Tink Teams Up with Mash

Tink Teams Up with Mash

Finland-based Mash will leverage account aggregation technology from fellow Nordic fintech Tink as part of an initiative to enhance the customer experience and offer new services. The company plans to use Tink to improve the onboarding process for new users as well as provide more control and insight into their financial accounts.

Calling Tink a “perfect match,” Mash CEO James Hickson praised Tink’s “pan-European connectivity” and work in Finland in support of the new partnership. “The quality of the aggregated data that Tink can access makes them a reliable source which will enable us to deliver a better service to our customers by making more informed decisions,” Hickson said.

Founded in 2007, Mash leverages proprietary algorithms, machine learning, and automation to provide consumer lending and payments solutions to thousands of customers a day. With offices in Finland, Sweden, Poland, Luxembourg, and Spain, the company has raised more than $153 million in funding (€138m).

“Mash is one of our partners who chooses to leverage the opportunities brought about by open banking to become more data-driven and deliver a better customer service,” Tink CEO and co-founder Daniel Kjellén said. He added that creating a win-win proposition for both Mash and its customers is “exactly what open banking is all about.”

With a single API integration, Tink offers cloud-based account aggregation (AIS) and payment initiation (PIS) services to help financial services companies bring new solutions to their customers. Tink provides data enrichment and categorization to ensure accuracy of user financial information, and offerings such as the its Tink Link SDK give companies an easy way to create a bank- and market-agnostic “one user authentication journey.”

Tink demonstrated its API platform at FinovateEurope 2018. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, the company announced a partnership with Danish fintech Lunar Way in March, supporting payment initiation and PFM for Lunar Way’s mobile app. In February, Tink made even bigger fintech headlines, raking in $63 million (€56m) in new funding and going live in five new markets in Europe.

We featured Tink in our recent look at how banks can compete with Apple’s new credit card.

Equifax Buys PayNet for Commercial Lending Data

Equifax Buys PayNet for Commercial Lending Data

Credit reporting agency and financial health company Equifax closed its 19th acquisition this week with the purchase of commercial lending solutions company PayNet. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

PayNet was founded in 1999 to help commercial lenders make better decisions. The company provides underwriting products for both banks and alternative lenders. Among the solutions offered are growth strategies, risk management, collections solutions, and business intelligence tools.

“I co-founded and ran PayNet with the belief that when commercial lenders are assured of risks, they are more likely to make credit available, unlocking opportunity for small businesses. I believe this aligns perfectly with the Equifax vision,” said Bill Phelan, PayNet president and co-founder. “The combined companies create the premier set of data on the private credit market in the U.S. and Canada.”

In addition to its tools, one of PayNet’s biggest attractions is its data on the commercial lending and leasing market. These two factors will help boost Equifax’s Commercial business, data assets, and analytics capabilities. Together, the companies can fuel client growth in the small and medium commercial business space.

“We are intensely focused on adding unique and valuable data assets to couple with our industry-leading data and analytics capabilities. The PayNet acquisition brings unique and valuable commercial leasing data assets to our leading commercial data assets and insights capabilities to enhance decisioning and access to credit for small and medium-sized businesses,” said Mark W. Begor, Equifax CEO.

PayNet and its employees have joined Equifax’s U.S. Information Solutions business unit.

Today’s deal isn’t the first example of Equifax chasing data. Last year the company acquired DataX, an alternative data provider that helps lenders expand credit access to underbanked populations.

At FinovateFall 2011, Equifax showcased the benefits of the Equifax Complete features of its mobile app. Founded in 1899, Equifax is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker EFX. The company’s market capitalization sits at $15 billion.

How Artificial Intelligence is Shaping Fintech

How Artificial Intelligence is Shaping Fintech

Talking with MX Research for an article recently published in the Credit Union Times, Ron Shevlin, Head of Research for Cornerstone Advisors, opined on the importance of AI and the banking industry.

Shevlin, who will serve as the chair for the Artificial Intelligence Summit at FinovateSpring in San Francisco next month, said that “banks are at serious risk if they are not investing in the data capabilities and assets that are going to drive AI technologies in the future.”

He added that banks need to focus on the ongoing financial health of their consumers and that capability will only come about as a result of embracing technologies like AI and its data needs. As far as Shevlin is concerned, banks are better off trying to emulate Fitbit than Amazon.

Sound interesting? Then join Ron Shevlin and a few hundred of your fellow fintech fans on Tuesday, May 7th – the day before FinovateSpring begins – for an all-day exploration into the role artificial intelligence and machine learning are playing in the development of fintech.

Here’s a look at the keynotes, debates, case studies, and panel discussions we have scheduled for the day. Tickets are available now, so visit our registration page and save your spot today.

  • How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform the Financial Services Industry. A keynote address from Dave Birch – Global Ambassador, Consult Hyperion.
  • Transforming Legacy Businesses with AI – Machine Learning is King Now, But Image, Voice & Natural Language Processing Are Coming Up Fast. What are the Internal Challenges? The Ethnical Challenges? And the Business Opportunities? A strategy roundtable featuring:
    • Mary Jane Ajodah – VP, Chief Digital Office, Strategy and Delivery, BNY Melon
    • Tom Tiefenworth – Assistant Vice President, Chief Technologist Compliance Analytics, Legg Mason
    • Anindya Sengupta – Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Prudential Financial Inc.
    • Sanjeev Khati – Head of Business Development, Banking and Financial Services, USA, Tata Consultancy Services
    • Conan French – Senior Advisor for Innovation and Fintech, Institute of International Finance (IIF).
  • The Rise of Natural Language Processing & How it is Reshaping Financial Services. A keynote address from Franziska Bell – Director, Data Science Platform, Uber
  • AI for Fraud Detection and Risk Management. A fireside chat with Kedar Samant – Senior Director, Simility Risk Platform – and Elizabeth Vogelsang – Director of Risk Management, Chime
  • Let’s Chat About Chatbots. A strategy roundtable featuring
    • Sandi Boga – Director, Customer Experience (CIAM), ATB Financial
    • Jerry Gupta – SVP Group Strategu, Swiss Re Management (U.S.) Corporation
    • Sumit Sarkar – Head, Customer Experience & Strategy, Personal Banking, BMO
    • Katia Lang – Co-founder and CEO, The Fintech Times
  • An AI Powered Future for Marketing. An innovator insight from Barry Kirk – VP, Loyalty Solution Leader, Maritz Motivation Solutions.
  • Data – Oxygen for AI. How Data Management & Data Governance Can Make or Break Your AI Journey. A debate featuring:
    • Eric Byunn – Founder and Partner, Centana Growth Partners
    • Hari Ramamurthy – CTO and Technical Architect, Kuflink
    • Joost van der Burgt – Senior Policy Advisor on Fintech, De Nederlandsche Bank
    • Mike Brusov – Founder and CEO, Cindicator
    • Daniel Drummer – Global Lead Data Analytics, J.P. Morgan
  • Using AI to Transform Customer Experience. A case study.
  • Harnessing AI to Revolutionize the Insurance Industry. A case study featuring Sean Harper – Co-founder and CEO, Kin Insurance.
  • AI to Streamline Operational Processes. A case study featuring Yun Zheng – VP II, Global Risk Analytics, HSBC USA.
  • Fintechs and Financial Institutions On the Journey Towards a Productive Partnership in AI. A closing debate featuring:
    • Tim Prier – CEO, Wicket
    • Brian Ascher – Partner, Venrock
    • Manuel Roggero – Director, Design and Partnership Innovation, Solution Acceleration and Innovation, RBC
    • Ron Shevlin – Head of Research, Cornerstone Advisors

Mambu Provides Core Banking Tech to RBS Challenger Bank Bo

Mambu Provides Core Banking Tech to RBS Challenger Bank Bo

RBS’s challenger bank Bo has reportedly selected Mambu as core banking technology provider. Mambu’s flagship solution will be delivered on a hosted basis, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Bo is RBS/NatWest’s digital alternative to the likes of Monzo and Starling, with former operations chief Mark Bailie leading the project.

Reportedly, around 100 staff have been briefed on the new project.

Bo is expected to launch to retail customers in 2019, with the aim of migrating one million Natwest customers to the new mobile platform. It will offer savings and deposits products to consumers.

Fintech Futures has reached out to Mambu and Bo; both firms have declined the request for comment.

For payments, Bo will be using Starling’s Payments-as-a-Service offering.

Mambu already has a couple of users in the U.K., namely OakNorth (which runs the system on the AWS cloud) and N26 (which uses Mambu’s tech in its home market in Germany and across international locations).

Founded in 2011, Mambu participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr New York, in 2016. The company’s CEO, Eugene Banilkis, presented Smart Consumer Lending: Platform and Scoring Architecture and discussed how Mambu developed its social, data-driven consumer credit scoring engine.

Mambu is also a veteran of Finovate’s demo-only event, having demonstrated its technology live at at FinovateAsia in Singapore in 2013.

From Product to Solution: The Evolving Role of the Customer in Technology

From Product to Solution: The Evolving Role of the Customer in Technology

The Customer Experience Summit, taking place on Tuesday, May 7th – the day before FinovateSpring officially begins – will feature deep dives into the challenge of customer engagement.

This special summit day will be filled with analyses, debates, and case studies on how companies are taking advantage of new technologies like AI and advanced machine learning to reach new customers and better serve their current clients.

As Steven Ramirez, founder and CEO of Beyond the Arc, and Chair of our Customer Experience Summit explained:

Customer experience as a discipline keeps advancing. That means organizations have gotten more sophisticated about monitoring the experience, understanding customer needs, and designing ways to delight. In other words, what was innovative two years ago is now table stakes.

For the leaders, there is an opportunity to leverage fintech to break new ground. They can find new paths toward the goal of a seamless financial services experience. But even for the followers, fintech offers huge opportunity. They can cherry-pick the best solutions to meet their customers’ needs. Fintech can help them to close the customer experience gap. 

Steven Ramirez, founder and CEO, Beyond the Arc

Focusing on the different advantages and challenges for both fintechs and financial institutions, Trulioo VP for Growth Anatoly Kvitnisky sees opportunity in collaboration.

“Fintechs are driven by growth and their natural strength is optimizing their platform for conversion. When it comes to CX, fintechs prioritize customer acquisition, convenience, and scalability.  Financial institutions, on the other hand, are driven by risk-aversion, which create barriers that make their CX cumbersome, often unnecessarily, to keep potential risk as low as possible.

But in this equation, financial institutions have the most experience meeting both legal and regulatory requirements. Combining the strengths and approaches of fintechs and financial institutions often lead to an ideal outcome: a frictionless CX that lets the highest number of customers through while meeting the legal requirements during the process.”

Anatoly Kvitnitsky, VP of Growth, Trulioo

Here’s a look at what we’ve got in store for you at our Customer Experience Summit this year at FinovateSpring. Tickets are available now and we look forward to seeing you next month in San Francisco!

  • The Evolution of Innovation: Build, Buy, or Partner. A keynote address from Rilla Delorier – EVP and Chief Strategy Officer, Umpqua Bank.
  • Return on CX – 80% of the Potential ROI is Typically Left Untapped. An analyst insight with Paul Berg – Senior Managing Consultant, Gallup.
  • How Can Financial Institutions Transform Customer Experience through Deep Customer Insights? Why Powerful Data Analytics will be Critical for Success. A strategy roundtable featuring:
    • Carl Fudge – Portfolio Director, IDEO
    • Emil Mataskh – former Chief Analytics Officer, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
    • Kim Prado – Global Head of Client Insight, Banking and Digital Channels Technology, RBC Capital Markets
    • Rachel Kobetz – Head of Experience Design, Bank of America
    • Larry Lubin – Chairman & President, BlueRush
    • Talie Baker – Senior Analyst, Retail Banking and Payments Practice, Aite Group
  • How to Innovate on Behalf of the Customer and Build around their Needs to Drive Loyalty and Sustained Growth. A fireside chat with Robyn Burkinshaw, CEO and founder of BlytzPay, and Philippa Ushio, Senior Vice President, Prosek Partners.
  • Bridging the Gap between the Customer Experience Promise and the Customer Experience Reality to Deliver Outstanding CX at Scale. A keynote address from Naveen Agarwal – Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, Prudential Financial, Inc.
  • How to Align Your Whole Organization to a Common Customer Purpose and to Harness Future Tech to Redraw the Customer Experience Landscape. A leaders debate featuring:
    • Vivek Bedi – Vice President of Digital Product, Northwestern Mutual
    • Terri Kallsen – Executive Vice President, Investor Services, Charles Schwab
    • Andrew Stevens – Global Banking Specialist, Quadient
    • Oliver Guilaumond – Global Head of Fintechs, ING
    • Steven Ramirez – CEO, Beyond the Arc
  • Creating a Seamless Digital Customer Experience. A fireside chat featuring Michael Lewis, Chief Technology Officer, Global Consumer Technology, Citi; and Sam Kilmer, Senior Director, Cornerstone Advisors
  • How We are Creating a Seamless Customer Experience. A panel discussion featuring:
    • Jason Osterhage – Senior Vice President, Lending, Alliant Credit Union
    • Jeff Berezny – Head of Global Product and Marketing, Trov
    • Danny Morrow – Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Extend
    • Tim Hong – Chief Product Officer, MoneyLion
    • Mary Hooper – Director of Digital and Innovation Strategies, Synovus
    • Steven Ramirez – CEO, Beyond the Arc
  • Harnessing Disruptive Technologies to Maximize Customer Experience and Loyalty. A case study with Hossein Rahnama – Founder and CEO of Flybits, Inc.
  • Delivering Outstanding Customer Experience by Harnessing Open APIs. A case study with Jeremy Berger – COO and Co-founder of Arival Bank.
  • Analyst Insight: Transforming the B2B Customer Experience
  • Fintechs and Financial Institutions on the Journey towards a Productive Partnership in CX. A closing debate featuring:
    • Sam Kilmer – Senior Director, Cornerstone Advisors
    • Susan French – Head of Product, BBVA Open Platform
    • Mike Sigal – Partner, 500 Startups
    • Lara Druyan – Managing Director, Head of Innovation, RBC
    • Anatoly Kvitnitsky – VP of Growth, Trulioo

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Strands and Mastercard

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek:  Strands and Mastercard

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.

Strands and Mastercard’s SME Cash Flow Manager is a tailor-made digitalization tool for SME banking using cutting-edge business financial management solutions.

Features

  • Deliver actionable insights and help business owners save time and money
  • Monitor Quickbooks data within digital banking experience
  • Place Mastercard solutions within customer’s digital user journey

Why it’s great
Strands and Mastercard’s joint cash flow solution allows a financial institution to deliver a suite of SME digital finance tools that empower the bank to become the business owner’s trusted advisor.

Presenters

Jay Singer, SVP, Global Small Business Segment, Mastercard
Singer has 20+ years of leadership experience in the payments industry across marketing, portfolio management, and product development. He currently leads Mastercard’s Global Small Businesses Segment.
LinkedIn

Cesar Richardson, General Manager, Strands Americas
Richardson helps banks re-build digital experiences that increase customer engagement, boost online conversion, and unlock the value of consumers’ behavioral data.
LinkedIn

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Agora

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek:  Agora

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.

Agora helps banks ramp up their digital experience without replacing their core banking system. Agora provides and co-creates tech tools for banks so that they can accelerate their digital journey.

Features

  • No core integration
  • Turnkey, plug-and-play, built-in solution
  • Fully white label

Why it’s great
With Agora’s platform, banks can now build their own digital journey without replacing their core banking technology.

Presenter

Arcady Lapiro, CEO and Co-founder
A fintech geek for over two decades, Lapiro has built a digital bank with over $20b in assets. He is a mentor of fintechs and a proud father of three.
LinkedIn

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Payclub

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek:  Payclub

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.

Payclub is building the first bank to help Gen Z manage, save, and spend money using collaborative group accounts.

Features

  • Create a group for any reason
  • Split by total, each, or custom amounts
  • Manage from anywhere with shared insights

Why it’s great
Payclub helps groups manage money together using collaborative group accounts.

Presenter

Jason Rieger, CEO
Rieger has an intimate knowledge of the college market and was the first employee at JusCollege (largest college travel company – acquired for $25m in March of 2018).
LinkedIn

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Our Libra

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek:  Our Libra

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.

Our Libra is a data-driven automated financial advisor and consumer lender focused on helping middle-class Americans manage their savings, investments, and debt.

Features

  • Automated financial advisor for managing savings and debt
  • Innovative, data-driven consumer lending platform

Why it’s great
Our Libra provides an insightful and economical way to serve a market that desperately needs quality financial advice: the American middle class.

Presenter

George Matthew, Founder and CEO
Matthew is developer of the Our Libra site and related algorithms. He is a former investment banker (over $20b of M&A and IPOs) and startup founder.
LinkedIn

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: CryptoNumerics

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek:  CryptoNumerics

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.

CN-Protect from CryptoNumerics is enterprise software that enables privacy protection of consumer data to comply with CCPA, GDPR, and HIPAA.

Features

  • Consistent privacy protection using Differential Privacy and AI
  • Privacy risk balanced with analytical value
  • Quantifiable metrics and auditing reports for compliance

Why it’s great
CN-Protect enables the protection of both identifiers and quasi-identifiers while retaining analytical value.

Presenters

Monika Holboke, Co-founder and CEO/CSO
Co-founder and CEO of CryptoNumerics, Holboke leverages her background in numerical methods and mathematical modeling to help organizations gain insights while protecting people’s privacy.
LinkedIn.

Hassan Bhatti, Co-founder| Commercial
Bhatti is a technology entrepreneur with broad technical and business knowledge along with a proven ability to take incredibly hard technical ideas and commercialize them.
LinkedIn.

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: CalcXML

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: CalcXML

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.

CalcXML’s FIST Score is a new index used to evaluate all aspects of a person’s financial health, access vulnerabilities in debt, liquidity, retirement and insurance, and make product recommendations.

Features

  • Personalized dashboard with national/group comparables
  • Customizable content with administrative and marketing reports
  • Single sign-on; scalable and secure database; API integration

Why it’s great
FIST Score unites the sophistication of computational AI technology with a simple user experience, creating a cradle-to-grave tool that enhances consumer loyalty and product placement.

Presenters

Chris Brockbank, Founder and President
Brockbank is a pioneer of online financial calculators and online tools as well as the author of the mathematical algorithms featured in the FIST Score.
LinkedIn

Rebecca Foster, VP Sales and Marketing
As VP of Sales, Foster works closely with financial institutions to integrate FIST Score and financial calculators with their existing portals and websites.
LinkedIn

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Equifax Buys PayNet for Commercial Lending Data.

Around the web

  • Ron Shevlin looks at the effects PayActiv’s technology has on the paycheck industry.
  • Thrive Global interviews Lynne Laube, COO and co-founder of Cardlytics.

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.