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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Modern core processing provider Zeta appointed FIS Veteran Karla Booe as Chief Compliance Officer.
Booe has spent more than 27 years working at FIS, where she served as Deputy Chief Compliance Officer.
Zeta was voted Best of Show at FinovateWest Digital 2020.
Modern core processing provider Zeta is introducing a fresh face this week. The California-based company recently brought onFIS Veteran Karla Booe as Chief Compliance Officer.
Booe will drive regulatory compliance programs for Zeta’s U.S. based clients from her office in Little Rock, Arkansas. She has spent the past 27+ years working at FIS, where she most recently served as the company’s Deputy Chief Compliance Officer.
Commenting on Booe’s appointment, Zeta CEO and Cofounder Bhavin Turakhia said, “She will further our already strong commitment to regulatory risk and compliance.”
“There has been little-to-no tech innovation with regard to the management of regulatory risk compliance for credit cards in the last decade,” said Booe. “I am excited to help drive that change for Zeta’s clients. Zeta’s mission to provide next-gen capabilities to banks so they can launch products, programs, and innovations faster are underscored by a technology framework and by design principles that will completely change the processing landscape.”
Zeta, which was voted Best of Show at FinovateWest Digital 2020, offers modern core and processing for banks and embeddable banking for fintechs. Earlier this year, Zeta received $30 million in new funding, bringing its valuation to $1.5 million.
Utility data aggregator Urjanet has been acquired by energy technology company Arcadia.
Urjanet made its Finovate debut last fall at FinovateSpring 2021.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Atlanta, Georgia-based Urjanet facilitates access to data from more than 6,500 utility, telecom, and cable providers around the world.
Here’s some big news from a Finovate newcomer that slipped beneath our radar in the wake of FinovateSpring this year. Urjanet, a leading utility data aggregator that made its Finovate debut last May, has been acquired by energy technology company Arcadia.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal will integrate Urjanet’s global data access with Arcadia’s data and API platform, Arc. This will enable Arc to serve as a universal software layer for the “zero-carbon economy.”
“Without data access, it will be impossible to meet the urgency and size of the climate crisis,” Arcadia CEO Kiran Bhatraju said. “Through our combined capabilities, Arc will help companies in every industry plan for and act on their climate responsibilities, pulling forward a zero-carbon future.”
Urjanet, founded in 2010 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is the world’s leading utility data aggregator. The company enables businesses to securely access consumer-permissioned data from more than 6,500 utility, telecom, and cable providers in 47 countries. Urjanet accesses more than one million utility bills a month and flows $150 billion in utility spend through its platform. With 50,000 connected utility accounts around the world, nearly a third (30%) of the Fortune 500 utility bills are captured with Urjanet’s technology. Bhatraju said that the integration with Arc will enable Arcadia’s platform to include more than 95% of all residential and commercial accounts in the U.S., as well as data from 9,500 electric, water, gas, and waste utilities globally. More than 1.35 million utility accounts around the world will be connected courtesy of the acquisition.
“Urjanet and Arcadia have long known the same secret: that on-demand, high-fidelity energy data is key to rapid decarbonization,” Arcadia’s Bhatraju wrote when the acquisition was announced earlier this year. “By integrating Urjanet’s global data access, Arc, Arcadia’s industry-leading data and API platform, becomes a universal software layer for the zero-carbon economy with the ability to serve all customers – residential and commercial – across the globe.”
At its Finovate appearance last May, Urjanet showed how its technology could be used to boost financial inclusion and expand credit access. The company partnered with Equifax to launch a new Payment Insights solution that enables banks and lenders to use utility payment history to help establish worthiness for loans.
More recently, Urjanet launched its new flagship platform, Utility Cloud, which provides easy and automated access to credentialed utility account information. Unveiled in April, Utility Cloud provides universal access to utility data, delivering sustainability reporting, energy consumption, utility bill data, and bill images on-demand. This allows businesses to become more energy-efficient, reduce energy spending, and produce quality, aggregated data for ESG reporting.
“Going forward, our customers’ data will be available on-demand in one central location, simplifying their utility data access even more. “Urjanet CEO Sanjoy Malik said. “This one-of-a-kind platform will help organizations streamline very manual and expensive business processes associated with organizing bills from all over the world.”
Envestnet acquired revenue management and hosted fee-billing solutions company Redi2 Technologies.
Envestnet will use the buy to modernize its billing, accounting, and back office capabilities.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Financial wellness technology firm Envestnetannounced its 16th acquisition today. The Chicago-based company announced it has purchased revenue management and hosted fee-billing solutions company Redi2 Technologies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Massachusetts, Redi2 offers a revenue management platform tailored to financial services companies. The tool offers fee calculation, invoice creation, payouts and accounting, and billing compliance. Among Redi2’s products are Revenue Manager, which provides client revenue accounting and billing services for asset managers; Wealth Manager, which delivers multi-party billing and payouts for broker-dealers and asset managers; and BillFin, which offers advisory billing and invoicing for financial advisors.
Envestnet will use Redi2’s technology to modernize its billing, accounting, and back office capabilities. The company anticipates the additional expertise will drive client engagement and ultimately boost revenue.
“Redi2 is a pioneer and innovator in the cloud-based delivery of wealth and investment management billing software, making them an ideal partner as we continue to strengthen our financial wellness ecosystem,” said Envestnet Executive Vice President of Business Lines Tom Sipp. “This acquisition enhances our strategic enablement of service and data, and over the next two years will create operating leverage by bringing Envestnet and Redi2’s administrative, revenue, and billing services together.”
Envestnet was founded in 1999. The company’s most noteworthy acquisition was its purchase of Yodlee in 2015. The Yodlee acquisition broadened Envestnet’s wealthtech offerings, launching it into the world of open finance. Envestnet is a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ENV and has a market capitalization of $4.66 billion.
Bank payments company GoCardless has announced its intention to acquire open banking platform Nordigen.
The Latvia-based fintech, a Finovate alum since 2018, connects to 2,300 banks in Europe and the U.K. via its free API.
Terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close later this summer, were not disclosed.
Bank payments company GoCardless has announced its intention to acquireNordigen, an open banking platform based in Latvia. GoCardless will integrate Nordigen’s open banking connectivity into its account-to-account network. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close later this summer.
“The Nordigen acquisition will take us to the next level,” GoCardless co-founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi said. “By intelligently combining free, state-of-the-art open banking connectivity with deep payment expertise, we can now offer open banking-as-a-service to any developer, partner, or fintech.” Takeuchi added that the acquisition will “lead to experimentation … that will create even more compelling use cases.”
Nordigen leverages open banking to help banks and lenders make more creditworthy loans. The company offers solutions that automate income and liability verification, and provides critical insights into prospective borrowers from account data for scoring models. Nordigen offers high-performance analytics including transaction categorization, feature engineering for credit modeling, and the capacity to generate risk scores from account data. Operating in 13 countries and partnered with more than 50 banks and lenders around the world, Nordigen connects to more than 2,300 banks in Europe and the U.K. via its free API.
“Our mission at Nordigen is to help companies around the world adopt and use Open Banking to enable greater financial transparency and financial inclusion,” Nordigen CEO Rolands Mesters said in a statement. “We share GoCardless’ enthusiasm for the growth of Open Banking and are excited to partner with people who not only share our passion for disruptive innovation in financial services, but who will also help us bring Open Banking freely to a much wider audience.”
Acquisition talk has not slowed down Nordigen, which has forged partnerships at an impressive pace this year alone. In June, Nordigen announced that it was working with Sherpa CRM, Landlord Fusion, HES FinTech, BUNNI, and Acounto. Already this month, Nordigen reported that it has expanded its collaboration with Latvian financial services company AS DelfinGroup.
Founded in 2016, Nordigen made its Finovate debut in 2018 at FinovateFall in New York. The company returned to the Finovate stage the following spring for FinovateEurope in London. Prior to the acquisition announcement, Nordigen had raised $4.2 million in funding from investors including Black Pearls VC and Superangel.
Tel Aviv, Israel-based ThetaRay announced a partnership with Brazil’s Travelex Bank.
Travelex Bank will deploy ThetaRay’s transaction monitoring and sanctions screening solution, SONAR, to enhance its ability to combat money laundering.
ThetaRay made its Finovate debut in 2015. The company has raised more than $112 million in funding.
Transaction monitoring technology provider ThetaRaywill help Brazil’s biggest FX specialist, Travelex Bank, enhance its transaction monitoring and sanctions screening capabilities. Travelex Bank will deploy ThetaRay’s SaaS-based anti-money laundering solution, SONAR, to provide both domestic and international transaction monitoring, as well as real-time sanctions screening for international payments.
Travelex Bank Chief Compliance Officer Célia Pizzi highlighted ThetaRay’s ability to meet the institution’s transactions monitoring and sanctions screening needs with a single platform. “ThetaRay’s SONAR will enable us to expand our product services portfolio and improve customer service while improving our overall AML operations,” Pizzi said. “SONAR will provide higher efficiency and secure risk coverage, enabling new businesses and lines of revenue.”
SONAR leverages an advanced type of AI, “artificial intelligence intuition,” that gives banks and financial services institutions a risk-based approach to effectively identify suspicious transactions and individuals. Without bias or thresholds, SONAR provides a comprehensive profile of customer identities across cross-border transaction paths that leads to a quick and accurate identification of money laundering threats. According to ThetaRay, SONAR offers a 95% detection rate and a 99% reduction in false positives when compared to rules-based AML solutions.
“Travelex Bank represents a new generation of global institutions that is readying its money transfer and payment infrastructure for changing conditions,” ThetaRay CEO Mark Gazit said. “Travelex is a provider that looks to the future and prioritizes trust, confidence, and quality.”
Travelex Bank represents international exchange corporation Travelex in Brazil (along with the brokerage Travelex Confidence). The bank provides a wide variety of services including international remittances, imports and exports, crypto exchange transactions, registration services, and more. The firm’s adoption of SONAR, in addition to bolstering its AML capabilities, will also enable Travelex Bank to offer new, compliant products and services.
A Finovate alum since 2015, ThetaRay has spent much of this year forging partnerships with a number of fintechs and banks. In March, ThetaRay announced a partnership with Dubai-based Mashreq Bank and teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Payoneer. Also this spring, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based company reported that it had selected sanctions screening firm Screena as its screening solutions partner, and had partnered with omnichannel money movement platform Qolo to provide transactions monitoring.
With more than $112 million in funding, ThetaRay includes Benhamou Global Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), and ABN AMRO Ventures among its investors.
Chicago, Illinois-based CIBC Bank USA has announced a partnership with Finovate newcomer, Velocity Solutions.
CIBC will leverage Velocity Solutions’ Akouba Digital Lending Platform to lower costs, better manage risk, and increase per-loan profitability.
Velocity Solutions made its Finovate debut in the fall of 2021. The company acquired the Akouba platform in 2018.
CIBC Bank USA has chosenVelocity Solutions’Akouba Digital Lending Platform to support its small business banking division. The Chicago, Illinois-based commercial bank, founded in 1989 as The PrivateBank and Trust Company, will leverage Akouba’s cloud-based SaaS platform to lower the cost, time, and risk associated with the loan origination process. At the same time, the platform will help boost the profitability of every loan made.
“We’ve made tremendous progress with the platform since we acquired Akouba in June 2018,” Velocity Solutions EVP of Product Management Mike Triggiano said. “We’re continually refining the platform and adding new features and functionality. It’s been a thrill to enhance Akouba’s industry-leading technology over the past two years, and the opportunity to add CIBC Bank USA to our growing list of clients is definitely one of the most exciting milestones in Akouba’s history to date.”
Added to Velocity Solution’s product suite four years ago, Akouba is designed to accelerate loan origination for both retail and commercial lending. The only small business loan origination platform endorsed by the American Bankers Association (ABA), Akouba reduces end-to-end time, streamlines operational processes, and helps increase profits. The platform does all this while giving financial institutions the ability to retain control over the decision, pricing, credit policy, risk metrics, and loan amounts, as well as the borrower experience.
“At CIBC, we are building an innovative, relationship-focused bank,” CIBC Bank USA President of Retail and Digital Banking and Head of U.S. Strategy and Administration Brant Ahrens said. “Akouba gives our small business clients the ability to seek financing on any device at any time in any place that is convenient for them.”
Velocity Solutions made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York last September, where the company demoed its Akouba platform. In the months since, Velocity Solutions has introduced a number of new solutions including VelocityConnector that enables efficient and secure API connections between banking data systems; its VelocityScore feature, which helps indicate the ability of accountholders to repay loans; and its Consumer Liquidity Engine, which makes a range of flexible overdraft options and affordable short-term loans available to bank and credit union customers and members.
Founded in 1995, Velocity Solutions is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Christopher Leonard is CEO.
Intelligent identity solution provider Sontiq has issued a new report on security in financial services.
The report, 2022 Digital Safety and Security Report for Financial Services, underscores the importance of engaging customers and members in the fight against cyberfraud.
Sontiq made its Finovate debut in the fall of 2021 and was acquired a few months later by TransUnion for $638 million.
Intelligent identity security firm Sontiq has warned that the growing sophistication of cybercriminals and increased awareness and concern over the challenge to digital security from the public have created both new challenges and new opportunities for financial institutions. In a new report, the 2022 Digital Safety and Security Report for Financial Services, Sontiq highlights the way cybercriminals have leveraged advanced technologies – including automation and AI – to achieve what Sontiq called a “historic level of data compromise” in 2021.
“Consumers are increasingly anxious about cyber threats, but feel unprepared to take action or deal with the fallout,” Sontiq SVP of Enterprise Risk Solutions Al Pascual said. “Notably, they don’t want generic security advice. Financial institutions can combat increased identity risks with personalized, self-service tools that are seamlessly embedded into the digital banking experience.”
Here are some of the key takeaways from Sontiq’s report.
Financial institutions must understand the threat landscape
“What consumers, organizations, and the media often misunderstand,” the report noted, “is that the data breaches with the greatest impact on individuals are often not the high-profile ones that capture headlines.” Sontiq’s research distinguishes between high-profile breaches at institutions like Facebook/Meta and LinkedIn and high-risk breaches at companies like Gallagher and Waste Management. This is because “high-risk” breaches, while involving fewer victims, tend to involve compromises of more valuable personally-identifiable information compared to “high-profile” breaches.
Synthetic identity fraud is a bigger threat than identity theft
A growing number of financial services companies are recognizing the challenge of synthetic identity fraud, with Sontiq observing that 72% of financial services firms believe that synthetic identity fraud is a “much more pressing issue” compared to traditional identity theft.
Why so? And what’s the difference?
Traditional identity theft involves stealing a real person’s PII (personally-identifiable information) and using that data to engage in criminal activity. And make no mistake: traditional identity theft is still an issue, costing $24 billion in losses and victimizing more than 15 million individuals in 2021. Synthetic identity fraud, by comparison, involves a blending of both real and fictitious information. This enables the fraudster to create a completely new, made-up identity that can then be used to fraudulently open accounts, and apply for loans and credit cards. A newer arrival on the cybercrime scene, synthetic identity fraud also comes at a significant cost. The Federal Reserve has estimated that synthetic identity fraud losses have climbed to $20 billion, making it the “fastest growing financial crime.”
Personalized, proactive identity protection gives financial institutions the opportunity to differentiate themselves
In its report, Sontiq makes it clear that consumers are uncertain about who to turn to in the event of a security breach. “Nearly half of Americans,” the report notes, “say they would not know what to do if their identity was stolen.” Because of this, more than half of American fraud victims (54%) have indicated that they believe their financial institution can play a major role in helping them “navigate and resolve their identity fraud issues.” Breach victims across generations – under 35, between 35 and 54, and over 55 – all turned to their financial institutions for assistance in comparable numbers (50%, 48%, and 44% respectively).
This has resulted in a significant growth in the identity theft protection services market. Analysts project that this market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.4% over the next 10 years.
There are a variety of ways that financial institutions can seize this opportunity by deploying better anti-fraud tools and partnering with fintechs and cybersecurity specialists. But key to all of these efforts, according to Sontiq, is customer engagement. Educating financial services consumers on what to do to enhance their own online security – and what to do in the event of a security breach – is critical. Also important is the role of empowerment, and helping consumers understand what they can do to enhance their own defense against fraud.
“Getting consumers to adopt a self-service approach to identity protection also has the potential to help a financial institution better invest resources,” the report noted. “Informed, engaged customers who actively protect their identities become potent allies – finding fraud earlier and reducing overall risk to them and the financial institution.”
Download the free white paper to read the full report.
Sontiq made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021. At the event, the Nottingham, Maryland-based company demonstrated its BreachIQ solution. BreachIQ identifies and diagnoses a consumer’s security breach history to provide personalized, protective actions the consumer can take to improve financial health and enhance security. The technology effectively leverages AI to turn ID fraud risk into a consumer financial health opportunity.
Launched in 2019, Sontiq was formed when EZShield acquired identity theft protection provider IdentityForce. Last spring, Sontiq announced its acquisition of Breach Clarity, a post-breach fraud specialist and Finovate Best of Show winner. In October 2021, Sontiq itself was acquired by fellow Finovate alum TransUnion for $638 million. In a statement, TransUnion said that Sontiq’s identity security technology compliments its own digital identity assets and solutions.
“TransUnion is committed to empowering consumers to shape their financial futures,” TransUnion President of U.S. Markets and Consumer Interactive Steve Chaouki said. “With Sontiq, we will ensure that consumers and businesses have a comprehensive set of tools to protect the financial profile they have built.”
Atomic and Bond Financial have partnered to launch Atomic’s Repay solution.
The new offering enables users to turn large transactions into a series of smaller, recurring payments.
Atomic made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in September 2021.
Payroll connectivity solution provider Atomic and embedded finance company Bond Financial Technologies have expanded their existing partnership with the launch of Atomic’s Repay solution. Repay enables customers to make recurring payments, turning larger transactions such as monthly rent and loans into a series of smaller installments. Repayments come from the customer’s wages instead of from their bank account. This helps customers avoid the expense of taking out short-term loans or missing repayment dates.
Atomic will use Bond’s embedded finance infrastructure to create and open user bank accounts, as well as manage KYC, transaction monitoring, and compliance. When new users sign up for the service, Repay connects the payroll data while Bond opens a demand deposit account. From here, fractional deposit amounts are calculated, which are managed based on the due date, and Repay automatically makes timely payments.
Users have complete transparency into the process. All deposits and distributions are monitored by the technology and any overpayment is refunded to the user “usually in under a week.”
“Repay gives consumers the tools to take control of their personal finances, both income and liabilities, and for customers to proactively tailor products to their user’s financial profile with payroll data,” Atomic co-founder and CEO Jordan Wright said. He underscored the fact that Repay provides “financial vulnerable consumers” with the functional equivalent of a “fractional repayment plan.” Wright added that businesses that offer Repay “now have a novel option to build goodwill with consumers by offering better interest rates while minimizing default and late repayment risks.”
A leading provider of payroll APIs, and a partner to 12 of the largest fintech firms – including neobanks, alternative lenders, and digital brokers, Atomic made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall. At the event, the company demonstrated how its payroll connectivity solution accelerates paydays for consumers, increases direct deposit acquisition opportunities for banks and financial institutions, and helps qualify users for financial services that rely on income and/or employment data.
Roostify announced a partnership with Indecomm that will integrate Indecomm’s IncomeGenius technology into Roostify’s Roostify Beyond platform.
The integration will make it easier for Roostify to calculate income for self-employed borrowers.
A Finovate alum since 2014, Roostify also announced this week the appointment of Nadia Aziz as its new Chief Operating Officer.
A new partnership with intelligent automation solutions company Indecomm will bring automated income calculation technology to Roostify’s data intelligence solution Roostify Beyond. A Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateSpring 2014, Roostify will integrate Indecomm’s IncomeGenius solution, which will add to its current income calculation capabilities – especially when it comes to income calculations for self-employed borrowers.
“Improving loan assembly and processing costs, and timeframes is an imperative for all lenders in today’s environment,” Roostify co-founder and CEO Rajesh Bhat said. “Roostify Beyond already incorporates income calculation and analysis for the most common employment scenarios. With the integration of IncomeGenius, we can now simplify and automate calculations for self-employed borrowers, an increasingly important use case as the gig economy expands.”
IncomeGenius leverages standardized rules and algorithms to minimize the risks associated with manual data entry. IncomeGenius doubles productivity at loan set-up, reduces time spent on income calculations by 60%, and guarantees 100% compliance with audit requirements, including a complete audit trail. Courtesy of the integration, Roostify Beyond’s Analysis Assistant will send self-employment documentation and data to IncomeGenius, which generates a thorough, self-employment income analysis and GSE worksheet – in accordance with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines. IncomeGenius then returns the information to the Roostify Beyond platform for presentation in the interactive Analysis Assistant dashboard.
Roostify launched its Beyond platform near the end of 2021. The latest iteration of the company’s Roostify Document Intelligence (RDI) Service, Roostify Beyond integrates RDI at the start of the lending process, providing borrowers with instant alerts if they upload documentation that is incorrect or illegible without having to engage with a human representative. Roostify Beyond also has data extraction capabilities that allow lenders to highlight data discrepancies, automatically create tasks, and publish document classification and validated information to the loan origination system (LOS).
“When we launched RDI a couple of months ago, we were excited to use data to propel the industry forward,” Bhat said in December when Roostify Beyond was introduced. “Data empowers lenders to spend less time in systems and more time with customers, and we are truly happy to provide our customers with this experience.”
Founded in 2012, Roostify most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage in 2018. In the years since, the company has grown into a mortgagetech leader that helps lenders process more than $50 billion in loans each month. The San Francisco, California-based company counts more than 250 financial institutions as clients and has 150+ employees.
This week Roostify introduced its new Chief Operating Officer, Nadia Aziz. With a focus on home lending, Aziz brings more than 20 years of financial services and fintech experience to Roostify’s C-suite. Before joining Roostify, Aziz was General Manager of Opendoor Home Loans, a digital lending platform for residential real estate.
“Roostify’s goal is to provide lenders with the tools and capabilities they need to deliver an exceptional experience for their customers while ensuring they achieve their business objectives by digitizing the loan origination process,” Aziz said in a statement. “I am excited to help Roostify on this mission and expand our impact on the industry by transforming the home lending journey.”
FIS is launching its Guaranteed Payments solution this week that boosts merchants’ ecommerce transaction approval rates and guarantees protection against chargebacks.
FIS is partnering with ecommerce fraud prevention company Signifyd to reduce merchant chargebacks.
“With this solution, customer retention works hand in hand with fraud elimination to unlock incredible revenue growth opportunities,” said Signifyd CEO and Co-founder Raj Ramanand.
Core banking expert FIS is launching a Guaranteed Payments solution this week. The new tool guarantees merchants increased ecommerce transaction approval rates and eliminates the financial liability of chargebacks resulting from fraudulent purchases.
Guaranteed Payments, which is available across the Signifyd Commerce Network and integrated into FIS’ Worldpay platform, facilitates increased merchant approval rates and provides guaranteed chargeback protection. The new technology combines machine learning and transaction intelligence to analyze aspects of a consumer’s purchase, including email address and payment credentials. Leveraging that information, Guaranteed Payments can instantly distinguish legitimate orders from fraudulent orders. The reduced fraud helps merchants optimize revenue and fulfill orders more quickly.
“Guaranteed Payments brings together two powerful sources of transaction intelligence—the Worldpay data stream produced from processing 40 billion orders annually and the Signifyd Commerce Network of thousands of merchants worldwide,” said FIS Chief Product Officer Vicky Bindra. She adds that the new tool can “combine fraud protection with increased approvals to enhance payment optimization and the overall user experience.”
Preventing chargebacks is at the heart of Signifyd’s technology. The California-based company helps identify fraudulent product orders using machine learning algorithms that sift through big data, including user behavior patterns, to reduce merchant chargebacks on fraudulent charges and save money on shipping goods on declined orders. In the event an order turns out to be fraudulent, Signifyd reimburses the merchant for the chargeback.
“Merchants using Signifyd experience a 5 to 9 percent increase in top line conversion on average,” said Signifyd CEO and Co-founder Raj Ramanand. “With this solution, customer retention works hand in hand with fraud elimination to unlock incredible revenue growth opportunities.”
FIS’ Guaranteed Payments is launching at a time when ecommerce activity and the fraud the comes along with it are at an all-time high. While the ecommerce market is predicted to grow 50% in the next two years, so is the fraud that comes along with it. In the past year, nine out of 10 merchants lost revenue due to payment fraud. False positives are hurting merchants, as well. Even though fraud currently accounts for about 1% of online transactions, merchants routinely reject as much as 9% of orders to avoid fraud, missing out on $443 billion in potential revenue.
PayPal launched a small business credit card this week.
The PayPal Business Cashback Mastercard is PayPal’s first business credit card.
PayPal also offers a range of other tools for small businesses, including working capital tools, business loans, risk management support, and more.
Small businesses in the U.S. have gained yet another credit card option this week with PayPal’slaunch of its its first commercial credit card.
The PayPal Business Cashback Mastercard, which is issued by WebBank, has no annual fee and offers cardholders 2% cashback on all purchases. The rewards are not subject to earning caps nor do they expire. Additionally, the card comes with free employee cards, does not charge a foreign transaction fee, and integrates with PayPal’s merchant platform to facilitate access to transactions, balances, available credit, and rewards.
Once a business is approved for the card, it can immediately begin spending via a virtual card that is automatically integrated into their PayPal account. Businesses can view their account and spending details via their PayPal Business account.
“As small business owners continue to recover from the challenges of the past two years, having multiple financing options to address their capital needs is more important than ever,” said PayPal Vice President of Global Merchant Lending Bernardo Martinez. “The PayPal Business Cashback Mastercard provides merchants greater value, more choice, and the increased flexibility they need to manage their business finances, offering among the best value available on no annual fee business credit cards today. This new solution continues PayPal’s commitment to supporting small businesses and offering options to help manage the day-to-day costs of operating their business.”
Founded in 1998, PayPal has long been an ally to small businesses. In addition to the business credit card, the California-based company also offers a working capital solution that has distributed more than $20 billion, as well as payout capabilities, business loans, payment acceptance tools, risk management support, and more. These products have helped PayPal amass 20 million small business customers in the U.S. And this is no small feat, given the fact that there are only 33 million small businesses in the U.S.
The launch of the The PayPal Business Cashback Mastercard comes five years after PayPal launched its credit card for individual users in 2017.
Mobile fraud prevention specialist Incognia, which made its Finovate debut in May at FinovateSpring, has raised $15.5 million in Series A funding.
The capital will be used to help fuel the company’s growth; Incognia currently has 200 million mobile users in more than 20 countries worldwide.
Incognia leverages location and motion sensors to create a unique “location footprint” for trusted users that rivals other authentication methods in accuracy.
In a round led by Point72 Ventures, mobile identity company Incogniahas secured $15.5 million in Series A funding to help fight identity fraud. The investment will help fuel the Palo Alto, California-based company’s continued growth, building on the 200 million mobile users in more than 20 countries currently protected by Incognia’s technology.
“Today’s authentication and fraud detection solutions aren’t working for the user, or for businesses, and the market is looking for more innovative technologies,” Incognia founder and CEO André Ferraz said. “Incognia is pushing the frontier of identity assurance and authentication to deliver increased security with minimal user friction.”
Incognia leverages location signals and motion sensors on an individual’s mobile device to help combat identity fraud. The technology creates a privacy-first location identity that is unique to each user and acts like a “location fingerprint” that effectively differentiates trusted users from fraudulent ones. The company says that its solution, which can be deployed in industries ranging from fintech and crypto to gaming and social media, is 10x more accurate than FaceID in terms of uniquely identifying users. Further, Incognia notes that the technology has a false acceptance rate of less than 1 in 17 million.
“We’re emerging as the global location identity leader, effectively combating the increasing fraud on mobile around the world,” Ferraz added. “We’re dedicated to enabling our customers to deliver frictionless mobile experiences without compromising security and privacy.”
Incognia made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 in May. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its frictionless fraud prevention solution for mobile apps combats identity fraud without bringing additional friction to the authentication process. The technology’s zero-factor authentication requires no action from the user in order to provide a highly accurate risk assessment with low false acceptance rates.
Founded in 2020, Incognia also recently introduced its new location-based liveness spoofing detection solution module. The offering prevents biometric liveness spoofing during the onboarding process. This particular form of fraud is often used by cybercriminals to create “money mule” accounts for money laundering – as innovative fraudsters have turned to liveness spoofing to get around selfie-based liveness detection algorithms. The challenge of liveness spoofing has become even greater with the availability of cheap – or even free – deepfake video technology. Incognia’s location-based liveness spoofing detection module is designed to prevent these deepfake attacks in real-time.
“As fraudsters advance their techniques to trick liveness detection tools, it is critical that there is a solution on the market that can successfully combat the use of deepfakes at onboarding,” Ferraz said.
