Hack The Core: CeleritiFintech Readies for July Hackathon

Hack The Core: CeleritiFintech Readies for July Hackathon
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: hackathon, Sponsored

There’s a month and a half to go before CeleritiFinTech (CFT) launches its first core banking hackathon, CFT Hack the Core. And if you’re a fintech developer or startup looking to partner with a leading core banking provider in financial services, CFT Hack the Core on July 14 – 16 in San Ramon may be the moment you’ve been waiting for.

Most financial services have a Fintech strategy which involves collaborating with all kinds of Fintechs – disruptive and enabling startups,” CeleritiFintech’s CEO Oded Shoshany said. “CFT is enabling a direct Core API connectivity, as we realize that collaboration with financial services and licensing or white-labeling startup innovation represents a significant market potential for Fintechs and Banks,” he added.

Based on CFT’s high-performance Hogan core banking software and its APIs, events like CFT Hack the Core can be important stepping stones for emerging fintech startups. Faced with the dual challenges of long sales cycles in the financial services industry and the lack of domain expertise and overall knowledge of the environment, even the most innovative startups can struggle to get their technologies seen by the right people in the right places. By contrast, partnering with companies like CeleritiFinTech enables startups to leverage existing CFT relationships with financial services companies as well as take advantage pre-integration measures that save time and cut red tape.

As part of the competition, CeleritiFinTech will offer up to 20 startups access to more than 25 of its banking APIs. These tools will enable competitors to build exciting and innovative solutions for banks and their customers in challenge areas such as API banking, customer service, and payment innovation. Hackathon winners will also earn invitations to work with the iValley Fintech Market Readiness Accelerator run by iValley Innovation Center and powered by CeleritiFinTech. Here they will refine their solutions ahead of a Demo Day event during CeleritFinTech’s Core Banking Innovation Summit in early 2018. The six-month long accelerator program runs from August 2017 through January 2018, and provides mentoring, office space, and other resources to help startups further develop their technology toward minimum viable product status. Accelerator participants will also benefit from monthly workshops with industry experts, and business and go-to market strategy development, as well as fundraising advice and networking with investors.

Applying to CFT Hack the Core is easy. Visit the Hackathon registration page at http://www.celeritift.com/events/hackathon, provide contact information, a description of your idea and how you plan to partner with CeleritiFinTech’s core banking system, your preferred challenge area, your startup stage (early stage, seed or Series A, growth, etc.) and that’s it.

“The CFT Hack the Core provides a unique opportunity for Fintech startups to pre-integrate with Core Banking, Loan or Payment Microservices and showcase their value proposition to leading financial institutions,” said Paddy Ramanathan, Managing Director at iValley Innovation Center. “This type of creative partnerships for FIntechs with innovative providers like CFT has the potential to rapidly accelerate their growth and reduce customer acquisition costs. Embracing this new-core with pre-integrated Fintechs provides financial institutions the much-needed operational agility to compete with disruptive Fintech value proposition. It is a win-win for everyone.”

CeleritiFinTech is a specialist in helping banks, credit unions and other financial services businesses leverage advanced core banking technology to modernize their operations. Launched as a joint venture by global IT giants HCL and DXC Technology (formerly CSC) in 2015, CFT is focused on ensuring FIs are able to maximize the way they use their existing platforms while implementing new solutions and services designed to accelerate growth. CFT leverages software and product development talent from DXC Technology and capital investment, application implementation and more from HCL, to bring cloud-based, advanced core banking services and solutions to a widening group of partners in financial services.

With the Hogan Core Banking System, CeleritiFinTech provides a high-performance core banking software platform that provides real-time, cross channel engagement via an integrated suite of applications. Featuring real-time processing and mobile and online access, the Hogan Core Banking System was used by top tier banks in the United States and globally. 

So if helping banks and credit unions gain “flexibility, efficiency, and value for money” aligns with the mission statement for your fintech startup, then we’ll look forward to seeing your application to CFT Hack the Core, the Hogan Core Banking System Hackathon sponsored by CeleritiFinTech, July 14 through July 16 in San Ramon.

 

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BanQu, Fiserv, Insuritas, Trustly, Zooz

Around the web

  • The largest bank in the Philippines, BDO Unibank, reups with Fiserv.
  • Customers of PayU gain access to payments services from Zooz courtesy of new partnership.
  • Let’s Talk Payments interviews BanQu co-founder, Ashish Gadnis.
  • Insuritas partners with Constellation to Monetize Online Banking Experience.

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.

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Quisk’s Blockchain Buy-in Boosts Security, Improves Access to Transaction Data

Quisk’s Blockchain Buy-in Boosts Security, Improves Access to Transaction Data
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Quisk

When the going gets tough, the tough go blockchain.

That’s the takeaway from the news that payment network platform Quisk will store its transaction ledgers on a private blockchain. The blockchain layer will work with Quisk’s existing platform and APIs to give banks easy access to transaction data such as merchant settlement and bank reconciliation via their own backend systems.

“We are excited to be leveraging the tremendous power of Blockchain technology to propagate trust among our customer banks,” Quisk CTO Praveen Amancheria said. “This technology eliminates barriers, giving banks the ability to easily and securely access their transaction data.” Amancheria called blockchain “the next internet for the financial industry” and added that “the tools to retrieve data from (the) Blockchain will soon be as ubiquitous as web browsers.”

Pictured (left to right): Quisk CTO Praveen Amancheria and CMO Dan Glessner demonstrating the Quisk digital services platform at FinovateFall 2015.

Quisk has developed a technology, digital cash, that enables banks to take advantage of the 85% of all retail transactions worldwide that are still cash-based. “Banks make nothing when cash is used,” Quisk CMO Dan Glessner explained during the company’s demo at FinovateFall. “We enable banks to create a new type of account, and to monetize the digital cash transactions.” Quisk partners with issuing and acquiring banks to create what Amancheria called an “open interoperable payment network.” He said: “we have a very ambitious goal: we want to do for cash what Visa and Mastercard have done for credit.”

Users of the new accounts can access their money using their smartphone and a PIN. The platform supports 14 different transaction types including P2P and P2M (person-to-merchant), and works with incumbent POS systems. As part of the company’s Finovate demo, Glessner and Amancheria showed how a consumer could make a purchase without cash, debit or credit card, or even the physical smartphone itself simply using his moible phone number and PIN. Moreoever, as Amancheria reminded the banks in the audience, “if Dan had paid with cash, the banks would have made zero. But because Dan used Quisk, banks have the opportunity to make money off of this digital cash transaction.” Amancheria also highlighted the digital loyalty and rewards opportunities available to merchants using the Quisk platform, as well.

Pictured: Quisk CTO Praveen Amancheria during his presentation at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2015.

Glessner and Amancheria underscored how the technology was especially beneficial in helping banks work with underserved communities. Because the technology works with both smartphone and feature phones, and on all types of mobile network operator services, Amancheria said, “banks can reach out to the widest possible market segment and acquire new types of customers … those who have mobile phones but no bank accounts.”

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Quisk demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2015. The company also participated in our developers conference, discussing the technology behind its digital services platform at FinDEVr 2015 Silicon Valley. Last year, Quisk deployed its technology at National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCB) and with Network International in UAE. The company has raised $5 million in funding and includes Acadia Woods Partners and Plug and Play among its investors.

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Expensify Exceeds 35,000 Customers

Expensify Exceeds 35,000 Customers
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Concur, Expensify

Travel and expense management company Expensify announced today it has surpassed 35,000 global customers this month. Contributing to this milestone, the San Francisco-based company has added about 15,000 new customers in the U.S. this year alone.

This accomplishment places Expensify as the second most widely used expense management company, positioned just behind fellow Finovate alum, Concur, which demoed at FinovateSpring 2012. And while Expensify has more customers than Concur, Concur’s average customer size is larger than Expensify’s — giving Concur more active users than Expensify.

In the blog post announcement, Expensify also reported it has updated its mobile app. The consumer-facing app has moved the Expenses, Reports, and Trips lists behind the hamburger menu. The company notes that this is significant because it exemplifies Concierge’s AI automation capabilities. The Concierge bot, which we featured after its launch in 2016, automates expense management tasks such as credit card matching, reimbursable/non-reimbursable splits, and expense policy analysis. Writing about the app update in the Expensify blog, the company’s CEO David Barrett said, “if everything is configured correctly, you should almost never need to look at them yourself, because Concierge is looking at them for you.”

Expensify launched in 2008 with its flagship receipt-scanning app and a simple motto, “Expense reports that don’t suck!” In the almost-10 years since then, the company has shipped multiple updates, expansions, and new products that “don’t suck.” Most recently, at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, Expensify presented Bedrock, an open sourced relational database management system. Last month, the company announced it partnered with Finovate alum Xero to provide an in-house expense management system for the New Zealand-based company. Expensify last demoed at FinovateSpring 2013, where the company showed off its integrated invoicing technology.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Agreement Express, Expensify, Misys, Moven, NuData Security, OurCrowd, Quisk, Zopa

On Finovate.com

  • Expensify Exceeds 35,000 Customers.
  • Quisk’s Blockchain Buy-in Boosts Security, Improves Access to Transaction Data.

Around the web

  • Alternative investment intelligence provider Crowdsurfer adds data from P2P innovator, Zopa.
  • Misys introduces FusionCapital Regulatory Reporting to help banks comply with the MiFID II.
  • NuData wins CNP 2017 Customer Choice Award for Best Identity Verification/Authentication Solution
  • Agreement Express opens its new office in the City of London as part of their expansion strategy.
  • Developed in partnership with Moven Enterprise, Westpac New Zealand’s budget-tracking app, CashNav wins CANSTAR 2017 Innovation Excellence Award.
  • Customers of National Australia Bank (NAB) gain direct access to equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd courtesy of new collaboration.

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.

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Stop Cyber Attacks Before They Happen: Three Easy Hacks

Stop Cyber Attacks Before They Happen: Three Easy Hacks
By finovate Posted on
Categories: Veridium

Written by James Stickland, CEO of Veridium (FinovateEurope 2017). Originally published in FinTech Futures.

Consider this terrible dichotomy: while the average person’s application count has gone up significantly, corresponding end user cyber-security measures have gone up little, if at all. Between the app store, social channels, and the multitude of devices in use, a person’s threat landscape – the number of points from which a hacker could target them – has increased dramatically. As a result, the end-user is enormously reliant on enterprise and application providers to keep their data secure when they use these apps.

Cifas recently reported that cyber-enabled identity fraud has hit record levels in the U.K. – with younger users amongst the top targets. This seems counter-intuitive, as this demographic is certainly more tech-savvy. However, someone aged 18-21 may not be as protective of their finances as someone in their mid-40s. The younger generation doesn’t have distinguished user behavior (i.e., they haven’t opened or closed credit cards or taken loans) so it’s difficult for banks to determine what’s normal for them.

Banks have an endless amount of sensitive customer data in their possession and are under pressure to generate increased revenue per user, which means multiple touch points with single clients. This is proliferating the problem by creating increasingly complex client maps and insertion points where hackers can find their way in. Companies are working furiously to thwart attacks, but there are some very straight forward approaches that institutions should be taking to stop the attacks before they occur.

Why aren’t banks doing anything about it?

The cybersecurity problems are clear and the news headlines tell the story. In fact, in 2016, the five biggest data breaches all involved compromised, weak or reused passwords. So why isn’t anyone doing anything about this? One of the key drivers is a risk aversion to putting off customers, or complicating employee access. Anytime you require a change in behavior you can expect a backlash. For example, what would you do if suddenly your expectation of what was required to use an online account changed? Institutions think they are making passwords safer by requiring them to be more complex. In the end, this approach is self-defeating and delusional. It’s not making us safer, it’s putting us at a higher risk and defeating the original plan.

What can we do in the finance industry?

Financial companies are filled with high-value assets and have been making the attack landscape more complex through better and more intelligent firewalls, managed rules, and policies. There has also been a segregation of the data, isolating high value content and adding end-point and data-specific security. Yet, security is never a finished project; it is an ever-evolving beast and hackers have an incentive to keep getting smarter. So how can we stay alert and act?

1. Take away the easy entry points

Passwords are an easy entry point. Enterprises set rules and requirements in an attempt to maintain security:  increase the number of times a user needs to change their password, set guidelines that say the password can’t have been used before, or it must include seven characters. Yet, adding rules doesn’t change the issue behind the password.

2. Update security questions

Previously, companies didn’t have to consider the social aspect. It wasn’t a concern that someone could find out your mother’s maiden name or your high school mascot just by checking your Facebook; personal details were less accessible. This is not the case today. Consider how simple it is for hackers to research and uncover those answers.

3. Kill the password

Weak and compromised passwords continue to be a major attack point for hackers, and the costs for maintaining them are high. Even with these issues and if your password policy hasn’t been compromised, passwords don’t prove you are you – they just prove you know something about who you say you are.

Biometric authentication allows you to prove you are who you are through a variety of methods – face recognition, iris recognition, fingerprint scanning, and behavioral authentication. It offers your customers the ability to quickly and conveniently access their accounts, avoid forgotten and misplaced passwords, while increasing security and a fit for the digital age.

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AutoGravity Brings its Auto Loan Financing Solution to the Garden State

AutoGravity Brings its Auto Loan Financing Solution to the Garden State
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AutoGravity

“You from Jersey?” If so, buying a car in your home state just got a lot easier.

AutoGravity, the Best of Show winning fintech that has pioneered car shopping and financing by smartphone, is now an option for auto loan borrowers in New Jersey. Via digitization and an engaging, smartphone-based user experience, AutoGravity’s solution is “transforming how people buy and lease cars by decreasing the financing time from hours to minutes for car shoppers,” according to CEO Andy Hinrichs.

With more than 400,000 downloads since its launch last summer, AutoGravity provides car shoppers with up to four financing offers on new and used cars from thousands of dealerships. The four-step process – choose a car, find a dealer, search for financing, select a lender – leverages AutoGravity’s unique partnerships with banks, lenders, and dealerships to provide users with a “single, convenient digital marketplace,” Hinrichs said. Available on iOS and Android, as well as online, AutoGravity is free to download and use, and is now available in 49 states in the U.S. (Nevada is the exception).

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Irvine, California, AutoGravity demonstrated its car shopping app at FinovateFall 2016, winning Best of Show.  AutoGravity also presented “A Digital Marketplace for the Auto Financing Space” at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016 last fall. The company has raised $50 million in funding, and includes Daimler Financial Services among its investors. Winner of the 2017 North American Frost & Sullivan Entrepreneurial Company of the Year award, AutoGravity added to its financing options earlier this year courtesy of a partnership with Westlake Financial Services in February and another with First Investors Financial Services in January. Read our Finovate Debut profile on AutoGravity featuring an interview with company CMO, Serge Vartanov.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AutoGravity, Bluefin Payment Systems, Coinbase, Misys, NetGuardians, Roostify, Symbiont

On Finovate.com

  • AutoGravity Brings its Auto Loan Financing Solution to the Garden State.

Around the web

  • Roostify names Sandeep Aji as Vice President of Products.
  • Symbiont partners with PrivateMarket.io to build alternative investment marketplace for closed-end funds.
  • Myanmar-based AYA Bank (Ayeyarwady Bank) chooses core banking technology from Misys.
  • NetGuardians wins spot in Euro Banking Association’s EBAday 2017 conference.
  • Clients of Nodus Technologies gain access to PCI-validated P2PE technology courtesy of new partnership with Bluefin Payment Systems.
  • Wall Street Journal reports Coinbase meeting with investors over a new round of funding that would lead to a billion dollar valuation.

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.

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Zopa Receives $41 Million Investment to Support Challenger Bank Launch

Zopa Receives $41 Million Investment to Support Challenger Bank Launch
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Zopa

P2P lending pioneer Zopa just picked up $41 million (£32 million) in new funding that will go a long way toward helping the company prepare for the roll-out of its challenger bank later this year. “This investment gives us additional resources to continue our growth, support the launch of our next generation bank, and bring our award-winning products to even more people in the U.K.,” Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana said. The round was led by Wadhawan Global Capital of India and European venture capital fund, Northzone. Zopa’s total funding stands at more than $111 million.

The investment arrives less than a month after Zopa earned full authorization for P2P lending from the FCA. This authorization was a necessary step for the company to launch its Innovative Finance ISAs, a new investment product with target returns of 6.1% that is scheduled to be available by mid-June. In May, Zopa also previewed Zopa Core, a P2P investment product with target returns of 3.9%. The solution is slated to debut in December and replace some of the company’s other offerings.

One small step toward offering IFISAs is also one giant leap toward Zopa’s goal of building a challenger bank. Last fall Zopa announced plans to launch a challenger bank that would complement the company’s P2P lending business by providing a broader range of financial services products – including FSCS-protected savings accounts and IFISAs. “We believe we are uniquely placed to re-define what people should be able to expect from personal finance products in the 21st century,” Janardana wrote, announcing the news of “next generation bank” at the Zopa blog in November.

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Zopa made its Finovate debut in 2008. Over the past year, the company has enabled more than $1 billion (£800m) in personal loans in the U.K. In January, Zopa became the first P2P lender in Europe to top £2 billion ($2.5 billion) in loans facilitated.

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FinDEVr Preview: LeanXcale

FinDEVr Preview: LeanXcale
By Tyler Ferst Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr 2017 London, FinDEVr London 2017 Preview, LeanXcale

FinDEVr Previews highlight companies presenting new developer tools, platforms, and integrations at FinDEVr London 2017, 12  & 13 June. Visit our registration page and save your spot today. 


The goal of LeanXcale‘s presentation is to introduce a new technological trend, Hybrid Transactional-Analytical Processing, and explain how it solves the main pains of fintech data intensive applications, which have to deal with both operational data and real-time analytical queries.

Why it’s a must-see

Fintech applications require real-time Big Data capabilities. Current approaches to real-time Big Data, i.e. lambda architectures, are extremely complex to create and maintain. The novel HTAP databases, such as LeanXcale, are able to cater to the needs of different fintech applications and significantly simplify their architecture.

Check out more previews of upcoming FinDEVr London 2017 presentations. Visit our registration page to save your spot. 

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FinDEVr Preview: Trusted Key

FinDEVr Preview: Trusted Key
By Tyler Ferst Posted on
Categories: FinDEVr 2017 London, FinDEVr London 2017 Preview, Trusted Key

FinDEVr Previews highlight companies presenting new developer tools, platforms, and integrations at FinDEVr London 2017, 12  & 13 June. Visit our registration page and save your spot today. 


Trusted Key‘s presentation will cover:

  1. Top identity management challenges now facing financial services institutions.
  2. How the combination of mobile-centered technology, strong cryptography and blockchain uniquely address those challenges.
  3. How the Trusted Key Platform allows financial institutions to deploy much more secure and reliable identity management solutions.

Why it’s a must-see

Global financial institutions face increasing challenges in a world in which identity fraud is rampant, KYC and AML regulations are becoming more complex, and millennials ONLY want to interact with their banks on their mobile devices. Trusted Key Platform addresses these challenges and more.

Check out more previews of upcoming FinDEVr London 2017 presentations. Visit our registration page to save your spot. 

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KeyBank Acquires HelloWallet from Morningstar

KeyBank Acquires HelloWallet from Morningstar
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: HelloWallet

In a deal announced late on Wednesday, KeyBank will acquire personal finance software provider, HelloWallet, from Morningstar, which purchased the company for more than $52 million in 2014. Terms of the deal were not immediately available; the 36 employees of the company that will join KeyBank will continue to work from offices in Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

KeyBank’s interest in HelloWallet extends back to at least 2015 when the company announced an exclusive partnership that made KeyBank the only bank with access to HelloWallet’s personal finance platform. Positive reviews from customers, including KeyBank research indicating customers using HelloWallet’s solutions were expressing greater financial confidence, encouraged the two firms to deepen their relationship, culminating in this week’s acquisition announcement. “We are thrilled to bring the HelloWallet team to KeyBank so they can join us on our clients’ journey toward financial wellness one step at a time,” KeyBank Community Bank co-president Dennis Devine said.

Pictured: HelloWallet founder and Chief Innovation Officer Matt Fellowes demonstrating Retirement Explorer at FinovateFall 2015.

The Best of Show winner from FinovateFall was a busy innovator while under the Morningstar umbrella. The company began the year with the release of version 5.0 of its personal finance app, providing improved navigation and a streamlined dashboard. In December, HelloWallet launched its free student-loan and retirement savings calculator and, last August, the company unveiled its Flexible Budgets feature that helps users make longer-term planning decisions, and better prepare for larger, infrequent expenses. We featured HelloWallet in our look at advice-only savings technologies in March.

Founded in 2009 by Matt Fellowes, HelloWallet demoed its Retirement Explorer solution at FinovateFall 2015. A specialist in providing employer-based financial wellness solutions, the company raised more than $15 million in funding from four investors before being acquired by Morningstar. For its part, Morningstar insisted that its decision to sell HelloWallet was consistent with its long-term strategy and was not a reflection on its commitment to providing personal finance solutions for its customers. “Morningstar has significantly enhanced its overall capability set since the acquisition of HelloWallet more than three years ago,” Morningstar President of Retirement Solutions Brock Johnson said, “and we will continue to incorporate many of the financial wellness best practices into our broad-based solutions.”

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