Alumni News

NayaOne Wins Tender from Financial Conduct Authority to Build Digital Sandbox

NayaOne Wins Tender from Financial Conduct Authority to Build Digital Sandbox
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, NayaOne
  • Digital sandbox developer NayaOne secured the Digital Sandbox tender from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
  • In the past year, NayaOne has built digital sandboxes and marketplaces for Lloyds Banking Group and FinTech North.
  • NayaOne won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in March.

FinovateEurope Best of Show winner NayaOne has scored again this year. The London, U.K.-based fintech has secured the Digital Sandbox tender from the country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The Digital Sandbox will give startups a safe and secure environment to build, test, and develop their fintech solutions. All with the full support of the FCA.

“We are thrilled to have been selected for this prestigious opportunity to collaborate with the FCA on driving innovation in financial services,” NayaOne CEO Karan Jain said. “We believe that our digital transformation platform and synthetic data technology will be a valuable asset in helping fintech companies to develop and test their products more efficiently and effectively.”

The FCA’s decision comes in the wake of a pair of pilot projects, in 2020 and again in 2022. The initiatives gave startups access to synthetic and publicly available data in order to test and develop their solutions. The FCA announced that it would make the digital sandbox permanent in the summer of 2023. NayaOne has built a business of creating digital sandboxes for financial institutions, such as Lloyds Banking Group and FinTech North. And it is this experience – according to FCA Chief Data, Information, and Intelligence Officer Jessica Rusu – that makes the company well-positioned to help the FCA fulfill its goal of “promoting solutions to complex regulatory challenges like APP fraud, greenwashing, and scam detection.”

NayaOne demoed its Digital Sandbox in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope. The company’s platform helps make innovation, integration, and partnership an easier – and faster – process for banks. NayaOne offers single key access to more than 200 technology vendors; a secure, digital sandbox environment; and 2.5 billion data points to support tech evaluation. The company reports that it has enabled banks to accelerate their proof-of-concept timeline from 12 months to only two months. This saves banks up to 80% in costs and significantly increases productivity.

NayaOne’s Digital Sandbox announcement comes as the company reports that Bambu is now available via the NayaOne Marketplace. Bambu is a Singapore-based B2B roboadvisor and fellow Finovate alum. A three-time Best of Show winner, the company most recently demoed at FinovateFall in 2021. “We recognize NayaOne’s commitment to enable banks and financial institutions to take advantage of revolutionary innovations in financial technology by bringing banks and fintechs together for innovation,” Bambu founder and CEO Ned Phillips said. “As a wealth technology provider, we at Bambu want to bring our award-winning financial solutions to the forefront, and we look forward to doing so on the NayaOne Digital Transformation Platform.”

NayaOne was founded in 2019. Karan Jain joined the company as CEO in 2021.

Photo by Jorge Sepúlveda

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Techcombank Taps Personetics for Money Management Capabilities

Techcombank Taps Personetics for Money Management Capabilities
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Personetics

Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank, also known as Techcombank, has tapped data-driven personalization expert Personetics to facilitate AI-powered money management capabilities for its clients.

Techcombank is leveraging the partnership to help promote financial wellness among its nearly 11 million customers. Personetics’ expertise in providing personalized banking experiences will bring the bank’s customers personalized, automated money management capabilities. For example, Personetics will help Techcombank analyze customers’ financial transactions, aggregate bank accounts, and provide valuable insights about unexpected payments, excessive spending, and insufficient account balances. As a result, customers will receive tailored suggestions on savings, asset growth, and card usage to help achieve their goals.

“At Techcombank, our mission is to revolutionize the way our customers manage their finances to achieve more in life,” said Techcombank Chief Digital Officer Pranav Seth. “We believe that data-led insights and personalized financial solutions are the key to unlocking true financial wellness and will enable our customers to make smarter financial decisions that align with their unique goals and challenges. From identifying new savings opportunities to proactively monitoring spend, our ultimate goal is to empower our customers with unprecedented convenience and control. Our partnership with Personetics marks a significant milestone in our long-term vision of enhancing our customers’ lives by making banking hyper-personal to each and every customer.”

Techcombank has already undergone a beta testing period with Personetics that included 10,000 end customers. After three weeks, the bank saw savings balances increase 9%, had average log-in rates increase from 14.2 times per month to 77.3 times per month, experienced a 43.7% increase in installments volume, and a 32% increase in total installment value.

Headquartered in New York, and with offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Singapore, Personetics counts more than 135 million bank customers across the globe. The fintech was founded in 2010 and strives to help banks create “self-driving finance” experiences for its customers. Under this concept, banks leverage AI to proactively act on behalf of their clients to help them achieve their financial goals.

Last November United Overseas Bank tapped Personetics for its Auto-Save feature that finds “safe-to-save” funds by analyzing a user’s spending habits over time. The fintech partnered with sustainability-as-a-service company Ecolytiq after Earth Day last year to launch Sustainability Insights, a tool that analyzes consumers spending to show them the carbon emissions of their spending and investments.

An alum of FinovateFall 2016, Personetics has raised $178 million from investors including Thoma Bravo, Warburg Pincus, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and more. David Sosna is CEO.

Photo by Phil Nguyen

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Q2 Now Helps Firms Navigate Real Time Payment Rails

Q2 Now Helps Firms Navigate Real Time Payment Rails
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Q2, Q2 Holdings
Q2 payment rails
  • Q2 is launching the Q2 Instant Payments Manager.
  • The new tool helps banks manage workflows for instant payment schemes, including Clearing House RTP and Federal Reserve FedNow rails.
  • The Instant Payments Manager supports multiple functions, including Request for Payment, Request for Information, Credit Transfer, and Receipt Confirmation messages.

Digital banking solutions provider Q2 Holdings unveiled its Q2 Instant Payments Manager this week. The new tool helps banks manage workflows for instant payment schemes, including Clearing House RTP and Federal Reserve FedNow rails.

The Clearing House has offered its real-time payment (RTP) rails since 2017 and the U.S. Federal Reserve is planning to launch its FedNow RTP solution this summer. The new capabilities have many U.S. firms seeking to integrate real-time payment flows into their systems to not only keep up with competing banks, but also with customer expectations. For both of these instant payment message sets, Q2’s new solution supports multiple functions, including Request for Payment, Request for Information, Credit Transfer, and Receipt Confirmation messages.

“Q2 Instant Payments Manager solves the challenges many businesses face around partial B2B payments and exchanging invoice data between billers and payers,” said Q2 SVP of Product Management Dallas Wells. “The new solution will modernize B2B payment flows and provide a competitive advantage for banks and credit unions striving for operating account deposits in a crowded commercial banking market.”

The Q2 Instant Payments Manager is a part of the company’s Q2 Catalyst, a set of commercial banking solutions. Q2 anticipates today’s offering will help banks improve their accounts receivable and payable processes by reducing the times to post and reconcile B2B payments.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 offers a range of digital financial solutions for consumers, business clients, and fellow fintechs. The company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker QTWO, and has a market capitalization of more than $1.36 billion.

The topic of RTP among banks and fintechs has gained major headway in the U.S. this year. Earlier this week, Plaid unveiled its Instant Payouts solution. The multi-rail payout tool enables a range of financial services firms– including verticals like personal lending, marketplaces, insurance, brokerages, and digital investment platforms– to send funds instantly, 24/7 within Plaid’s Transfer product. 

Photo by Albin Berlin

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RightCapital’s Cash Flow Maps Bring Intuitive Visuals to Financial Planning

RightCapital’s Cash Flow Maps Bring Intuitive Visuals to Financial Planning
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, RightCapital
  • RightCapital launched its new data visualization tool, Cash Flow Maps, this week.
  • The new offering provides intuitive data visuals to illustrate cash inflows and outflows in financial plans.
  • Headquartered in Connecticut, RightCapital most recently demoed its technology at FinovateSpring in 2019.

Seeing is believing. And RightCapital is betting that its new Cash Flow Maps will make it easier for financial advisors to collaborate with their clients. The latest addition to RightCapital’s data visualization tools, Cash Flow Maps offers intuitive data visuals to illustrate cash inflows and outflows in financial plans.

“RightCapital has built its reputation on listening to advisor feedback and adding new product features at a fast clip,” co-founder and CEO of RightCapital Shuang Chen said. “The Cash Flow Maps are a good example of that.”

Cash Flow Maps present data in two different formats. The “Waterfall” format is a horizontal Sankey chart in which cash inflows and outflows move from left to right. The “Breakdown” format is a vertical flow chart that allows users to click on each item for greater detail. The new offering is available now to all RightCapital subscribers at all subscription levels. Cash Flow Maps leverage Sankey charting, which emphasizes transfers or flows within a system. Famous examples of early Sankey charts include a visualization of Napolean’s 1812 Russian Campaign created in 1869. Another famous example was the illustration of the efficiency of a steam engine back in 1898.

“My first experience seeing Sankey cash flow charts used in financial planning was in what I called the ‘Beautiful Financial Plan’ that Mike Zung, CFP, created,” Michael Kitces said. Kitces is publisher of The Kitces Report and the financial advisory industry blog, Nerd’s Eye View. “Now that RightCapital has released this new feature that automatically creates cash flow maps, the entire community of advisors can use them in their financial plans with ease,” he added.

Founded in 2015, RightCapital made its Finovate debut a year later at FinovateFall. The Shelton, Connecticut-based fintech last demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateSpring 2019. RightCapital also offers Snapshot, which summarizes financial planning charts and notes into a single personalized document. The company’s Blueprint solution helps organize household financial data and goals using interactive, intuitive visuals.

Photo by Pixabay

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Qolo to Power Payment Solutions and Virtual Accounts for KeyBank

Qolo to Power Payment Solutions and Virtual Accounts for KeyBank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Qolo
  • Omnichannel card and payment platform Qolo has partnered with KeyBank.
  • Via the partnership, Qolo will power KeyBank’s payment solutions and virtual accounts.
  • Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Qolo made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in September 2022.

KeyBank has selected omnichannel card and payment platform Qolo to power its API-based payment solutions and virtual accounts. The partnership will enable KeyBank customers to create advanced virtual accounts instantly. Customers also will be able to connect seamlessly to other payment modalities such as real-time payments, ACH, and wire transfers.

“Qolo’s partnership with KeyBank will bring our leading card issuing, omnichannel payments, and flexible virtual accounts to more fintechs and businesses looking to quickly launch and scale revenue-generating digital banking services,” Qolo co-founder and CEO Patricia Montesi said. “We are excited to power this intrinsic component of KeyBank’s next-generation digital offering.”

Qolo enables banks to leverage advanced digital payments functionality without having to replace their core systems. Via a single API, Qolo offers direct access to all payment rails and account types. The company’s technology also provides program management, processing, platform licensing and more. Qolo made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall last September, where it demoed its Companion Core solution.

Head of Commercial Product and Innovation at KeyBank Jon Briggs praised Qolo for its “shared commitment” to helping businesses access innovative new solutions to better serve their customers. “The integration of Qolo into KeyBank’s API is another proof point in our embedded banking strategy, allowing clients to streamline and scale their strategies by utilizing our digital payment tools to power innovation in their platforms.”

Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Qolo was founded in 2018. The company’s partnership announcement with KeyBank follows recent news that Qolo was working with global payouts firm PayQuicker. The collaboration will enable Qolo to provide unified disbursement services to PayQuicker and its customers. Qolo began the year celebrating a major milestone: processing more than $1 billion in total payouts in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Qolo has raised $19 million in equity funding. The company’s most recent fundraising was in August of 2021 when it secured $15 million in a Series A round led by The Raptor Group.

Photo by Blue Arauz

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Twitter Taps eToro for Real-Time Stock Prices

Twitter Taps eToro for Real-Time Stock Prices
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, eToro
  • Twitter has selected eToro to provide real-time pricing data for its $Cashtags feature.
  • The $Cashtag will not only show real-time pricing data, it will also enable users to navigate to the eToro platform to view more information and make a trade.
  • The news comes about a month after Twitter CEO Elon Musk said he thinks it is possible Twitter could become “the biggest financial institution in the world.”

Social trading and investment network eToro unveiled it has partnered with Twitter. The tie-up will enable the social media platform’s $Cashtags feature to show users real-time prices for a range of stocks, crypto, and other assets.

Twitter first added pricing data on $Cashtags leveraging TradingView data late last year. However, the live pricing information was only available for select financial assets. With today’s partnership, eToro is expanding the list of assets to include more stocks, ETFs, crypto, and commodities. Moreover, Twitter users will be able to click the $Cashtag to navigate to the eToro platform, which will not only offer more information on the asset, but will also have the option to invest.

“Financial content on social media has provided education to many who have felt excluded by more traditional channels,” said eToro CEO Yoni Assia. “Twitter has become a crucial part of the retail investing community – it’s where millions of ordinary investors go every day to access financial news, share knowledge and converse. As the social investing network, eToro was built on these very principles – community, knowledge-sharing and better access to financial markets. There is power in shared knowledge and by transforming investing into a group endeavour, we can yield better results and become more successful, together.”

In piloting the launch of $Cashtag pricing data late last year, Twitter has seen widespread adoption among its users– even with the limited data. There have been more than 420 million searches for $Cashtags since the start of this year, with an average 4.7 million $Cashtag searches a day. Among the most commonly used $Cashtags are $TSLA, $SPY, and $BTC.

Today’s news comes about six months after Twitter CEO Elon Musk acquired the social media platform and declared plans to turn it into an “everything app.” At a Morgan Stanley Tech conference earlier this year, Musk specified that this vision revolved around payments. “I think it’s possible to create a very powerful finance experience,” said Musk. “Basically, I think it’s possible to become the biggest financial institution in the world, just by providing people with convenient payment options.”

Twitter’s partnership with eToro serves as the company’s first step towards becoming the “biggest financial institution in the world.” It also offers a hint into Twitter’s initial strategy when it comes to achieving that goal– as many U.S. banks have found, when it comes to rising to the top, partnerships are key.

Photo by Edgar on Unsplash

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Digital Identity Verification Specialist Socure Partners with Payments Innovator Alacriti

Digital Identity Verification Specialist Socure Partners with Payments Innovator Alacriti
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Socure
  • Socure partnered with payments company Alacriti to bring identity fraud prevention to instant payments.
  • The partnership comes as the transition toward instant payments gains steam in the U.S.
  • Socure most recently demoed its digital identity verification technology at FinovateFall 2017.

Socure and Alacriti have teamed up to bring third-party and synthetic identity fraud prevention to instant payments.

The partnership will enable financial institutions to use end-to-end, turnkey, instant payment solutions with the benefit of integrated fraud prevention. This will benefit FIs using Alacriti’s Cosmos Payments Hub, which enables institutions to offer their customers modern money movement. The partnership also supports Alacriti’s Orbipay AIQ, a cloud-based machine learning-based fraud prevention solution powered by Socure’s Sigma Fraud suite. Orbipay AIQ helps FIs manage the specific fraud and risk challenges that are associated with instant payments. The technology can be used to augment existing fraud detection systems or as a standalone solution. Orbipay AIQ works for both payment rails such as The Clearing House’s RTP network, the FedNow Service, and Visa Direct. The technology is also compatible with more conventional rails like ACH and Wires.

“Our partnership with Alacriti protects financial institutions and their account holders from predatory fraudsters, improving their trust and confidence when making faster payments transactions,” Socure VP of Business Development Evan Rabinowitz said. “The joining of a comprehensive identity verification and fraud prevention platform with the Cosmos Payments Hub helps financial institutions safely deliver payments innovation quickly and with less risk to market.”

Socure made its Finovate debut in 2013 and most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall in 2017. This year, the company teamed up with Okta to bring identity verification products to government IT solutions provider Carahsoft. Also, in March, Socure won “Best Identity Verification Solution” at the FinTech Breakthrough Awards for a second year in a row.

The company has raised more than $741 million in funding. Socure’s investors include T. Rowe Price, Accel, and Capital One Ventures. Last month, Socure announced a $95 million credit facility. J.P. Morgan, Silicon Valley Bank, and KeyBanc Capital Markets provided the financing.

“Socure is in an exceptional position to solve what organizations and government agencies need most today – accurate and inclusive real-time identity verification without costly fraud and friction within the customer experience,” Socure founder and CEO Johnny Ayers said when the credit facility was announced in March. “With this facility further strengthening our balance sheet, Socure is in a tremendous position to leave the recession much stronger than when we went into it while continuing to distance ourselves from the competition through investments in new solutions, verticals, and strategic acquisitions.”

Photo by Element5 Digital

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ID.me Raises $132 Million

ID.me Raises $132 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ID.me
  • ID.me announced a $132 million funding round, bringing its total raised to $240 million.
  • The company has brought on Samantha Greenberg as CFO.
  • Today’s news comes a week after the company reached a major milestone– reaching 100 million registered wallets on its platform.

Digital identity network ID.me announced it closed a $132 million funding round this week. The investment boosts the Virginia-based company’s total funding to $240 million.

Viking Global Investors led the round, which also saw participation from CapitalG, Morgan Stanley Counterpoint, FTV Capital, PSP Growth, Auctus Investment Group, Moonshots Capital, and Scout Ventures. ID.me has not specified what the funds will be used for.

Along with today’s funding announcement, ID.me also revealed it has appointed Samantha Greenberg as Chief Financial Officer. Greenberg is replacing Rachael Brinker, who was temporarily filling the CFO role after the company’s former CFO Rajat Bahri vacated the position last summer.

Greenberg brings more than 20 years of experience leading financial operations, analyzing private and public technology and consumer companies, and scaling high-growth businesses. Most recently, she served as CFO of Mint House and has also held positions at Citadel, Goldman Sachs, Paulson & Co. Greenberg, and Margate Capital Management LP– which she founded.

“We are fortunate to have Samantha join our senior leadership team, given her excellent track record in growing companies to serve their customers and business partners,” said ID.me Co-founder and CEO Blake Hall. “Her expertise will support our mission to provide our more than 100 million members with a safe and secure digital identity credential facilitating access across services, benefits, healthcare and commerce without selling their personal data. Samantha is joining our team at the right time, after we closed our Series D funding and surpassed 100 million members. These are big milestones toward our vision to streamline access to benefits and services while ensuring no identity is left behind.”

ID.me was founded in 2010 to serve as a digital identity wallet that helps users prove and share their identities online without disclosing additional personal information. The company maintains a digital identity network that includes 14 federal agencies and 500+ retail brands, all of which use ID.me to verify customers’ identities and affiliations. ID.me’s ID wallet helps users prove they belong to certain affiliated groups, such as teacher, student, first responder, or military veteran. Last week, ID.me achieved a major milestone, reaching 100 million digital wallets registered on its platform.

Photo by Pixabay

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exagens and Desjardins Leverage Behavioral Banking to Boost Financial Wellness

exagens and Desjardins Leverage Behavioral Banking to Boost Financial Wellness
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Exagens
  • Behavioral banking solutions provider exagens announced its fourth consecutive multi-year agreement with Desjardins.
  • Desjardins has leveraged its relationship with exagens to bring the benefits of behavioral banking to its members.
  • Exagens made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2018. The company is based in Montreal, Canada.

Behavioral banking solutions provider exagens has renewed vows with credit union Desjardins. The two entities announced their fourth consecutive multi-year agreement this week. The news affirms a bond that extends back to 2015.

“Throughout our longstanding partnership, exagens has worked with Desjardins to address challenges like improving the financial wellness of their members, up-selling, cross-selling, reducing call center volume, and increasing digital engagement,” exagens President and CEO Michael Stojda said. “This most recent renewal again confirms our steadfast focus on community-based financial institutions, the strong relationship we’ve built with Desjardins and the ongoing value together we’ve provided to both Desjardins and their members over the past 8 years. We look forward to this exciting new chapter in our partnership.”

Desjardins is the largest credit union group in North America, with assets of more than $407 billion. Courtesy of its partnership with exagens, Desjardins has provided its members with contextual, personalized insights into their financial lives. The credit union’s Assistant AccèsD solution leverages exagens’ behavioral banking technology to proactively engage members across the entire digital banking experience. This level of engagement helps members save, spend, borrow, and invest in accordance with their goals. Since embarking on its partnership with exagens, Desjardins has seen 3.4x more savings per year per member, increased digital engagement, and reduced operational costs.

More recently, Desjardins has leveraged its relationship with exagens to address issues ranging from rapid deposit growth to the challenges of the COVID pandemic. Proactive engagement with members, according to Desjardins, also has helped significantly reduce call center volumes.

Founded in 2013, exagens is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The company made its Finovate debut in 2018 at FinovateSpring. Exagens and its solutions have earned recognition and received industry awards from EFMA, Celero, and OCTAS. Exagens was named a Cool Vendor in Banking by Gartner in 2019.

Photo by Thanh LY

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Data Security and Compliance Platform Very Good Security Introduces New CEO Chuck Yu

Data Security and Compliance Platform Very Good Security Introduces New CEO Chuck Yu
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Very Good Security

Very Good Security (VGS) has got a brand new boss. The data security and compliance platform has appointed Chuck Yu as its Chief Executive Officer.

Vertex Ventures U.S. General Partner Jonathan Heiliger, whose firm is a major investor in VGS, praised Yu’s experience in financial services. “His deep ties in the fintech and payments space will help advance VGS’ industry leadership position as the company looks to help its clients secure critical data and streamline compliance in more powerful and progressive ways,” Heiliger said. He called Yu “a transformational force.”

Yu’s background includes executive leadership roles at Visa, Point Digital Finance, and TrialPay, where he was Chief Revenue Officer. TrialPay was acquired by Visa in 2015. While at Visa, Yu led teams in business development, sales, finance, and operations. He also helped build strategic partnerships as the head of business development for Visa’s Global Fintech team.

In a statement, Yu underscored VGS’s goal of being a powerful steward “of the world’s sensitive data.” He added, “I am eager to work closely with our talented team to forge new strategic partnerships with industry leaders, and deeper relationships with the top brands that have chosen to trust us with their critical financial data.”

In its Finovate debut last spring, VGS demonstrated its VGS Zero Data Platform. The technology collects sensitive data from end users and conducts operations on the data – including exchanging it with third parties. The platform accomplishes this without allowing the original data to come in contact with your network. This allows companies to extract business value from sensitive data without touching it. As such, by enabling businesses to “offload” their data security burdens, Very Good Security allows these companies to focus on delivering innovative solutions to their customers.

Very Good Security has raised more than $104 million in funding. The firm’s investors include Vertex Ventures, Visa Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, VGS was founded in 2015.

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Digital Banking Provider Bankjoy Integrates with Fiserv Portico

Digital Banking Provider Bankjoy Integrates with Fiserv Portico
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Bankjoy, Daily news
  • Digital banking provider Bankjoy announced an integration with Fiserv Portico, a full-service account processing system.
  • The integration will enable credit unions working with Fiserv Portico to offer their members an online and mobile banking experience with a modern, intuitive UX.
  • Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, Bankjoy most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022.

Michigan-based digital banking provider Bankjoy has integrated with Fiserv Portico, a full-service account processing system. The integration will enable credit unions using Fiserv Portico to offer an online and mobile banking experience that will attract new members and deepen current member engagement.

“Investing in a truly cutting-edge digital banking solution can seem out-of-reach for institutions without extensive engineering resources and IT budgets,” Bankjoy CEO Michael Duncan said. “Our integration with Fiserv Portico aims to solve this by giving credit unions more flexibility to roll out the digital banking features that today’s members expect in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.”

Founded in 2015 and built by credit union executives, Bankjoy gives credit unions the ability to offer a wide range of contemporary banking services. These services include both mobile and online banking, e-statements, online account opening, online loan origination, conversational AI, and more.

“Ongoing digital transformation over the last decade has accelerated the need for financial institutions of all sizes to deliver a state-of-the-art digital banking experience,” Duncan said. “Their success as an institution depends on this.” He added that, according to research from McKinsey & Company, the top performing financial institutions receive an average of 24-28 digital banking log-ins per account holder every month. These digital banking customers are driving revenue growth by an average of 10% to 15% each year.

Bankjoy most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022 in New York. At the conference, the company showed how its Business Banking Platform provides SMEs with a single portal for multiple business accounts, and enables them to manage multiple users, control permissions, send transfers to multiple recipients, and more.

In addition to the company’s integration with Fiserv Portico, Bankjoy has also secured out-of-the-box integrations with third-party partners ranging from Allied Payments and Savvy Money to Vertifi and UrbanFT. This week’s integration news comes a month after Bankjoy announced securing new funding in a round led by Curql Collective. Terms of the investment were not disclosed. Duncan said that the capital will help the company “help more community financial institutions thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.”

Photo by Anon

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PayPal and Venmo Pilot P2P Payments Interoperability Tool, Visa+

PayPal and Venmo Pilot P2P Payments Interoperability Tool, Visa+
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, PayPal, VISA
  • Visa is launching Visa+, a peer-to-peer payments interoperability tool.
  • PayPal and Venmo are piloting the launch.
  • Visa partners DailyPay, i2c, TabaPay, and Western Union will also integrate Visa+ within their platforms.

Fintech has solved a lot of problems by creating a multitude of different peer-to-peer (P2P) payment apps. In so doing, however, it has also created a problem– the platforms are not interoperable. Many people use different payment apps, and they don’t all work together. Visa is seeking to solve this issue with its new launch, Visa+, which helps users move money between different P2P payment apps.

Piloting the launch of Visa+ are PayPal and Venmo. After setting up a personalized payment address linked to their Venmo or PayPal account, users of either app can send and receive payments between the two platforms. Visa+ serves as the backend infrastructure behind the transfer.

PayPal and Venmo users will be able to begin using Visa+ later this year. Visa partners DailyPay, i2c, TabaPay, and Western Union will also integrate Visa+ within their platforms. The addition of new apps and platforms will not only increase the reach of Visa+, but it will also have the potential to add new use cases– such as payouts for gig workers, creators, and online marketplace sellers.

“Consumers continue to seek simple and seamless ways to digitally move money between friends and family, including the ability to send money between different payment platforms,” said Visa Global Head of New Payment Flows Chris Newkirk. “We are thrilled to partner with like-minded innovators to broaden the reach of P2P payments across platforms. Through this collaboration, Visa+ can help break down barriers for payment app users as they connect, engage and move money.”

While PayPal and Venmo are as good a starting point as any for P2P payments interoperability, there are many other players– Square Cash, Zelle, Google Wallet, and Apple Wallet– that should be added to maximize the utility of Visa+ and make it an everyday tool for U.S. users. Visa expects to launch Visa+ with select partners in late 2023. The company is planning general availability in mid-2024, so we may see additional partners in the later launch.

Photo by Brett Sayles

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