Tinkoff Brings Stories to Mobile Banking

Tinkoff Brings Stories to Mobile Banking

It is a truism that consumers increasingly expect all of their digital interactions to have the same top quality user experience they have come to expect from the likes of Uber, Amazon, and Netflix. So it is little surprise to see Russian fintech innovator, Tinkoff Bank take a page from the world of social media to make it easier to educate and market to its customers.

Tinkoff Stories provides “fascinating themed collections and practical tips for any occasion,” according to the company. Similar to the Stories feature on Instagram and Snapchat, Tinkoff’s solution gives the bank yet another way to reach not just the one million people who regularly use the company’s mobile app, but also the company’s entire six million customer base. Tinkoff Stories is one of the major upgrades to the company’s mobile app, which is available for download at the iTunes App Store. Tinkoff also added an Invite Your Friend section, enabling users to recommend the app to friends and earn bonuses.

“Stories is a great way for us to bring a range of content to our users,” VP of Mobile for Tinkoff Bank Maxim Yevdokimov explained, “both to make them aware of new products as we introduce them and functionality of the app that they might not be aware of, and to provide informative content from currency rates to tips on managing their personal finances.”

The news of Stories comes as Tinkoff launches its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), Tinkoff Mobile. The MVNO will give customers more options when it selecting a mobile plan and will be initially rolled out in the greater Moscow, St. Petersburg regions before expanding to other cities in Russia. “We have strived to create the most convenient, straight-forward and simple-to-use product, and we are offering our customers only the most in-demand services,” Tinkoff Mobile CEO George Chesakov said. “We believe this is precisely what mobile was meant to be.”

Tinkoff demonstrated its Click-to-Meet solution at FinovateFall 2013. Click-to-Meet enables bank customers to apply for credit or debit cards online or by phone and have signable documents and the card delivered to the customer the next day by smart courier at their place of choice. The company was founded in 2006 by entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov. who earned the support of investors including Goldman Sachs, Vostok Nafta, Baring Vostok, and Horizon Capital.

Named Russia’s 2017 “Bank of the Year” by the Banker in November, Tinkoff introduced facial recognition ATMs in August – the same month the company’s mobile app earned top honors in four categories from Markswebb Rank & Report.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Tinkoff Brings Stories to Mobile Banking
  • Meed Leverages ID Verification Solutions from Jumio to Serve the Underbanked

Around the web

  • The 61-member Japan Bank Consortium launches Ripple pilot with South Korean banks Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank.
  • Thomson Reuters adds compliance training courses to help ensure MiFID II compliance.
  • PayPal makes undisclosed investment in Berlin-based deposit marketplace Raisin.
  • ACI Worldwide partners with HyperPay to bring real-time fraud prevention solutions to ecommerce merchants in the MENA region.
  • SME Finance Forum honors Strands with Best Partnership award at its First Membership Engagement Awards event.
  • nCino EVP of Product Development Trisha Price joins Jim Marous’ fintech roundtable to discuss the future of digital banking disruption.
  • Stash Invest presents its Auto-Stash feature to help investors make automatic, recurring investment contributions.
  • SuiteBox introduces its VideoSign Proof of Signature technology.
  • defi SOLUTIONS earns recognition as one of the top 100 fastest-growing privately-held businesses in Dallas, Texas area.

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.

Southern Bank Leverages PicturePay from Malauzai to Offer Digital Payment Service

Southern Bank Leverages PicturePay from Malauzai to Offer Digital Payment Service

With more than $2 billion in total assets, North Carolina’s Southern Bank will leverage its deployment of Malauzai’s Picture Pay to provide its customers with a new digital payment option: Photo Billpay.

“Providing our customers with modern, digital payment tools is a priority for the bank,” Sondra McCorquodale, SVP and alternative delivery channel manager at Southern Bank said. McCorquodale highlighted the importance of giving customers “easy to use” self-service channels, and offering a variety of payment options as “key to providing a superior customer experience and in turn … a significant competitive advantage.”

Southern Bank, which has been a Malauzai partner for years, said that it has seen a 20 percent gain in customer usage of all digital payments and an increase of 38 percent in the average value of money movement transactions. Southern Bank has deployed a variety of additional money management features including remote deposit capture (RDC) and P2P transfer.

“Mobile-based money movement features like PicturePay, RDC, A2A, and P2P are growing in demand and popularity,” Malauzai CPO Robb Gaynor said, “whatever we can do to help our customers like Southern Bank have access to the latest innovations and stay competitive, we fully support.”

Malauzai’s PicturePay technology was developed in collaboration with Allied Payment. The technology was designed to serve as a stand-alone mobile billpay solution that is mobile banking provider agnostic. PictuePay is compatible with any core banking system or mobile platform and requires no technology integration.

“The simplicity of Picture Pay makes it ideal as a stand-alone application that runs separately from a bank or credit union’s current mobile banking app,” Allied Payment Network president Ralph Marcuccilli said. “We have received a tremendous response to the Picture Pay product offering and wanted to accommodate these institutions quickly without waiting for other mobile vendors to develop their own product.”

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Malauzai Software demonstrated its Conversational Banking for Businesses solution at FinovateFall 2017. Also this fall, the company announced that Somerset Trust would extend its deployment of the MalauzaiOne digital banking platform to retail customers. Colorado’s Public Service Credit Union (PSCU), with more than $2.3 billion in assets, completed its rollout of MalauzaiOne in August. And earlier this year, the company collaborated with payment processing giant Vantiv to introduce a youth spending solution called Family Manager: SmartKid Control.

With more than $24 million in funding, Malauzai includes Wellington Management and Live Oak Banking Company among its investors. The company was founded by Danny Piangerelli (CTO) and Tom Shen (CEO and Chairman of the Board).

Quovo Launches Modular PFM Widgets

Quovo Launches Modular PFM Widgets

Financial data provider Quovo is getting into the PFM game by launching account aggregation modules built on its API layer. The new modules will enable end users to track spending and saving, view their net worth, improve budgeting, and make progress toward their financial goals.

Because of the modular configuration, financial institutions can completely customize how they design their PFM offerings. Banks can opt to implement the full package or individual widgets to achieve the optimal mix of build vs. buy. The modules are designed for mobile use and can easily be white-labeled to fit a bank’s branding.

Niko Karvounis, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Quovo said that account aggregation is a “must-have centerpiece for any digital strategy in fintech,” but that firms often struggle between building on Quovo’s API or buying a front-end, turnkey solution. Karvounis added, “With the launch of Quovo PFM, we now support the full spectrum of configuration options for deploying world-class account aggregation, including directly via our API, through embeddable modules, within a full dashboard — or even a combination of our approaches.

Founded in 2010, Quovo has presented at FinDEVr New York 2016 and FinDEVr New York 2017, where it was awarded Favorite FinDEVr Alum. Earlier this year, the company was listed on CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list. This fall, the company unveiled a new account authentication solution, Autoverified Micro-deposits. Quovo serves hundreds of institutions, thousands of advisors, and millions of end-users. Lowell Putnam is co-founder and CEO.

Ripple Establishes Infrastructure Innovation Initiative

Ripple Establishes Infrastructure Innovation Initiative

Blockchain solutions company Ripple announced yesterday it is establishing an Infrastructure Innovation Initiative in an effort to take “the next logical step to help build the Internet of Value.”

The goal of the initiative is to help central banks, regulators, and market infrastructures pilot real-world blockchain solutions by leveraging the Ripple team’s expertise in payment systems and distributed ledger technology (DLT). Potential blockchain solutions include creating regional networks, reducing the cost of payments, and opening up networks to new participants while managing risks.

Dilip Rao, who has led the business development in the APAC/MENA region and worked closely with banks and market infrastructures, will lead the initiative. Rao has worked for Ripple since 2014 and brings more than 30 years of experience working with banking technology. “My first priority will be piloting interoperability between payment systems, the use of DLT for domestic clearing and settlement and novel applications of xCurrent as well as our digital asset XRP,” said Rao. “I look forward to exciting new initiatives in building the Internet of Value in 2018!”

Company co-founder Chris Larsen debuted Ripple (originally known as OpenCoin) at FinovateSpring 2013. Brad Garlinghouse took the reins as Ripple CEO last fall. Last month, Ripple teamed with AmEx and Santander to support blockchain-powered international B2B payments. Earlier this month, the company’s XRP digital currency overtook Bitcoin Cash as the third largest cryptocurrency.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Ripple Establishes Infrastructure Innovation Initiative.
  • Southern Bank Leverages PicturePay from Malauzai to Offer Digital Payment Service.

Around the web

  • Credit Karma announces former Renew Financial president Gannesh Bharadhwaj as general manager of credit cards.
  • Payworks extends partnership with Verifone.
  • Bluefin issues first Japanese patent for creating fingerprints for encryption devices.
  • RealtyMogul hires Soley Van Lokeren as its first Chief People Officer.

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.

CashStar Launches Digital Gifting Program with Belk Department Store

CashStar Launches Digital Gifting Program with Belk Department Store

If you’ve been waiting to send a digital gift card for southern clothing styles, you’re in luck today. Digital gifting and incentives platform CashStar has teamed up with Belk, a North Carolina-based department store.

The agreement is two-fold. First, CashStar will offer Belk shoppers a personalized digital gift card experience with its CashStar Consumer platform. This platform enables Belk to offer a branded gift card experience for the purchaser and the recipient. Additionally, end clients can tailor their gift by selecting a design and adding a personalized message.

CashStar will also leverage its CashStar Product eGifting to help shoppers digitally send physical gifts. Product eGifting enables Belk shoppers to gift a product from Belk’s ecommerce site without knowing specific details such as the recipient’s preferred size, color and shipping address. Once the recipient receives an email with the gift information, they can personalize the gift or opt to receive an eGift card instead.

Founded in 2007, CashStar serves major brands such as SEPHORA, Starbucks, The Home Depot, Uber, and Walmart. At FinovateFall 2011, the company’s co-founder David Stone debuted a geolocation-based iPhone app that enables consumers to walk into a store and redeem credit card loyalty points in real-time in the form of a mobile gift card. Before it was acquired by Blackhawk Network for $175 million in October, CashStar had raised a total of $44 million.

eToro to Build Blockchain-Based Social Trading Products in Partnership with CoinDash

eToro to Build Blockchain-Based Social Trading Products in Partnership with CoinDash

With bitcoin futures hitting the market this week, we should have guessed that the social trading innovators at eToro would find a way of further leveraging their unique approach to trading to the burgeoning bitcoin market. And so we were pleasantly not surprised to learn that eToro has partnered with cryptocurrency portfolio management specialist, CoinDash, to develop a suite of blockchain-based products for social trading.

“Until this point, investors in cryptocurrencies have mostly been members of a niche community,” eToro CEO Yoni Assia said. “The learning curve is steep and the market moves quickly. With thousands of new coins in the market, it can be difficult for mainstream investors to navigate this new space. The CoinDash team is enabling users to better analyze their investments in cryptocurrencies, and to learn from others.”

“The eToro team has had great success in developing and scaling social trading platforms, and pioneering innovative new ideas like Copy Trading. We look forward to tapping the knowledge they have made available to us to ensure we can have the same great impact for our community,” CoinDash CEO Alan Muroch said.

eToro’s global marketplace for traders of currencies, commodities, indices, and CFD stocks supports more than 4.5 million users in more than 170 countries. Investors and traders alike can take advantage of eToro’s diverse community, using the wisdom and actual market transactions of the community’s more talented members to make better trading and investing decisions for themselves. This includes features like eToro’s CopyTrader, which enables automatic duplication of another user’s trading and investing decisions, and thematic investing with eToro’s Top Trader CopyFunds and Market CopyFunds products.

A member of the European Fintech 100, eToro has raised more than $72 million in funding and includes CommerzVentures GmbH, Spark Capital, Social Leverage, BRM Capital, and Cubit Investments among its investors. In September, eToro announced it would offer access to five cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, and Ripple – the latter three previously supported only through its Crypto CopyFund, which was launched in July. The company demonstrated its CopyFunds for Partners solution at FinovateEurope 2017, winning Best of Show. Founded in 2007, eToro is headquartered in London.

Azimo Brings Faster Money Transfers to Nigeria

Azimo Brings Faster Money Transfers to Nigeria

International remittance service Azimo has sped up money transfers in Nigeria. Just shy of a year after launching its service in the African country, the U.K.-based company announced last week it has enhanced that service.

The revamped money transfers empower users to receive cash at all major Nigerian banks 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, depending on the availability of the payout partners. Additionally, the service ensures that money sent from 22 European countries to the Nigerian market will reach recipients within 30 minutes, including on weekends.

Faster money service to Nigeria has the potential to make a real difference in the country. According to the press release, “64% of transfers to the country [are] sent for family support – including to pay for hospital and food bills – a speedy service every day of the week is essential.” Azimo also leverages its own network to offer money transfers at a lower rate than traditional, brick-and-mortar services.

Azimo was launched in 2012 to serve as a better way to send funds around the world. Its digital network enables customers to send money to more than 190 countries from any internet-connected device. The company debuted its global money transfer platform at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. Earlier this year, Azimo updated its service to add instant transfers to the Philippines.

Bluefin Buddies Up: Decryptx P2PE Network Grows to 50+ Connected Partners

Bluefin Buddies Up: Decryptx P2PE Network Grows to 50+ Connected Partners

Bluefin Payment Systems announced this week that its PCI-validated, P2PE (point-to-point encryption) network, Decryptx, has expanded to more than 50 connected partners. The company says that it expects its roster of payment gateways, processors, and software platforms to grow to 60 by the end of the year.

“We proved the value of the Decryptx platform with our first partners – who were security trailblazers in recognizing the importance of PCI P2PE to their clients,” Bluefin Head of Global Sales, Greg Cornwell said. “Starting in mid-2016, interest in joining our Decryptx network grew significantly.” Cornwell added that many of the largest gateway and processing companies are Decryptx partners.

Bluefin Payments Systems first introduced its Decryptx technology in the fall of 2014. The company was the first North American provider to earn PCI validation for its P2PE solution, and only one of four companies in the world at the time with that validation. The goal was to provide a PCI-validated P2PE solution without forcing providers to abandon their payment processors. The idea developed to decouple payment processing and P2PE and instead offer P2PE via partner payment gateways, processors, and software providers. The result was Decryptx, Bluefin’s Decryption-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform.

“Decryptx provides any processor, gateway, or integrated software provider, globally, the ability to extend the security, cost benefits, and reduced PCI scope of Bluefin’s PCI-validated P2PE solution directly to their clients,” Bluefin Chief Strategy Officer Ruston Miles explained, “with no change in the processor relationship and no change in how merchants accept payments today.” Rusten pointed to three things the company’s partners sought most from the technology: “increased margins, move market-share, and reduce merchant attrition.”

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Bluefin Payment Systems participated in our inaugural developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014. At the conference, Bluefin’s Chief Strategy Officer Ruston Miles and Chief of Engineering Tim Barnett presented Bluefin, Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE), showing how the technology can reduce the scope of card data environment and related PCI requirements.

Last month, Bluefin launched its PCI P2PD sub-listing option for Decryptx partners. This enables partners to list their own branded solution under Bluefin’s master listing on the PCI SSC website. The option makes it easier for the P2PE offering to transition to the partner’s product line, boosting merchant adoption. Named to the Technology Association of Georgia’s Top 40 Most Innovative Technology Companies for 2017 in February, Bluefin has raised $6 million in funding and includes Camden Partners, Napier Park Global Capital, and Goldman Sachs among its investors.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Bluefin Buddies Up: Decryptx P2PE Network Grows to 50+ Connected Partners
  • Fiserv Teams with TransUnion to Enhance Automotive Loan Origination System
  • Azimo Brings Faster Money Transfers to Nigeria
  • eToro to Build Blockchain-Based Social Trading Products in Partnership with CoinDash
  • CashStar Launches Digital Gifting Program with Belk Department Store

Around the web

  • Mark Saltzman Interviews Flybits Founder & CEO on TD for Me (video).
  • API Evangelist features Streamdata.io.
  • LearnVest CEO Alexa von Tobel featured on NPR podcast How I Built This.
  • MapD unveils latest release featuring new geo heatmap , custom aliases, faster SQL sorts and more

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Fiserv Teams with TransUnion to Enhance Automotive Loan Origination System

Fiserv Teams with TransUnion to Enhance Automotive Loan Origination System

Financial services company Fiserv and credit reporting agency and risk information provider TransUnion have joined forces today. Under the agreement, Fiserv will integrate TransUnion’s CreditVision Link to increase precision of scoring and risk modeling in its Automotive Loan Origination System.

Specifically, Fiserv will leverage data from TransUnion to identify high-risk and high-potential borrowers, including thin-file applicants, based on an evaluation of their credit application. This addition helps serve the underbanked population, raising Fiserv’s reach to potential underserved borrowers to 60 million. The additional data has also boosted the “super prime” customer base by 23 million.

Shaimaa Elk, Chief Information Officer, Lending Solutions for Fiserv said, “The partnership between Fiserv and TransUnion enables lenders to provide borrower-focused customer service and better optimize profitability, cost reductions, and efficiencies.”

CreditVision Link uses alternative data sources that include 30 months of data on factors such as address stability, checking account history, microloans/ alternative lending, and property ownership. TransUnion made a move to bolster the service last month when it acquired FactorTrust, a company specializing in alternative credit data, analytics, and risk-scoring. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Steve Chaouki, executive vice president and head of TransUnion’s financial services business unit, said that understanding clients is critical not only for decision making, but also for building customer relationships and loyalty. Chaouki added, “Our integration of CreditVision Link trended and alternative data sources into Automotive Loan Origination System enables lenders to score approximately 95 percent of the U.S. adult population.”

Founded in 1984, Fiserv most recently presented at FinDEVr New York 2017, where the company’s Sr. Product Manager, Jon Zimmermann, and VP of Electronic Payments, Paul Diegelman, addressed the audience in a presentation titled Payments Processing: Bank-Grade Standards, Now Available to Anyone. Earlier this year, Fiserv agreed to acquire Monitise for $89 million. The deal was finalized in September.

At FinovateFall 2016, TransUnion debuted Prama Insights, a suite of solutions that leverage data to offer lenders market intelligence. Prior to TransUnion’s acquisition of FactorTrust last month, the company acquired eBureau to enhance its versatile data and analytics capabilities. TransUnion is a publicly-traded company (NYSE: TRU).