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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Insuritas and Tower Hill Specialty partner to bring Tower Hill’s property products to market through Insuritas’ bank partner network.
NIIT Technologiespartners with Blue Chip to bring its wealth management application to Blue Chip’s IBM POWER.
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.
While some of the audience got a head start yesterday with the Summit Day discussions, today is the start of our mainstage event.
As a reminder, we’ve moved the event to the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco. And tickets are available at the registration desk so there’s still time to take part in the action.
Registration opens at 8:30 a.m. Be sure to come early to grab your badge and enjoy a cup of coffee and breakfast while you network. The demos will start at 9:30 a.m., so give yourself enough time to find a good seat in the auditorium.
Here’s an outline of the rest of today’s schedule:
Prepaid payments innovator InComm is expanding into wearables this week. The Georgia-based company announced its MyVanilla Prepaid Mastercard is compatible with Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay.
This is the first prepaid card to work with Fitbit and Garmin; prior to today’s announcement both were limited to debit and credit cards.
“The payments industry is steadily moving toward a digital ecosystem, and we are ensuring both consumers and our retail partners are ready for this change,” said Michael Parlotto, Vice President of Emerging Technologies at InComm. “Bringing MyVanilla to Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay allows consumers to quickly and confidently use their prepaid cards on the go.”
With the launch, consumers using the MyVanilla general purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid card can make payments using Fitbit’s and Garmin’s mobile wallets at locations where Mastercard prepaid payments are accepted. Compatible devices include the Fitbit Charge 3, Fitbit Ionic, and Fitbit Versa; as well as the Garmin D2 Delta, Garmin fenix 5, Garmin Forerunner 645, and Garmin vivoactive 3.
The consumer’s card number is never stored on their wearable device. Rather, the device generates a unique token to process the transaction, ensuring card number secrecy in the event the watch is lost or stolen.
Along with the wearables announcement, InComm unveiled it will bring NFC capabilities to retailers in its payment network. This update will allow InComm prepaid cardholders to reload Vanilla Prepaid cards that are connected to mobile wallets by tapping their NFC-capable phone. “[O]ur launch of tap-to-reload capabilities expands our suite of payment processing tools to include full lifecycle management of the mobile payments ecosystem, from provisioning capabilities to reload processing,” said Parlotto.
Fiserv has gained three Canadian credit unions for its DNA core system, reports Martin Whybrow of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
These are Carpathia Credit Union, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Toronto-based duo, Estonian Credit Union, and Parama Credit Union.
Canadian service provider, Celero, has been recruited to work on the projects, having implemented Fiserv solutions at other Canadian credit unions over the years.
Drivers given for the decision include a desire to automate and streamline operations, simplify the creation of new products, and activate a full range of integrated digital services for their members.
Among other reasons for the selection, Nick Rawluk, CEO at Carpathia Credit Union, cites, “the proven track-record of continuous investment in DNA”.
DNA, which Fiserv acquired with Open Solutions in early 2013, is used by more than 100 credit unions in Canada, including 60 of the top 100 based on assets, serving more than 1.2 million members.
The Microsoft and Oracle-based system started life in the early 1990s as The Complete Banking Solution (TCBS). From the outset there was a credit union version with the same code base, The Complete Credit Union Solution (TCCUS), and this has always been a strong sector for the system.
Fiserv recently appeared on the FinovateSpring 2018 stage alongside Samsung SDS, where the two showcased how Samsung SDS integrates its biometric authentication and collaboration solutions into Fiserv’s Commercial Center: Security (CC:S) to create a more secure and convenient digital banking experience. Some of the company’s recent partners include Eurasian Bank, NBT Bank, and Hellenic Bank.
Silicon Canals listsKantox among 10 hottest Barcelona fintech startups to work for in 2019.
PYMNTS interviewsEntersekt’s country manager of Canada Christian Ali.
Tunisian bank selectsTemenos to drive digital transformation and future growth.
Diebold Nixdorfexpands partnership with Belgian-owned Belfius Bank and Insurance to improve the UX for the bank’s 3.5 million consumers.
BlueVine and Nationwide partner to launch Pitch to Win small business contest with $100,000 prize.
Kabbage partners with the Building Trades Employers’ Association to provide members, specifically women and minority-owned business contractors, access to funding.
Micronotessees triple-digit YOY client growth in Q1 2019
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.
Two of the hottest trends in fintech – AI technology and the prioritization of the customer experience – will be the focus of our special, pre-FinovateSpring Summit Day, that begins Monday morning here at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square on O’Farrell Street in San Francisco, California.
Our Summit Day will feature two parallel tracks – one focused on AI and the other dedicated to the customer experience – that will include keynote addresses, case studies, panel discussions, and debates all designed to help conference attendees better understand how these trends are shaping technology in general and fintech in specific.
Here’s a look at what we’ve got in store for you today. For more about our Summit Day speakers and topics, check out our previews for both the AI and CX summits.
Artificial Intelligence Summit
8:15am – 9am – Registration, Breakfast, and Networking
9:05am – 9:30am – Keynote Address: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform the Financial Services Industry
9:30am – 9:50am – Special Address from an AI Pioneer: Making AI Walk the Talk
9:50am – 10:30am – Strategy Roundtable: Transforming Legacy Businesses with AI – Machine Learning is King Now But Image, Voice, and Natural Language Processing Are Coming Up Fast. What are the Internal Challenges? The Ethical Challenges? And the Business Opportunities?
9:05am – 9:30am – Keynote Address: The Evolution of Innovation: Build, Buy, Or Partner?
9:30am – 9:50am – Analyst Insight: Return on CX – 80% of the Potential ROI is Left Untapped
9:50am – 10:30am – Strategy Roundtable: How Can Financial Institutions Transform Customer Experience through Deep Customer Insights? Why Powerful Data Analytics Will Be Critical for Success?
11:00am – 11:25am – Fireside Chat with a Fintech Founder: How to Innovate on Behalf of the Customer & to Build a Business Around their Needs to Drive Loyalty and Sustained Growth
11:25am – 11:45am – Presentation: Customer Experience Promise vs. Reality: Getting to Measurable Impact
11:45am – 12:25pm – Leaders Debate: How to Align Your Whole Organization to a Common Customer Purpose & to Harness Future Tech to Redraw the Customer Experience Landscape
12:25pm – 1:25pm – Lunch & Networking Break
1:25pm – 1:45pm – Fireside Chat: Creating a Seamless Digital Customer Experience
Digital advice solutions provider Jemstep announced today that its Jemstep Advisor Pro app is now live on the Salesforce AppExchange. The app can be used by advisors working with the company’s Advisor Pro digital advice platform, and is configured for Lightning and Financial Services Cloud as well as Sales and Service Cloud.
The new app will make it easier for wealth management companies who want to provide more personalized, 24/7 service to their clients. And by leveraging Salesforce, the solution is a boon for Jemstep’s enterprise customers, enabling them to access the data that will drive better, more meaningful engagement with both current and potential clients.
“Jemstep embraces collaborations to unify the digital advice experience for banks, broker-dealers, insurers, and RIAs,” Jemstep President and CEO Simon Roy explained. “Combining the modern, goal-based investing experience of Jemstep Advisor Pro with Salesforce’s extensive CRM capabilities results in an intelligent and scalable enterprise class digital platform for advisors supporting personalized solutions for investors.”
The new app from Jemstep will also help wealth management firms and advisors grow assets under management. The Salesforce integration, for example, gives advisors a broader, more comprehensive view of the investor-customer’s financial profile, including the ability to “engage retail banking clients in wealth management solutions.” As such, the app and integration support a “more targeted and scalable approach” with regards to attracting new clients and reaching out to current ones.
In addition to lower the cost of servicing clients, the Jemstep Advisor Pro app makes it easier for wealth managers to get investor information and data to advisors and back office teams more readily. Being able to onboard new clients in 10 minutes or less is another plus for the platform and app, leveraging straight-through processing and deep custodian integrations to make opening and managing accounts straightforward and seamless.
“We are excited to welcome Jemstep to Salesforce AppExchange and into the Financial Services Cloud ecosystem,” SVP and GM for Financial Services at Salesforce Rohit Mahna said. “We look forward to watching Jemstep continue to build innovative solutions that empower financial advisors to deliver the best client experience.”
Jemstep was founded in 2008, and is headquartered in Los Altos, California. The company demonstrated its Portfolio Manager at FinovateSpring 2013 and, three years later, was acquired by Invesco for an undisclosed sum. More recently, Jemstep has forged partnerships FIs like KeyBank, which deployed the company’s Advisor Pro solution in 2017.
It’s rehearsal day, so while companies are practicing their demos on stage in the auditorium, sponsors are setting up their booths in the networking hall. And you can prepare too– check out our Sneak Peek blog series to get an advance look at what each of the companies will unveil on stage and take a look at some of the themes that will pulse throughout the show.
AI and CX Summit
The precursor to the event begins today. Don’t miss our exclusive Summit Day that covers all you need to know about the latest in AI and Customer Experience as it relates to fintech and banking. Registration opens at 8:15 a.m. and the first session begins at 9 a.m.
Demo days
FinovateSpring begins tomorrow on Wednesday, May 8. Registration opens at 8:30 and the show kicks off at 9:30. Our 60 demo companies will take the stage on the first two days. Demos will be intermixed with keynote speakers, the Analyst All Star session, and networking. The demos wrap up on May 9 and the Best of Show winners will be announced that afternoon during happy hour.
Context day
Once the Best of Show winners have been crowned, it’s time to put it all into context. Registration for the final day of FinovateSpring begins at 8 a.m. and opening remarks start at 8:30. Prepare to hear plenty of insightful keynote addresses, panels, and discussions around community banking, digital banking, digital lending, and digital payments.
Feel free to contact us with any questions. We’ll see you in San Francisco!
First Hawaiian is changing core systems but staying within the FIS camp. It has used the supplier’s mainframe-based Systematics for many years and has opted for the same supplier’s IBS core platform as the replacement, reports Martin Whybrow of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
The project includes FIS’s Digital One omni-channel platform at the front-end. Another component is FIS’s Code Connect API layer for connectivity.
The choice of core system and channel solutions comes despite the bank signing in 2015 with FIS’s fellow U.S. heavyweight competitor, Fiserv, for a range of front-end systems. These included Fiserv’s Corillian Online for online banking, Mobiliti for mobile banking, CheckFree RXP for electronic bill payment, a personal payments service, Popmoney, and personal finance management tool, AllData.
As with FIS, Fiserv has a range of core banking systems. FIS’s long-standing IBS was gained with one of the supplier’s acquisitions, that of Metavante in 2009. IBS covers payments, deposits, lending, card processing, accounting and reporting, risk and compliance, sales and service, imaging, data warehouse and analytics, and cash management.
First Hawaiian is the oldest and largest full-service bank in Hawaii with more than $20 billion in assets. The bank has 55 branch locations in Hawaii, three on Guam, and two in Saipan. It is undertaking a major enterprise-wide effort that it says is focused on delivering “a customer-centric experience that inspires loyalty and enhances the capabilities of their retail branch network.”
The new core system is intended to provide the bank with “advanced digital capabilities for seamless customer experience, rich data analytics for informed decision-making, and the ability to easily integrate with third-party applications.”
FIS most recently demoed at FinovateFall 2016. The company debuted its Cardless Cash solution that provides fast, secure options for sending and picking up cash at any ATM. Headquartered in Florida, FIS’ solutions move $9 trillion each year for 20,000 clients in 130 countries.
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.
As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Brazil’s central bank issues open banking guidelines for the country.
Crunchbase News looks at VC funding trends in Latin America and their impact on fintech investment.
LATAM Tech explores Argentina’s investment in blockchain technology.
Asia-Pacific
ACI Worldwide to help Indonesia interbank network ALTO to expand its payment capabilities.
China makes moves to ease cross-border ecommerce settlement.
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Central Bank of Canada team up to trial DLT technology for cross border payments.
Sub-Saharan Africa
ESI Africa reports on the potential for fintech to drive economic growth in Africa.
Kenya’s 4G Capital, a financial services solution provider for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) opens offices in Uganda.
Fintech News Switzerland profiles the fintech scene in South Africa.
Central and Eastern Europe
Token helps drive Open Banking with new Sberbank Croatia partnership.
Lithuanian fintech Paysera announces plans to raise €2.5 million in a security token offering.
Banks in Hungary and Slovakia choose core banking technology from Oracle Financial Services.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Fenergoworking with Bahrain’s Electronic Network for Financial Transactions to design and implement a KYC solution that incorporates blockchain technology.
FinovateSpring is right around the corner! Our week of live fintech demos, insightful discussions, and passionate debates is one of the best – and most entertaining – ways to get up to speed on everything you need to know about the state of fintech today.
With a special, pre-show Summit Day on Tuesday, May 7, FinovateSpring begins on May 8 and runs through Friday the 10th. Our annual spring conference will be held at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, where we’re looking forward to a fun and informative four days focused exclusively on fintech innovation.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you plan your trip to the Bay Area.
Registration for both the main, three-day conference, as well as for our special Summit Day on Tuesday, May 7, is quick and easy. Discounts are available for groups, representatives of governmental/regulatory agencies, startups, and attendees registering for both the main conference and the Summit Day. Check out our registration page for more details.
Back at the Bay
FinovateSpring returns to San Francisco for the first time since 2013. This year our spring conference will be held in the heart of the city at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square on O’Farrell Street. The venue is less than an hour away from the main Bay Area airports, as well as shops, restaurants, and a variety of entertainment venues.
Live Demos and Deep Dives
FinovateSpring begins Wednesday morning, May 10, and continues through Friday afternoon. The first two days of the conference will feature our presenting companies as they demonstrate their latest technologies live on our stage.
On Friday, we will invite the fintech experts to take over and have them put into context the innovations that have been on display over the past few days. We’ve prepared a full day of keynote addresses, debates, fireside chats, and panel discussions on a wide range of critical trends and themes in fintech.
This year we will also feature a special, pre-FinovateSpring Summit Day on Tuesday. This Summit Day consists of two tracks: one focusing on the evolving role of the customer experience in fintech and the other examining the rise of artificial intelligence as an enabling technology in the industry. We’re looking forward to the conversations with and insights from our speakers in both of these tracks.
With all we’ve got planned for FinovateSpring next week, we are thrilled to be back in San Francisco for this year’s conference. If you’ve got any questions about the event, check out the FAQ section on our FinovateSpring page or contact us directly.
