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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Embedded banking software provider Treasury Prime partnered with digital banking solutions company Narmi.
Banks in the Treasury Prime network will be able to offer their BaaS clients access to a real-time payment platform via Narmi’s FedNow service.
Under the agreement, Narmi will act as the service provider for FedNow.
Embedded banking software provider Treasury Primeannounced today it has partnered with digital banking solutions company Narmi. As a result of the agreement, Treasury Prime will be able to offer its banking customers the ability to send and receive money through FedNow.
Banks in the Treasury Prime network can offer their BaaS clients a real-time payments platform via Narmi’s FedNow service. Narmi supports all of the FedNow offerings, including the ability to receive funds, send money to linked and external accounts, and request for payment (RFP). By adding real time payment capabilities to their BaaS capabilities, banks can help their fintech clients remain competitive, drive engagement, and increase revenue streams.
“Narmi’s FedNow Service Provider capabilities combined with Treasury Prime’s embedded banking platform creates a unique and powerful offering,” said Treasury Prime Chief Platform Officer Mark Vermeersch. “We are excited to partner with Narmi to streamline the integration of FedNow for our financial institution customers, allowing them to stay at the forefront of real-time payments and fintech services.”
To keep things simple for banks, Narmi will act as the service provider for FedNow, handling complex tasks such as connecting directly to the Federal Reserve, posting transactions to the core banking system, and facilitating compliance and operational requirements.
Founded in 2017, Treasury Prime helps banks become partner banks by building an embedded banking platform. The San Francisco-based company helps its bank clients build and deploy a wide range of financial products, including business bank accounts, payment processing, and lending solutions, all integrated with their existing systems.
New York-based Narmi was founded in 2016 to offer banks the digital banking tools they need to increase profitability, deposits, and accounts. In addition to the company’s FedNow service, it also offers commercial and retail digital banking tools, digital account opening capabilities, analytics, and an administrative portal.
“Narmi and Treasury Prime share a common vision to better serve the needs of small to mid-sized financial institutions,” said Narmi Co-Founder Chris Griffin. “This partnership with Treasury Prime represents a significant leap forward for these banks, opening doors to new revenue streams and enabling them to meet the ever-increasing demand for real-time payment solutions in the modern financial landscape.”
Indiana-based New Washington State Bank (NWSB) has selected Apiture’s Digital Banking Platform to power its online and mobile banking solutions.
The community bank will also deploy Apiture’s Account Opening and Data Intelligence solutions to onboard customers faster and to offer tailored campaigns.
Apiture made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022. The company is headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina.
New Washington State Bank (NWSB), a community financial institution serving Southern Indiana for 116 years, has partnered with Apiture to power its online and mobile banking offerings. The bank will deploy Apiture’s Digital Banking Platform, and implement the fintech’s Consumer Banking, Business Banking, Account Opening, and Data Intelligence solutions.
“With integrations to more than 200 best-of-breed fintech partners and an API-first approach that enables rapid innovation, the Apiture Digital Banking Platform will empower NWSB to provide the unified, intuitive banking experience today’s technologically savvy customers expect,” Apiture CEO Chris Babcock said.
The partnership follows the bank’s decision to migrate from a multi-vendor strategy to a single platform for both its online and mobile banking operations. NWSB Chief Strategy Officer Chris Bottorff said that providing a “cohesive and consistent digital experience” is a priority for the institution as it seeks “to improve the financial lives of those living and working in the communities we serve.” Bottorff praised Apiture as a partner that will help the Indiana-based bank better engage its existing customers as well as attract new ones.
To this point, NWSB underscored its readiness to take advantage of two of Apiture’s solutions in particular: Account Opening and Data Intelligence. The former enables customers to open and fund accounts in minutes. The latter provides tools to build personalized campaigns to better engage both individuals and businesses.
Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, Apiture made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 and returned the following year to demo at FinovateFall 2023. At the conference, Apiture showed how its AI-based solution, Sensei, provides a real-time assessment of an individual’s finances. The technology analyzes a variety of data sources, including account balances and transaction histories, to provide proactive insights into the ways the individual can improve their financial wellness.
Apiture’s partnership news with NWSB comes just a few weeks after the fintech reported that Edwards Federal Credit Union (Edwards FCU) of California had selected its Consumer Banking solution. Like NWSB, Edwards FCU will also deploy Apiture’s Data Intelligence solution as part of its data strategy. Apiture began 2024 by teaming up with Redwood Capital Bank, which chose Apiture’s Digital Banking Platform to power its online and mobile banking operations.
Apiture has raised $69 million in funding. The company includes T. Rowe Price and Live Oak Bank among its investors.
Visa and Mastercard have reached a settlement that will lower interchange fess for U.S. merchants.
The settlement, which still must be approved by the court, calls for a five-year reduction in fees as well as changes that will enable greater optionality for merchants when it comes to credit card transaction surcharging.
U.S. merchants stand to save more than $29 billion over the next five years due to the settlement.
Chalk one up for U.S. merchants.
There are many factors that drive innovation in financial services: technological change, competition, regulatory adjustments … this week, recalled a fourth, less common method: the lawsuit.
Visa and Mastercard announced that they have reached a major settlement with merchants in the U.S. that will see interchange fees both lowered and capped. The settlement is the end result of a lawsuit that extends back to 2005. The lawsuit alleges that merchants paid excessive fees to accept Visa and Mastercard credit card transactions. Further, the suit claims that both companies and their member banks were in violation of antitrust laws in doing so.
Per the settlement, these interchange fees – also known as swipe fees – will be lowered and capped until 2030. Hilliard Shadowen, the law firm that represented the merchants in the case, estimates that U.S. merchants will save more than $29 billion over the next five years. Additionally, the settlement will also mark the end of “anti-steering restrictions” and potentially pave the way for more competitive pricing with regards to swipe fees.
Steve Shadowen, founding partner at Hilliard Shadowen, said the settlement represented “comprehensive market-based solutions to too-high swipe fees” as well as “immediate fee relief to merchants as they make these new competitive tools work for them.”
Looking under the hood, the settlement calls for a reduction in swipe fees of at least four basis points (0.04 percentage points) for three years. At the same time, these fees must be at least seven basis points below the current average for the next five years. These changes are still subject to court approval, and Mastercard has suggested that, once approved, they still would not go into effect until late this year or early next.
“This agreement brings closure to a long-standing dispute by delivering substantial certainty and value to business owners, including flexibility in how they manage acceptance of card programs,” Mastercard Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel and Head of Global Policy Rob Beard said.
“We are making these concessions while also maintaining the safety, security, innovation, and protections, rewards, and access to credit that are so important to millions of Americans and to our economy,” Kim Lawrence, President, North America, Visa, said in a statement.
The actual impact of these changes on consumers using credit cards is uncertain. The settlement will enable merchants to add surcharges to cards with higher swipe fees. This could discourage the use of some premium cards that are attractive to consumers because of their robust rewards, but can be costly to merchants, who may pay swipe fees of as much as 4% per transaction according to the National Retail Federation. Swipe fees currently average approximately 2% per transaction. Merchants will also be able to offer incentives and discounts to encourage consumers to use credit cards with less expensive fees.
Additionally, the settlement includes an allocation of $15 million for an independent merchant education program. Available for free, the program will help ensure that all merchants are aware of new changes.
If there is one area where AI is making a massive impact in financial services, that area is cybersecurity.
A recent report from the U.S. Treasury Department underscores the opportunities and challenges that AI represents to the financial services industry. The product of a presidential order and led by the Treasury’s Office of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection (OCCIP), the report highlights in particular the growing gap between the ability of larger and smaller institutions to leverage advanced AI technology to defend themselves against emerging AI-based fraud threats.
In addition to what it calls “the growing capability gap,” the report – Managing Artificial Intelligence-Specific Cybersecurity Risks in the Financial Services Sector – also points to another difference between larger and smaller financial institutions: the fraud data divide. This issue is similar to the capability gap; larger institutions simply have more historical data than their smaller rivals. When it comes to building in-house, anti-fraud AI models, larger FIs are able to leverage their data in ways that smaller firms cannot.
These observations are among ten takeaways from the report shared last week. Other concerns include:
Regulatory coordination
Expanding the NIST AI Risk Management Framework
Best practices for data supply chain mapping and “nutrition labels”
Explainability for black box AI solutions
Gaps in human capital
A need for a common AI lexicon
Untangling digital identity solutions
International coordination
More than 40 companies from fintech and the financial services industry participated in the report. The Treasury research team interviewed companies of all sizes, from “systemically important” international financial firms to regional banks and credit unions. In addition to financial services companies, the team also interviewed technology companies and data providers, cybersecurity specialists and regulatory agencies.
The report touches on a wide range of issues relating to the integration of AI technology and financial services, among them the increasingly prominent role of data. “To an extent not seen with many other technology developments, technological advancements with AI are dependent on data,” the report’s Executive Summary notes. “In most cases, the quality and quantity of data used for training, testing, and refining an AI model, including those used for cybersecurity and fraud detection, directly impact its eventual precision and efficiency.”
One of the more refreshing takeaways from the Treasury report relates to the “arms race” nature of fraud prevention. That is, how to deal with the fact that fraudsters tend to have access to many of the same technological tools as those charged with stopping them. To this point, the report even acknowledges that, in many instances, cybercriminals will “at least initially” have the upper hand. That said, the report concludes that “at the same time, many industry experts believe that most cyber risks exposed by AI tools or cyber threats related to AI tools can be managed like other IT systems.”
At a time when enthusiasm for AI technology is increasingly challenged by anxiety over AI capabilities, this report from the U.S. Treasury is a sober and constructive guide toward a path forward.
The first week of April begins with a resolution in the Sam Bankman-Fried saga as the former FTX founder and infamous crypto entrepreneur receives a sentence of 25 years in prison.
Crypto
Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison for its role in the FTX scandal.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global reviews the latest fintech headlines from Israel. We also introduce you to a quartet of new Finovate alums – all making their Finovate debuts at FinovateEurope last month – all headquartered in Israel.
AU10TIX expands its Digital ID identity verification solution
Israel-based identity verification and management specialist AU10TIXannounced the expansion of its Digital ID solution this week. AU10TIX’s technology enables businesses to quickly, accurately, and securely verify a wide variety of types of identification, including physical, digital, eID, verifiable credentials, and more.
Serving as a verification hub for businesses, AU10TIX’s Digital ID solution enables faster and more accurate identity verification. The solution also boosts completion rates, enhances the customer experience, and promotes revenue growth. The company’s technology validates cryptographic signatures to verify digital IDs and cross-checks personal identifiable information (PII) as displayed on the applicant’s ID versus information in government databases. Additional services such as facial and data comparison help reduce the risk of false positives.
Altogether, AU10TIX’s solution provides:
Global coverage to validate digital signatures worldwide
Digital ID Verification Hub that enables management of all verification processes on one platform, creation of customizable workflows, and rules for streamlined operations
Automated verification processes to streamline onboarding by reducing manual processes and enhancing efficiency
Data discrepancy analysis to identify potentially fraudulent activities and enhance security measures
Continuous regulatory compliance assurance to help businesses stay ahead of emerging and evolving regulations
Scalable infrastructure to accommodate businesses from startups to enterprises
“Our Digital ID solution empowers businesses to embrace the global shift to digital identity with confidence,” AU10TIX CEO Dan Yerushalmi said,. “It combines unparalleled accuracy and global reach with robust security measures to streamline onboarding and minimize fraud risk, all while addressing the diverse array of global ID formats.”
Founded in 2005, AU10TIX is headquartered in Hod Hasharon, Israel. Earlier this month, the company released its Q4 Global Identity Fraud Report. The report revealed an “eight-month-long coordinated identity fraud ‘mega attack’ consisting of organized criminals executing more than 22,000 separate fraudulent onboarding efforts using AI-generated variations on a single passport. In February, the AU10TIX announced a series of major, C-suite appointments including Hanna Schindler as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Erez Herschkovitz as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and Amazia Keidar as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
Data privacy company Mine launches governance solution
Israel-based data privacy innovator Mineunveiled its new AI governance solution this week. The new offering, MineOS AI Asset Discovery, gives firms full visibility and control over enterprise AI systems and data. At a time when more institutions are leveraging AI to incorporate data from a widening variety of sources, solutions like MineOS give teams 360-degree visibility into how AI is retaining and sharing that data. This helps institutions build data policies that are effective as well as compliant with regulations governing AI usage.
“We’ve seen a rapid proliferation of AI technologies and corresponding AI regulations, but a precise and actionable blueprint for how companies can effectively govern AI and comply with regulations has yet to hit the market,” Mine CEO and co-founder Gal Ringel said. “MineOS AI Asset Discovery and Risk Assessment will bridge the gap between the practical and theoretical sides of AI and data governance as companies navigate the complex new business landscape.”
Headquartered in Tel Aviv, and founded in 2019, Mine powers the privacy programs of more than 2,000+ companies worldwide. More than 500 SaaS platforms have integrated to MineOS’ no-code API. Late last year, Mine announced completion of a $30 million Series B funding round led by Battery Ventures and PayPal Ventures. The investment takes the company’s total capital raised to $42.5 million.
Israeli alums represent at FinovateEurope
FinovateEurope 2024 may have featured more demoing companies from the nation of Israel than any other previous Finovate conference. This is an impressive showing, given the challenges of Israel fintech in 2023 and the toll of the country’s current war against Hamas. Here’s a look at our new alums:
CitrusX – Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, CitrusX offers an end-to-end platform for AI transparency and explainability that is trusted by publicly listed companies in regulated industries. Founded in 2021, Noa Srebrnik is co-founder and CEO. Video.
FRNZX – Tel Aviv, Israel-based FRNZX was founded by experts in cryptocurrencies, AML, and intelligence to empower AML compliance in the cryptocurrency sector. At its Finovate debut in February, the company demoed its holistic crypto AML navigator which simplifies the integration of crypto transactions into the AML frameworks of banks. FRNZX was founded in January 2022. Co-founder Nevo Lapidot is CEO. Video.
Corsound AI – Founded in 2022, Corsound AI has earned more than 200 patents for its voice intelligence solutions. The startup has innovated in voice deepfake detection and considers itself the only company that successfully correlates face and voice. In fact, at its Best of Show winning debut at FinovateEurope this year, Corsound AI demonstrated the ability to reconstruct a face image from a short audio sample without relying on a database. Gal Haselkorn is CEO of the Tel Aviv-based company. Video.
Intrepid Fox – Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, Intrepid Fox is on a mission to enhance KYC for businesses. The company leverages customized Generative AI technology to help bank KYC processes work 10x more effectively. Intrepid Fox’s technology reads and understands documents, recognizes and extracts key data points for analysis, clarifies missing or incomplete information, and consults with the customer on any document requirements. The company’s solution can reduce onboarding costs by 50% and save a week of onboarding time per customer. Roman Zilber founded Intrepid Fox in 2023. Video.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) approved Advans Pakistan Microfinance Bank’s acquisition by Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan.
The Nepal Clearing House (NCHL) partnered with ACI Worldwide to power its National Payment Switch (NPS) system.
The State Bank of India (SBI) inked a six-year agreement with Aurionpro for its iCashpro+ transaction banking platform.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Contxto looked at the way fintechs in Mexico are navigating the volatility of the country’s monetary policy.
Brazilian fintech Delend, which offers open finance solutions from SMEs, raised $20 million (100 million reais).
Kuadra, a Colombian fintech that leverages AI to help small businesses access microcredits and growth solutions, expanded into Ecuador.
Asia-Pacific
Australian digital wallet provider and payments company Stables introduced international remittances, initially focusing on its customers in the Australia-Philippines corridor.
The Philippines Central Bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), issued new payment system regulations.
Australia-based spend management platform Weel forged a strategic partnership with real-time, cross-border payments company Nium.
Streamly’s Code & Capital series takes a next-level look at the potential for enabling technologies to transform fintech and financial services.
In today’s first conversation, Code & Capital talks with Generative AI expert and founder of Tamang Ventures Nina Schick about the way that AI could fundamentally reshape industries and economies this century the way the Internet did decades ago. Schick also discusses use cases for Generative AI in financial services and the threat posed by AI-powered deepfakes.
An author, advisor, and keynote speaker, Schick is an expert in synthetic media, deepfakes, disinformation, cybersecurity, and the geopolitics of technology. Her debut book, Deepfakes, was released in 2020 and has been translated into five languages.
Code & Capital also talked with Head of Conversational AI at Zurich Insurance Group, Indrek Vainu. In this conversation, Vainu shared some of the real-world applications of Generative AI in areas such as risk management, fraud detection, and customer service. Vainu also discussed what financial institutions need to do in order to effectively deploy AI technologies in their businesses.
Vainu co-founded AlphaChat, a chatbot startup, that was acquired by Zurich Insurance Group in 2021. At Zurich, he leads activities globally related to Generative AI and chatbots.
Fraud and risk platform DataVisor launched its anti-money laundering (AML) solution this week.
The new offering combines fraud fighting and anti-money laundering operations in a unified, approach that helps institutions better deal with emerging threats and evolving regulations.
DataVisor made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall last September.
AI-powered fraud and risk platform DataVisorlaunched its end-to-end anti-money laundering (AML) solution this week. The technology leverages sophisticated machine learning and AI to cover the entire AML process without disrupting the customer’s existing workflows.
Natively integrating with DataVisor’s fraud platform, the new offering enables a unified fraud and anti-money laundering (FRAML) strategy. This enhances defense against new financial crime threats and helps institutions align themselves with the trend toward combining fraud fighting and AML operations. DataVisor’s AML technology is customizable, supports a wide range of AML risk profiles and programs, and improves efficiency by reducing the number of false positives.
More specifically, DataVisor’s new AML solution provides:
Comprehensive end-to-end functionality: including customer risk rating, CDD, EDD, sanction/watchlist screening, transaction monitoring, case management, and automated SAR filing.
Enhanced detection and reduced false positives: leveraging robust data orchestration to provide a holistic view of customer profiles for more effective risk assessment.
Increased operational efficiency and reduced costs: courtesy of Generative AI-powered automation which triages alerts and automates manual processes.
Centralized insights and monitoring: using enhanced task prioritization to deliver insights into AML alerts, case statuses, and the progress of review teams.
Fast and flexible integration: via a cloud-based solution that integrates with existing fraud workflows for fast implementation.
“The substantial interest we’ve seen from financial institutions highlights the imperative need to address the challenges posed by outdated, legacy AML technology,” DataVisor co-founder and Chief Product Officer Fang Yu said. “FIs partnering with DataVisor are already witnessing the benefits of our industry-leading FRAML solution. Our focus on continued innovation ensures that we not only meet the current compliance demand but also remain agile to anticipate and counteract future financial crimes.”
Headquartered in Mountain View, California, DataVisor made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall. At the conference, the company showed how its platform provides a comprehensive, AI-powered fraud and risk platform for the entire fraud workflow in a single, self-serve solution. DataVisor demonstrated the platform’s ability to integrate any data source – including third party data sources – and apply its rules engine, device intelligence, decision engine, and case management to improve fraud detection.
Founded in 2013, DataVisor began this year with an announcement that the company’s platform had secured PCI compliance. A month later, the company unveiled a new solution to give sponsor banks better ability to monitor and manage Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) compliance and transaction fraud patterns. The solution also enables institutions to conduct a comprehensive customer risk assessment in partnership with fintechs.
According to Crunchbase, DataVisor has raised more than $94 million in funding. The company includes TruStage Ventures and NewView Capital among its investors. Co-founder Yinglian Xie is CEO.
Anti-fraud platform Feedzai has teamed up with account-to-account (A2A) platform Form3.
Courtesy of the partnership, Feedzai will power Form3’s new authorized push payment fraud (APP) fraud prevention solution.
Founded in 2011, Feedzai made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2014.
Anti-fraud and financial crime software company Feedzai will power the new authorized push payment fraud (APP fraud) prevention solution from account-to-account (A2A) platform Form3. Built with supervised machine learning, the new offering from Form3 takes advantage of collaborative intelligence to determine the risk of a payment in real-time by understanding the behavior of both the sender and the recipient.
The technology acknowledges that understanding the recipient of a payment is just as important as understanding the sender when it comes to preventing fraud, particularly APP fraud. This is because APP fraud involves fraudsters tricking legitimate accountholders into sending payments to illegitimate accounts owned or accessed by the fraudster.
Feedzai CPO Pedro Barata explained that both regulation and emergent fraud threats are driving innovation in the payment fraud space. Barata noted in particular new regulations later this year that will mandate reimbursement for victims of APP fraud. He underscored that this would provide additional incentive for banks to embrace new anti-fraud technologies. “By combining the expertise of Feedzai and Form3, we can drastically reduce the level of vulnerability in the payment process and give our customers the real-time intelligence that they need to stop fraudsters in their tracks.”
The innovations in fraud prevention are also being driven by positive developments in fintech like real-time payments. As more fraudsters see real-time payments as a potential way to target consumers, businesses need to respond with technologies and anti-fraud solutions that close security gaps and respond to emerging threats like APP fraud.
“The best way to tackle the rise of APP fraud is the use of collaborative intelligence and cutting edge technologies that allow the real-time identification of scams within the payment message,” Form3 CEO Mike Walters said.
A Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateEurope in 2014, Feedzai today counts 80% of the world’s Fortune 500 among its customers. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, Feedzai now has more than 600 employees, maintains 10 offices around the world, and supports operations in 190 countries. The risk management tool provider has raised more than $277 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Nuno Sebastiao is CEO.
As part of Finovate’s commemoration of Women’s History Month, our Women in Fintech column features Laurie Winger, Chief Financial Officer with TruStage. Formerly known as CUNA Mutual Group, TruStage is a financial services company that provides insurance, investment, and fintech solutions to individuals and businesses.
Winger has been praised by colleagues as a visionary and results-oriented, cross functional leader. At TruStage, she has helped transform a decades-old insurance company into a modern, technology-driven business.
In our Women in Fintech conversation, we discuss her origins in fintech and financial services, current trends that she has her eye on, and why it’s important for financial services companies to invest both human and financial resources into the fintech space.
Tell us about your role at TruStage and your journey into the fintech space.
Laurie Winger: I started my career as an accountant at TruStage, previously CUNA Mutual Group, more than 30 years ago. I spent the first half of my career in various finance roles – Budget Manager, Vice President of Finance, etc. – and then shifted my focus to credit union market strategy in the mid-2010s. At that time, our company was seen in the marketplace as an insurance rather than a technology company. Our goal was to change that perception and the best way to do so was to get more involved in fintech. This was when I first dipped my toes into the fintech space.
One of our first investments was the creation of our Ventures Portfolio, TruStage Ventures, which funds innovators focused on improving the financial services industry. A few years later, we also acquired Compliance Systems, a fintech provider of digital and dynamic compliance documentation, and CuneXus, a consumer-facing portal featuring financial services for credit unions. As Chief Product Officer at the time, I was very involved in the strategy and the execution of that acquisition. Since then, I returned to my finance roots as Chief Financial Officer while keeping a close eye on TruStage and TruStage Venture’s fintech acquisitions and investments, as well as being a member of various fintechs’ boards.
Recently, I’ve dipped back into the fintech side of our business by overseeing our Fintech Solutions team as part of my role as CFO. This team is focused on developing and implementing our Digital Storefront e-commerce platform (based on our acquisition of CuneXus mentioned above) which provides financial institutions with the ability to lend, generate deposits, and open accounts in a fully online experience – all centered around a consumer’s individual banking needs.
It seems like you had a strong role in building TruStage’s fintech strategy. Why did you see a need to provide more holistic support to credit unions?
Winger: I’ve always been a big fan of credit unions because their mission is consistent with ours at TruStage, namely the desire to help people who would otherwise not get access to financial products. Unfortunately, in the digital era, credit unions are having a harder time than ever competing with larger financial institutions and digital banks, and many are closing their doors or are being acquired. We realized early on that if we wanted to truly help credit unions compete, we needed to provide more holistic support. By investing in and making modern, end-to-end technology solutions available to credit unions of all sizes and helping them meet their members’ needs – we are ultimately helping consumers on their buying, borrowing, and saving journeys.
What changes have you seen in the fintech space in the last couple of years and how would you advise fintechs to react to these changes?
Winger: I am learning along with our entire organization that the current fintech market is very different than it was even just a year and a half ago. The high inflation environment has caused valuations to go down, so many fintechs are struggling to attract interest and raise money from third-party investors. They need to find new ways to generate capital.
The best way to do this is to listen to credit unions’ pain points and pivot their focus and/or messaging to meet those current needs. At the moment, growing deposits, finding ways to deepen existing relationships, and acquiring new members are at the top of the priority list for most credit union leadership teams. Fintechs that are heavily promoting lending technologies are probably having a hard time finding prospects, as many credit unions are running into liquidity challenges and are not able to lend as much as before. Pivoting their focus to respond to market needs, or tweaking their messaging to better appeal to potential prospects, will help fintechs stay afloat. The key to success in this economic environment is to listen to market demand, stay flexible, and be willing to take risks.
How are you and TruStage helping advance women leaders in the fintech and credit unions spaces?
Winger: As a company, we are very proud of the TruStage Ventures Discovery Fund, which invests $5 million annually in early-stage fintech companies led by BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and woman founders. We created the fund to address inequities in the financial sector and support underrepresented entrepreneurs, many of which are women. Personally, I also try to keep in touch with the female founders who have benefitted from the fund and build those relationships.
In the credit union market, I’ve also had the opportunity to be a mentor as part of the Credit Union Women’s Leadership Alliance (CUWLA) coaching program. The program pairs senior female leaders with women CEOs of credit unions with asset sizes of $300 million or less, providing a channel for support and the exchange of insights. I try to generously share my career experiences, successes, failures, and learnings with other women leaders as often as possible, as I think it is the best way to help other women advance and succeed in both the fintech and credit union industries.
Finally, as a Chief Financial Officer, why is it important to invest company resources (funds and people) into the fintech space to power future/tech-driven strategy?
Winger: Ultimately, it all comes down to remaining relevant. Financial services today operate in a fast-moving, competitive marketplace with ever-evolving consumer demands for seamless, digital-first transactions. No matter how well capitalized, any company that wishes to compete in this space must be willing to allocate investments towards innovations with the consumer expectation at the center. If they don’t, even the most venerable companies risk being passed by fintechs, start-ups, and the industry as a whole.
Finland-based SkenarioLabs and Sweden’s Econans announced a collaboration this week.
The partnership will provide financial institutions with a number of new green finance tools.
SkenarioLabs made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope. Econans demoed its technology at our online European fintech conference in 2021.
SkenarioLabs, a predictive data analytics solution provider for the real estate industry, has announced a new partnership with fellow Finovate alum, Econans. The collaboration between SkenarioLabs and the Swedish financial advisory platform will give banks a range of new green finance tools.
The joint venture between the two companies will help financial institutions navigate regulatory trends based on concerns over climate change. These trends include the EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD) – among others. The partnership between Skenario Labs and Econans will provide institutions with a future-proof, end-to-end solution that helps them meet reporting obligations and supports building energy transition.
“We’re thrilled to announced our partnership with Econans – Energy Transition Unlocked – a pioneering Swedish finance advisory platform,” SkenarioLabs shared in a post at LinkedIn. “Together, we strive to pave the way for a more resilient future in real estate – exciting times ahead!”
Founded in Finland in 2015, SkenarioLabs made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. At the conference, the company demoed two solutions. The first was its green finance offering that analyzes the potential for enhancing energy performance. The solution then recommends financing options that help reduce carbon emissions. The company also demoed its climate resilience solution. This technology helps institutions understand and manage the impact of climate change – as well as emerging laws and regulations – on their real estate portfolios.
Econans made its Finovate debut three years ago at our online European fintech conference in 2021. The company, founded in Sweden in 2018, offers digital simulation and automated advice to help people better manage their personal finance journey through major life events such as buying a home, having children, and planning for retirement. Econans’ technology helps boost consumer’s confidence in their financial services partner and delivers higher conversion rates for banks and real estate companies. The firm’s white label solutions are easy to integrate and currently have more than 500,000 end users per month in Sweden.
Have you listened to the latest episodes of the Finovate Podcast?
Over the past few weeks, Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast have hosted some of the most interesting innovators in fintech. Alan Bekker of eSelf on the future of AI in financial services, The Clearing House’s Jim Colassano on real-time payments, financial inclusion and wealth-building with Rodney Williams of SoLo Funds … these are just a handful of the interviews Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast have featured in recent weeks.
Don’t miss another conversation! Join Greg Palmer and his guests on the Finovate Podcast today!
Greg Palmer interviews Alan Bekker, co-founder and CEO of customer engagement innovator, eSelf. The two discuss the role of AI in fintech and financial services, and the future of face to “face” interactions. eSelf won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023. Episode 208.
The rise of real-time payments, especially in the U.S., is creating opportunities and challenges for fintechs and financial services companies alike. Greg Palmer sits down with Jim Colassano, SVP of Product Development and Strategy with The Clearing House, to discuss what institutions need to do in order to take advantage of one of the latest innovations in payments. Episode 207.
Greg Palmer catches up with Jack Spiers, Sales Director at Tink, to discuss the findings of a new report from the Best of Show winning company that details how to enhance affordability assessments with enriched data. Episode 206.
Dr. Adam Lowe, Chief Product & Innovation Officer with CompoSecure, talks with Finovate Podcast host Greg Palmer on how to think about fraud prevention as an asset, and the importance of balancing security and customer experience. Episode 205.
As part of the Finovate Podcast’s commemoration of Black History Month, Greg Palmer and Rodney Williams, co-founder, chairman, and President of SoLo Funds, talked about the challenges of creating wealth-building products for underserved communities. Episode 204.
