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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
First Oklahoma FCU to deploy core account processing technology from Fiserv.
Yoyounveils marketing automation platform, Yoyo Engage, at Davos.
Misysadds crowdlending module to FusionBanking platform.
United Nations FCU chooses digital banking platform from Jwaala.
OnDeck and payment solutions provider WEX team up to provide small business financing.
ABA Banking Journal column on biometric authentication featuresDaon and EyeVerify.
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.
Application security company Arxanannounced this week it has acquired Apperian. The mobile application management company will operate as a subsidiary of Arxan. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Apperian was founded in 2009 and has enabled 2.5 million enterprise app installations. In the past two years, the company has seen its user base grow 180%. Apperian executive Mark Lorion will become president and general manager of the new subsidiary. Lorion stated he is excited about the transition, since the companies share an “app-centric philosophy.”
In a press release Arxan CEO Joe Sander describes Apperian’s security capabilities as “pivotal for organizations to securely deploy and manage their apps.” Arxan launched in 2001 to prevent attacks and protect products for mobile, desktop, server and IoT.
Arxan is an alum of both Finovate and FinDEVr, having demoed at FinovateEurope 2014 where it debuted mobile application hardening technology that uses object code to lock down applications. The company also presented at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2015 where CTO Sam Rehman presented on protecting apps and data from emerging risks. Arxan currently protects applications running on more than 500 million devices. Last month, the company closed out the year by winning a total of six IoT security awards.
In what might be the freshest start to a new year for any fintech in 2017, banking software innovator CR2 has announced two major changes at the top. Fintan Byrne, formerly General Manager for Europe with MasterCard Payment Gateway Services, will take the helm as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Paul Geraghty, previously CFO at Curam Software for IBM, joins CR2 as Chief Financial Officer.
CR2 Chairman Kieran Nagle praised both executives’ “strong track records and weighty experience within the financial services and financial technology sector.” In addition to his tenure at Mastercard, Byrne (pictured) previously served as Managing Director, General Manager, Europe; and VP Sales, UK and Ireland for Transaction Network Services. He also spent five years in sales and marketing at NCR. Byrne has degrees from Marist College and University of Limerick, as well as an MBA from the University College Dublin.
“I can see both the strength and potential within (CR2),” Byrne said, “and will focus on developing the business to meet the needs of both existing and new customers as banks look to serve their customers in the digital world.”
Geraghty spent more than 11 years at Curam Software as Financial Controller and Operations Manager before the company was acquired by IBM in 2011. For the past three and a half years as Curam Software’s CFO within IBM, Geraghty was responsible for financial and business strategy, as well as developing analytics resources to help articulate financial performance. Geraghty studied at Dublin Business School and earned advanced degrees from Trinity College, Dublin. In a statement announcing his move to CR2, he pledged to bring a “fresh perspective” to the 20-year old company “as it continues through this exciting time of growth and change.”
Technology from Modo Paymentssupports new loyalty point POS payment partnership between FIS and Verifone.
CurrencyFairunveils new SMS/push notifications feature for deposits and auto transactions.
RightCapitalenhances platform to make compliance with DOL fiduciary rule easier.
FISearns top honors in Bank Director’s Core Provider and Asia Risk Technology rankings.
Marc Thompson joinsPaySimple as Chief Financial Officer.
Tokenpartners with VirtusaPolaris, information technology consulting and outsourcing company.
M1 Financerolls out retirement account functionality.
CUNA Strategic Services partners with Kasasa to provide credit unions with products and services to stay competitive.
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.
What blockchain trends from 2016 are worth watching for follow-through in 2017? Here are five blockchain players to keep an eye on as the new year begins.
IBM: Something Old, Something New, Something Blue
It is remarkable that a company that is more than 100 years old (“International Business Machines”) is one of the leading innovators when it comes to the blockchain. But IBM (FD16) began 2016 by introducing its strategy to offer cloud-based products and services for business via blockchain technology. IBM’s “blockchain-as-a-service” strategy incorporates many of the company’s core technology projects including its Watson Internet of Things platform and its development lab, Bluemix Garage – as well as its core IT system for global banks, IBM z System. IBM’s blockchain strategy also includes its participation in the open source, Linux-driven Hyperledger Project (demonstrated at FinDEVr). Just this week, a commodity trading and agribusiness software provider, The Seam, that has “cleared or processed” $7 billion, announced it would be joining IBM’s blockchain consortium.
That said, IBM distinguishes itself from Microsoft’s efforts by being fairly IBM-centric in its offering. Jerry Cuomo, IBM VP of blockchain technology, told CoinDesk: “What we’re doing is we’re picking a specific fabric and a specific point of view. We’re not interested in any fabric,” Cuomo explained, “we’re interested in one that can support business applications. We’re a bit more opinionated on what fabric is needed.”
International Business Machines, indeed.
And when it comes to ascertaining the appetite for blockchain, IBM has done its homework. In a survey of 200 banks, IBM learned that 65% of respondents “plan to have projects in production” in the next three years. Areas of focus include clearing and settlement, wholesale payments, equity and debt issuance, and reference data. Respondents to a different survey of 200 global FIs revealed that 14% planned to deploy commercial blockchain products in 2017.
“The continued growth of the Ripple network represents a major endorsement of our open approach to connecting the world’s bank and their customers,” Ripple co-founder and former CEO Chris Larsen said. Larsen, who will transition to the role of Ripple chairman of the board at the beginning of 2017, added: “Together we are building a modern payments system to enable new economic opportunities and the seamless flow of value around the world.”
R3: Are Blockchain-Curious Banks Stronger Together?
One way to measure the progress of blockchain technology is by keeping track of the comings (and goings) of members of R3, the world’s largest blockchain-based cooperative. Founded in 2014 and with more than 70 of the world’s largest FIs onboard, R3 is designed to conduct research on and promote the use of blockchain technology in financial services. R3’s biggest contribution to date is Corda, an open-source distributed ledger platform that, while maintaining many of the characteristics of blockchain technology, is not – technically speaking – a blockchain.
Unfortunately, many of the headlines R3 made in 2016 involved a handful of founding members – including Morgan Stanley, Santander, and Goldman Sachs – leaving the cooperative. Specific reasons for leaving the group were typically not provided, though each bank made it clear that the decision was not a reflection on their interest in blockchain technology. Many observers have speculated that the timing of the departures was related to issues surrounding R3’s fundraising efforts, as well as concerns about the growth of the cooperative itself (currently at more than 70 members). Speaking to the departures at Disrupt London in December, R3 founder and CEO David Rutter pointed to the difficulty of “meet(ing) everyone’s criteria” in an organization the size of R3. To the fundraising concerns, Rutter affirmed R3’s “very good progress” toward completing a $150 million funding round.
Beyond the Banks: Card Companies, Payments and Blockchain
One interesting place to keep an eye on for blockchain-related developments in 2017 is among non-bank financial players like the card companies. Visa (FD14), for example, unveiled a blockchain based payments platform, Visa B2B Connect, in partnership with Chain (FD15) in 2016. The technology, designed to provide “near real-time transactions” for high value international payments, will undergo testing this year.
Is a Bull Market in Bitcoin a Boon for the Blockchain?
With bitcoin closing 2016 with a return to its highest level in years, it is little surprise the cryptocurrency is finding its way into the hearts and minds of investors seeking uncorrelated assets to diversify their portfolios. In “Bitcoin Investing: Where Wall Street and Silicon Valley Meet,” Chris Burniske and Adam White make the case for bitcoin as an asset class for long-term investors based on the currency’s declining volatility, reward-vs-risk, and lack of correlation with most other markets including gold, U.S. real estate, and U.S. equities since 2011. Whether growing interest in bitcoin ends up contributing to (or at least correlating with) increased interest in the technology that makes the digital currency possible will be one of the big questions of 2017, as well.
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.
Efigence is a technology company specializing in designing customer experience and implementing innovative technologies for banks and financial services.
Features
Efi4: a robust, nimble, and versatile digital banking platform
Tailored UX for unique look-and-feel
New generation PFM with a smart-support forecasting tool
Why it’s great
Efi4 is a seamless digital banking experience to guide retail banking customers through the complexity of the banking world using a three-screen environment.
Presenters
Pawel Haltof, Innovation Director & Board Member
Haltof is consultant, strategist, and co-creator of the most innovative design concepts awarded many times by the most important international bodies. He has 10+ years of experience in cooperation with banks. LinkedIn
Hubert Czerski, Head of Project Management and Analysis
An experienced manager focused on implementing innovation in banks, Czerski has a proven track record in cooperation with banks in EMEA region. LinkedIn
Suggests user-centric savings, investment, and borrowing options
Abolishes unexpected overdraft fees
Why it’s great
Using machine-learning techniques, it alerts users before any fines are incurred and provides simple automated actions to take, heralding the death knell of penalty charges.
Presenter
Dave Tonge, Chief Technology Officer
Tonge is an open source enthusiast leading an amazing team who thrives on creating software to solve real world problems in a user-centric manner. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.
Comarch Financial Services provide state-of-the-art software for major financial institutions from insurance, banking, and capital markets.
Features
Banking and managing wealth within a car
Natural language conversation with a bot
Visual aids on car consoles
Why it’s great
Time-saving conversational AI for banking and managing wealth in the secure and private environment of a car.
Presenters
Maciej Wolański and Head of R&D
Wolanski is combining his strong technical background as a developer and architect with vast knowledge of financial services for which he was working for last ten years in multiple countries. LinkedIn Paulina Powązka, Senior Business Solutions Consultant
After starting her career in one of the major international financial institutions, Powazka joined Comarch to be a part of the retail digital banking team.
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.
James by CrowdProcess allows financial institutions to create highly predictive models for credit risk management through state of the art machine learning algorithms and techniques.
Features
NPL avoidance
Loan portfolio growth
Operational cost reduction
Why it’s great
James creates high-performing predictive models that are both easy to integrate and fully compliant with banking regulations. This allows lenders to grow without taking additional risks.
Presenters
Pedro Fonseca, CEO
In addition to being CrowdProcess’ CEO, Fonseca is the company’s Head of Data Science. He’s an experienced public speaker and known for being able to communicate complex issues to non-expert audiences. LinkedIn
Gonçalo Garcia, Head of Product
Garcia is the person in charge of James’ roadmap. Though he started his career as a business developer, he is now part data scientist, part developer which makes him a natural head of product. LinkedIn
Not a stranger to banks’ needs, Moonraft Innovation Labs spent six years in partnership with financial institutions across the globe to help them deliver an enhanced customer experience. During this time the company realized how banks struggle to keep up with the pace of customer expectations in innovation.
To begin his demo at FinovateFall 2016 in New York, Aveejeet Palit, Chief Strategy Officer explained that when banks launch a new innovation, it is often “dead on arrival” because customer expectations have already evolved. The result, Palit explains, is that the bank is always trying to catch up, needing to continually invest in the long design and development cycle.
This discovery led to the launch of Catamera, a platform that aims to help banks speed their pace of innovation to keep up with ever-evolving customer expectations. Palit described Catamera as, “a library of web components which can help you quickly put together an experience you would like… and also help you innovate and evolve at the pace your customers want.” Catamera makes it easy for banks to design and create a user experience with drag-and-drop features. Furthermore, it requires no special IT skills. The widgets library offers pre-built tools, such as PFM and a retirement planner, that connect to the banks’ back end APIs.
Aveejeet Palit (Chief Strategy Officer) and Sreekumar Paramu (CEO & Co-Founder, Americas) demo Moonraft Innovation Labs’ Catamera at FinovateFall 2016
After the conference we caught up with Sreekumar Paramu (who goes by Sree), the company’s CEO & co-founder, Americas to discuss Catamera in more detail.
Finovate: What problem does Moonraft Innovation Labs solve?
Sree: Banks across the globe are struggling to keep pace with the speed of evolution of customer demands. Long design and development cycles mean that by the time banks are ready with a particular offering, the customer has moved on to something else. Catamera aims to address this problem by enabling banks to create amazing user experiences in a very short time, by leveraging our well designed, integration ready web components
Finovate: Who are your primary customers?
Sree: Our primary customers are small to mid sized banks & credit unions who cannot afford long design and development cycles, yet need to deliver great digital experiences to their customers. However all banks irrespective of big or small would benefit from the use of Catamera
Finovate: How does Moonraft Innovation Labs solve the problem better?
Sree: Most experience platforms are tightly coupled to heavy technology systems that increase the complexity of dealing with it. Catamera is completely decoupled from the bank’s backend technology systems, thereby drastically enhancing the speed of launch and delivery. On top of that, our comprehensive web component library and easy to use builder platform makes designing experiences very simple and intuitive.
Finovate: What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?
Sree: As an organization, Moonraft Innovation Labs has worked with more than 20 large banks globally in designing their digital banking experiences. This vast experience has exposed us to the challenges faced by banks as mentioned earlier. Our product Catamera has been born out of the insights from all these challenges in working with global banks. Also the current trend of moving towards API/Micro-service driven solutions, will make Catamera a very useful tool for innovation, for the entire banking sector.
Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from Moonraft Innovation Labs that we can look forward to over the next few months?
Sree: We are in the final stages of partnership with leading core banking, e-banking technology providers to partner and go to market. We are also in advanced stages of talks with multiple credit unions and small banks in the US for live deployments of the product.
Finovate: Where do you see Moonraft Innovation Labs a year or two from now?
Sree: We see Catamera leading the way for customer experience innovations for banks all over the world. Key trends that are supporting us are the API/Micro-services movement, and the urge for banks to decouple experience innovation from their core systems. In the process, we are confident of owning a significant market share, especially in the small banks and credit unions.
Aveejeet Palit (Chief Strategy Officer) and Sreekumar Paramu (CEO & Co-Founder, Americas) demo Moonraft Innovation Labs’ Catamera at FinovateFall 2016
Experianpartners with reporting and analytics platform dv01 to enable dv01 clients to access to richer borrower credit attributes.
FISteams with Verifone to enable consumers to pay at the point of sale using loyalty points linked to a credit or debit card.
Business Insider namesGusto,App Annie, and BlueVine as 3 startups to bet your career on in 2017.
Tokenannounces strategic partnership with VirtusaPolaris.
TransferTo to provide bridge linking between EcoCash and Mama Money mobile money services.
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.
In what The New York Times is calling TheGreat AI Awakening and Forbes has dubbed The Year of AI, 2017 is shaping up to be obsessively focused on artificial intelligence, a field that has been around for awhile (remember playing checkers against a computer?) but has finally matured to the point of usefulness.
Because the technology has finally reached its tipping point, AI, and its close relative machine learning, have taken a variety of industries by storm, bringing self-driving Ubers to the streets of San Francisco (and then carting them away); robotic vacuum cleaners to dirty household floors; and natural language processing to chat bots and IVR communications. With AI already embedded into these industries, it’s easy to find examples of how the technology is shaping fintech.
Below are eight areas of fintech into which AI has made inroads. Each area is ranked and rated (out of 5 stars) based on how it is currently influenced by AI and based on AI’s potential to add value.
Robo advisory
Fintech example: Robo advisors are built on AI technology, which is used to augment portfolio management and rebalancing decisions typically made by a (sometimes biased) human. To see tens of dozens of these examples, check out our post on B2C wealth tech.
Current AI application: 4 stars
Potential AI application: 5 stars
AI is already a standard tool in robo advisory. Because the very nature of robo advisors is to replace humans, the potential application of AI in this space is huge, especially when enhanced with machine learning and held accountable using blockchain.
Advisory tools
Fintech example: Similar to B2C robo advisory platforms that leverage AI to automatically manage and rebalance users’ portfolios, advisors can automate their clients’ portfolios to minimize human error while still offering a personal touch. Kensho (FEU14) introduced Warren to helps advisors perform quantitative analyses on market data. ForwardLane (FS16) uses AI powered by IBM Watson to offer financial advisors access to quantitative modeling and highly personalized investment advice generally only available to ultra high net worth individuals.
Current AI application: 4 stars
Potential AI application: 5 stars
Just as AI is already standard in direct-to-consumer robo advisory, so is it with advisory tools, since many were built on the premise of AI.
Fraud detection
Fintech example: Multiple card issuers use AI to detect unusual spending activity. Feedzai (FEU14) uses AI combined with machine learning to analyze sets of big data created during a user’s online sessions to mitigate fraud associated with online account opening, payments, and ecommerce.
Current AI application: 4 stars
Potential AI application: 5 stars
AI is already heavily leveraged for use in fraud detection. Combining it with the blockchain, which can provide an un-editable ledger of events, paired with AI’s ability to analyze large data sets in real time makes it even more powerful.
Underwriting
Fintech example: AI can help underwriters create a uniform metric that accurately identifies risk across borrowers. Aire.io (FEU15) leverages the power of AI to create and assign credit scores to thin credit file individuals.
Current AI application: 4 stars
Potential AI application: 5 stars
The lending industry has already transformed its underwriting practices from relying on large databases to now using AI to analyze large amounts of scattered, unstructured data. Because AI can analyze these data sets in real time, there’s great potential for both borrowers and lenders to benefit.
Regulatory compliance
Fintech example: Banks can use AI to quickly scan legal and regulatory text for compliance issues, and do so at scale. IpSoft’s Amelia is a customer service bot that helps banks maintain compliance in conversations with customers.
Current AI application: 3
Potential AI application: 5
Relying on AI to scan for compliance issues instead of a team of employees helps avoid human error and allows financial institutions to quickly analyze multiple documents and practices. Because it removes human biases and error, AI has great potential in regulatory compliance.
Marketing
Fintech example: Marketers can better up-sell or cross-sell banking and finance products by using AI to identify and anticipate client needs. SBDA Group (FEU 16) helps banks leverage their data using algorithms and machine learning to create targeted marketing campaigns for individual customers.
Current AI application: 3 stars
Potential AI application: 4 stars
Fintech companies have been using AI to draw conclusions from bank data for a few years now, but marketing is an area in which human input still adds a lot of value.
Customer service
Fintech example: Firms can leverage AI to identify which clients are at most risk of leaving a bank or advisor. FinovateAsia 2016 Best of Show-winner, Finn.ai (FA16), offers a white-labeled chat bot that integrates into existing messaging platforms such as Line, Facebook Messenger, Alexa, and even the bank’s web chat interface.
Current AI application: 2 stars
Potential AI application: 5 stars
Banks have been hesitant to adopt chat bots and other AI-based customer service products because the technologies are not quite smart enough. Finn.ai overcomes this challenge by offering a Talk to a Human button at the bottom of the chat interface. This technique, combined with the implementation of machine learning and advanced natural language recognition, makes this space prime for growth in 2017.
Reporting tools
Fintech example: Advancements in natural language, along with AI’s ability to analyze large data sets, have made it possible for banks to rely on software to automatically create and distribute reports. Narrative Science (FF13), for example, automates the creation of anti-money laundering reports and allows the bank to adjust for the tone of the writing.
Current AI application: 2
Potential AI application: 4
We’ve seen AI used to generate reports, both in written and video form, in the wealth management and compliance sectors. However, there is still room for natural language reporting to extend to other forms (such as inside of a chat interface) as well as to other sectors of fintech.
While AI is widespread in many areas of fintech, it is still far from others, such as tax and estate planning, which require complex inputs and decision making. However, bolstering AI in these difficult areas using machine learning, the blockchain, and human intervention offers some potential for growth in 2017.
Since AI is pervasive throughout many sectors of fintech, it may not be too early for your company to begin searching for a Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer.
CR2 Chairman Kieran Nagle praised both executives’ “strong track records and weighty experience within the financial services and financial technology sector.” In addition to his tenure at Mastercard, Byrne (pictured) previously served as Managing Director, General Manager, Europe; and VP Sales, UK and Ireland for Transaction Network Services. He also spent five years in sales and marketing at NCR. Byrne has degrees from Marist College and University of Limerick, as well as an MBA from the University College Dublin.
Presenters
Presenter
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 7 and 8 of February 2017 in London. 
Presenters
Paulina Powązka, Senior Business Solutions Consultant
Presenters
Gonçalo Garcia, Head of Product
Aveejeet Palit (Chief Strategy Officer) and Sreekumar Paramu (CEO & Co-Founder, Americas) demo Moonraft Innovation Labs’ Catamera at FinovateFall 2016
After the conference we caught up with Sreekumar Paramu (who goes by Sree), the company’s CEO & co-founder, Americas to discuss Catamera in more detail.
