Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Advisor Software Launches Myers-Briggs-Like Investment Risk Assessment Tool

Advisor Software Launches Myers-Briggs-Like Investment Risk Assessment Tool
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Advisor Software

Wealth management technology company Advisor Software launched a behavioral finance profiling solution, Behavioral IQ. The new tool helps advisors uncover their clients’ behavioral characteristics that influence their risk and financial decision-making.

Dr. Andrew Rudd, Chairman and CEO of Advisor Software, described current risk assessment tools for wealth management as “broken,” pointing out that their “flawed results” may lead to “disastrous outcomes.” Rudd added, “Behavioral IQ’s measure of deep behavioral factors influencing risk and decision making enables financial advisors to truly understand clients’ personalities and risk tolerance to make smarter, more informed financial decisions.”

The Behavioral IQ assessment takes a Myers-Briggs approach to determine a client’s decision-making process and risk preference. The six modules of risk analysis assess financial decision-making preferences, risk tolerance, financial knowledge, comfort levels in gain and loss scenarios, confidence, and financial loss tolerance. Combined, they produce a multi-dimensional evaluation that offers advisors the information they need to make better-aligned investment selections for their clients.

Advisor Software was recently named to our list of Top Business-to-Business Wealth Players. The company showcased its Wealth Management apps for Salesforce Financial Services Cloud at FinovateSpring 2016. In 2015, Advisor Software presented the suite of more than 100 APIs that comprise its developer solution at FinDEVr. The company was founded in 1995.

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Summit Series: The 3 Pillars of Digital Banking

Summit Series: The 3 Pillars of Digital Banking
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2017, FinovateFall 2017 Summit Series

Our expanded FinovateFall conference is coming up on September 11 through 14, and we’re taking a look at each of the six summit discussions that will take place after the demos. Today, we’re examining Digital Banking and Payments.

Summit #1: Digital Banking & Payments

One of the major tracks of FinovateFall’s Summit discussions, Digital Banking and Payments, is such a huge concept that it’s important to focus on key elements. As a preview to the upcoming panel discourse on the topic, here are three pillars of digital banking that every FI must build around.

Customer experience

The clients of a bank define its success, so their happiness should be a priority. Crafting a digital banking strategy around a superior user experience is no longer optional, given increasingly viable product offerings from non-bank players such as PayPal. By offering a simple, clean user interface with intuitive navigation on web and mobile platforms, banks can be in a better position to compete. Leveraging features such as hamburger menus can hide seldom-used but necessary functions, while buttons keep frequently-used tasks accessible.

While there are plenty of wrong ways to build a user experience, there’s no single “right answer.” Fortunately, it is possible to guess, check, and re-work interfaces when and where necessary.

Security

With hacks in the news on almost a monthly basis, securing clients assets is no longer a simple regulatory checkbox. Unlike building a superior user experience, there is no room for error with security. What is similar, however, is that banks need to ensure that security doesn’t interfere with the customer experience.

One of the best tools to reduce friction while enhancing security is biometrics. Using fingerprint biometrics to secure a mobile app and voice biometrics to authenticate a customer’s call offers enough security for basic banking functions and won’t stymie the user experience the bank has worked so hard to create.

Payments

Becoming top-of-mind and top-of-wallet can boost a bank’s bottom line, but the increasing competition from non-bank players is making the race to the top more difficult. Fortunately, there are a variety of fintechs working in this space, and partnership opportunities abound.

Offering advanced card features such as remote card lock and unlock functionality, credit score reporting, and mobile push notifications for spending and balance alerts gives a bank leverage over competing payment methods. For P2P payments, check out the network from Zelle (formerly clearXchange). Created by Bank of America, Capital One, JP Morgan Chase, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo in 2011; multiple banks, credit unions, and community FI’s have joined, each adding to the number of users in the network.

The upcoming Digital Banking and Payments Summit at FinovateFall will span two days of discussions from industry thought leaders, top fintechs and banks. Be a part of these live panel discussions at FinovateFall; register before July 7 and save on your ticket. A few highlights include:

  • P2P Payments: Maturing Millennials and the Future of P2P Transfers
  • UX/UI Design: Empowering End Users with 21st Century Design
  • Biometrics & Authentication: Authentication, Biometrics and the State of Cybersecurity
  • Community banking: Bankruption: How Community Banking Survives Fintech
  • Impulse Savings: Leveraging Technology for “Set It and Forget It” Savings

This is the first of our six FinovateFall Summit series. Stay tuned later this week, when we’ll cover digital lending.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Actiance, Advisor Software, Arroweye Solutions, Bazaarvoice, Currency Cloud, Daon, EyeVerify, InComm, Lending Club, nCino

On Finovate.com

  • Daon Adds EyePrint ID to IdentityX Platform Courtesy of New Partnership with EyeVerify.
  • Advisor Software Launches Myers-Briggs-Like Investment Risk Assessment Tool.

Around the web

  • American Banker covers Lending Club’s first securitization
  • InComm honored with two Best in Category awards at the 2017 Pay Awards.
  • Bankless Times features Arroweye’s targeted marketing campaigns.
  • Actiance announces Compliance Integration for Cisco Spark.
  • Currencycloud and Hyundai Card partner to launch Korea’s first mobile remittance service provided by a credit company.
  • Bazaarvoice adds 170 new jobs.
  • nCino expands Credit Analysis Capabilities to Give Financial Institutions’ Underwriting a Boost.

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.

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Fintonic to Use $28 Million Round to Move Beyond Loans and Insurance

Fintonic to Use $28 Million Round to Move Beyond Loans and Insurance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Fintonic, Funding

Personal finance app Fintonic landed $28 million (€25 million) in Series B funding today. The venture round comes from ING Group, PSN, and others.

When combined with a Series A round the company received in 2012 and a round of an undisclosed amount in 2014, today’s funding brings the company’s total raised to $29.5 million. Fintonic will use the new cash to grow its presence in Spain and Latin America, as well as to further build out the product.

The company has 400,000 users and is available to users in Spain and Chile. The mobile app aims to offer users more visibility into their financial health. Fintonic leverages big data and uses its proprietary credit score (FinScore) and machine learning algorithms to match users with targeted loans and insurance products from more than 50 companies.

Fintonic CEO Sergio Chalbaud demos Fintonic’s alert system at FinovateSpring 2016

Founded in 2012, the Madrid-based company counts Ideon Financial Solutions, Inception Capital, Onza Capital, and Atresmedia as previous investors. At FinovateSpring 2016, the company debuted its alerts and inbox system to help users act in a timely manner on their financial needs and recommendations.

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Flywire Teams with PayPal for Cross-Border Payments Method

Flywire Teams with PayPal for Cross-Border Payments Method
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Flywire

It may be money that makes the world go ’round but that only works if money goes ’round the world. Cross-border payment and receivables solution, Flywire (formerly peerTransfer) is seeking to facilitate that movement. Now, the Boston, Massachusetts-based company announced it has teamed up with PayPal to offer clients a new avenue for sending and receiving international payments.

The PayPal payment method is available to Flywire clients in the European Union, the U.K., the U.S., and Canada. Flywire anticipates the new development will help clients “streamline the management and tracking of international receivables.” Ryan Frere, Vice President of Global Payments for Flywire, said the new payment option “furthers our objective of taking the friction out of international payments and making them every bit as familiar, easy and convenient as domestic payments.”

Flywire was founded in 2009 when it was originally known as peerTransfer. In 2015, the company added offices in Spain and expanded its focus beyond international student tuition payments to include cross-border payment offerings for heath care and businesses– a move the company announced in March of this year. Flywire presented its original tuition payment platform at FinovateSpring 2011. The company has raised a total of $43.2 million. Mike Massaro is CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Coinbase, Fintonic, Fiserv, Flywire, IdentityMind Global, iSignthis, Jumio, mBank, Meniga, PayPal, Tradeshift, Yoyo

On Finovate.com

  • Yoyo Wallet Raises $15 Million in Series B.
  • Flywire Teams with PayPal for Cross-Border Payments Method.
  • Fintonic to Use $28 Million Round to Move Beyond Loans and Insurance.

Around the web

  • IdentityMind Global to offer Confirm.io’s document authentication technology to its financial services customers.
  • transcosmos to integrate with Tradeshift Japan to help businesses digitalize their indirect operations and accelerate transactional speed
  • Coinbase is reimbursing losses caused by the Ethereum flash crash.
  • Backbase scores fintech deal in Norway with SSF Bank.
  • Fiserv partners with GoldBean to provide a digital adviser offering extra assistance.
  • Meniga & Islandsbanki partner to deploy new card-linked offer platform reaching more than 30% of households in Iceland.
  • Jumio partners with Monzo for strong identity verification.
  • mBank moves into fintech vendor space with new digital banking system.
  • JCB International partners with iSignthis to enable SEPA transactions.

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.

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Blockchain Lands $40 Million Series B

Blockchain Lands $40 Million Series B
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Blockchain, Funding

Web-based bitcoin wallet Blockchain seems to have benefitted from all of the bitcoin buzz in the past month. The Luxembourg-based company pulled in a Series B round of $40 million today, bringing its total raised to $70 million.

The funding, which the company describes as “rocket fuel” in its blog, comes from new investors Lakestar, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Nokota Management, and Digital Currency Group. Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mosaic Ventures, Prudence Holdings, Virgin, and Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Group) also participated.

Since it was founded in 2011, Blockchain has amassed millions of active users from across the globe, formed partnerships in 34 countries, and has built an API platform used by large fintech companies. The company anticipates the new funds will help it deliver its mission to “create an open, accessible, and fair financial future for billions across the globe, one piece of software at a time”

Blockchain presented at FinDEVr 2014, when the company was hosting 2 million wallets on its platform. Today, the company boasts 14 million wallets. Blockchain differentiates itself from competitor wallet Coinbase because, unlike Coinbase, it does not host cryptocurrency exchanges on its site. Instead, Blockchain has set up partnerships with exchanges so that it cannot see users’ transactions or balance amount.

Earlier this year, Blockchain partnered with Imperial College London to launch the Digital Asset Research Lab, an environment that supports research and activities related to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. Late last year, the company announced plans to add a buying option to its wallet.

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SumUp Goes Beyond mPOS with New Online Payments Suite

SumUp Goes Beyond mPOS with New Online Payments Suite
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: SumUp

Payments company SumUp is announcing new payment functionalities today. The U.K.-based company has extended its flagship mPOS service beyond payment cards and the point-of-sale (POS).

The new payment suite offers three new solutions:

  • The SMS feature enables merchants to accept payments made via SMS. The merchant enters the amount due in the SumUp app, which sends the customer an SMS text with a link to a basic online form to enter their payment credentials. There is no card reader required.
  • The Virtual Terminal enables ecommerce merchants to accept card-not-present transactions online.
  • The APIs and SDKs enable merchants to accept online payments via a SumUp integration in their ecommerce shop, and even leverage card-on-file information for recurring billing.

Marc-Alexander Christ, co-founder of SumUp, said that the new avenues open up market opportunities for merchants. “The ultimate challenge for businesses is to find a convenient solution for cross-channel payment acceptance. Traditional offerings focus either on online or offline payments – limited to one or few markets. Through our Omnichannel Payment Suite, we offer simple and secure access to all payment types under one roof,” Christ said.

SumUp works in 16 markets, including in Brazil, the U.S., and all of Europe. Earlier this month, the company appointed Ryan O’Connor as U.S. Managing Director. Last fall, the company launched its Air Register, an all-in-one payment terminal configuration that accepts chip & PIN, magstripe, and contactless payments, and comes with a thermal receipt printer. SumUp demonstrated its mPOS system at FinovateEurope 2013 in London.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Feedzai, iSignthis, Ixaris, modoPAYMENTS, SumUp

On Finovate.com

  • SumUp Goes Beyond mPOS with New Online Payments Suite.
  • Hot Takes! Fierce Debate! Finovate Presents the Battle of the Fintech Analysts.

Around the web

  • Ixaris appoints WorldPay co-founder and former Skrill/Paysafe Group CEO David Sear as Chairman
  • Leumi Card to use Feedzai’s Artificial Intelligence platform to fight fraud.
  • PYMNTS takes a look at Modo’s COIN technology.
  • iSignthis deploys its Payidentity service to Borgun.

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.

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PayPal’s Venmo Goes Head-to-Head with Zelle, Square Cash, and… Amazon

PayPal’s Venmo Goes Head-to-Head with Zelle, Square Cash, and… Amazon
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: MasterCard, PayPal, VISA

PayPal EVP and COO Bill Ready recently reminisced how, in 1998, the company launched its first product, one that allowed users to beam money from one Palm Pilot to another. While the hardware has changed, the “beaming money” idea remains the same. In this race to real-time payments, the San Jose-based company announced this week that it has leveraged the partnerships it formed last year with Visa and Mastercard to offer users faster payments.

The new service will allow PayPal and Venmo users to send funds in minutes instead of the two-to-three day timeframe that is typical with most ACH transfers. Expediting funds will come at a cost, however. Users can expect to pay $0.25 per transaction if they want to send funds in real-time (or up to 30 minutes in some cases). The functionality is already available for select PayPal users and will be available for all U.S. PayPal users with eligible Visa and Mastercard debit cards “over the coming weeks and months” and available to Venmo users later this summer.

Zelle

When compared to Zelle, which runs on its former namesake, the clearXchange network, PayPal’s instant payment option is certainly more expensive than Zelle’s free option. PayPal’s advantage over Zelle is that it offers a standalone mobile and web app, while Zelle– as a bank-owned payments app– is more confined. While there are rumors Zelle plans to launch a standalone app, for now it must be hosted within a bank’s website or mobile app. It is worth noting, however, that PayPal’s model isn’t the same as Zelle’s, which is strictly a payment rails network among a group of banks.

Square Cash

Because of this, it is more fitting to compare PayPal’s offering to Square cash, which offers P2P money transfers and holds a user’s balance until they “cash out” or transfer it back into their checking account. Square also offers an instant money transfer feature, for which it charges a one percent fee.

Amazon

It is also worth watching Amazon in this space. The online retail giant made a move earlier this month to encourage its Prime members to hold a balance in their prepaid Amazon account by offering 2 percent cash back on purchases using their Amazon account balance. Similar to PayPal and Square Cash, Amazon does not pay interest on users’ balances, and thus stands to profit from the cash (which, by the way, cannot be transferred back to a user’s account– it must be used on an Amazon purchase). Of course, Amazon’s balance option is just a glorified gift card (for now). However, if enough users are compelled by the 2% cash back offer, we can expect to see the online retailer debut more banking features, stepping on banks’ toes and into territory PayPal has held for almost 20 years.

PayPal’s Braintree recently presented at FinDEVr New York 2016. The company also showcased its Instant Account Creation feature at FinovateFall 2012. Mastercard and Visa both presented at the first FinDEVr, held in San Francisco in 2014, where Mastercard showed off its Developer Zone and Visa demonstrated its API-less web integration and SDK web integration.

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FinovateFall Doubles Down with New Four-Day Format

FinovateFall Doubles Down with New Four-Day Format
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2017

For the past 10 years, Finovate has showcased demo-only content over the course of two days in a single-track session for the entire audience. At FinovateFall later this year, that’s all about to change.

FinovateFall: Double Down

We’ve doubled the conference to four days of content– the first two days – September 11 and 12 – will be Finovate’s signature demo-only format, while the remainder of the show – September 13 and 14 – will feature discussions about the technology demoed on stage, as well as host keynotes from high-profile industry representatives, analyst battle sessions, summit panels, and discussions covering a range of relevant fintech issues.

Taking a look at what’s new

Over the course of the next few months, we’ll take a closer look at the new elements of FinovateFall. The blog will get up close and personal with panelists, preview current events in each of the six summit topics, announce keynote speakers, and of course, give a sneak peek of what the demoing companies will unveil on stage in Finovate’s signature demo format on days one and two.

But wait, there’s more! We’ve redesigned the event web page to offer a critical look at the agenda well before the show debuts on September 11 through 14. The best part is, you can save $400 on your ticket if you book it by the July 7.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FICO, Fiserv, FutureVault, PayNearMe, Revolut, Ripple

On Finovate.com

  • FutureVault Partners with BlueRock Wealth Management.

Around the web

  • Fiserv to enhance digital banking strategy for Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union.
  • American Banker profiles Ripple’s strategy to partner with– and compete with — banks.
  • U.S. News profiles PayNearMe as a tool to help consumers shop online without a credit card
  • Revolut launches business accounts in U.K. and Europe to complete with Transferwise
  • FICO launches new fraud solution to identify the source of compromised cards faster

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.

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