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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Whether you attended FinovateFall last month and missed a few demos, watched all of the demos but want to watch them again, or missed out on FinovateFall entirely, we have great news for you. The videos from the 66 FinovateFall demos are now live (and free to watch!) on Finovate’s website.
To get you started on watching over seven and a half hours of pure fintech demos, we’ve highlighted the eight Best of Show winning demos below to get you started.
Want to re-live the entire show? Check out the highlights reel below.
If you don’t want to miss out on the live action next time around, be sure to register for FinovateEurope, taking place February 25 and 26 in London. We’ll see you there!
FIS has launched its Digital Trading Storefront, enabling banks, brokers, and fund managers to offer a customizable digital trading experience with real-time execution and enhanced personalization.
The new Digital Trading Storefront is built on FIS’s Cross-Asset Trading and Risk Platform.
The new tool supports both buy-side and sell-side strategies while helping firms manage trading volumes and mitigate regulatory compliance risks.
Payment, banking, and investment systems provider FISunveiled its Digital Trading Storefront today. The new tool enables banks, brokers, market makers, and fund managers to offer their customers a new digital trading experience.
The new Digital Trading Storefront builds upon FIS’ existing Cross-Asset Trading and Risk Platform. Formerly known as Front Arena, FIS Cross-Asset Trading and Risk Platform helps firms enter new markets quickly and support strategies for both the buy side and sell side. FIS’ Digital Trading Storefront enhances this by offering a suite of digital tools that allow for personalization and real-time trade execution.
Firms can customize their Digital Trading Storefront by integrating their own front or back-end components, and tailoring the design and customer experience to suit their brand. The platform facilitates more accessible trading in real-time, while helping mitigate regulatory compliance risk with APIs. When firms move their cross-asset trading platforms into the digital platform, they are better able to manage trading volumes at scale.
“Providing a competitive digital trading experience has become crucial for financial institutions who want to help customers be smarter when putting their money to work,” said FIS President, Capital Markets Nasser Khodri. “With this launch, FIS is unlocking financial technology that enables banks, broker dealers and wealth managers worldwide to deliver more modern experiences to their customers when their money is at work.”
FIS was founded in 1968. Headquartered in Florida, the firm offers a wide range of products and tools for its 15,000 clients across the globe, processing $50 trillionannually. In addition to wealth management tools, FIS also offers payment capabilities, risk management tools, customer communications products, and more.
In recent months, FIS has expanded its reach in the fintech and banking sectors through new offerings and partnerships. In July, FIS teamed up with Lendio, a fintech known for its lending technology, to launch a new SMB Digital Lending solution to support SMBs in need of financing. In August, Commerce Bank selected FIS to implement a loyalty program management platform.
Indeed Flex has partnered with Branch to offer temp workers same-day payouts.
Temp workers on the Indeed Flex platform can access up to 50% of their earnings within one hour of finishing their shifts.
Integrating Branch Direct, Indeed Flex can give workers the option to receive their pay either through direct deposit for a small fee or into the Branch digital wallet for free.
Temporary staffing platform Indeed Flex has teamed up with Branch, a workforce payments platform that provides flexible options for businesses to pay their workers. Indeed Flex will use Branch to pay its temp workers in the same day of completing their shift.
Indeed Flex offers job seekers in a range of industries– including industrial, hospitality, facilities management, and retail– to choose from a wide range of jobs and schedules to fit their needs and gather experience to build their career. The company provides flexible work solutions with temporary, temp-to-permanent, and long-term opportunities.
“At Indeed Flex, flexibility is at the heart of everything we do, and we’re excited to enhance that commitment through our partnership with Branch,” Indeed Flex Founder and CEO Novo Constare. “By enabling Flexers to access their pay as quickly and easily as they can pick up shifts, we’re reinforcing our core value of providing both work and financial flexibility that adapts to their unique needs.”
By integrating Branch’s fast payout tool, Branch Direct, into its payouts, Indeed Flex can now offer temp workers access to up to 50% of their earnings within one hour of completing their shift. With Branch Direct, workers can quickly receive a predetermined percentage of their earnings into their existing bank account for a small fee after linking their debit card. Alternatively, the employee could receive the funds into their Branch digital wallet for free.
“Branch is excited to collaborate with Indeed Flex and support their mission of empowering the flexible workforce with greater choice,” said Branch Founder and CEO Atif Siddiqi. “The Branch platform and app are designed to meet the unique needs of both temporary staffing firms and contingent workers. We’re proud to offer an end-to-end solution that allows Indeed Flex to enhance workers’ financial stability and overall work experience with even more speed, ease, and convenience.”
Branch, which provides banking services via its partner Evolve Bank and Trust, was founded in 2015. The Minnesota-based company offers businesses a range of payout options that suit their needs– from easy-to-launch payment solutions to fully customized, branded experiences.
Fintech reporting and reconciliation company Kani Payments has tied up with card issuing and acquiring company Cardaq.
Cardaq has selected Kani for its data reporting SaaS platform. Specifically, Kani will provide Cardaq clients with regulatory and compliance reporting, reconciliations, QMR reporting, Mastercard fee and invoice analysis, as well as interchange and acquiring fee analysis. Kani’s technology helps businesses complete multiple weeks’ of complex transaction reporting and reconciliation work in under 30 seconds.
“The partnership between Kani Payments and Cardaq addresses significant industry challenges, including the implementation of automating reconciliations at pace, effective regulatory compliance, and fee apportioning. Ultimately, Kani Payments exists to help disruptive fintechs like Cardaq to thrive and grow with our automated data reporting and reconciliation platform that gives it the space it needs to scale,” said Kani Chief Commercial Officer Roger Binks. “By automating manual processes, improving reconciliation accuracy, and providing detailed reporting and analysis tools, we are enabling Cardaq to focus on giving its customers outstanding products and services. We are proud to do the heavy lifting of making complex data simple and standardized.”
The solution, which will initially be available to Cardaq’s U.K. customers, is scalable and offers the potential to expand via deeper integration, advanced reporting, and continuous regulatory compliance needs as Cardaq grows in the future. Cardaq expects that integrating Kani’s SaaS offering will help it comply with regulations and boost growth while providing a better solution for its customers.
Cardaq was founded in 2011 to offer tools to help businesses instantly accept and process payments anywhere across the globe. In addition to its acquiring services, the London-based company also offers card issuing services, allowing businesses to create customized payment cards. Businesses can choose from a full cycle of services, from card issuing to personalization and delivery.
“Kani Payments was the clear choice for us due to its comprehensive and customizable reporting tools, expertise in regulatory compliance, and the ability to automate complex financial reconciliations,” said Cardaq CEO Hugo Remi. “The option to immediately integrate with existing systems and manage a high volume of transactions were added benefits for us and our customers. We are confident that the implementation Kani’s solution will give all our customers a unique service level and the highest accuracy in financial reporting.”
Founded in 2018, Kani has since reconciled more than $26.5 billion (€24 billion) in processed payments volume for fintech players including Sodexo, Pismo, Earthchain, CLOWD9, and Frost. At FinovateSpring 2023, the U.K.-based company demoed how its reconciliation and reporting services automates back office finance processes for banks and fintechs.
In 2022, Kani was accepted into the Mastercard Start Path Global program, and a year later was selected to participate in the FIS Accelerator program as one of 10 high-potential fintech companies.
This partnership showcases how fintechs are relying on other third party players to leverage data reporting and reconciliation solutions to meet evolving regulatory demands. As regulations become increasingly complex, vague, and variable, Kani’s platform helps firms solve key challenges such as automating complex financial reconciliations, ensuring compliance, and providing cost-effective reporting solutions.
Enfuce has partnered with allpay cards to enhance Enfuce’s MyCard solution in the U.K., providing customizable card issuance services.
MyCard allows fintechs and banks to issue and manage payment cards quickly, simplifies the card issuing process, and offers personalized options like metal, biometric, and sustainable cards made from recycled materials.
This collaboration reflects growing trends for modular, cloud-based payments platforms that facilitate a faster time-to-market and improved security for fintechs and banks.
Enfuce and plastic card manufacturer allpay cards have partnered this week. Enfuce has tapped allpay cards to manufacture and personalize payment cards to bolster Enfuce’s MyCard solution for U.K. clients.
“We are thrilled to partner with allpay cards to bring MyCard to market in the U.K. and of course work with them as their selected processing partner,” said Enfuce Co-Founder & Co-CEO Monika Liikamaa. “Our relationship is a true collaboration fostered on trust and well-aligned strategic goals which makes us the perfect pair to deliver card innovation.”
Enfuce launched its MyCard solution in early 2022 as part of their Card-as-a-Service offering. The MyCard platform allows fintechs and banks to issue and manage payment cards quickly and without the need for a large technical team. To simplify card programs, MyCard handles the entire process, including manufacturing, stock management, compliance, and distribution. The tool allows for a deep level of customization, enabling organizations to launch personalized cards, metal cards, biometric cards, vertical cards, and sustainable cards made from corn starch, post industrial waste, and recycled plastic.
Enfuce and allpay cards first linked up in 2023, when Enfuce became allpay’s processing partner. This move, which integrated Enfuce’s modular payments platform for its U.K. clients, helped allpay enhance its card manufacturing and personalization services.
“We are excited to be supporting Enfuce’s MyCard proposition, particularly as the demand for scalable, secure, and customized card solutions grows in the fintech space,” said allpay cards Head of Sales Emily Lovelock. “By joining forces with Enfuce, we are confident we can deliver a stress-free, high-quality experience for all of their U.K. clients.”
The partnership between Enfuce and allpay cards reflects the increasing demand for customizable, and scalable “-as-a-Service” solutions. Additionally, this collaboration highlights the shift towards integrating cloud-based and modular payments platforms, which allow for faster time-to-market and enhanced security in a fast-evolving regulatory landscape.
Finland-based Enfuce was founded in 2016 and has raised $78 million (€70.5 milion). In addition to its MyCard solution, the company offers card issuance, digital wallets, card program insights, fraud and dispute management, and more.
PayPal is launching its PayPal Complete Payments platform in China, offering seamless cross-border payment solutions.
The platform, which initially launched in the U.K., Canada, and Europe, helps merchants settle funds quickly and manage international payments.
PayPal estimates the new tool will help Chinese merchants to reach over 400 million PayPal users globally.
PayPal, which just released its stackable in-store and online rewards system PayPal Everywhere earlier this month, has a new take on what it means to be “everywhere.” The California-based company is launchingPayPal Complete Payments in China this week.
Originally debuted in the spring of this year, the PayPal Complete Payments platform integrates customized products and solutions to help merchants sell globally, streamlining payments and receivables. Upon launch, the platform was available to small and mid-sized enterprises in the U.K., Canada, and more than 20 European markets.
“We are excited to bring PayPal’s Complete Payments solution to China, empowering businesses with secure, seamless cross-border transactions and helping them tap into global markets,” said PayPal President, Global Markets Suzan Kereere. “This launch marks a significant milestone in PayPal’s mission to revolutionize commerce globally, bridging Chinese businesses with consumers around the world in a more efficient and transparent way.”
Over time, PayPal plans to add multiple capabilities to PayPal Complete Payments in China. The company will:
Use its network to enable Chinese merchants to reach over 400 million active PayPal users and billions of international consumers who use card and APM payments.
Settle funds quickly to allow merchants to get quick and easy access to their funds.
Offer tailored products– including RMB Transfer and Vendor Payouts– for Chinese merchants to enable fast and secure global fund management and facilitate settlements from PayPal accounts to domestic bank accounts.
Help merchants analyze risk and protect against fraud with AI-powered tools that can reduce time spent managing disputes.
“As one of the first e-commerce platforms to bring PayPal Complete Payments to China’s merchants, we are thrilled to support their expansion into global markets,” WooCommerce Chief Marketing Officer said Tamara Niesen. “This partnership delivers a tailored user experience for WooCommerce merchants, enabling cross-border businesses to confidently scale with PayPal’s advanced solutions.”
PayPal has offered its payments capabilities in China for almost two decades. By partnering with China UnionPay, along with other key players in the region, PayPal is currently engaged with over 700 merchants from across the country. Despite help from partners, PayPal is also able to hold its own in the region. In 2020, the company acquired a 100% stake in Chinese payments firm GoPay, becoming the first foreign company to fully own a Chinese payments platform.
Visa is acquiring fraud prevention company Featurespace to enhance its own fraud detection and risk-scoring solutions.
Terms of the agreement were undisclosed and the deal is expected to close in 2025 pending regulatory approvals.
The acquisition comes as Visa faces legal challenges from the U.S. DOJ over alleged monopolization in debit card markets.
Visasigned an agreement to acquire fraud prevention company Featurespace today. Financial terms of the deal, which is subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals, were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in 2025.
Featurespace was founded in 2008 as a project in Cambridge University’s engineering department. The U.K.-based company offers AI-based tools that analyze transaction data to detect fraud. The company’s ARIC Risk Hub assesses behavioral analytics in real-time to identify abnormal user behavior, and leverages machine learning to adapt to changing behaviors and new scams, while improving accuracy over time.
“Providing our clients with solutions that can adapt to and anticipate the changing threat landscape is of the utmost importance,” said Visa Global Head of Value-added Services Antony Cahill. “Featurespace’s strong foundation in AI will enhance our existing product portfolio and enable us to address our clients’ most complex and pressing challenges. We look forward to welcoming the Featurespace team to Visa.”
Visa expects that Featurespace will complement and strengthen its existing portfolio of fraud detection and risk-scoring solutions. By leveraging Featurespace’s expertise, Visa will empower its clients to manage payments fraud in real-time while minimizing false positives and ultimately cutting costs.
“Over the past 12 years we have served the financial services industry, building a company that has gone from strength to strength, and we are thrilled to become a part of Visa,” said Featurespace Founder Dave Excell. “With Visa, we can bring the innovation, integrity and purpose of our platform and our team to more payment service providers and ultimately, stop more people from becoming victims of financial crime.”
Shadowing today’s deal is Visa’s previous failed purchase of Plaid. In 2021, Visa was forced to terminate its planned $5.3 billion acquisition of financial data access company Plaid. At the time, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil antitrust lawsuit that ended the merger about a year after discussions were initiated. The lawsuit argued that Visa wanted to acquire Plaid to protect its U.S. debit business against the threat of the fintech. Visa argued that the DOJ did not understand its business and the competitive landscape, saying that Plaid would complement its existing capabilities.
Visa’s planned acquisition of Featurespace is quite different than that of Plaid, however. That’s because the fintech will likely be seen as enhancing Visa’s existing fraud management capabilities and does not pose the same competitive risks as the Plaid deal did.
Even still, the Featurespace deal comes at an interesting time for Visa. The payments giant is re-living some of its 2021 woes with the DOJ. The department sued Visa earlier this week, alleging that it is monopolizing debit card markets. “We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing – but the price of nearly everything.”
As some experts have pointed out, however, banks and merchants have multiple payment rails to choose from, and that Visa’s global market share is simply a result of capitalism.
Xero and Klarna have partnered to allow small businesses to offer buy now, pay later (BNPL) options at checkout, giving consumers more flexible payment choices.
Under the partnership, Xero’s small business clients will have access to BNPL capabilities that may help boost revenue and enable more large-ticket sales.
This collaboration has the potential to help Xero’s small business clients maintain healthy cash flow by getting paid upfront.
Small business accounting software company Xero and global payments network and shopping platform Klarnaannounced this week that they have teamed up.
The deal is essentially a distribution partnership for Klarna, which will help Xero’s small businesses clients accept buy now, pay later (BNPL) payments from their consumers. Xero small business customers in all regions except Australia can offer Klarna at checkout as a payment option, providing a credit card alternative while still getting paid for the goods or services up front.
“We know that maintaining a healthy cash flow is critical to a successful business, and offering more ways to pay supports increased business growth and getting paid faster,” said Xero SVP Payments & Ecosystem Bharathi Ramavarjula. “In fact, our recent research report shows that if a business doesn’t offer customers their preferred way to pay, they are prepared to take their business elsewhere. By enabling our customers with more ways to pay, including Klarna, we can help them retain customers and increase their revenue.”
Klarna’s BNPL tools include a four-payment, interest-free installment plan, a 24-month financing option, and a pay-in-30 day option. Before a customer makes their purchase, Klarna verifies their eligibility and offers transparent terms of the payment. Once the purchase is made, the company follows up with reminders to help ensure that shoppers stay current on their payments. According to Klarna, 99% of the financing is repaid and 40% of orders placed are repaid early.
The partnership has the potential to provide BNPL capabilities to small businesses that would normally not be able to offer flexible payments or financing. By offering a more flexible payment option, these businesses have the potential to close more larger-ticket deals. It also has the potential to help businesses maintain healthy cashflow, as merchants using Klarna will receive the payment up front.
“This partnership brings Klarna’s flexible payment options to micro businesses of all kinds so business owners can get paid on time and their customers can choose how and when to pay,” said “Klarna Chief Commercial Officer David Sykes. “This includes businesses where gardeners and landscaping services using Xero can now offer a Klarna BNPL payment option, plumbers and heating engineers using Xero can fix their customers’ boilers and let them spread the cost while small businesses involved in the construction industry could spread the cost of smaller projects over three interest-free installments.”
Both Klarna and Xero have been in the fintech news cycle in recent months for different reasons. Last month, Klarna unveiled plans to cut its workforce in half in favor of AI-driven productivity. And earlier this month, Xero announced plans to acquire collaborative reporting tool Syft Analytics.
Revolut is spinning out its wealth management offering into a standalone app called Revolut Invest.
The move will allow Revolut to attract users outside of its existing bank client base.
Revolut counts 45 million users, has 3 million active traders, and 20,000 subscribers to its premium investment account.
U.K.-based fintech Revolut unveiled today that it plans to spin out its wealth management offering into a standalone app.
The new app, Revolut Invest, will feature capabilities from Revolut’s $9.5 billion (€8.5 billion) wealth management business, as well as additional functionality. At present, Revolut offers its users stock trading as well as a roboadvisor tool. The new app will offer much of the same features: access to 5,000 assets, including U.S. and European stocks, ETFs, commodities, and bonds. The app will also come with new products, such as contracts for difference (CFDs). Revolut Invest will offer the option to upgrade to Revolut’s premium subscription tier called Trading Pro that offers reduced commission fees, increased limits, and analytics.
One of the key advantages for Revolut in making its investing services a standalone tool is the ability to attract customers beyond its current user base. New investors using Revolut Invest won’t need to be existing Revolut banking clients, allowing the company to more easily expand its 3 million active traders and its 20,000 Trading Pro subscribers.
New Revolut Invest users will also be given the option to add Revolut’s banking services during the onboarding process. Conversely, Revolut’s banking clients will not need to download the new trading app, as they will still be able to conduct their investing activities within Revolut’s banking app.
Revolut is currently piloting Revolut Invest in Greece, Denmark, and the Czech Republic. The company is aiming to double the number of investments available in the app in the next three months. To fuel this growth, Revolut is scheduled to launch the investment app in other European Economic Area countries by the end of the year and also revealed plans to launch it in the U.K., U.S., Singapore, and Australia, as it already has the licensing in place in these regions.
With more than 45 million retail customers and 500,000 business customers, Revolut supports more than 25 currencies for users in more than 140 regions. The company offers current accounts, savings accounts, and debit cards that feature the ability to pay in multiple currencies. Revolut also has a credit card product in the U.S., Ireland, Lithuania, and Poland.
Last month, Revolut’s valuation was billed at $45 billion, cementing its reputation as Europe’s most valuable fintech. Earlier this summer, the company earned its banking license from the U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), adding deposit insurance for its users in the region. These two factors place Revolut in a good position to go public; and it is likely the company will favor a NASDAQ listing over listing on the London Stock Exchange.
You’ve seen the hype around Generative AI (GenAI). And perhaps you even have an AI strategy in place at your organization. But because the development of AI moves faster than any enabling technology we’ve seen in banking in the past, it’s important to think ahead to the next iteration. In this case, the next evolution of GenAI is Agentic AI.
Agentic AI, also known as autonomous AI, refers to AI that can make its own decisions, form a plan, act on its own, and learn from its mistakes to achieve specified goals. Agentic AI can take a complex request and break it down into simple, achievable goals to solve complex problems.
Agentic AI has numerous possibilities for use in financial services, including:
Create a highly personalized customer experience
Agentic AI can automate routine interactions, allowing firms to launch chatbots or virtual assistants that can autonomously handle customer questions, suggest financial products based on specific preferences, and even analyze customer behavior to predict their needs.
Some of this is currently possible with GenAI, but Agentic AI will be able to handle even more complex tasks and make autonomous decisions without human intervention. Agentic AI customer service bots will also be proactive, and will be able to anticipate customer needs based on real-time data and past behaviors.
Offer autonomous roboadvisory with algorithmic trading
Roboadvisors have been popular in fintech since 2015, but Agentic AI will make it possible for firms to autonomously manage investment portfolios by analyzing market trends, risk profiles, and financial goals. The new enabling technology could also become more intelligent, providing financial institutions with scalable advisory services that make investment decisions in real time without human intervention.
Agentic AI will be able to execute algorithmic trades in real time and without human intervention by autonomously making buy or sell decisions based on market conditions, financial models, and pre-set objectives. The technology will also proactively adjust portfolios based on market trends, economic forecasts, and client life changes, continuously aligning investments with a client’s long-term goals.
Power fraud detection and risk management
While GenAI can continuously monitor transactions to detect anomalies and identify fraudulent patterns, Agentic AI can instantly flag suspicious activities, alert relevant parties, and even block transactions. This offers financial institutions an effective way to reduce fraud risks and improve compliance with regulatory requirements.
Credit scoring and underwriting
Agentic AI can autonomously assess creditworthiness by analyzing vast amounts of structured and unstructured data, such as transaction histories, social media activity, and economic conditions. The enabling technology will be able to independently decide whether to approve loans or credit lines in real-time, based on pre-determined parameters such as risk tolerance and regulatory requirements.
Compliance
With Agentic AI, firms will be able to autonomously monitor, detect, and act on compliance violations in real time. The technology will be able to autonomously make decisions– such as freezing an account or flagging a transaction– and take corrective actions. Also, as regulations change, it can adjust to rules without human intervention.
Back-office automation
Back-office automation is something that banks have been leveraging for a long time now. However, Agentic AI will be able to automate back-office functions like settlement processing, reconciliation, and financial reporting without human intervention and in real-time. Additionally, because Agentic AI can handle, complex, multi-step processes, it will be able to plan, initiate, and execute a task in a proactive manner.
Real-time risk assessment
To reduce operational risks, Agentic AI can autonomously assess the organization and market in real time. Firms with large, organized datasets may experience the most benefit, as the enabling technology will be able to make the most informed decisions based on large, clean sets of data.
These capabilities may sound equal parts idyllic and dystopian. However, it is difficult to prepare for an Agentic AI-powered future without knowing what role regulation will play. It is likely that regulators in the U.S. will mimic Europe in creating some form of AI regulation, especially for its use in financial services.
No matter what the regulatory future looks like, firms can take a handful of steps to prepare for the adoption of Agentic AI. So whether or not your organization even has an AI policy in place yet, you can start working on these things:
Create a robust data infrastructure Because Agentic AI relies on a huge amount of data, banks need to have strong data management systems that collect, store, and process both structured and unstructured data. Simultaneously, it is important that banks adhere to strong security protocols to protect consumers’ sensitive financial data.
Upgrade IT infrastructure and cloud capabilities Banks may need to move more of their operations to the cloud to free up computing power and storage facilities, both of which Agentic AI demands. Edge computing may be a solution to help reduce latency for AI applications, such as algorithmic trading, that require quick responses.
Build AI literacy into your culture Firms should consider investing in their workforce by offering AI training programs. This will help employees work with AI efficiently and creatively. AI education will also help keep employee AI usage compliant by setting boundaries, maintaining transparency, and ensuring ethical use.
Create an ethics and compliance framework Because Agentic AI has the ability to make autonomous decisions, it is essential that those decisions are based on ethical and regulatory compliant standards. Consider creating an AI ethics committee that is able to monitor and oversee AI decision-making. The committee can continuously ensure that the AI usage is not biased and will not harm customers, employees, or the organization.
Foster bank-fintech partnerships If not doing so already, banks should consider partnering with fintechs and AI technology providers to accelerate the adoption of Agentic AI. By collaboarting with third parties, banks can benefit from AI systems that leverage a broader ecosystem of services.
Begin using a different form of AI To prepare for the future of AI, one of the best things firms can do is to begin piloting AI in targeted, high-impact areas such as customer service or portfolio management.
PNC and Plaid have partnered to allow PNC customers to connect to and share their financial data with third party financial applications.
Plaid will help connect PNC customers to apps, while PNC’s API provider Akoya will ensure that PNC’s customer data is securely shared with third party apps powered by Plaid.
Today’s announcement comes five years after PNC blocked multiple data aggregators, including Plaid, claiming they circumvented PNC’s security protocol.
Getting a head start on Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, PNC Financial Services Group announced recently that it has partnered with financial data access company Plaid. The two have signed a data access agreement to enable PNC customers to connect and share their financial data with third party financial applications through Plaid.
PNC will also leverage its API service provider Akoya. Through this partnership, Plaid will help connect PNC customers to apps, while as the API provider, Akoya will ensure that PNC’s customer data is securely shared with third party apps powered by Plaid, without needing to share login credentials.
The collaboration among the three players will ultimately offer a better user experience. That’s because Plaid will help to increase security by eliminating screen scraping and other fraud-prone data collection techniques. The partnership will also allow consumers to access their financial data without having to share their credentials with the third parties themselves. Additionally, Plaid will offer the customer control of their own data, allowing them to determine which third party apps may have access to their data.
“Through this new partnership with Plaid, PNC customers will be able to achieve greater data security, privacy, and control while using the third-party financial apps and services they enjoy,” said PNC Executive Vice President, Digital and Payments Natalie Talpas. “PNC’s use of its Akoya-provided API allows for all data recipients, including Plaid, to get connected fast, while also enabling customers to reliably control what financial data they are permissioning without having to share their login credentials with third parties.”
This partnership is notable not just for PNC and its customers, but also for bank customers across the U.S. That’s because PNC’s partnership with Plaid indicates a positive change in attitude toward open banking in the U.S. In the past, PNC has notoriously held a stance against open banking. The bank not only prevented its customers from accessing Venmo in 2019, it also blocked multiple data aggregators, including Plaid, claiming they circumvented PNC’s security protocol.
With today’s partnership, however, the two now appear to be on good terms. “We are pleased to have reached a data access agreement with PNC that further supports their customers securely connecting to applications and services powered by Plaid,” said Plaid Head of Open Finance Partnerships Christy Sunquist. “Moving the industry away from credential-based access is a top priority for Plaid, and our alignment on key principles around security, access and control played a definitive role in establishing this partnership. We look forward to future collaboration for many years to come.”
