Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Finovate Debuts: Moonraft Innovation Labs

Finovate Debuts: Moonraft Innovation Labs
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Debuts, Moonraft Innovation Labs

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Not a stranger to banks’ needs, Moonraft Innovation Labs spent six years in partnership with financial institutions across the globe to help them deliver an enhanced customer experience. During this time the company realized how banks struggle to keep up with the pace of customer expectations in innovation.

To begin his demo at FinovateFall 2016 in New York, Aveejeet Palit, Chief Strategy Officer explained that when banks launch a new innovation, it is often “dead on arrival” because customer expectations have already evolved. The result, Palit explains, is that the bank is always trying to catch up, needing to continually invest in the long design and development cycle.

This discovery led to the launch of Catamera, a platform that aims to help banks speed their pace of innovation to keep up with ever-evolving customer expectations. Palit described Catamera as, “a library of web components which can help you quickly put together an experience you would like… and also help you innovate and evolve at the pace your customers want.” Catamera makes it easy for banks to design and create a user experience with drag-and-drop features. Furthermore, it requires no special IT skills. The widgets library offers pre-built tools, such as PFM and a retirement planner, that connect to the banks’ back end APIs.

29615982962_243a5fdfba_kAveejeet Palit (Chief Strategy Officer) and Sreekumar Paramu (CEO & Co-Founder, Americas) demo Moonraft Innovation Labs’ Catamera at FinovateFall 2016

screen-shot-2017-01-09-at-10-46-16-amAfter the conference we caught up with Sreekumar Paramu (who goes by Sree), the company’s CEO & co-founder, Americas to discuss Catamera in more detail.

Finovate: What problem does Moonraft Innovation Labs solve?

Sree: Banks across the globe are struggling to keep pace with the speed of evolution of customer demands. Long design and development cycles mean that by the time banks are ready with a particular offering, the customer has moved on to something else. Catamera aims to address this problem by enabling banks to create amazing user experiences in a very short time, by leveraging our well designed, integration ready web components

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?

Sree: Our primary customers are small to mid sized banks & credit unions who cannot afford long design and development cycles, yet need to deliver great digital experiences to their customers. However all banks irrespective of big or small would benefit from the use of Catamera

Finovate: How does Moonraft Innovation Labs solve the problem better?

Sree: Most experience platforms are tightly coupled to heavy technology systems that increase the complexity of dealing with it. Catamera is completely decoupled from the bank’s backend technology systems, thereby drastically enhancing the speed of launch and delivery. On top of that, our comprehensive web component library and easy to use builder platform makes designing experiences very simple and intuitive.

Finovate: What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Sree: As an organization, Moonraft Innovation Labs has worked with more than 20 large banks globally in designing their digital banking experiences. This vast experience has exposed us to the challenges faced by banks as mentioned earlier. Our product Catamera has been born out of the insights from all these challenges in working with global banks. Also the current trend of moving towards API/Micro-service driven solutions, will make Catamera a very useful tool for innovation, for the entire banking sector.

Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from Moonraft Innovation Labs that we can look forward to over the next few months?

Sree: We are in the final stages of partnership with leading core banking, e-banking technology providers to partner and go to market. We are also in advanced stages of talks with multiple credit unions and small banks in the US for live deployments of the product.

Finovate: Where do you see Moonraft Innovation Labs a year or two from now?

Sree: We see Catamera leading the way for customer experience innovations for banks all over the world. Key trends that are supporting us are the API/Micro-services movement, and the urge for banks to decouple experience innovation from their core systems. In the process, we are confident of owning a significant market share, especially in the small banks and credit unions.

Aveejeet Palit (Chief Strategy Officer) and Sreekumar Paramu (CEO & Co-Founder, Americas) demo Moonraft Innovation Labs’ Catamera at FinovateFall 2016

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: App Annie, BlueVine, Comarch, CrowdProcess, Efigence, Experian, FIS, Gusto, Insuritas, Moneyhub, Moonraft Innovation Labs, PayPal, Token, TransferTo

On Finovate.com

  • Finovate Debuts: Moonraft Innovation Labs

Around the web

  • Huron Community Bank of Michigan to leverage Insuritas to launch insurance agency.
  • Experian partners with reporting and analytics platform dv01 to enable dv01 clients to access to richer borrower credit attributes.
  • FIS teams with Verifone to enable consumers to pay at the point of sale using loyalty points linked to a credit or debit card.
  • Business Insider names Gusto, App Annie, and BlueVine as 3 startups to bet your career on in 2017.
  • Token announces strategic partnership with VirtusaPolaris.
  • TransferTo to provide bridge linking between EcoCash and Mama Money mobile money services.

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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A Fintech Filter for Artificial Intelligence in 2017

A Fintech Filter for Artificial Intelligence in 2017
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AI, Aire, Feedzai, Finn.ai, ForwardLane, Kensho, Narrative Science, SBDA Group

In what The New York Times is calling The Great AI Awakening and Forbes has dubbed The Year of AI, 2017 is shaping up to be obsessively focused on artificial intelligence, a field that has been around for awhile (remember playing checkers against a computer?) but has finally matured to the point of usefulness.

Because the technology has finally reached its tipping point, AI, and its close relative machine learning, have taken a variety of industries by storm, bringing self-driving Ubers to the streets of San Francisco (and then carting them away); robotic vacuum cleaners to dirty household floors; and natural language processing to chat bots and IVR communications. With AI already embedded into these industries, it’s easy to find examples of how the technology is shaping fintech.

Below are eight areas of fintech into which AI has made inroads. Each area is ranked and rated (out of 5 stars) based on how it is currently influenced by AI and based on AI’s potential to add value.

Robo advisory

  • Fintech example: Robo advisors are built on AI technology, which is used to augment portfolio management and rebalancing decisions typically made by a (sometimes biased) human. To see tens of dozens of these examples, check out our post on B2C wealth tech.
  • Current AI application: 4 stars
  • Potential AI application: 5 stars

AI is already a standard tool in robo advisory. Because the very nature of robo advisors is to replace humans, the potential application of AI in this space is huge, especially when enhanced with machine learning and held accountable using blockchain.

Advisory tools

  • Fintech example: Similar to B2C robo advisory platforms that leverage AI to automatically manage and rebalance users’ portfolios, advisors can automate their clients’ portfolios to minimize human error while still offering a personal touch. Kensho (FEU14) introduced Warren to helps advisors perform quantitative analyses on market data. ForwardLane (FS16) uses AI powered by IBM Watson to offer financial advisors access to quantitative modeling and highly personalized investment advice generally only available to ultra high net worth individuals.
  • Current AI application: 4 stars
  • Potential AI application: 5 stars

Just as AI is already standard in direct-to-consumer robo advisory, so is it with advisory tools, since many were built on the premise of AI.

Fraud detection

  • Fintech example: Multiple card issuers use AI to detect unusual spending activity. Feedzai (FEU14) uses AI combined with machine learning to analyze sets of big data created during a user’s online sessions to mitigate fraud associated with online account opening, payments, and ecommerce.
  • Current AI application: 4 stars
  • Potential AI application: 5 stars

AI is already heavily leveraged for use in fraud detection. Combining it with the blockchain, which can provide an un-editable ledger of events, paired with AI’s ability to analyze large data sets in real time makes it even more powerful.

Underwriting

  • Fintech example: AI can help underwriters create a uniform metric that accurately identifies risk across borrowers. Aire.io (FEU15) leverages the power of AI to create and assign credit scores to thin credit file individuals.
  • Current AI application: 4 stars
  • Potential AI application: 5 stars

The lending industry has already transformed its underwriting practices from relying on large databases to now using AI to analyze large amounts of scattered, unstructured data. Because AI can analyze these data sets in real time, there’s great potential for both borrowers and lenders to benefit.

Regulatory compliance

  • Fintech example: Banks can use AI to quickly scan legal and regulatory text for compliance issues, and do so at scale. IpSoft’s Amelia is a customer service bot that helps banks maintain compliance in conversations with customers.
  • Current AI application: 3
  • Potential AI application: 5

Relying on AI to scan for compliance issues instead of a team of employees helps avoid human error and allows financial institutions to quickly analyze multiple documents and practices. Because it removes human biases and error, AI has great potential in regulatory compliance.

Marketing

  • Fintech example: Marketers can better up-sell or cross-sell banking and finance products by using AI to identify and anticipate client needs. SBDA Group (FEU 16) helps banks leverage their data using algorithms and machine learning to create targeted marketing campaigns for individual customers.
  • Current AI application: 3 stars
  • Potential AI application: 4 stars

Fintech companies have been using AI to draw conclusions from bank data for a few years now, but marketing is an area in which human input still adds a lot of value.

Customer service

  • Fintech example: Firms can leverage AI to identify which clients are at most risk of leaving a bank or advisor. FinovateAsia 2016 Best of Show-winner, Finn.ai (FA16), offers a white-labeled chat bot that integrates into existing messaging platforms such as Line, Facebook Messenger, Alexa, and even the bank’s web chat interface.
  • Current AI application: 2 stars
  • Potential AI application: 5 stars

Banks have been hesitant to adopt chat bots and other AI-based customer service products because the technologies are not quite smart enough. Finn.ai overcomes this challenge by offering a Talk to a Human button at the bottom of the chat interface. This technique, combined with the implementation of machine learning and advanced natural language recognition, makes this space prime for growth in 2017.

Reporting tools

  • Fintech example: Advancements in natural language, along with AI’s ability to analyze large data sets, have made it possible for banks to rely on software to automatically create and distribute reports. Narrative Science (FF13), for example, automates the creation of anti-money laundering reports and allows the bank to adjust for the tone of the writing.
  • Current AI application: 2
  • Potential AI application: 4

We’ve seen AI used to generate reports, both in written and video form, in the wealth management and compliance sectors. However, there is still room for natural language reporting to extend to other forms (such as inside of a chat interface) as well as to other sectors of fintech.

In addition to these eight areas of fintech, there is a miscellaneous category that comprises technology such as ColletAI, which automates debt collection. Check out CollectAI, Comarch, and MoneyHub, along with other AI-based fintech at FinovateEurope next month.

While AI is widespread in many areas of fintech, it is still far from others, such as tax and estate planning, which require complex inputs and decision making. However, bolstering AI in these difficult areas using machine learning, the blockchain, and human intervention offers some potential for growth in 2017.

Since AI is pervasive throughout many sectors of fintech, it may not be too early for your company to begin searching for a Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer.

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FinDEVr APIntelligence

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, AutoGravity, Bluefin Payment Systems, FinDEVr APIntelligence, Hyperwallet, Mitek, PwC, Temenos, Xignite

FDNY17_EventLogo_v1(wdate)FinDEVr Silicon Valley was a success! Tickets for upcoming FinDEVr London and FinDEVr New York are at their lowest prices now. Register today for London or New York to save your spot!

On FinDEVr.com

  • Calling All Development Teams – Last Chance to Speak at FinDEVr NY.

The latest from FinDEVr Silicon Valley presenters

  • Finovate Debuts: AutoGravity Unveils the Future of Auto Financing.
  • Hyperwallet announces new office in London.
  • PwC and Supply Chain Finance Community launch SCF Barometer to better understand the development of supply chain finance industries.

Alumni updates

  • Bluefin Payment Systems wins patents for a pair of decryption-as-a-service technology.
  • Finance Disrupted interviews Xignite CEO and founder, Stephane Dubois.
  • Pakistan’s Samba Bank to deploy new core banking technology from Temenos.
  • ACI Worldwide to provide fraud protection for Kuwait’s Shared Electronic Banking Services Company (KNET).
  • Mitek partners with the American Cancer Society, supporting mobile fundraising with its mobile deposit and MiSnap technology.

Stay current on daily news from the fintech developer community! Follow FinDEVr on Twitter.

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: HotDocs

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: HotDocs
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek, HotDocs

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FE2017-V2-wdateA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

HotDocs allows you to produce business-critical documents in a fraction of the time, at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods – reducing risk, aiding compliance, and creating efficiency.

Features

  • Reduce risk from human error
  • Aid compliance with internal governance or external regulation
  • Create operational efficiencies through saving time and money

Why it’s great
HotDocs document assembly technology can save many thousands of hours in document production time and can be easily integrated with other LOB systems to eliminate duplicate data entry and negate risk.

Presenters

Graham Penman, Head of Global Services
Penman heads up HotDocs Global Services and has helped some of the world’s largest organisations implement highly integrated document automation solutions, from concept to completion.
LinkedIn

Nigel Richards, Senior Product Manager
Richards has worked in the document automation field for almost 20 years and has architected HotDocs solutions for global banks, international law firms and enterprises of all sizes.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bill.com, CardLinX, Dyme, Finn.ai, Gusto, HotDocs, Icon Solutions, Juvo, LendingRobot, nCino, Personetics, Ripple, Trustly

On Finovate.com

  • Finovate Debuts: Juvo’s Identity Scoring Builds Credit for the Underserved.

Around the web

  • Techfoliance features Dyme, Personetics, and Finn.ai.
  • Cryptocoins news examines LendingRobot’s new automated hedge fund.
  • The CardLinx Association unveils Microsoft-developed, open source, card-linking software available to public.
  • Capital One forges strategic partnership with Bill.com and Gusto to develop financial management tools for SMEs.

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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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Trustly

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Trustly
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek, Trustly

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FE2017-V2-wdateA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Trustly makes paying directly from your online bank account fast, simple, and secure. Trustly’s newest product, Direct Debit, solves credit card woes for recurring payments.

Why it’s great
Credit cards expire, get lost, or get stolen–your bank account doesn’t! Trustly Direct Debit is a new solution for reducing churn related to recurring payments.

Presenters

Märta Viberg, Head of Product and Consumer Risk
As head of product and consumer risk at Trustly, Viberg leads the development of new products and prioritizes new features. Prior to Trustly, she worked in risk at Klarna.
LinkedIn

Josef Darmark, Chief Product Officer
As chief product officer, Josef leads the development of Trustly’s bank payment services. Prior to Trustly, he worked at Betsson, Betsafe and H&M.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: nCino

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: nCino
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek, nCino

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FE2017-V2-wdateA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

nCino is the worldwide leader in cloud banking. With its Bank Operating System, nCino is revolutionizing the way financial institutions operate.

Features

  • Increases the speed and quality of loan decisions and closings
  • Creates transparency in communication and reporting
  • Provides a 360-degree view of the customer relationship

Why it’s great
With more than 130 financial institution customers in multiple countries, nCino is transforming the financial services industry through innovation, reputation, and speed.

Presentersscreen-shot-2017-01-10-at-10-43-02-am

Jonathan Rowe, Ph.D., Chief Marketing Officer
Rowe oversees nCino’s research, marketing, recruiting, and business development activities, and has helped establish the company’s brand as the worldwide leader in cloud banking.
LinkedInscreen-shot-2017-01-10-at-10-43-16-am

Trisha Price, EVP Product Development and Engineering
Price has more than 15 years of financial services and technology experience, and leads the team responsible for designing and developing the nCino Bank Operating System.
LinkedIn

screen-shot-2017-01-10-at-10-43-30-amNathan Snell, Co-founder and SVP Product Development
Prior to co-founding nCino, Nathan was a system architect at a top U.S. small business lender and a technology advisor to The New York Times.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Icon Solutions

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Icon Solutions
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2017, FinovateEurope 2017 Sneak Peek, Icon Solutions

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FE2017-V2-wdateA look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Icon Solutions’ Instant Payments Framework (IPF) is an agile yet robust software product that expedites financial institutions’ transition towards instant payments.

Features

  • Streamline system set-up, eliminating bespoke development whilst enabling one-click testing
  • Pre-built components can be easily extended and customised
  • Reduced TCO with open source software stack

Why it’s great
IPF improves flexibility, accelerates time-to-market, and reduces cost, giving financial institutions who use it an unfair advantage in the transition to instant payments.

Presenterscreen-shot-2017-01-10-at-11-10-18-am

Tom Hay, Head of Payments
Hay is an IT architect specialising in large scale, real time payment systems. He has deep experience with financial institutions moving to next generation payment systems.
LinkedIn

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Finovate Debuts: Juvo’s Identity Scoring Builds Credit for the Underserved

Finovate Debuts: Juvo’s Identity Scoring Builds Credit for the Underserved
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Debuts, Juvo

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4_juvoshop_homeThe name Juvo is Latin for help, aid, or delight. San Francisco’s Juvo lives up to that name by empowering consumers with a single identity with which to access financial services across the globe—a slick trick in relationship building that endears mobile operators to their clients as well.

In his demo at FinovateFall 2016, Juvo CEO and founder Steve Polsky explained the problem Juvo seeks to solve, saying, “Between 500 million and three quarters of a billion people around the globe have a phone, but not enough balance to even use it… the majority of them are unbanked or underbanked, they live in cash-based economies, they have no way to establish a financial identity, and no way to participate in the basic financial services that we all take for granted.”

Juvo’s real-time Identity Scoring technology chips away at this problem by combining data science with gamification to match mobile users with their identity. By extending microloans to users, Juvo incentivizes financially underserved consumers to build credit and access financial services. The company’s Identity Stack offers mobile network operators an API to derive customer analytics and insights to encourage customer engagement.

Company facts

  • $14 million in Series A funding
  • Active in 4 continents and 23 countries
  • Reaches 350+ million mobile users
  • Conducting 100 million purchase transactions per year
29175216083_3ccda4d692_kFrom left: Steve Polsky, CEO, founder, and Jason Robinson, VP product, demo at FinovateFall 2016

screen-shot-2016-12-20-at-2-19-37-pmWe interviewed Steve Polsky, CEO and founder of Juvo, to get more information about the company and its plans for the future.

Finovate: What problem does Juvo solve?

Steve Polsky: Juvo was founded with an overarching vision: to establish financial identities for the billions of people worldwide who are creditworthy, yet financially excluded. In partnership with mobile network operators, Juvo’s proprietary Identity Scoring technology uses data science, sophisticated credit algorithms, machine learning and game mechanics to create an identity-based relationship with anonymous prepaid users, opening up access to otherwise unattainable mobile financial services.

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?

Polsky: Juvo works with large mobile network operators around the world—such as Millicom; and Cable & Wireless Communications Limited—and we partner with financial service providers. We are currently in 10% of countries around the world, active in 23 markets on four continents, and have a reach of more than 100 million users.

1_juvolend_homeJuvo’s gamified balance screen

Finovate: How does Juvo solve the problem better?

Polsky: Juvo merges financial identity, credit scoring and mobile financial services in a single platform—the Juvo Identity Stack—to create an entirely new category: Mobile Financial Intelligence. Other companies may offer elements of what Juvo does, but none are proven to help mobile operators meet challenging KPIs around engagement, churn, ARPU and boosting financial inclusion.

For global carriers the benefits are immediate: more personalized, engaged relationships with customers; easier and more cost-efficient scalability as carriers undergo digital transformation; and immediate ROI—on average, a 10% to 15% increase in ARPU and as much as 50% reduction in churn. For financial service companies, Juvo opens up a user base of 5.7 billion prepaid subscribers worldwide, and for subscribers, Juvo provides an easy and transparent pathway toward financial inclusion.

Finovate: Tell us about your favorite implementation of your solution.

Polsky: I’m not sure I have a favorite, as each of our mobile operator-partners is doing exciting things with Juvo and seeing amazing results with their subscriber base. One particularly fun implementation has been with Cable & Wireless Communications Limited in Latin America, because of the very vocal reaction from their subscribers. There are thousands of positive mentions and reviews of the Juvo-powered app by Flow Lend users, and it is wonderful to hear from end users about how valuable the service is to them.

Finovate: What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Polsky: The idea for Juvo came from a variety of personal experiences, particularly working with telcos over the years in developing countries. I saw firsthand untapped populations across the globe who are creditworthy, yet never given an opportunity to obtain even the most basic financial services many of us in the Western world take for granted. As a serial entrepreneur, I wanted to build another company with the right team and culture that could create something of value to have a real and lasting impact both for business and society.

The Juvo team is comprised of leading experts in their field who share a passion for creating and delivering a valuable solution to the world. We have extensive experience with mobile operators and a deep understanding of the power of data, particularly as it helps define and explain consumer internet behavior. The convergence of cloud services with big data, combined with a ubiquitous rise in smartphone adoption, gave us the pathway we needed to bring the Juvo vision to life.

Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from Juvo that we can look forward to over the next few months?

Polsky: We are excited to announce additional mobile operator launches around the world, share news of expansion into new regions of the world, including Europe and Southeast Asia, and continue to impact the lives of people in developing markets.

Finovate: Where do you see Juvo a year or two from now?

Polsky: We hope to see Juvo continue its expansion with mobile operators into new regions around the world, as well as further engage with financial service companies to offer high-value product and services beyond basic credit. It’s an exciting time for financial services, as technology has paved the way to open many avenues for expanding opportunities to new populations, and we hope to be at the forefront of this emerging fintech revolution.

CEO Steve Polsky, Juvo founder and Jason Robinson, VP, product showcase Juvo at FinovateFall 2016 in New York

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Cachet Financial Solutions, GainX, LearnVest, Level, PayPal, Qapital, Venmo, Virtual Piggy, Xignite

Around the web

  • Virtual Piggy brings on President &CEO of Broad Street Consulting Advisors as its Senior Advisor.
  • Cachet streamlines RDC check settlement process for Banks and Credit Unions.
  • Finovate/FinDEVr alums populate TradeStreaming Fintech’s companies to watch in 2017 list.
  • Finance Disrupted interviews Xignite CEO and founder, Stephane Dubois.
  • Venmo, LearnVest, Qapital, Level Money, and PayPal featured in PC Mag’s Best Mobile Finance Apps of 2017.
  • From Founder to CEO talks with GainX founder & CEO Angelique Mohring. See GainX at FinovateEurope 2017 in London in February.

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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Equifax Shakes Up Mortgage Tech with Castlight Partnership

Equifax Shakes Up Mortgage Tech with Castlight Partnership
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Equifax

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Consumer insights and credit scoring company Equifax has partnered with Castlight this week to launch a mortgage affordability platform. The new system aims to help brokers reduce the mortgage application process to 10 minutes.

The platform helps mortgage brokers underwrite loans more efficiently by enabling applicants to grant the lender an Affordability Passport that allows them to view the applicant’s credit score and spending history. The passport gives brokers access to the client’s real-time financial data, which offers a granular view into how the potential borrower manages credit and shows their overall financial standing. Birmingham, U.K.-based Paradigm Mortgage Services will be one of the first distributors of the new platform.

Jake Ranson, Banking & Financial Institutions Director at Equifax U.K., described the new offering as “something unique to the market” and said it will “help customers have more control over their data and… make it easier for the financial services industry to make use of data.”

This is just one example of a larger trend we’ve seen in the burgeoning real estate or mortgage tech sector of the fintech industry. Other innovators in this space include Sindeo (FF16, FDSV16), Envestnet|Yodlee (FF16), Roostify (FS16), Kofax (FS16), Hip Pocket (FS15), Tactile Finance (FS14), Mortgage Harmony (FF12), Mortgagebot (FF10), eyeOpen (FEU13), and Blend (FS16, FDSV 16).

Headquartered in Atlanta, Equifax was recently listed on Forbes’ list of 100 Most Innovative Public Companies. The company is also one of 49 public fintech companies listed on the KBW Nasdaq Financial Technology Index. Equifax debuted new features for its mobile app at FinovateFall 2011 in New York.

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