M&A Monday: Best of Show Winner TipRanks Acquires The Fly; TreviPay Agrees to Buy Apruve

M&A Monday: Best of Show Winner TipRanks Acquires The Fly; TreviPay Agrees to Buy Apruve
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Acquisition, Alumni News, Daily news, David's column, Mergers & Acquisitions, TipRanks, TreviPay

2023 is only a few days old but the merger and acquisition action in the fintech industry has already begun.

2022 featured a number of major fintech acquisitions – from Vista Equity Partners $8 billion purchase of tax compliance specialist Avalara to Technisys’ $1.1 billion acquisition of SoFi to Fiserv’s $650 million deal with Finxact. As the new year begins amid economic uncertainty and a technology industry that is contracting, will 2023 produce more deal-making activity in fintech or less?

With this question in mind, here’s a look at recent year-ending and year-beginning M&A activity from a pair of our Finovate alums: TipRanks and TreviPay.

We learned last week TipRanks had agreed to acquire real-time financial news digital provider, The Fly. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in New Jersey, The Fly is a leading digital publisher that offers a live-streaming subscription service featuring short form stories and content on publicly-traded companies.

“TipRanks is a natural home for The Fly,” company President Ron Etergino said. “Both companies strive to level the playing field for investors and TipRanks’ institutional-grade research tools and data will enhance The Fly’s financial news products.”

With its technology that provides market research tools to retail investors and traders, TipRanks took Finovate audiences by storm in its debut appearance in 2013. The New York-based company won Best of Show at both FinovateSpring in May of that year and again at FinovateFall in September.

More recently, the Tel Aviv, Israel and New York-based company launched a new solution that determined risk factors for publicly traded companies, as well as a tool that analyzes publicly traded companies’ online traffic. In 2021, the company raised $77 million in funding in a round led by Prytek. Last year, TipRanks introduced country-specific websites for Australia, Canada, and the U.K.

TipRanks’ acquisition of The Fly is designed to further the company’s mission of becoming a “one-stop-shop platform for the retail investor,” according to CEO Uri Gruenbaum. “We see a lot of synergy between our companies and are excited that we can expand our offerings to provide breaking news – one of the top requirements of our Enterprise customers and end users,” Gruenbaum said.

Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close in Q1 of this year.

Amid the flurry of year-ending news, one alumni acquisition we missed was TreviPay’s decision to acquire payments platform Apruve early last month. Headquartered in Overland, Kansas, and making its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall, TreviPay supports B2B commerce with its payments and invoicing network designed to optimize transactions between buyers and sellers. The company’s acquisition of payment platform Apruve is designed to help complement and add to TreviPay’s current order-to-cash technology and merchant invoicing solutions.

“The acquisition of Apruve will accelerate our advancement in the technology manufacturing vertical and expand our geographic reach into key Asian markets,” TreviPay CEO Brandon Spear said.

Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, but all Apruve employees will be retained post-acquisition. Apruve was TreviPay’s second acquisition of 2022, having purchased B2B invoice payments network company BATON Financial Services in February.

With 90,000 buyers and 80,000 seller locations around the world, TreviPay automates the order-to-cash process via omni-channel checkout options, localized B2B invoicing, managed receivables, and fraud and risk management. The company’s tailored payments and invoicing networks enable merchants and suppliers alike to develop more profitable and enduring trade relationships. TreviPay processes $7 billion in transaction volume across 32 countries and 19 different currencies.

Founded in 1980, TreviPay demoed its Small Business Supplier Network (SBSN) at FinovateFall 2022. The offering gives banks the ability to grow its small business product offerings by enabling them to tap into the small business B2B trade credit market.

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Greenlight Launches Financial Literacy Game

Greenlight Launches Financial Literacy Game
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Digital banking app for kids and teens, Greenlight, launched a financial literacy game today.
  • The game, Greenlight Level Up, is designed to teach financial skills to kids from kindergarten to 12th grade.
  • Only 23 states in the U.S. require schools to offer lessons in personal finance.

Greenlight, a digital banking app for kids and teens, unveiled a financial literacy game today called Greenlight Level Up.

The game aims to teach kids from kindergarten to 12th grade skills that they can use to improve their financial well-being. Many financial skills are not taught in schools. In fact, only 23 U.S. states require schools to teach a personal finance course. Greenlight Level Up offers lessons on earning, spending, saving, investing, managing credit, income, taxes, and more.

The game was crafted by academic and game design experts to keep kids engaged, using coins and stars as rewards.

Schools, teachers, and students can access Greenlight Level Up for free via Greenlight for Classrooms, an online financial literacy library for kids in grades kindergarten through 12. Greenlight for Classrooms will launch later this year.

Greenlight was founded in 2014 and offers a money management platform for families. The company has served five million parents and kids, offering them real-life experience in the financial world with credit and debit cards, along with a tandem mobile app. By using the cards with help from their parents, Greenlight helps kids build skills to manage their earnings, savings, spending, and giving; and empowers kids to learn to invest. In 2021, Greenlight raised $260 million in a round that valued the company at $2.3 billion.

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Finovate Global China: Ant Group Expands Consumer Finance Business with Major Capital Commitment

Finovate Global China: Ant Group Expands Consumer Finance Business with Major Capital Commitment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

China’s recent emergence from severe COVID lockdowns has caught the attention of investors, who sent shares of Chinese companies soaring in the final months of 2022. The momentum has continued into 2023 with many observers and analysts suggesting that, while China’s COVID-related woes may not be over, the country and its $17+ trillion economy may be well on the way back to normal.

Or even better than normal. Even before the COVID crisis, China had shown renewed signs of economic illiberalism that had worried many Western investors. Most prominent of these concerns was the treatment of Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma. Ma is the co-founder of Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group who stepped down as executive chairman in 2018 and, By the fall of 2020, had departed the board entirely. Rumors swirled that Ma was reacting to pressure from Chinese authorities in the wake of a controversial speech in which Ma criticized both the Chinese regulatory authorities as well as Chinese banks. As New York Times reporter Li Yuan observed in December 2020:

Lately, public sentiment has soured and Daddy Ma has become the man people in China love to heat. He has been called a ‘villain,’ and ‘evil capitalist’ and a ‘bloodsucking ghost’ … Instead of Daddy, some people have started to call him ‘son’ or ‘grandson.’ In stories about him, a growing number of people leave comments quoting Marx: ‘Workers of the world, unite!’

This was a stark reversal for a man who had become, as Li Yuan noted “synonymous with success” in China. As Ma’s star faded, so did the immediate fortunes of his corporation’s star affiliate – Ant Group – which was forced to suspend its IPO slated for that year.

But it appears as if those dark days for Jack Ma and the companies he founded have ended. This week, Ant Group – a major affiliate of Ma’s Alibaba Group that owns Alipay, the world’s largest mobile payment platform – secured approval from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to boost the registered capital for its consumer finance unit by more than 2x from 8 billion yuan to 18.5 billion yuan. Ant Group had launched its consumer finance division in 2021 as part of a restructuring effort designed to placate Chinese regulatory concerns. The decision by Chinese authorities is believed to be the clearest indication to date that the dark clouds that have hovered over Ma, Alibaba, and Ant Group have begun to clear.

That said, there is no word yet on whether or not Ant Group’s IPO plans are back on track. For example, CNBC reported this week that Ant Group still has not received a financial holding company license from the People’s Bank of China. Being able to treat Ant Group more like a bank from a regulatory perspective – which would include the firm becoming a financial holding company – was among the chief objectives of the country’s central bank.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

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Saying Yes to Your Customers: Reimagining the Customer Experience in Financial Services with Steven Van Belleghem

Saying Yes to Your Customers: Reimagining the Customer Experience in Financial Services with Steven Van Belleghem
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2023, Speaker series

It may be a fintech cliche that “every year is the Year of the Customer.” But the obsession over customer experience that is sweeping through financial services is showing no signs of slowing down.

Steven Van Belleghem, author of The Internet of Customer Value, How Web3 and the Metaverse Are Changing the Game in Customer Experience, will deliver a keynote address on Day One of FinovateEurope this year that tackles this topic head-on. An expert in the future of customer centricity, Van Belleghem emphasizes the relationship between enabling technologies, customer-centric thinking, and the human touch in his work. This work includes four international best-selling books, as well as co-founding inspiration agency Nexxworks and social media agency Snackbytes.

Find out more about how to attend FinovateEurope at the O2 in London and catch Steven Van Belleghem’s keynote address live on Tuesday, March 14, at our FinovateEurope hub.

An engaging speaker and colorful writer, Van Belleghem has impressed audiences and readers with his insights into what it truly means to put the customer first – and why it is imperative for companies to do so in order to succeed. In a recent blog post, Van Belleghem explained how “customer culture” has “replaced technology as the holy grail” as a growing number of businesses recognize the value of “really try(ing) to understand what people want and then help them.” He wrote:

“Over the years, software has even become quite good at being creative, but empathy remains that last beacon, something that is typically human. And so a positive culture of being kind, of being human, of saying ‘yes’ to your customers will become a true differentiator. That’s what will bridge the most of that last 10% to get great CX.”

Read his full discussion, which includes Van Belleghem’s explanation of why this last 10% is always the most difficult to achieve, as well as a helpful strategy for keeping even the most promising of enabling technologies in the proper perspective.

Then stop by our FinovateEurope 2023 hub to save your spot at our upcoming fintech conference, March 14 through 15, featuring author Steven Van Belleghem’s keynote address on Day One.

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Credit Card Company Yonder Taps Cable for Financial Crime Compliance

Credit Card Company Yonder Taps Cable for Financial Crime Compliance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Cable, Daily news
  • Credit card company Yonder has tapped regtech company Cable to enhance its financial crime compliance.
  • “Now we’re starting to scale our member base, we needed a solution that could ensure our regulatory compliance as we grow,” said Yonder Cofounder and Chief Risk Officer Theso Jivajirajah.
  • Cable demoed its automated assurance technology at FinovateFall 2022 in New York.

London-based Yonder, a self-described “modern lifestyle” credit card, is giving its financial crime compliance a boost this week by partnering with regtech company Cable.

Yonder was founded in 2021 as a lifestyle card for U.K. consumers. The card costs around $18 (£15) per month and has a generous rewards system that enables users to earn points they can redeem for restaurant purchases, offers travel insurance, and does not charge fees for cross-border transactions. The company will leverage Cable to enhance its financial crime compliance and oversight processes.

“Now we’re starting to scale our member base; we needed a solution that could ensure our regulatory compliance as we grow, without any major headcount increases.” said Yonder Cofounder and Chief Risk Officer Theso Jivajirajah. “Cable’s automated monitoring across our financial crime controls helps Yonder address any issues right away, meet our regulatory requirements, and focus on serving our members better.”

Cable will offer Yonder access to its automated financial crimes assurance that will test each user account for compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering requirements. By automating the process, Cable will help Yonder save time by automating reports and reduce risk by notifying the company immediately in the case of a breach.

Founded in 2020, Cable has raised $5.3 million in a seed round led by CRV and LocalGlobe. Last fall, before landing Quaint Oak Bank as a new client, the company demoed its automated assurance technology at FinovateFall 2022.

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Advanced Bookkeeping Solution Provider Uplinq Raises $5.6 Million in Seed Funding

Advanced Bookkeeping Solution Provider Uplinq Raises $5.6 Million in Seed Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Uplinq, a company that offers advanced bookkeeping solutions to SMEs, has raised $5.6 million in funding.
  • Headquartered in Arizona, Uplinq will use the capital to scale its marketing efforts to better serve fintech’s “underserved bookkeeping” market.
  • The funding was led by Arizona-based AZ-VC, and included a strategic investment from Live Oak Ventures.

Uplinq, a technology company that leverages automation and machine learning to provide businesses with advanced bookkeeping solutions, has secured an investment of $5.6 million. The funding, announced in early December, was led by Arizona venture capital fund AZ-VC and included a strategic investment from Live Oak Ventures. Live Oak Ventures is the fintech-oriented venture capital arm of Live Oak Bank. Also participating in the funding were Merus Capital and members of the Kuwaiti Royal Family.

“With continued economic uncertainty, new automated fintech like Uplinq helps businesses take advantage by keeping track of changing costs and financials more efficiently than ever before to make smart business decisions fast,” Uplinq CEO Alex Glenn said. “This funding round will accelerate the next phase of Uplinq’s growth plans and expand our reach across this lucrative $15 billion industry.”

The capital will be used to help scale Uplinq’s marketing efforts, sales power, engineering capabilities, and customer delivery departments in order to better serve what the company calls fintech’s “underserved bookkeeping” market.

Uplinq leverages its proprietary technology to gather, organize, and categorize business transactions to provide small businesses with review-ready, real-time analysis “at the touch of a button.” With seamless integrations with more than 10,000 financial institutions, Uplinq provides its customers with weekly updated financial data – instead of monthly or quarterly – and said that more solutions for SMEs are planned to go live in 2023.

“We offer businesses a better way to get professional help through our proprietary technology, that not only makes bookkeeping worry-free for the business owner, but also provides them with powerful data automation and machine learning to better understand their finances and how their business can improve,” Glenn said.

Founded in 2020, Uplinq is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.

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20 Years of Fintech: How Far We’ve Come Since 2003

20 Years of Fintech: How Far We’ve Come Since 2003
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: List series, Thought Leadership

It can be difficult to pin down a birth year for fintech, but no matter how you look at it, our industry has come a long way. I was recently reminiscing and found a post published in 2003 by Finovate Founder Jim Bruene titled, The 10 Most Significant Innovations & Developments of 2003. These developments, Bruene said, “provide the best glimpse at the future of online financial services delivery.”

2003 was officially 20 years ago, which makes it a perfect benchmark. I’ve taken a look at the 10 developments and innovations that Bruene deemed “most significant” in 2003, and outlined some of fintech’s most recent updates and persistent struggles.

Phishing undermines trust (for now)

One of the original enemies to widespread adoption of online banking was phishing. In the last two weeks of December of 2003, one (now-defunct) organization had recorded 60 unique phishing attacks, sending an estimated 60 million fraudulent messages.

Those numbers don’t look so bad compared to today’s figures. The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) recorded more than 14,000 phishing attacks per day in the third quarter of 2022, marking the worst quarter for phishing the organization has ever observed. However, while phishing persists, it hasn’t deterred the majority of users from adopting digital banking.

Banks move to boost security perceptions

In this section, Bruene referenced an increase in keylogging incidents, along with one bank’s efforts to circumvent keylogging attacks by adding a keypad on the screen to allow users to click the buttons to enter their PIN instead of typing on their keyboard. The bank also implemented a secondary password requirement.

While these workarounds likely mitigated some of the fraud, they simultaneously introduced more friction for end users. Today, many firms have implemented biometrics to eliminate keylogging. However, while biometrics may have gotten rid of keylogging attacks, the authentication method has not put an end to fraud.

Citibank launches interbank transfers (A2A)

Citibank added online interbank transfers in the fall of 2003, making it the first major U.S. bank to offer such a service. At the time, Citi tapped CashEdge (acquired by Fiserv in 2011 for $465 million) to power the transfers.

Today, of course, the industry doesn’t consider account-to-account transfers an innovation. Rather, the service is now considered table stakes for all banking service providers. What has changed are the rails. A handful of banks have started piloting using the blockchain to transfer funds, especially in the case of cross-border payments.

Press turns positive toward online banking and other online financial activities

Twenty years ago, the dot-com crash was still fresh in the minds of both investors and everyday consumers. According to Bruene, 2003 was a turning point as consumers began to embrace the conveniences and efficiencies of online banking.

Today, while we’re not recovering from a dot-com crash, we are still reeling from the FTX scandal that took place late last year. It is estimated that around $1 billion to $2 billion in consumer funds were lost after the digital crypto exchange failed. And while the event will not result in negative press about fintech in general, it has already soured the press and industry analysts on crypto.

Bank of America hits seven million users

As you may imagine, adoption of Bank of America’s digital banking looked vastly different in 2003. “Bank of America had as many online banking customers as all U.S. banks combined had five years ago (at year-end 1998),” said Bruene. “The bank’s 7 million active users account for 43% of its checking account base, and 22% of all households. Year-over-year growth was an impressive 50%, with 2.3 million new active users.”

Today, Bank of America serves 67 million retail and small business clients. Of those, 55 million use Bank of America’s digital banking services. In July of last year, those customers logged into their Bank of America accounts one billion times– a record number for the bank.

The decline of paper statements begins

While 2003 may have marked a decline in paper statements, it didn’t mark the beginning of the end. According to a 2017 Javelin Strategy & Research report, only 61% of checking account customers have committed to paperless statements. In the report, Javelin suggests that much of this is unintentional. “Consumers now reflexively reach for their smartphones in all aspects of their lives and banking is not an exception,” said Mark Schwanhausser, Director, Digital Banking at Javelin Strategy & Research. “The intent is not to take statements away from customers; it is to provide an alternative that convinces them that paper statements are as unnecessary and obsolete as a checkbook register.”

Banks redesign websites for Yahoo-like clarity

Of the ten developments on this list, this one is my favorite, and not only because of the use of Yahoo! as an example. Optimizing online user interfaces is a science, and by 2003, developers didn’t know as much as they do today about creating user-friendly services.

Today, the shining examples in tech have shifted from Yahoo! to the likes of Uber, Stripe, and Airbnb. And by now, most large firms’ digital experiences exhibit “Yahoo-like” clarity. Still, there will always be room for improving the user experience, especially as consumers become aware of new enabling technologies like open finance.

Real-time credit for remote deposits

In this section, Bruene applauded two FIs for offering consumers instant credit for mailed remote deposits. It baffles me to think about mailing in a paper check to deposit it. However, in a pre-smartphone era such as 2003, there weren’t many other options that didn’t require additional hardware or infrastructure.

Today, while consumers can deposit most checks via smartphone, the deposits still generally take two-to-three days to post in consumer accounts. As a bonus, most firms have discovered a way to turn remote deposits into a revenue generating opportunity by charging consumers for instant deposits into their accounts.

Identity Theft 911 provides a credible source to fight ID theft

Identity Theft 911 has a storied history. The company rebranded to CyberScout in 2017, was acquired by Sontiq in 2021, which was bought by TransUnion in late 2021. Regardless of the multiple transitions, all companies shared a similar mission. Today, TransUnion helps consumers build and grow their credit scores, offers credit alerts, fraud alerts, credit monitoring, and more.

What’s different about this industry today, however, is the number of competitors in the space. Many organizations offer free credit monitoring. Other, paid services offer monitoring and reporting from all three bureaus, identity theft insurance, and more.

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Income Data Verification Platform Argyle Secures Accreditation from PBSA

Income Data Verification Platform Argyle Secures Accreditation from PBSA
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Argyle, Daily news
  • Income data verification company Argyle has secured accreditation from the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA).
  • The 880+ membership organization was founded in 2003 and helps keep screening firms up to date on new legislation and industry best practices.
  • Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in May of last year.

Real-time income data platform Argyle has received accreditation from the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA). This accreditation provides Argyle with a “seal of approval” as well as “national recognition” that its income data verification technology complies with industry standards with regards to both compliance and consumer protection.

“Argyle is committed to automating employment verifications in the background check industry,” Argyle CEO Shmulik Fishman said. “For our consumers and end users, we operate under rigorous standards and don’t compromise or cut corners. We’re pleased PBSA’s accreditation confirms those commitments.”

PBSA Executive Director Melissa Sorenson credited Argyle for joining the 880+ member organization and for supporting the PBSA’s efforts to “advance excellence within the background screening industry.” Founded in 2003, PBSA helps keep member firms in the United States and abroad informed about legislation that potentially impacts screening, as well as helps companies access practical guidance on industry best practices, news, and trends. The organization’s member organizations are defined as “consumer reporting agencies” under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and are regulated by both the FTC and CFPB.

Making its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring, Argyle is a New York-based technology company that enables consumers to connect their employment records to companies’ apps and websites. This secure connection allows businesses to access the income and identity data required in order to offer and deliver a range of digital experiences. At the same time, consumers benefit from access to more financial products and total control over the use of their data.

At FinovateSpring in 2022, the company demoed a design update for its Link technology to improve the tool’s usefulness for end users. Link is the front-end interface that lets consumers grant access to their payroll information. The 4.0 upgrade demoed last spring is designed to make it easier for users to connect their accounts, reduce drop-off rates, and improve the overall look and feel of the solution.

Argyle was founded in 2018. The company has raised more than $77 million in funding from investors including Bain Capital Ventures and SignalFire. Last fall, Argyle announced a partnership with Dallas, Texas-based payments company Highline to give lenders across the U.S. access to payroll-linked lending and billpay functionality.

“True financial inclusion begins with the recognition that there is a shortage of non-predatory options available for many Americans who need access to relatively small dollar loans,” Highline CEO Geoff Brown said. “The team at Argyle recognizes this as well and, like Highline, is committed to helping more consumers gain access to credit in a way that also makes sense for lenders and fits their business objectives.”

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Smartpay Users Can Now Make BNPL Payments Directly from Their Bank Accounts

Smartpay Users Can Now Make BNPL Payments Directly from Their Bank Accounts
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Japanese buy now, pay later fintech Smartpay launched Smartpay Bank Direct, a tool that will enable users to pay for their purchases directly from their bank accounts.
  • Prior to today’s launch, Smartpay users could only repay using a credit card.
  • Smartpay is currently available in Japan, KSA, and the UAE. The company aims to expand into Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and other markets in Southeast Asia and MENA.

Japan-based Smartpay is launching Smartpay Bank Direct, a tool that offers users a new way to pay for their online installment purchases.

Starting today, Smartpay users can pay for their buy now, pay later (BNPL) purchases directly from their bank accounts. The move is made possible by Smartpay’s partnerships with 67 banks and makes Smartpay one of the first consumer finance companies to leverage Japan’s open banking ecosystem.

Smartpay markets itself as a “payments experience” company, offering consumers a BNPL tool that enables consumers to pay for their purchases in three installments over the course of two months with no fees or interest. When the company launched its BNPL tool, consumers could only repay using their credit card. Today’s launch empowers them to pay directly from their bank account.

Japan revised its open banking approach in June 2018, when it required banks to offer open APIs within two years. After the start of 2020, the deadline was extended to September 2020. By that time, 97% of banks were in compliance.

“Since the launch of Smartpay just over a year ago, as Japan’s first BNPL solution payable by credit card, we have continued to expand our partner ecosystem with new retailers and an expanding customer base with revenue growth over 200% in the last three months,” said Smartpay founder and CEO Sam Ahmed. “It’s interesting that we have lifted merchant average order value more than 30% in four different merchant categories. We attract higher value consumers for the merchant through our eKYC process.”

Smartpay was founded in 2021 and is currently focused on Japan, KSA, and UAE markets. The company aims to expand into Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and other markets in Southeast Asia and MENA “in the medium term.”

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The Clearing House Gains a Fresh Start to the New Year, Names David Watson CEO

The Clearing House Gains a Fresh Start to the New Year, Names David Watson CEO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • U.S.-based banking association and payments network operator The Clearing House appointed a new CEO this week.
  • David Watson will assume the leadership position from Jim Aramanda, who will retire at the end of this month.
  • Watson comes to The Clearing House from SWIFT, where he served as Chief Product Officer.

The Clearing House (TCH) is getting a new leader for the new year. The U.S.-based banking association and payments network operator appointed David Watson as its newest CEO, launching into 2023 with a fresh start.

Watson will take the reins from the company’s current President and CEO Jim Aramanda, who will retire at the end of this month. Aramanda has served as CEO of TCH for 15 years, beginning his tenure at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

“The Clearing House’s Supervisory Board is grateful for Jim Aramanda’s long-standing service to the organization, said Bank of America Chair and Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the TCH Supervisory Board Brian Moynihan. “During Jim’s tenure, TCH continued its critical role in delivering ultra-reliable payments capabilities to the U.S. financial system, but importantly, also introduced innovative new payments capabilities. This includes the RTP network, which is now delivering real-time payments capabilities.”

Watson comes to TCH from SWIFT, where he served as Chief Product Officer, assisting in product engineering, development, and innovation. Prior to that, he served in multiple roles at Deutsche Bank for 17 years. His titles included Head of Cash Management Americas and Global Head of Digital Products, Global Head of Product Development – Global Transaction Banking, and Head of Americas Product Management – Global Transaction Banking.

“David brings extensive payments experience, in-depth expertise in the field, and a strong track record of innovation,” said Moynihan. “David will continue TCH’s important work of driving adoption of real-time payments capabilities and focusing on the safety, security, reliability, and efficiency of bank-owned payment systems which are critical to the financial system.”

TCH was founded in 1853. The 170-year-old company is owned by 24 of the largest commercial banks in the U.S. and clears and settles approximately $2 trillion in bank-to-bank payments each day through wire, ACH, check image, and real-time payments. In 2017, TCH took the historically slow U.S. payments industry into the next level by launching the Real Time Payments (RTP) network, which helps clear and settle payments instantly and facilitates the real-time exchange of payments-related data.

Shortly after David Watson becomes TCH’s new CEO, the company’s RTP will gain a new rival. RTP will compete directly with FedNow, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s real-time payment system, after it launches in July of this year. FedNow creates a new rail for payments that will provide all financial institutions access to secure, instant payment services in real time.

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FinovateEurope’s Alumni Alley Showcases Fintech’s Pioneers

FinovateEurope’s Alumni Alley Showcases Fintech’s Pioneers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, FinovateEurope 2023

To close out 2022, we highlighted our upcoming FinovateEurope Alumni Alley showcase. This event, part of FinovateEurope in London, March 13 through 14, will feature the companies that made their Finovate debuts at our annual European conference. Find out more about Alumni Alley and how you and your company can take advantage of this unique opportunity.

We commemorated the announcement of Alumni Alley with this multi-part look back at some of FinovateEurope’s earliest alums. Click the image to enjoy a little stroll down fintech’s memory lane.

Featuring Cardlytics, D3 Technology (formerly Lodo Software), and AcceptEasy (formerly AcceptEmail)

Featuring Xero, Tilte (formerly known as Striata), and DirectID (formerly miiCard)

Featuring Finantix, BusinessForensics, and StockTwits

Featuring Backbase, Boku, and SecureKey.

Featuring Meniga, Linxo, and eToro

Photo by Peter Spencer | Additional art credits in the original articles

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St. Mary’s Bank Inks Partnership with AKUVO to Automate Collections

St. Mary’s Bank Inks Partnership with AKUVO to Automate Collections
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • St. Mary’s Bank, a credit union headquartered in New Hampshire, has teamed up with credit risk specialist AKUVO.
  • The nation’s first credit union, founded in 1908, St. Mary’s Bank will deploy AKUVO’s Aperture to automate and enhance its collection operations.
  • With $1.5 billion in assets, St. Mary’s Bank said goodbye to its eighth CEO in December, as CEO and President Ronald Covey announced his retirement after 14 years leading the firm.

New Hampshire-based St. Mary’s Bank has teamed up with AKUVO, a credit risk specialist headquartered in Pennsylvania. St. Mary’s Bank will deploy AKUVO’s Aperture platform to streamline and enhance its collections operations, including bankruptcy, repossession, and foreclosure.

“We are committed to providing state-of-the-art banking services,” St. Mary’s Bank EVP and Chief Lending Officer Jan Raymond said. “With the amount of automation and integration we plan to leverage in Aperture, our team will have more time and the right tools to offer a first-class member experience while also managing risk and lowering delinquency.”

AKUVO’s Aperture platform helps banks and credit unions move away from the traditionally reactive, tactical approach to managing collections. Instead of static workflows, inefficient workspaces, and little customer personalization, AKUVO’s Aperture leverages analytics and automation to give financial institutions a streamlined, cloud-based solution. Not only does Aperture make day-to-day operational tasks easier, the technology also predicts behavior and provides insights to help head off delinquencies before they occur. Aperture helps banks and credit unions manage a wide range of collection and loss mitigation operations ranging from credit disputes and debt settlement to bankruptcy, foreclosure, and repossession.

“I think all service providers feel a tremendous sense of pride when they are chosen by the nation’s first credit union, and that is certainly the case at AKUVO,” AKUVO Chief Revenue and Operating Officer Steve Castagna said. “We look forward to assisting St. Mary’s in leading the credit union movement with its superior service and commitment to innovation.”

With $1.5 billion in assets, St. Mary’s Bank has the distinction of being the nation’s first credit union. Founded in 1908 and headquartered in Manchester, New Hampshire, St. Mary’s Bank is a not-for-profit, member-owned institution that offers financial products and services to both consumers and businesses. St. Mary’s Bank has eleven branch locations in Manchester, Hudson, Londonderry, Milford, Nashua, and Portsmouth, and supports a mortgage center in Concord.

St. Mary’s Bank ended 2022 with an announcement that Ronald Covey, who had served as the credit union’s president and CEO for 14 years, was retiring. Under Covey’s tenure, St. Mary’s Bank grew in membership from 60,000 to 98,000 members. Assets grew from $652 million to nearly $1.5 billion. Covey was also credited for helping the institution adapt to the “rapid technological advances in the financial services industry,” according to St. Mary’s Bank board of directors chair Steve Grzywacz.

Founded in 2020 by CEO Jay Mossman, AKUVO finished last year with a series of new partnerships. These include new pacts with Florida-based credit union FAIRWINDS and Michigan-based Financial Plus Credit Union in December; Mountain America Credit Union in November, and both CapEd Credit Union and Tucson Federal Credit Union in October. The company has raised $1.7 million in funding and announced a pair of debt financing rounds in February and May of 2022.

Photo by Scott Webb

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