This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Biometric authentication specialist Fortress Identity has partnered with Visa this week. Under the agreement, Visa cardholders in Latin America and the Caribbean will have their transactions protected by means of Fortress Identity’s biometric technologies.
Fortress Identity will use voice prints, phone codes, as well as active and passive biometrics to authenticate users. “We want Visa cardholders to feel absolutely confident that their funds and personal data are safe whenever and wherever they use their Visa cards,” said Fortress Identity CEO Alessandro Chiarini.
“Multi-factor user authentication is critical in today’s interconnected commerce space, and verifying the identity of people attempting to access the network is key to reducing many types of fraud, including chargebacks,” said Eduardo Perez, SVP and Risk Officer for Visa Latin America and the Caribbean.
Fortress Identity will also collaborate with Visa technology partners including YellowPepper, a payment platform provider; NovoPayment, a banking as a service platform; and HST, an EMV vendor.
Founded in 2015, Fortress Identity leverages a suite of biometrics technologies to protect users in mobile iOS and Android applications, Microsoft Active Directory environments, and Citrix applications. The Miami, Florida-based company demoed its active and passive biometrics technology earlier this month at FinovateSpring. Fortress Identity has eight employees and has raised $3 million.
Global Treasure Bank (GTB) in Myanmar has implemented Infosys Finacle’score banking solution to power its retail and corporate operations, reports Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures, Finovate’s sister publication.
Finacle is understood to have replaced the Kastle core banking system from another India-based vendor, 3i Infotech.
Since the implementation, the bank says it has signed up nearly 75,000 new accounts of various types, with each onboarding process taking just minutes. It has also seen improved control and productivity in its 163 branches, thanks to built-in workflow engines.
GTB is now processing an average 300,000 mixed transactions per day and is benefiting from the “360-degree view of customer relationships and transactions” that Finacle provides.
“For over two decades, GTB has stayed true to our mission of comprehensive economic development of Myanmar through reliable, inclusive and convenient banking services,” said U KoKo Aung, CEO of GTB. “Today, to continue to abide by this commitment in an increasingly complex regulatory and competitive environment, we felt the need for a modern platform to power our banking strategy.”
Venkatramana Gosavi, senior vice-president and global head of sales at Infosys Finacle stated that the Myanmar banking industry is undergoing a transformation.
He added, “With Finacle, GTB has gained a strong foundation to boost agility and efficiency of operations, and significantly improve customer experience across channels.”
The implementation process was aided by ACE Data Systems, Finacle’s business partner in Myanmar.
Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a subsidiary of Infosys, showcased EdgeVerve Blockchain Framework for Financial Services at FinovateEurope 2017. At the start of 2018 Infosys teamed up with Tradeshift to help clients digitize supply chain management. At the start of this year, the company partnered with Qatar National Bank.
Banking technology vendor Temenos is partnering with UBX to deliver digital banking to millions of unbanked and underserved customers in the Philippines, reports Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures, Finovate’s sister publication.
The fintech subsidiary of UnionBank of the Philippines, UBX has developed a range of plug-and-play services to help rural banks reach customers in remote communities.
These include the blockchain-based i2i turnkey solution, which connects rural banks to each other and to the Philippines’ main financial networks.
Having partnered with Temenos, UBX can now offer core banking software to its partner financial institutions, through Temenos T24 Transact.
Temenos says its cloud-native, cloud-agnostic, API-first banking software will provide greater levels of agility and scalability for rural banks, cooperatives and microfinance institutions.
“At UBX, our mission is to build platforms that bring businesses and people together,” says John Januszczak, CEO of UBX. “As part of that, we provide access to needed technology and services while connecting communities.
“The rural banking community in the Philippines has been championing financial inclusion for decades. Temenos will help us provide the most tailored, innovative and advanced core banking solution to our rural banking customers.”
The partnership aims to deliver digital banking to millions of people over the next five years.
Founded in 1993, Temenos debuted its Connect Mobile Banking application at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. With clients in 145+ countries, Temenos employs more than 4,600 people in 63 offices. The company has a market capitalization of $12.5 billion.
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.
According to financial data services innovator MX, if you’re going to bring your new, self-guided financial wellness tool in Canada, you might as well start big.
MX announced today that its Pulse solution will be available to members of Meridian, the largest credit union in Ontario, Canada, and the third largest CU in the country. The move will benefit not only Meridian members, but also those who are members of Meridian’s new digital entity, motusbank. According to the credit union, the partnership is part of its larger strategy to leverage digital technology to promote financial wellness.
“By investing in data and the latest personalized AI tools, we’re showing our members that we are serious about improving their financial health in the present and in the future,” motusbank SVP and COO David Baldarelli said. “Being able to get up and running so quickly with MX and work together as partners to customize Pulse for our members really sealed the deal.”
Pulse helps users make better financial decisions by providing AI-powered, personal, predictive, and proactive financial guidance. The solution benefits financial institutions by delivering customer engagement improvements like more logins (+60%), increased transactions per login (+32%), and an increase in NPS (+28%).
Founded more than 75 years ago, Meridian has grown into a credit union with 340,000 members and more than $21 billion in assets under management. The credit union has a network of 91 branches across Ontario, with commercial banking services available in 11 locations. Merdian launched its digital bank, motusbank, in April of this year, which offers savings and checking accounts, GICs and mortgages, as well as personal loans and lines of credit.
“We’re extremely excited about Meridian and motusbank choosing MX Pulse to provide AI-driven insights and advice to its members through online and mobile banking,” MX Chief Product Officer Brett Allred said. “This is a wonderful example of an industry leader using the power of clean data to deliver a world-class experience to its members while outpacing the competition in a rapidly evolving industry.”
The partnership news from MX is the second big fintech headline for the Utah-based fintech this month. Earlier in May, the company announced that it was teaming up with fellow Finovate alum, Kony, to bring PFM and spending categorization and classification to Kony’s digital banking solution, DBX.
MX most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2017. At the event, the company showed how its Discovered Accounts solution leverages enriched transaction data to help banks and credit unions build and deepen customer engagement.
Featured in PaymentsSource’s list of the Best Fintechs to Work For at the beginning of the year, MX announced a collaboration with Personetics in March that will bring AI-powered, real-time insights on customer behavior and preferences to more banks and credit unions. The company unveiledMoneyMap with Pulse, a self-guided financial wellness solution in April and, later that same month, picked up a 2019 Utah Genius award.
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Lehi, Utah, MX has raised $75 million in funding. USAA, Digital Garage, and Commerce Ventures are among the firm’s investors. The company has partnered with 1,800+ FIs and 43 of the top 50 digital banking providers. Ryan Caldwell is CEO and founder.
Thanks to the power of mobile technology, you won’t have to leave the poolside, barbeque pit, or beach during this long Memorial Day weekend in order to enjoy your favorite demo videos from FinovateSpring.
Every demo video from our just-completed conference in San Francisco is now available for viewing – for free – in our video archives. Rewatch some of your favorites or catch-up on the demos you missed.
Here’s a sample of what’s waiting for you – courtesy of the Best of Show winners of this year’s FinovateSpring.
Enveillaunches its enhanced ZeroReveal 2.0 data-in-use security solution.
Bokuintegrates with digital payments solution Grab in order to expand payment options in Southeast Asia.
Equifax Canada announces partnership with SecureKeyTechnologies.
Artivesttaps Paul Nobile as its new Chief Marketing Officer.
Lattice80 interviews Ashish Gadnis, Co-Founder and CEO of BanQu.
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.
UK-based international payments fintech TransferWise has doubled its value to $3.5 billion after raising $292 million in secondary funding, reports Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
The Telegraph reports that the round was led by investors including Lead Edge Capital, Lone Pine Capital and Vitruvian Partners. The Sir Richard Branson-backed firm also received investment from BlackRock and existing investors Andressen Horowitz and Baillie Gifford.T
TransferWise’s strategy of providing cheap exchange rates by using two local transfers for each transaction, instead of more expensive single international payments, has attracted more than five million customers since the fintech was founded in 2011.
According to The Telegraph, TransferWise will use the funds to take on 750 more staff over the next year.
“TransferWise is experiencing phenomenal growth and this investment is testament to that,” said Kristo Käärman, chief executive and co-founder. “We don’t need to raise funds on this trajectory, but we’re humbled by the persistent level of interest.”
TransferWise handles a transaction volume of $5.1 billion across its 12 global offices every month. The company demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2013.
Financial process automation innovator Bill.com has launched its new Intelligent Business Payments platform, a solution that puts AI to work to bring end-to-end automation to financial workflows. The platform leverages its Intelligent Virtual Assistant capacities to automatically capture data from invoices and start the approval process, as well as recognize workflows, and create new business rules.
The new solution also drives payment flexibility, enabling international payments, virtual cards, and other options to accelerate the payment process; and supports auto pay for recurring bills.
“Our new intelligent platform, which is the most significant update to Bill.com since its inception, is built on ten years of experience managing business payments and hundreds of millions of bills and invoices to train the AI,” Bill.com CEO and founder Rene Lacerte said. “Increasing the speed and ease of payments will help businesses get ahead.”
The company said that customers in a recent survey reported averages weekly savings of 5.5 hours, more than 35 business days a year, using Bill.com’s process automation solution. In a statement noting that many companies spend nearly a quarter of the work day managing manual processes, Bill.com suggested there was a growing need for work flow automation technology.
“Bill.com has focused on developing new technologies that help SMBs grow,” Lacerte said. “Automating the back office is a huge industry-wide need.”
The company’s latest announcement comes a little over a month since it picked up $88 million in new funding in a round led by Franklin Templeton. The investment boosted Bill.com’s total capital to $275 million, and puts the company’s valuation above $1 billion. Also this year, Bill.com teamed up with American Express to offer a new AP solution, VendorPay for the firm’s business and corporate cardholders.
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Bill.com demonstrated its CashView Command and Control system at FinovateSpring 2012. The technology helps businesses better manage their accounts payables and receivables, and provides online billpay, custom invoicing, unlimited document storage, collaboration tools, and mobile access.
With more than $60 billion in payments managed every year and a network of three million members, Bill.com works with 70+ of the top 100 accounting firms, as well as accounting software providers like NetSuite and fellow Finovate alum Xero. The company is also CPA.com’s preferred provider of digital payments.
One month after launching its InstantPay solution, Checkbook.io is back in the fintech headlines with news of its partnership with event production booking platform Castifi. The hub for event and media production managers is leveraging technology from Checkbook to make it easier to ensure that short term workers get paid as quickly as possible.
“Many of the cast and crew members that we work with can’t wait 2-3 weeks to get paid, which is the industry norm,” Castifi founder and CEO Rum Sheikhani said. “Our users regularly tell us about the difficulties of managing everyday expenses and (the) uncertainty around when they will get paid.” Sheikhani noted that the partnership with Checkbook has helped workers get paid in two business days or less, which she called “a game changer for our core business.”
Checkbook offers a secure payments alternative for companies that avoids the inefficiency – in time and cost – of paper checks. The company’s Digital Checks enable recipients to get payments online without requiring them to create an account or enroll in a specific digital wallet. With Checkbook, as soon as the recipient authenticates their bank account, they will see that the money is being sent to them. Recipients can deposit the funds online, print their digital check and make a remote deposit capture with their mobile device, or get their funds transferred instantly on their debit card.
Culver City, California-based Castifi was founded in 2015. The company has raised $600,000 in seed funding, and helped event managers in more than 250 productions find, hire, manage, and pay their cast and crew. Most recently, Castifi was involved in the digital series, Grown, produced by Adaptive Studios.
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Checkbook demonstrated its digital check technology at FinovateSpring 2017. The company celebrated surpassing the two million user mark last fall. Check out our profile of the company from last December, in which Checkbook CEO P.J. Gupta explained how accounting firms are taking advantage of digital check technology.
CheckbookTeams Up with Event Management Platform Castifi.
TransferWiseDoubles Valuation with $292 Million Funding.
Bill.comUnveils New Intelligent Business Payments Platform.
Around the web
CardFlightpartners with payment solutions provider Talus.
Revolutintroduces social savings solution, Group Vaults.
Plaidunveils its easy integration toolkit, Plaid Direct.
Temenosforges partnership with UBX, the fintech subsidiary of Philippines-based UnionBank.
Wiprodevelops blockchain-based payment solution for Travacoin.
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.
A new collaboration between online banking e-payments innovator Trustly and digital bank Collector will bring instant bank payments to the checkouts of Nordic merchants of all sizes. The partnership seeks to take advantage of the popularity of online bank payments in the region; nearly one in three shoppers in Finland, for example, expressed preference for paying directly from their online bank, according to a recent report.
Trustly’s cross-border pedigree was an important factor for Collector Bank. Calling the company a “great match” on this score, the bank’s General Manager for Payments Mikael Anstrin said, “(Trustly’s) cross-border payment solutions are available in our all of our existing markets and its vast coverage also opens up the opportunity for us to expand into new geographies.”
Trustly enables users the ability to shop and pay directly from their bank accounts. Individuals can Pay with Trustly by simply choosing and logging into their bank, selecting the account from which they want to pay, and then confirming the payment with the authentication option of their choice. The company processes transactions to and from consumer bank accounts at more than 3,000 banks in 29 European markets.
“We’re delighted to partner with Collector and offer our fast, simple, and secure bank payment solution to their hundreds of merchants,” Chief Commercial Officer for Trustly, Johan Nord said. “The partnership is very much aligned with our strategy of delivering the best, most versatile and, for PSPs as well as merchants, most operationally easy-to-use bank payment solution in the markets where we operate.”
Trustly demonstrated its Direct Debit solution at FinovateEurope 2017. The technology adds support for recurring charges and one-click payments from a bank account, and offers the highest encryption standard available. More recently, the company teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Eurobits Technologies to help form the European Third Party Suppliers Association (ETPPAO, and announced that it had reached the 300 employee mark.
Founded in 2008, Trustly was acquired by Nordic Capital last spring. The company is based in Stockholm, Sweden.
