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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Private Equity Firm EQT has agreed to acquire B2B accounts receivable and payments company Billtrust.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year for $1.7 billion.
This move will take Billtrust back to a privately-held company, following its public debut on the NASDAQ in 2020 after closing a SPAC merger.
B2B accounts receivable and payments company Billtrustannounced today it has agreed to be acquired by EQT Private Equity for $1.7 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.
Once finalized, the deal will take Billtrust from the public markets. The company went public in 2020 in a SPAC merger valued at approximately $1.3 billion. Billtrust is currently listed on the NASDAQ and has a market capitalization of $1.52 billion.
“This transaction marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Billtrust, our customers and employees while providing shareholders an immediate and substantial cash value with a compelling premium,” said Billtrust Founder and CEO Flint Lane. “We believe B2B payments and accounts receivable continue to be ripe for massive disruption and innovation, and our partnership with EQT will provide us with greater resources and flexibility to build on our leadership position.”
Billtrust was founded in 2001 to offer a suite of solutions that simplify and automate B2B commerce through cloud-based software and payment processing solutions. In 2018, the company launched its Business Payments Network (BPN) that connects buyers, suppliers, and financial institutions to simplify and streamline electronic payment acceptance. The company also offers tools for credit risk managers, ecommerce solutions for wholesale distributors and manufacturing businesses, payments acceptance tools, and more.
For EQT, a Sweden-based private equity firm with $100 billion in assets under management, this marks its third fintech deal. Others in the firm’s fintech portfolio include SaaS cloud banking provider Mambu and payment acceptance company Mollie.
“The Billtrust platform features modern solutions, a compelling value proposition, and, like EQT, a commitment to innovation and transformation in the digital era,” said Arvindh Kumar, Partner and Co-Head of EQT’s Global Technology Sector Team. “Additionally, the Company operates at the intersection of software, fintech, and payments—sectors in which EQT has deep familiarity and a track record of success. With proprietary end-to-end solutions that generate value for all stakeholders and across economic cycles, Billtrust is poised to advance its leading offering in the underpenetrated accounts receivable automation space.”
This is a sponsored post by Tim FitzGerald, EMEA Financial Services Sales Manager, InterSystems, Gold Sponsors of FinovateFall 2022.
In today’s fast-moving landscape, financial services firms are under increasing pressure to remain competitive and generate more revenue by developing new products and services faster, while still leveraging their existing resources.
In recent years, this has seen many financial services organisations turn to external fintech solutions to help accelerate innovation and quickly obtain new digital capabilities. And so, fintech partnerships have become critical components of financial institutions’ growth strategies, rather than the technology experiments they started out as.
To ensure innovation success, it’s vital that financial services organizations can easily leverage and provision new fintech services and applications by seamlessly integrating with their existing production applications and data sources. But the true value and potential of fintech solutions can’t be unleashed until integration is quick and easy.
As many firms will attest, arduous and costly integration can see the value of such initiatives dwindle before their very eyes – sometimes to be lost altogether. Common challenges can range from unforeseen issues tying up precious IT resources, to costs spiraling out of control and timescales sliding drastically from what was planned or what is desirable. Ultimately, these delays can result in the loss of any competitive edge as rivals launch similar solutions much faster.
Ensuring successful integration
Fintechs have become increasingly attractive as they incorporate the latest technologies, modern application methodologies, and deployment platforms. However, for banks to make effective use of these opportunities, those technologies need to be woven into its existing infrastructure, much of which is likely to be based on legacy technology.
Consequently, successful integration requires an understanding of the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of those legacy systems. It also demands knowledge of the underlying data architecture and how to connect the new technology to systems that weren’t built to be connected to in such a way. While this isn’t an unsurmountable problem, getting it right will take resources, budget, and time.
Careful consideration is also needed when undertaking the integration to ensure that the resulting architecture doesn’t become overly complex. After all, if it comprises multiple technology layers from different vendors, all with differing versions and releases, any future change could impede the bank’s ability to take advantage of the benefits they set out to achieve.
Next will be to determine how data from existing systems will be fed into the new system and in what format. To get around this, it’s all too easy to layer extraction tools upon a myriad of other tools, including transformation tools, data lineage, master data management, databases, and data lake technologies. However, what firms are then left with is a multi-headed monster that no one person truly understands. This approach to data integration is also complex and costly to design, deploy, manage, and maintain. Fortunately, adopting a smart data fabric approach, a next generation architecture, can provide a way for financial services organizations to overcome these challenges.
Achieving bidirectional connectivity
By leveraging a smart data fabric, it is possible for institutions to connect and collect real-time event data and obtain unmatched integration capabilities using just one holistic platform. This approach eliminates the complexity and inefficiencies of manual integrations and other legacy approaches to integration and enables firms to integrate applications faster and more efficiently. It does this by essentially creating a dynamic real-time, bidirectional gateway between cloud-based fintech applications and their own production applications and data assets.
The smart data fabric integrates real-time event and transactional data, along with historical and other data from the large number of different back-end systems in use by financial services organizations. It transforms the data into a common, harmonized format to feed cloud fintech applications on demand, thus providing seamless, real-time, bidirectional connectivity and integration with the bank’s existing legacy enterprise data, production applications, and data sources.
Not only does this help firms to realize faster time to value and achieve simpler implementation that is easier to maintain, but it also gives financial services institutions the agility needed to innovate faster and keep critical initiatives on track. Additionally, it helps to futureproof their architecture by making it easier to incorporate any fintech applications and technologies available in the marketplace, thereby empowering them to react to new opportunities and changes in their environments.
Ultimately, there is immense value to be unlocked from fintech solutions and applications. However, that is only possible through swift and simple integration. By implementing a smart data fabric-enabled data gateway, financial services organizations can quickly and easily integrate new solutions within their existing infrastructure to ensure they are able to keep pace in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Traditionally, we’ve talked about Amazon, Google, Apple, and Meta (formerly known as Facebook) as big tech companies with the potential to rise up as competitors in the banking and fintech space. However, there is one giant that is worth adding to this list– Walmart.
Walmart is not a fintech company, or even a tech company, it’s a retail firm. Or at least that’s what it was when Sam Walton founded it in 1962. But what does Walmart’s future look like? The company has made it clear that it will not only begin offering financial services, but will also evolve into a super app. On examining the company’s ambitions, it appears that Walmart may have what it takes to ascend as a competitor in the fintech space.
Below are five aspects of Walmart to consider when evaluating it as a potential competitor.
User base
As one of the most recognizable brands across the globe, Walmart comes with a large, built-in user base. The company sees 265 million customers worldwide each week, and many of those shoppers seek out Walmart as their primary retailer. Walmart+, the company’s $99 annual subscription service, counts 32 million members.
Once Walmart begins its formal foray into financial services in earnest, it will certainly not count all 32 million members as users right away. However, having a built-in, captive audience will help jump-start its user base and will lower customer acquisition costs.
In-app rewards
In both retail and financial services sectors, rewards create stickiness. As one of the oldest retail companies, Walmart has figured this out. Leveraging a partnership with Ibotta Performance Network, Walmart recently launched Walmart Rewards, a way for Walmart+ members to earn additional savings toward their future purchases at Walmart.
Checking account
Earlier this month, Bloomberg unveiled that Walmart plans to launch a digital bank account to serve its shoppers and 1.6 million employees. While no specific details have been released, it is clear that the digital bank will stem from One, which Walmart acquired in early 2022. One is a neobank that offers a debit card and boasts non-traditional products and services such as earned wage access, fee-free overdraft protection, and digital wallet integration.
Currently, One relies on Coastal Community Bank to provide banking services. It is not clear whether Walmart will continue to use that model, or if it will seek its own banking license. Walmart initially pursued a banking license in 2005. After two years, the company withdrew its application after receiving opposition from bankers and other credit institutions. Given hurdles involved in earning a banking license, my guess is that Walmart will rely on its relationship with a traditional bank like Coastal Community Bank.
For more clues into Walmart’s banking ambitions, I checked out job advertisements on LinkedIn. Walmart is currently hiring for a range of positions within its financial services arm. “We are starting some exciting ventures as we expand our financial services in various ways to engage and provide capabilities to our customers,” one of the job descriptions states.
Physical presence
Walmart has 11,501 physical retail stores across the globe. The largest U.S. bank, JP Morgan Chase, has fewer than half that number at around 5,080 physical bank branches. And for customers who are not into doing business IRL, Walmart has them covered, as well. The company just launched Walmart Land, a new immersive experience in Roblox.
If Walmart truly wants to become a large competitor in the financial services world, it already has more than enough physical infrastructure to do so.
Part of why this matters isn’t the sheer number of physical locations or square footage. Having these physical stores will impact who Walmart is able to serve, just as much as it will impact how many people it is able to serve. That’s because Walmart stores are typically located in rural and suburban areas– in other words, Walmart stores are close to non-urban customers who may not rely on their mobile devices as much as city dwellers, and therefore may not be comfortable maintaining an account at a digital-only bank. No smartphone? No problem, just drive down to Walmart and open up an account.
Super app
The term “super app” is used quite lightly in the fintech sector these days. However, Walmart is one of the few firms in the U.S. with the potential to evolve into a true super app. In a piece published earlier this year, Chief Research Officer at Cornerstone Advisors Ron Shevlin summarized Walmart’s potential as a super app. “Walmart’s DNA is efficiency and cost control—and that’s the ultimate promise of a super app for the supercenter,” said Shevlin.
Currently, the company’s app offers Walmart+ subscribers online grocery and retail shopping with free shipping; access to Scan & Go, a tool that enables shoppers to scan barcodes as they shop, pay with their phone using their card on file, and scan a QR code at the cash register before they exit the store. Subscribers also benefit from discounts of up to 10 cents off per gallon of fuel at 14,000 gas stations; and free access to stream movies and shows at Paramount+.
As it stands, Walmart’s app with the above services does not constitute a super app. In a blog post last year, I detailed a list of ten elements required for a super app. Here is what Walmart has and where it needs improvement:
Ecommerce: currently offers
Health services: currently offers vaccination services and provides medical care at locations in four U.S. states.
Food delivery: currently offers grocery delivery, but not prepared food delivery
Transportation services: currently offers fuel discounts and in-app fuel payments
Personal finance: does not offer, but is actively working on plans to do so
Travel services: does not offer
Billpay: does not offer
Insurance: does not offer
Government and public services: does not offer
Social: does not offer
Using that summary, Walmart receives a score of 4.5 out of ten on the super app scale, and it will likely progress in the next few years. Walmart has made it clear that it plans to create a super app. As Omer Ismail, CEO of Walmart’s One, told the Wall Street Journal, the company’s strategy “is to build a financial services super app, a single place for consumers to manage their money.”
Blend and PNC Bank announced a strategic partnership to help the bank digitally optimize its online mortgage process.
The partnership between Blend and PNC Bank comes in the wake of Blend’s Instant Home Equity product, launched in August.
Blend made its Finovate debut in 2016 and is also an alum of Finovate’s developer conference, FinDEVr.
A strategic partnership between PNC Bank and cloud banking software company Blend will help the financial institution digitally optimize its online mortgage application process. With its new mortgage application platform, PNC will enable its customers to digitally apply for a mortgage and import information such as bank and payroll data directly into the application simply by providing their credentials. Customers further will benefit from a single portal for tracking the status of their mortgage application, completing any additional tasks, as well as reviewing and electronically signing loan documentation. The portal also allows PNC’s mortgage loan officers to collaborate in real time with customers.
PNC EVP and Head of Mortgage Peter McCarthy called the partnership “an ideal combination of digital self-service technology and support for our customers as they navigate one of the biggest and most important purchases in their lifetimes.”
The strategic partnership announcement comes just over a month after Blend announced the launch of its automated instant home equity product. Integrating a range of recent enhancements to its mortgage suite, the solution provides income and identity verification, title, decisioning, property appraisal, and notarization. Lenders can use Blend Instant Home Equity to provide borrowers with a personalized offer that can be approved instantly and closed within a few days.
“Leveraging all that we’ve built on the Blend platform – for both Mortgage and Consumer Banking solutions – we’re able to deliver an instant home equity experience to help our customers ensure a seamless experience for applicants, grow their home equity businesses, and reduce costs to originate in a challenging marketplace,” Head of Blend Nima Ghamsari said.
Blend demonstrated its Data-Driven Mortgage solution at FinovateSpring 2016 and returned later that year to present its technology at our developers conference FinDEVr Silicon Valley. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Blend enables financial services companies to process an average of more than $5 billion in transactions a day. The company leverages low-code, drag-and-drop design tools to enable developers to build new products quickly. Its platform is integrated with trusted services ranging from eSign to identity verification to help financial institutions deliver seamless customer experiences.
PNC Bank is a part of the PNC Financial Services Group, one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the U.S. Offering retail banking to more than 12 million consumers and small businesses across the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest, PNC Bank also provides asset management services to affluent and ultra-affluent individuals and families, as well as corporate and institutional banking. As of June of this year, PNC Bank had $320 billion in assets under administration.
HSBC has tapped Nova Credit to integrate the company’s Credit Passport, a cross-border credit data product.
As part of the partnership, Nova Credit received a $10 million investment, bringing its total funding to more than $79 million.
HSBC deployed Nova Credit’s Credit Passport at HSBC Singapore in May and plans to expand its use of the solution later this year to cover more country bureaus.
Consumer-permissioned credit bureau Nova Creditreceived $10 million in funding this week. The investment, which boosts the California-based company’s total funds to over $79 million, came from HSBC Ventures.
Under the strategic partnership, Nova Credit will provide HSBC with access to Credit Passport, its cross-border credit data product. Credit Passport essentially translates consumer credit across geographical borders, providing residents who are new to a country with access to financial products that require credit, such as loans or mortgages.
By leveraging Credit Passport, HSBC will have access to a customer’s translated credit history, after receiving permission from the customer. This not only increases HSBC’s potential client base, but it also increases the speed of the bank’s decisions.
“Accessing credit in a new market can be a challenge and is something we’ve been helping customers with for years,” said HSBC Group Head of Retail Banking and Strategy, Wealth and Personal Banking Taylan Turan. “We’re excited to be partnering with Nova Credit, to improve our ability to do this even more, with its innovative digital Credit Passport. We’re proud to be the first organization to offer this to customers in Singapore.”
HSBC Singapore integrated Credit Passport in May, enabling its applicants to offer the bank permission to access their global credit record and credit score. HSBC Singapore’s implementation of the tool also marked the first use of Credit Passport outside of the U.S.
HSBC elected to launch the use of the product in Singapore because thousands of its Singapore-based clients have recently moved to the country from India, where they have credit history. The bank plans to expand its use of the solution later this year to include customers with a credit history in Australia, the U.K., and the Philippines, and plans to cover more country bureaus in 2023.
Nova Credit launched in 2016 and has since built relationships with credit bureaus in more than 20 countries. Partnering with the credit bureaus has given the company consumer-permissioned access to over one billion credit profiles. Nova Credit also has partnerships with lenders including American Express, SoFi, Yardi, and Verizon.
Payroll data company Pinwheel launched a tool called the Pinwheel Earnings Stream.
The new product offers data on past, current, and projected income.
According to Pinwheel, the data is most useful for earned wage access (EWA) offerings, but can also be used for financial wellness tools, underwriting, and more.
Income and employment data innovator Pinwheelannounced its newest launch today. The company unveiled the Pinwheel Earnings Stream, a tool that offers up-to-date historical, current, and projected income data.
Pinwheel leverages machine learning and pay stub data to determine net earned wages for any work completed to create an accurate view of accrued and projected earnings. Earnings Stream uses analytics and intelligence to help make sense of this data.
Earnings Stream offers organizations three main benefits: accrued earnings, which shows wages a customer has earned so far in the current pay period; projected earnings, which estimates the earnings a customer will have by the end of the current pay period; and pay dates, a list of a customer’s projected pay dates.
By leveraging the projected earnings information from Earnings Stream, organizations can efficiently deploy an earned wage access (EWA) strategy. According to Pinwheel, Earnings Stream has other use cases, as well, including “financial wellness tools, educational services, cash flow underwriting, and so much more.”
“We developed Earnings Stream to support our customers’ strategies to answer the consumer demand for EWA services, while they have long wanted to offer these products, it’s been nearly impossible to execute at scale throughout the fintech industry at large,” said Pinwheel Co-Founder and CEO Kurtis Lin. “EWA is a unique product because it benefits all parties. Consumers are excited about meaningful liquidity, financial institutions are happy to acquire customers, and employers are pleased to see their workers have less financial stress. I’m proud of our team for developing what we believe will be one of the fintech industry’s keys to building truly impactful EWA products.
Founded in 2018, Pinwheel aims to create a fairer financial system with its API that connects to more than 1,600 payroll platforms and more than 40 time and attendance platforms. In all, the system covers 80% of U.S. workers and more than 1.5 million employers.
The New York-based company aims to offer fintechs the data needed to create financial tools for underserved populations, without taking on additional risk. “Many of our customers are working on exciting use cases that we’re excited to see hit the market soon,” said Lin.
Bank of America launched a new QR code sign-in for its CashPro offering.
Paired with biometrics, the new sign-in option takes advantage of the trend in favor of QR code technology as a verification and log-in solution.
Bank of America’s CashPro has received recognition from Celent, Global Finance magazine, The Asian Banker, and Treasury Management International (TMI).
One of the surprising fintech trends of the past few years has been the deployment of QR codes as an option to facilitate payments in an increasingly wide range of contexts. Today, Bank of America announced that it has launched a new QR code sign-in for its CashPro solution. This will enable Bank of America’s 500,000 CashPro users to scan a QR code with their mobile device and use their biometric information via the CashPro App in order to access the CashPro website. The new option will also alleviate the need for users to manually enter passwords.
“QR sign-in is a technology that’s familiar to our clients from their personal lives, and now they can use it to seamlessly access CashPro,” Global Product Head for CashPro in Global Transaction Services Tom Durkin said. “The technology kicks off a schedule of enhancements we plan to introduce to CashPro over the next 18 months that will further improve the simplicity and security of our award-winning platform.”
Bank of America’s CashPro offers a complete digital platform for managing payments, receipts, investments, FX, and trade. The technology enables users to conduct their banking business from anywhere via the CashPro App, viewing balances, approving payments in less than a minute, depositing checks remotely, and making payments. Businesses can leverage the CashPro API to access a wide range of treasury activities including payments, fraud prevention, liquidity optimization, and more. CashPro also has a forecasting feature. Powered by machine learning and predictive analytics, CashPro Forecasting provides visibility across all customer accounts – including accounts at other institutions – and helps firms better manage future cash flows. The technology, embedded in CashPro and unveiled at the beginning of the year, provides customizable, machine-generated, daily, weekly, or monthly forecasts and learns over time to make predictions smarter and increasingly accurate.
“Many companies today rely on manual, repetitive work to forecast their cash needs, leaving little time to analyze the data for making strategic decisions, which is the actual objective of the forecasting exercise,” Co-head of Global Commercial Banking, Global Transaction Services for Bank of America Ken Ullmann said. “With CashPro Forecasting, companies can automate their forecasting process while improving the accuracy of their predictions, all without making any IT investment.”
Among the world’s leading financial institutions, Bank of America serves 67 million consumer and small business clients with 4,000 retail financial centers. Bank of America also provides a digital banking experience with 55 million verified digital users. Serving customers throughout the U.S. and its territories, as well as 35 countries around the world, Bank of America is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BAC. The institution has a market capitalization of $250 billion.
This week’s Finovate Alumni Profile is a salute to Hispanic Heritage Month, an opportunity every year to recognize the achievements of Americans whose ancestors came from Central and South America, as well as Spain, the Caribbean, and Mexico.
Here are some of the Latino and Hispanic fintech leaders who have demonstrated their company’s innovations on the Finovate stage since our return to live events in the fall of 2021. We’re also taking this opportunity to highlight recent Finovate alums that are headquartered in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Able (FinovateFall 2022) empowers commercial lenders to quickly collect data from borrowers, streamline the loan process, and book loans faster. The company was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Co-founder Diego Represas led the company’s demo at its Finovate debut earlier this month at FinovateFall.
Incognia (FinovateSpring 2022) is a privacy-first, location identity company that offers frictionless mobile authentication to banks and fintechs to help them lower fraud losses. Founded by CEO Andre Ferraz, Incognia is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company’s appearance at FinovateSpring in May of this year was Incognia’s Finovate debut.
Rillavoice (FinovateSpring 2022) offers conversation intelligence software that leverages AI to record, transcribe, and analyze conversations between bank branch associates and customers. The technology helps make bank managers more productive and enables reps to improve conversion rates by 30%. The New York City-based company was founded in 2019. CEO Sebastian Jimenez led the company’s FinovateSpring 2022 demo – Rillavoice’s first time on the Finovate stage.
Nufi (FinovateFall 2021) calls itself “the Legos of fintech.” The firm empowers companies to build financial products quickly while remaining compliant with relevant regulations. Specializing in markets in Latin America, the company’s Finovate debut in the fall of 2021 was led by Chief Operating Officer Ilich Nuñez. Nufi is headquartered in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and was founded in 2020.
With its Tap on Phone technology, Symbiotic (FinovateFall 2021) allows anyone with a cellphone to accept contactless card payments. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in San Pedro, San Jose, Costa Rica, Symbiotic is the first company to secure the PCI-CPoC certification of the Tap on Pone technology on the American continent. CEO and founder Javier Chacón led Symbiotic’s FinovateFall 2021 demo of the technology.
Snap Compliance (FinovateFall 2021) is a regtech company that provides holistic compliance and risk management solutions. A one-stop shop for compliance management, Snap Compliance offers a pay per consumption subscription model that adapts to the customer’s risk models with multiple integration options – including no integration at all. The Costa Rica-based company was founded in 2019, and FinovateFall 2021 was its first live demo on the Finovate stage. Snap Compliance founder and CEO Alex Siles, along with Head of Expansion & Product Development Katherine Morales, led the company’s presentation.
Masterzon (FinovateFall 2021) offers a platform that transforms commercial documents into negotiable securities. The technology operates in real time efficiently and transparently, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Co-founded by Elio Rojas in 2016, Masterzon is based in San José, Costa Rica. FinovateFall 2021 marked the company’s Finovate debut.
Fintech software developer IMPESA (FinovateFall 2021) includes some of the largest banks in Central America and the Caribbean among its B2B corporate customers. In its Finovate debut, IMPESA demonstrated its P2P payments app that offers customers card controls and gives banks new revenue opportunities. Mario Hernández, CEO and co-founder, co-led the company’s FinovateFall 2021 on stage demo. IMPESA is headquartered in San José, Costa Rica, and was founded in 2013.
Infocorp (FinovateFall 2021) was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay. The company’s smart omnichannel platform and best of breed digital channels give banks fast and flexible solutions to enhance the customer experience. At the company’s FinovateFall demo in 2021, CEO Ana Inés Echavarren and Product Manager Gonzalo Laguna demonstrated Infocorp’s App of the Future, a user-centric, mobile native banking app.
Visa is expanding its integration with Square’s instant transfer feature into Canada.
Square’s Canadian merchant clients can access their funds in real time, instead of waiting for the next business day.
Instant transfers are enabled by Visa Direct, a VisaNet processing capability that facilitates real-time delivery of funds.
One of the themes at FinovateFall earlier this month was how organizations can leverage real time data. When it comes to the movement of money, timing is everything. So it’s no surprise to see Visa’s announcement this week that it will expand its integration with Square’s instant transfer feature into Canada.
Under the new integration, Square’s Canadian merchant clients can now access their funds faster than the next business day. When they link an eligible debit card, Square’s Canada-based merchant clients can transfer funds instantly to an external bank account.
Used for rapid merchant settlement, Square’s instant transfers are enabled by Visa Direct, a VisaNet processing capability that facilitates real-time funds delivery directly to bank accounts. As a result, businesses experience increased cash flow, which can be a major pain point, especially for small businesses.
“Cash flow management and more immediate access to funds is critical for small businesses to survive and thrive in a rapidly evolving payments ecosystem,” said Visa Canada’s VP and Head of New Payments Jim Filice. “Together with Square, we’re committed to supporting Canadian small businesses and helping to identify solutions that can benefit them by delivering fast, reliable and secure access to funds.”
Fintech is a broad industry, and with the breadth of its sub-sectors comes a large range of trends that change year after year. But with all of the new, hot trends to follow, it’s impossible for banks and fintechs to focus on everything at once.
That’s why our team set out at FinovateFall earlier this month to ask people from across the industry what trend we should be paying attention to. We received a large range of answers, but here were the top picks:
Fraud mitigation and security
Business intelligence
Money movement and payments
Consumer-permissioned data
Processing data using AI
Financial inclusion
Embedded payments and embedded banking
Detailed transparency in machine learning solutions
Customer obsession and customer experience
Check out the full video below, which includes explanations and reasonings behind each of these trends:
We have several people to thank for answering this very broad question, including Gregory Wright, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Experian; Derek Corcoran, SVP Financial Services Strategy at Woodridge Software; Estela Nagahashi, EVP and Chief Operating Officer at University Credit Union; Bill Harris, CEO of Nirvana Money; Craig McLaughlin, CEO of Finalytics; Rikard Bandebo, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at VantageScore; Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore, Head of Global Payments at Silicon Valley Bank; Lora Kornhauser, Co-founder and CEO at Stratyfy; Vivek Bedi, Author of You, the Product; Steven Ramirez, CEO of Beyond the Arc; and Chad Rodgers, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Connexus Credit Union.
The collaboration will enable merchants to rely on a chargeback alert system that notifies them in the event of an impending chargeback. Notifications are made via the ChargebackZero dashboard, which combines a variety of alert types from card issuers with ChargebackZero’s dispute management tools. The alerts allow merchants to identify and revolve customer disputes with the customer’s issuing bank in near-real time. By preventing chargebacks, including chargebacks that occur post-authorization, the partnership will make it easier for merchants to accept more orders without increasing their exposure to potentially fraudulent activity.
Ethoca offers a suite of solutions to help merchants and issuers eliminate chargebacks, reduce card not present (CNP) fraud, recover lost revenue, and improve the customer experience with a better dispute resolution process. Ethoca’s Consumer Clarity solution connects issuers to merchant order and account history details in real time. This gives issuer call center agents with the data they need to manage real-time conversations with cardholders when disputes arise. Ethoca also offers its Ethoca Alerts technology, which provides issuers and card-not-present merchants with access to a global collaboration network that enables them to share fraud and customer dispute data in real time, rather than in weeks as is normally the case with chargebacks.
Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Ethoca made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2015. In the years since then, the company has inked partnerships with fellow Finovate alum TSYS, as well as Pegasystems, BlueSnap, and Cartes Bancaires. Ethoca agreed to be acquired by Mastercard in the spring of 2019 for an undisclosed sum. Calling Mastercard “a natural home,” Ethoca CEO Andre Edelbrock said the acquisition would “bring our services to more places and more people, ultimately contributing to the beset possible online payment experience.”
Ethoca serves more than 5,400 merchants in 40+ countries and more than 4,000 card issuers in more than 20+ countries. Eight of the top ten North American ecommerce brands, 14 of the top 20 North American card issuers, and six of the top ten U.K. card issuers use Ethoca’s technology to eliminate chargebacks, prevent fraud, and recover lost revenue.
60+ innovative demos. 100+ expert speakers. 1700+ influential attendees. The connections and ideas you need were at FinovateFall this year. Were you there?
Get a taste of the action below, and catch up on some of the unique insights from the experts who took to the stage!
Bill Harris, CEO at Nirvana Money, joins David Penn, Finovate Research Analyst, to discuss the vision and ambition behind starting Nirvana Money, what advice he’d give to new fintech founders, and why he predicts the demise of crypto.
Gregory Wright, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Experian, talked with Julie Muhn, Finovate Senior Research Analyst, to discuss the three principles for amplifying your innovation success: innovation with purpose, which helps drive impact for your consumers and their communities; innovation through scale, to get to “yes” faster and more often; and innovation with analytics, bringing together datasets in real time that we’ve never had before.
Julie Muhn, Finovate Senior Research Analyst, sat down with Ann Kuelzow, Global Head of Financial Services at InterSystems, to explore how businesses can get an accurate and (importantly) a real-time view of their data to guide their decisions, and why data fabrics are the future of data management.
David Penn, Finovate Research Analyst, was joined by Bernadette Ksepka, Assistant Vice President & Deputy Head of Product Development, FedNowSM Service at Federal Reserve System, to discuss the U.S. payments landscape, and how the upcoming FedNow service will modernize current payments infrastructure and pave the way for big changes and innovations.
