ETF, FDIG – FMET is designed to give investors the opportunity to participate in the growth of new technologies without requiring investors to have a great deal of experience in or familiarity with the complexity that accompanies these new innovations.

“Leveraging Fidelity’s decades of investment experience, we are focused on growing our broad product lineup with innovative strategies that offer choice, value, and new opportunities to investors,” Fidelity Head of ETF Management and Strategy Greg Friedman said. “We continue to see demand particularly from young investors, for access to the rapidly growing industries in the digital ecosystem and these two thematic ETFs offer investors exposure in a familiar investment vehicle.”

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

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Personetics Teams Up with Ecolytiq to Launch New Sustainability Insights Offering

Personetics Teams Up with Ecolytiq to Launch New Sustainability Insights Offering
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Personetics
  • Personetics launched its Sustainability Insights solution this week, giving consumers visibility into the carbon emissions of their spending and investments.
  • The new offering is made possible thanks to a partnership with sustainability-as-a-service company ecolytiq.
  • The launch of Sustainability Insights comes less than a month after the company introduced new proactive cash flow management functionality on its platform.

Financial data-driven personalization innovator Personetics announced the launch of a new offering, Sustainability Insights, to help financial institutions respond to consumer demand – and increasing expectations from regulators — for sustainable, environmentally-responsible, climate-aware finance. The new solution has been made possible courtesy of Personetics’ partnership with sustainability-as-a-service company ecolytiq, and will enable customers to see their own carbon footprint, as well as suggest ways they can reduce the impact of their transactions on the climate by pursuing greener spending options and financial objectives that are support climate sustainability.

“Personetics Sustainability Insights are the next evolution in sustainable finance,” Personetics CEO David Sosna said. “Beyond just showing back customers their carbon footprint, we offer them specific actions that they can take today to reduce their carbon impact, choose climate-friendly savings goals, and push the industry in a greener direction.”

Sustainability Insights offers consumers a personalized, holistic “financial map” that graphically shows the carbon emissions of customer spending and/or investments. The solution also offers personalized insights and advice, tailored to the customer’s financial profile, to help them reduce those carbon emissions. The recommendations range from the more modest, for example, transacting with a different, more eco-conscious merchant, to the more comprehensive, such as setting up a savings plan to pay for the installation of solar panels on a home. Sustainability Insights also leverages quizzes and feedback insights to enhance the accuracy of its recommendations. In a statement, Personetics noted that the solution is based on the company’s “four pillars of sustainable finance” strategy; namely, that the technology be integrated, relatable, interactive, and actionable.

Sustainability Insights is also designed to have benefits for banks and financial institutions, as well as for their customers. For one, Sosna highlighted the ability of the solution to improve customer engagement, and open up new opportunities for cross-selling. “This will create deeper relationships with banking customers and ultimately support banks’ ESG reporting,” Sosna explained. “Every financial institution can be a leader in green banking with Sustainability Insights.”

A Finovate alum since 2016, Personetics serves more than 80 financial institutions in 30 global markets, and reaches 120 million customers. An innovator in the field of financial data-driven personalization, customer engagement, and advanced money management capabilities for financial services, Personetics is dedicated to what it calls “the future of self-driving finance” in which banks are able to serve their customers’ financial wellness needs proactively.

Speaking of which, earlier this month Personetics introduced new “proactive cash flow management” capabilities on its platform. The offering is geared toward helping mitigate liquidity issues that customers face that often lead to overdrafts. Proactive cash flow management predicts 70% of overdraft situations, reduces the frequency of low balance incidents, provides personalized recommendations to help fix overdrafts, and helps enhance customer relationships with their financial institution, leading to higher customer lifetime value (CLV).

“Progressive banks all over the world are seeking new ways to help customers with their money management,” Jody Bhagat, President of Americas at Personetics, said when the cash flow management capabilities were launched. “By adopting a data-driven, personalized approach, banks can unleash their creativity in delivering tailored solutions and treatments that put customers’ financial wellness at the center of the experience.”

Photo by Lerkrat Tangsri

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BMO Harris Bank Cardholders Support Reforestation; Rabobank Offers Carbon Insights

BMO Harris Bank Cardholders Support Reforestation; Rabobank Offers Carbon Insights
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, David's column

Last week for Earth Day we talked about the different ways that the fintech industry is responding to the climate challenge. Since then, there’s been even more news on that front – in this case from a pair of banks that are giving their customers the ability to contribute personally to climate sustainability.

First up, BMO Harris Bank announced late last week that it is enabling its cardholders to support reforestation by donating their points to support the Priceless Planet Coalition. The Priceless Planet Coalition reforestation initiative was launched by Mastercard in 2020 and is partnered with Conservation International and the World Resources Institute. The Coalition has a goal of restoring 100 million trees by 2025.

BMO Harris Bank’s policy will enable cardholders in the U.S. to donate up to 500 of their accumulated points to Conservation International. Donating points is easy; cardholders can sign up for the program via BMO Digital Banking on their mobile app or online, then select the credit card account from which the points will be donated.

“Being part of Mastercard’s Priceless Planet Coalition is just one of many actions BMO is taking to support a sustainable future,” BMO Financial Group Head of North American Personal and Business Banking Ernie Johannson said. “What we do today will determine how our world looks tomorrow. In addition to BMO’s own bold actions to grow the good, we are proud to invite customers to join us and to make action as easy as redeeming their card points. Together, our efforts can make a big impact toward sustaining a healthy environment.”

Carbon tracking, as we mentioned last week, is among the more popular ways that fintechs and financial services companies have empowered consumers to better understand the impact of their spending habits on the environment. Rabobank, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company, just announced that it will enable 1,000 of its Rabo payments accountholders to see the impact of their consumption on the climate – courtesy of a Carbon Insights feature on their Rabo app.

“With Carbon Insights, we make consumers part of the solution, just like we do with sustainable farmers who can earn carbon credits through carbon storage in their farmland,” Rabo Carbon Bank CEO Barbara Baarsma said. “Together our eight million private customers can make a difference and combat climate change by changing their spending patterns towards a smaller carbon footprint. For example, by buying different, less carbon intensive food they also stimulate supermarkets to offer more sustainable products.”

Rabobank developed its Carbon Insights capability in partnership with green fintech Ecolytiq, which has partnered with a number of financial services companies to help them develop climate sustainability-based solutions. Ecolytiq, leveraging the European Union’s Open Payment Standard, provides Rabobank with Dutch CO2 values per euro and spending category (food, transportation, clothing, etc.). Rabobank manages the secure environment in which accountholder payment data is processed, ensuring that customer data remains with Rabobank and that data is not used for any other purpose.

Underscoring the emphasis on privacy, Rabo Carbon Bank Product Manager for Carbon Bank Retail Fadoua Ajjaji explained, “Of course we don’t know the exact products somebody buys in the supermarket, so the CO2 emissions remain an estimation. For the calculation we look at the payment itself, not the actual receipt. Customers can provide additional information, if they eat meat or own a car, which allows us to make the calculations more accurate.” Ajjaji called carbon tracking “a missed opportunity” when it comes to meeting the climate challenge “as gaining insights is the first step in making more sustainable choices.”

Photo by Pixabay

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Entersekt and Bonifii Team Up to Bring Context-Aware Authentication Solutions to Credit Unions

Entersekt and Bonifii Team Up to Bring Context-Aware Authentication Solutions to Credit Unions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Entersekt
  • South African identity authentication specialist Entersket has teamed up with U.S. FX network Bonifii.
  • The partnership will give credit unions access to passwordless, context-based authentication technology.
  • The new solution, MemberPass Express, will provide multi-channel authentication in less than ten seconds.

Identity authentication provider Entersekt has announced a collaboration with U.S.-based foreign currency network Bonifii that will enable more credit unions to take advantage of new passwordless, context-aware authentication technology.

The new offering, MemberPass Express, will be made available via MemberPass, the first KYC-compliant, member-controlled digital identity issued by credit union cooperatives. MemberPass Express will enable credit union members to authenticate their identity during e-commerce, online, or mobile banking transactions, as well as while visiting a branch or contacting a call center. The new seamless authentication process, which provides multi-channel authentication in less than 10 seconds, is currently being piloted with a pair of credit unions.

“The joint new solution leverages artificial intelligence to protect members from fraud by analyzing the context (such as identity, behavior, location, device, and channel) of each user journey in real-time,” Entersekt CEO Schalk Nolte said. “This informs the most appropriate member authentication method that will be used, and means that members will now benefit from industry-leading authentication, while enjoying a fast and smooth user experience.”

A Finovate alum since its appearance at FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2014, Entersekt in recent years has forged partnerships with edtech Mindjoy and the MiDO Foundation to support financial literacy in high schools, teamed up with Netcetera to bring new authentication options to Germany’s Hanseatic Bank, and announced a collaboration with open banking platform company ndgit that added Entersekt’s customer authentication and smart messaging solutions available via ndgit’s marketplace.

South Africa-based Entersekt ended 2021 with a major investment from technology-based private equity firm Accel-KKR. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Joe Porten, Principal at Accel-KKR, praised the company for its “deep vertical expertise” and its record of success in the financial services industry. “As a partner, Accel-KKR is committed to helping the Entersekt team accelerate growth and continually deliver innovation in their category.”

Photo by Eren Li

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Scalable Capital Enters Italy, Moojo Secures Pre-Seed Funding; Commerzbank Seeks Crypto Custody License

Scalable Capital Enters Italy, Moojo Secures Pre-Seed Funding; Commerzbank Seeks Crypto Custody License
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avaloq, Finovate Global

This week on Finovate Global we’re highlighting some of the fintech news from Germany.

Scalable Capital, a digital investment platform based in Germany, announced the launch of its neo-broker and new cryptocurrency offering Scalable Crypto in the Italian market. The new solution, introduced in December, will enable Italian investors to buy stock, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), popular cryptocurrencies, as well as set up savings plans for free. The company’s Scalable Broker offering will give investors access to more than 6,000 international stocks, with all trades routed through regulated European exchanges to avoid FX fees. Scalable Broker also provides access to more than 1,500 ETFs and more than 1,700 mutual funds. Additionally, Scalable Broker is available in different price configurations: a free version with commission-free savings plans and trading for stocks and ETFs that charges a fee of EUR 0.99 for transactions in other instruments, and a “Prime” version with an additional trading flat rate enabling unlimited trades for a monthly fee of EUR 2.99.

Scalable Crypto enables investors to buy and sell common cryptocurrencies, which are held as securities in the client’s brokerage account. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and XRP are among the cryptocurrencies available for trading, each of which is based on exchange-traded crypto products (ETPs) for easy and secure transactions on regulated exchanges.

“The online broker with savings plans and crypto is just the beginning,” Scalable Capital founder and co-CEO Erik Podzuweit said. “Our goal is to introduce our complete investment platform to the Italian market. We will make even more services available to our Italian clients, such as our leading robo-advisor.”

Scalable Capital made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.

Moojo, a new startup that helps freelancers, creators, and gig economy workers improve their invoicing process and get paid faster, announced $2 million in seed funding this week. The round included participation from APX, Helvetia Venture Fund, MS&AD, neoteq Ventures, and Red Swan Ventures

In addition to its instant payments and invoicing solutions, Moojo plans to introduce insurance and lending products in the future. The company has partnered with Hiscox to facilitate the development of insurance products.

“The team and their approach to embed insurance into their offering has convinced us,” Markus Niederreiner, CEO of Hiscox Germany, said. “We are delighted to be Moojo’s insurance partner and co-create the next-gen of solutions for the creator and the freelancer economy. We strongly believe in the way Moojo tailors and builds solutions for the community: integrated into their customers’ lives.”

Moojo was founded in 2021 by Amir Djouadi, Christian Engnath, and Utena Treves. The company is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

Germany’s second largest listed bank Commerzbank announced late this week that it is looking to enter the cryptocurrency space. The company is the country’s first major financial institution to seek a license that would enable it to offer cryptocurrency safekeeping services, as well as create its own cryptocurrency custody solution.

Germany’s new licensing policy for cryptocurrency services went into effect in 2020 and is designed to encourage more regulated financial firms to enter the cryptocurrency market. Commerzbank’s license application appears a year after the institution formed a partnership with Deutsche Börse and Fintech 360X to develop a digital asset trading platform.

Acknowledging the role of the partnership, Commerzbank spokesperson Bernd Reh added that the bank is “pursuing our own digital asset strategy and are also planning our own offerings for our customers in the coming years.” Reh noted that the planned offering is geared initially toward institutional customers.

BaFin, the Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, has so far approved four of the 25 applications it has received from institutions seeking crypto custodian status.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Photo by Ingo Joseph

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Apex Fintech Solutions and Zogo Finance Partner on DIY Investor Education

Apex Fintech Solutions and Zogo Finance Partner on DIY Investor Education
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Zogo Finance
  • Zogo Finance announced a partnership with Apex Fintech Solutions to help promote financial literacy.
  • Clients of the two companies will be able to access more than 450 financial literacy-related educational modules.
  • Zogo Finance won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2019 in New York for its Teen Financial Literacy App.

Zogo Finance, which won Best of Show in its 2019 FinovateFall debut, announced a partnership with Apex Fintech Solutions that will help investors educate themselves on the fundamentals of sound money management. The collaboration will enable clients of both companies to access more than 450 learning modules on investing and financial literacy.

“Millennials and Gen Z are reinventing investing, which requires companies to adapt to their evolving interests, financial aspirations, and educational needs,” Zogo founder and CEO Bolun Li explained. “Apex shares our vision of harnessing technology to create customized, flexible, and accessible learning opportunities to support investors of all types.”

With more than 500,000 users and 180+ financial institution partners, Zogo leverages behavioral economic research – much of it developed at Duke University – to help improve youth financial literacy. The company’s app uses easy-to-comprehend lessons to educate users on complicated financial concepts, and offers rewards and incentives to encourage users to complete the coursework. Users can also earn rewards by taking positive financial actions such as logging into their mobile banking app, visiting a bank branch, or even using their debit or credit cards. Since inception, users of the Austin, Texas-based company’s technology have completed more than 16 million lessons, with the average Zogo users finishing 38 financial literacy courses.

“Our mission is all about democratizing finance through access – and education is a vital part of that,” Apex Fintech Solutions CEO Bill Capuzzi said. “Partnering with Zogo helps us empower our clients and their millions of customers.”

Founded in 2018, Zogo Finance forged 31 new partnerships with financial institutions in the first quarter of 2022. The company has raised $295,000 in funding from investors including MassChallenge and TechStars.

Photo by Pixabay

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Fintech, Sustainability, and the Climate Challenge

Fintech, Sustainability, and the Climate Challenge
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news

The news that CarbonPay has launched a new payment card that helps users determine and offset their carbon footprint is a reminder of the efforts that fintechs of all types are making to support climate sustainability.

CarbonPay’s new offering, only available in the U.S. and the U.K., is a prepaid corporate card called CarbonPay Business Ctrl. The card sits in front of a company business account and comes with an administrator dashboard to enable individual card spending limits. Because the solution is a prepaid card, there are no credit checks, interest rates, or repayment due dates for cardholders to worry about. The card includes smart features such as automating offsetting, carbon footprint tracking data, accounting software integration, and expense management.

CarbonPay says that for every $1.50 (or £1) spent using the card, it offsets 1kg of CO2 at no additional cost. CarbonPay has partnered with sustainability-as-a-service platform Ecolytiq to provide carbon footprint tracking.

“The fight against climate change can’t be solved by a handful of people, it requires systemic change and for everyone to take action,” CarbonPay CEO and founder Rory Spurway said. “That’s what inspired us to create CarbonPay, to help people and businesses around the world make a simple, but impactful change which will help us all in the fight against climate change. We turn every transaction into meaningful climate action by automatically offsetting CO2 every time you pay. It’s a simple, but important step towards making a real difference.”

What other “simple, but important” steps are fintechs taking when it comes to climate sustainability? CommerzVentures recently set out nine fields that fintechs and financial services companies have pursued in order to address the climate concerns of customers and clients. Here’s a look at some of the major categories, and the way fintechs are innovating within them.

Carbon Offsetting: CarbonPay’s new prepaid corporate card, mentioned above, is an example of carbon offsetting in fintech. Carbon offsetting involves lowering or removing carbon dioxide and/or other greenhouse gases in one instance to help compensate for CO2/greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere.

Carbon Accounting: Carbon accounting is a key part of carbon offsetting and involves measuring the amount of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases created by a given process. In the fintech context, companies like Meniga are working with banks like Iceland’s Íslandsbanki to launch solutions that track the carbon footprint of a customer’s spending decisions . Carbon accounting is related to ESG Reporting, which involves the disclosure of information on a company’s environmental, social, and corporate governance. This provides interested investors with the transparency they need in order to determine whether or not a potential investment is consistent with their environmental, social, and corporate governance values.

Impact Investing/Financing: Investment strategies that seek to combine positive financial returns with positive environmental outcomes are referred to as impact investing or financing strategies. Within fintech, a growing number of roboadvisors have sought ways to enable customers to invest in companies – or funds of companies – that have a proven commitment to climate sustainability. Also known as socially responsible investing, digital investment platforms from Betterment to Personal Capital have included these kinds of investing options for their clients.

Sustainable Banking: Sustainable banking involves using ESG criteria to set the policy agenda for otherwise traditional banking. Whereas banks and other financial institutions historically have focused on the balance between risk and return, sustainable banking adds another factor, impacts, to create a third dimension that bank leaders must focus on when running their businesses. The most common example of this in the environmental context is the effort by sustainable banks and financial institutions to invest in renewable energy enterprises while eschewing investment in fossil fuel companies.

Indeed, looking at the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which features the top 10% of the largest 2,500 companies in the S&P Global BMI based on their long-term ESG criteria, we see that those banks near the top of the list earned their lofty ranking in large part due to their hands-off attitude toward “dirty” energy such as oil and coal. BBVA, for example, secured the top spot this year as the most sustainable bank in the world – along with South Korea’s KB Financial Group. The Spanish bank earned credit for doubling its sustainable finance target and for issuing objectives to decarbonize its portfolio by 2030.

“This recognition confirms the success of our sustainability strategy and encourages us to continue working with the goal of accompanying our customers and society as a whole as they move toward a more sustainable and inclusive future,” BBVA Global Head of Sustainability Javier Rodríguez Soler said in a statement.

Photo by Akil Mazumder

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