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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
TemenosSigns Core Banking Deal with Maltese Challenger Laskaris Finance.
HiddenLevers Now Has $500 Billion in Assets on its Platform.
Upgrade PackOpens Singapore Office, Appoints New COO.
Around the web
CredoLabpartners with TransUnion’s iovation to fight credit fraud.
CUneXus adds Delta Community Credit Union to list of clients for its 1-click digital lending platform.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Malta’s newest challenger bank Laskaris Finance, which aims to serve high-net-worth individuals and corporate clients, has chosen Temenos to be its cloud core banking provider, reports Ruby Hinchliffe of Fintech Futures, Finovate’s sister publication.
Laskaris is currently applying for a banking license from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and the European Central Bank (ECB), which will allow it to work as a credit institution in and from Malta.
Temenos says its T24 Transact core cloud product will enable the Maltese challenger to launch in the “shortest” time frames, keep to regulatory standards, and screen transactions to tackle financial crime with Temenos’ Financial Crime Mitigation (FCM).
“Laskaris accepts the responsibility of challenging the status quo in banking – naturally within the parameters set by the local and EU regulators – simply because clients deserve to be provided with a superior array of banking services,” said Laskaris founder and CEO Roderick Psaila.
The neobank wants to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for high-earning individuals and corporate businesses by fusing personal and commercial banking needs together.
Malta, despite being just over 78,000 acres, was ranked in the top 20 financial service jurisdictions by the World Economic Forum’s 2017 to 2018 Global Competitiveness report.
Temenos’ Europe MD Steen Jensen said he’s “excited to see the growing list of challenger banks in Europe.” Laskaris is the tenth client for Temenos in Malta, with other customers including e-commerce payments solution Truevo and smart acquiring solution Credorax. Jensen called this “a testimony to our local expertise and growing footprint on the island.”
Founded in 1993, Temenos debuted its Connect Mobile Banking application at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. With 3,000+ bank clients in 150 countries, Temenos reaches more than 500 million end customers. In August, Temenos acquiredKony for $559 million. The company has a market capitalization of $11.8 billion.
Enterprise blockchain solution company Rippleteamed up with Finastra this week. The two are collaborating to enable Finastra clients to transact with RippleNet partners and make international money transfers.
RippleNet is Ripple’s global payment network that works across 40+ currencies and consists of more than 200 financial institutions. Because RippleNet leverages the blockchain, users are able to track funds, delivery time, and status.
“This partnership will enable Ripple to expand the reach and solutions for our partners, and the footprint of RippleNet while allowing customers to transact directly with each other,” said Marcus Treacher, SVP of Customer Success at Ripple.
Riteesh Singh, Senior Vice President, FMS, Finastra said that the partnership will prove “particularly beneficial” to Finastra’s clients that rely on correspondent banks. That’s because, since RippleNet runs completely on the blockchain, transaction fees are lower than the industry average.
Ripple has offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, and, as of July, Brazil. At FinovateSpring 2013, company co-founder Chris Larsen debuted Ripple (originally known as OpenCoin). Ripple started this year by surpassing 200 customers and, in June, the company formed a strategic partnership with MoneyGram.
Finastra formed in 2017 from the combination of Misys and D+H after Vista Equity Partners acquired Misys in 2012 and bought D+H in 2017. Misys demonstrated its FusionFabric.cloud technology at FinovateEurope 2017.
Conversational AI technology company Finn.AI is helping banks deepen their connection to consumers. The new capability comes thanks to a partnership with Coconut Software, a digital scheduling solutions provider.
Finn.AI has integrated Coconut Software’s API into its own technology to allow users, through a natural chat conversation, to schedule a meeting with a live bank representative.
The partnership seems like an obvious fit to help banks communicate with a range of customers who have different comfort levels on digital channels. By adding the ability to schedule an in-person conversation, banks seamlessly communicate with customers and potential customers across channels, allowing them to switch between digital and in-person communication, depending on their channel preference.
“A fall off point for banks–that do not have a fully digital journey–is getting the consumer to interact with a banker, either in person or on the phone, after they have demonstrated an interest in a product online,” said Jake Tyler, Finn AI CEO. “By integrating with Coconut Software, we’re bridging that gap and making it easier for banks to interact with and convert online prospects.”
The combination of high tech and high touch is something we’ve seen a lot of in fintech, specifically in the wealth management space where consumers crave a high tech investment interface, but many still prefer to have a human to fall back on. In the chatbot arena, we’ve seen the insertion of the human touch in different ways. For example, some chatbots offer an option to view a phone number to call a customer service department. Other bots automatically change the conversation from bot to human, depending on the level of technicality. Finn.AI’s chatbot technology not only has this capability, but also leverages machine learning to learn from the human interactions.
Finn.AI has demoed twice at Finovate, taking home Best of Show honors both times. At its most recent appearance, FinovateFall 2017, Tyler demoed the company’s virtual banking assistant in Facebook Messenger and Google Assistant. Among Finn.AI’s recent partnerships are MX, TymeBank, and Auth0. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Maybe you missed your chance to attend FinovateFall earlier this month. Or maybe you want to watch your favorite demos over again. Either way, today’s your day. We’ve just released all of the videos from the 75 companies that demoed their fintech on stage.
All of the 7-minute demos are available to stream and download for free at Finovate.com. And if you don’t know where to begin, we’ll get you started with the nine demos that won Best of Show at the event.
I had a laugh this morning when I scanned my banking transactions and saw a credit of $0.01. The transaction description read Interest Paid. This is common, of course, as average savings account APY totals just 0.09%.
As fintechs seek to gain consumers’ trust, attention, and their deposits, some have launched high interest earning accounts to lure them in. Plenty of banks already offer such accounts, and now fintechs have decided its time to follow suit. Here’s a run-down of the players in the game thus far:
The fine print: MaxMyInterest was one of the first fintechs to start playing the high interest savings game, and built its entire business model around the concept. Membership for either savings, checking or both costs 8 basis points per year. Accountholders with balances over $10,000 will be reimbursed for up to $200 per year by Max’s banking partner, Radius Bank. Outside of the membership fee there are no fees and no minimum balance requirements.
The fine print: After the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark rate twice WealthFront dropped the APY to 2.32% and then again to 2.07%. The account minimum is $1 and Wealthfront does not charge monthly fees.
The fine print: Accounts with balances up to $3,000 earn 4% APY, accounts with balances over that threshold earn 1% APY. There are no fees or minimum balance requirements but account holders must deposit at least $200 per month into the account to earn 4% APY.
The fine print: When Betterment launched the account in July, it advertised that users could earn up to 2.69% APY until the end of this year, after which will drop to 2.43%. The company also noted that the interest is subject to change, which it did– two week after launch. The company dropped its APY to 1.79% in response to the Federal Reserve dropping the benchmark rate. Users who sign up for the company’s debit card can earn 2.04%. The account has a minimum balance of $10 and does not charge monthly fees.
The fine print: Interest, which is paid on a maximum of $10,000, is held in a separate account that the consumer is unable to access until the account anniversary. The high yield savings accounts must be opened in tandem with Green Dot’s Unlimited Cash Back account, which pays customers a 3% cash-back bonus on all online and in-app purchases. The account charges a $7.95 monthly fee if consumer’s purchases (excluding mobile bill payments, ATM withdrawals, and ACH transactions) are less than $1,000.
The fine print: Coinbase’s offering is set up as a rewards structure, not as an interest earning account. U.S.-based Coinbase customers earn a 1.25% APY reward on the amount of USD Coin (USDC) they hold in Coinbase. The reward is paid out in USDC, not U.S. currency. The offer is not available to accountholders in New York.
The fine print: The percentage is paid as a part of Robinhood’s Cash Management offering, a program that moves users’ uninvested cash to partner banks.
Credit KarmaUnveils New High Yield Savings Accounts
Finovate Global: PayPal Goes to China; Dubai Named Top Ten Global Financial Center
Around the web
Tradeshift to implement QEDIT’s privacy solution to preserve the full privacy of transactions.
Pendo Systemsannounces a new strategic partnership with Market Alpha Advisors.
Meniga to collaborate with Nordic Innovation House in Singapore.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
After sealing a transaction which gives it a 70% stake in China-based GoPay, PayPal has taken on a new role in the global payments services scene.
That’s because PayPal not only has controlling interest in GoPay but is also now licensed to offer online payment services in China, making it the first foreign company to be granted such license.
“We are honored to become the first foreign payment platform to be licensed to provide online payment services in China,” said PayPal CEO Dan Schulman. “We look forward to partnering with China’s financial institutions and technology platforms, providing a more comprehensive set of payment solutions to businesses and consumers, both in China and globally.”
The China opportunity represents major growth potential for PayPal. That’s because online payments in China are undergoing a growth spurt of their own. Between 2013 and 2018, online payment transactions in China doubled, topping out at $200 trillion.
The move gives PayPal an advantage over U.S. competitors, which have become not only more prolific but also more competitive since PayPal set up shop in 1998. However, the new territory also pits PayPal against some major new competitors. China-based competitors, Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay, make up 90% of the region’s mobile payment market.
Financial terms of the deal, which marks PayPal’s 19th acquisition, were not disclosed.
PayPal showcased its Instant Account Creation feature at FinovateFall 2012. The company has a market capitalization of $118 billion.
We highlighted an overview of current stats and trends in the Asian fintech scene in a blog post yesterday. The best way to learn more about fintech in Asia is to attend FinovateAsia, taking place in Singapore October 14 through 15.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Cloud banking innovator nCinogarnered its largest funding round to date, bringing in $80 million. The round was led by a group of investors advised by T. Rowe Price, with participation from existing investor Salesforce Ventures.
Today’s round elevates nCino’s total funding to over $213 million. The company will use the new investment to boost research and development efforts for the nCino Bank Operating System, expand globally, hire new talent, and develop the skills of its 750 person-strong workforce.
“Since day one, our vision has been to be the worldwide leader in cloud banking,” said Pierre Naudé, CEO of nCino. “We believe that a strong partner ecosystem is critical to maintaining a customer-centric approach in everything we do. This strategic fundraise aligns with that vision and mission by leveraging the investment approaches of two industry leaders to help us further scale our business and Bank Operating System to continue enabling financial institutions to provide the kind of personalized, streamlined and fast experiences that customers have come to expect in the digital era.”
nCino demoed its Bank Operating System at FinovateEurope 2017. The SaaS solution is built on the Salesforce platform and aims to create efficiencies for financial services companies in delivering personalized onboarding, loan origination, and deposit account opening experiences.
Recently, nCino has partnered with Santander UK, teamed up with Mambu to create a banking solution for B-North, and acquired analytics firm Visible Equity.
With offices in London, Sydney, Toronto, Salt Lake City, and Wilmington, North Carolia, nCino serves a growing list of 1,100 financial services clients ranging in size from $30 million to $2 trillion.
Digital banking technology provider Efigence is deepening ties with Poland’s Alior Bank through a partnership with Alior Kantor, the bank’s online banking currency exchange brokerage.
Alior Kantor has deployed Efigence’s EFI4, a digital banking platform that combines off-the-shelf technology with a customized user experience for each client. The new user interface was recently introduced in Alior Kantor’s Polish and Romanian markets.
With the new launch, Efigence’s EFI4 fuels a new version of Alior Kantor that helps improve customer interaction with the bank and generate revenue by way of customer acquisition, up-selling, and maintenance. The new platform aims to offer a seamless user experience starting from onboarding, which takes less than five minutes. Accounts come with a multi-currency card with competitive exchange rates, account-to-account and peer-to-peer money transfer capability, weekend currency exchange, and more.
“We are more than happy that this product was implemented in two independent markets – Poland and Romania. It’s undoubtedly the right choice for modern and digital-based financial companies like Alior Bank,” said Marek Lesiak, Efigence President and CTO. “Thanks to this powerful digital banking platform the currency exchange has never been so smooth and easy. Moreover Alior Kantor, based on EFI4, is fully compliant with PSD2 and offers facilities for third party providers.”
Today’s news comes two years after Efigence began working with Alior Bank in the Romanian market and more than a decade after Efigence first began working with Alior. The digital banking technology provider’s other clients include Idea Bank, mBank, Nordea, Kontomierz, and Emirates NBD.
Efigence, which most recently demoed at FinovateEurope 2018, took home Best of Show honors for its demo with mBank in 2013. Efigence was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Poland.
