Alumni News

Finastra Partners with Contour for Trade Finance; Collaborates with Kotak Mahindra Bank for Corporate Banking

Finastra Partners with Contour for Trade Finance; Collaborates with Kotak Mahindra Bank for Corporate Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finastra
  • Financial solutions provider Finastra announced a strategic collaboration with digital trade finance network Contour.
  • Finastra also announced a partnership with India’s Kotak Mahindra Bank, bringing its Unified Corporate Portal solution to support the institution’s corporate banking portal Kotak FYN.
  • Formed via a merger between Misys and D+H in 2017, Finastra also recently announced the appointment of Chief People Officer Helen Cook.

Financial solutions company Finastra recently announced a pair of partnerships. The U.K.-based firm, which launched its open platform for innovation FusionFabric.cloud in 2017, has entered a strategic collaboration with digital trade finance network Contour. The collaboration will integrate Finastra’s Fusion Trade Innovation technology with Contour’s platform, boosting access to trade finance and streamlining back-office workflow.

The collaboration helps financial institutions take advantage of the multi-trillion dollar global trade business that both corporate customers and consumer depend upon every day. The partnership between Finastra and Contour will give financial institutions a network that supports collaborative workflows between trading parties. The new integration facilitates digital adoption, lowers costs and reliance on paper, and reduces risk.

“Our partnership with Finastra is an important step forward in breaking down barriers to adoption and increasing access to trade finance,” Contour CEO Carl Wegner said. “By integrating Finastra’s Fusion Trade Innovation, financial institutions and corporates will have access to an end-to-end ecosystem of services that will enable them to transact seamlessly and securely.”

Finastra also announced a partnership with India’s Kotak Mahindra Bank, specifically supporting the firm’s new integrated corporate banking portal, Kotak FYN. The bank will rely on Finastra’s Unified Corporate Portal solution, expanding a partnership with Finastra that extends back to October of 2021. The new enterprise portal will enable bank customers to conduct trade services. By the final quarter of the year, the portal will also offer account services, payments, and collections.

“Working together with Finastra, the Unified Corporate Portal will allow us to make the Kotak FYN portal even more revolutionary,” Kotak Mahindra Bank President for Global Transaction Banking Shekhar Bhandari said. “We can provide intuitive, easy-to-use access to many products and user journeys through a single platform, reducing complexity and friction for our customers and providing a truly differentiated user experience.”

The Bank’s Unified Corporate Portal will leverage Finastra’s Corporate Channels framework. This will empower banks to offer their corporate clients a seamless experience for account services, payments, trade, supply chain finance, and lending. The portal will enable banks to unify data across portals and back office systems to give users a single view of transactions, positions, and balances. Finastra noted that the integration will support self-service operation and boost efficiency.

Finastra’s partnership news comes in the wake of a new C-suite hire: the appointment of Helen Cook as the company’s Chief People Officer. Announced late last week, Cook comes to Finastra from Natwest Group, where she worked as Chief Human Resources Officer. At Finastra, Cook will be tasked with helping the company fulfill its goal to be “the most inclusive and diverse employer in the fintech industry,” according to a statement.

“Finastra’s vision is built on collaboration, and its commitment to become a truly inclusive workplace and enhance the skills of its workforce,” Cook said. “I’m thrilled to support in growing and developing the company’s global talent.”

Finastra was formed in 2017 as a merger between Finovate alum Misys and D+H. The company’s technology is used by more than 8,600 institutions, including 90 of the top 100 banks in the world. Simon Paris is CEO.

Photo by Akshar DavešŸŒ»

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Citi Dips Toe into Crypto Waters, Leading $6 Million Round in xalts

Citi Dips Toe into Crypto Waters, Leading $6 Million Round in xalts
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Citi, Daily news, Funding
  • Hong Kong-based digital asset investment startup xalts received $6 million in funding.
  • The round was co-led by Citi Ventures and Accel.
  • The investment marks a first for Citi; it is the first digital asset manager in which the bank-owned venture firm has invested.

Digital asset investing company xalts landed $6 million in funding in a Seed round co-led by Citi Ventures and Accel.

The investment, which is xalts’ first round of capital, also marks a first for Citi Ventures. xalts is the first digital asset manager in which the bank-owned venture firm has invested. “xalts is our first investment in a digital asset manager, and we support its vision of creating innovative products to meet the growing appetite of institutional investors for more efficient and robust crypto-access investments,” said Citi Ventures Managing Director Luis Valdich.

While the investment is a first for Citi, however, the move into crypto is not uncommon for traditional financial firms. In fact, just a few weeks ago, Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, and Fidelity Investments announced the launch of a new cryptocurrency exchange, EDX markets, to serve both individual and institutional investors.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, xalts is a global digital investment firm that helps financial institutions across the globe access digital assets while remaining compliant. The company was founded earlier this year by Goel Ashutosh and Supreet Kaur.

“With xalts, we are building innovative, institutional-grade investment products and solutions which focus on high compliance and control standards ā€“ things institutional investors care about,” said Goel, xalts’ Chief Investment Officer. “The next leg of growth in digital assets will be driven by institutional participation in the asset class. We are starting to see the early signs of that with a lot of new initiatives coming from banks and asset managers.”

Photo by Tom Fisk

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AML Surveillance Technology Innovator Hawk AI Forges Strategic Partnership with Know Your Customer

AML Surveillance Technology Innovator Hawk AI Forges Strategic Partnership with Know Your Customer
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Hawk:AI
  • AML surveillance technology specialist Hawk AI forged a strategic partnership with digital onboarding and business KYC solutions provider Know Your Customer.
  • The partnership will give businesses an integrated anti-fraud solution that will help them avoid the problem of siloed compliance technologies.
  • Munich, Germany-based Hawk AI made its Finovate debut in May, demoing its technology at FinovateSpring in San Francisco, California.

Hawk AI, an anti-money laundering surveillance technology company for banks and fintechs, announced a strategic partnership with Know Your Customer this week. The alliance will combine Know Your Customer’s digital onboarding and business KYC solutions with Hawk AI’s transaction monitoring technology. The new offering will give businesses an integrated anti-fraud solution to enhance their defense against financial crime.

“There is a wave of technological innovation taking place in RegTech,” Hawk AI CTO and co-founder Wolfgang Berner said, “from cloud native infrastructure enabling scalability, real-time native processing in a performant, safe and secure way, to fully explained AI and machine learning that augment traditional AML approaches and ensure efficient and effective crimefighting.”

Berner also underscored the challenge of fraud prevention solutions that are not well integrated. “Cutting-edge technology is not enough if information remains siloed,” he said. Berner noted that Know Your Customer shared Hawk AI’s “vision of modular solutions that foster a more holistic approach to fighting financial crime.”

Hawk AI’s Steve LiĆŗ, General Manager North America

Processing billions of transactions in more than 60 countries every year, Hawk AI’s technology leverages explainable AI and cloud technology to detect financial crime while keeping false positives low. The company reported that reducing false positives can help AML compliance officers save up to 70% of their workday, enabling them to focus on more complex compliance challenges.

Hawk AI made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateSpring 2022 in San Francisco. Headquartered in Germany, and founded in 2018, the company demoed its AML Surveillance Suite. The technology blends AI with traditional, rule-based strategies to monitor financial transactions in real-time and help financial institutions and fintechs better detect suspected cases of fraud, financial crime, and money laundering. This method helps identify minor, easily missed anomalies that can be overlooked by traditional rule-based approaches alone.

Hawk AI includes financial services consultancy Capco, and KYC and customer onboarding specialist Ondato – as well as fellow Finovate alums like Visa, Mambu, and Diebold Nixdorf – among its partners. A member of the RegTech 100, Hawk AI has raised $10 million in funding from investors including BlackFin Capital Partners and Picus Capital. Co-founder Tobias Schweiger is CEO.

Photo by Frans van Heerden

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U.S. Bank Brings Cash Flow Projection Technology to Small Business Owners

U.S. Bank Brings Cash Flow Projection Technology to Small Business Owners
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, US Bank
  • U.S. Bank introduced a new tool to give small business owners the ability to see a 90-day forecast of their cash flow.
  • The new offering is the latest innovation from U.S. Bank’s Business Essential suite of banking and payments solutions.
  • U.S. Bank made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2021. At the conference, the bank demoed its Cards-as-a-Service (CaaS) technology.

U.S. Bank unveiled a new solution to enable small business owners to see a 90-day forecast of their cash flow. The tool allows users to leverage external data from their clients along with their own U.S. Bank accounts to provide more comprehensive insights. The offering is designed to address what U.S. Bank Chief Digital Officer Irv Henderson called “a top concern for today’s business owners.”

“Giving our clients the ability to forecast their cash flow outlook, including, in the future, the capability to consider various scenarios, will provide them with vital information to make smart decisions for today and the future,” Henderson said.

U.S. Bank’s new cash flow tool gives users a 90-day historical view along with its forecast of account balances up to 90 days ahead. The bank plans to introduce additional functionality to enable users to build “what if” scenarios and observe the impact of those scenarios on future cash flow.

The tool is currently available to clients of U.S. Bank from their online dashboard. Part of U.S. Bank’s Business Essentials suite of banking and payments solutions, the cash flow tool is the bank’s latest effort to “bring together digital capabilities and the power of data” to provide small businesses with actionable insights, according to Henderson.

U.S. Bank made its Finovate debut a year ago at our all-digital FinovateFall 2021 conference. At the event, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based bank demonstrated its Card-as-a-Service (CaaS) technology that enables companies to extend corporate credit digitally. With the touch of a button, virtual cards -with precise spend limits, tokenization, and encryption – can be pushed to users’ mobile wallets in real time. The Card-as-a-Service solution also gives businesses the ability, via API integration, to build custom virtual payment experiences in their ecosystem.

The parent company of U.S. Bank National Association, U.S. Bancorp serves millions of customers through a range of businesses including consumer and business banking, payment services, corporate and commercial banking, wealth management, and investment services. The institution has $591 billion in assets as of June 2022.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

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ABN AMRO Pilots e-ID with Payment Capability

ABN AMRO Pilots e-ID with Payment Capability
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ABN AMRO, Alumni News, Alumni profile
  • Dutch bank ABN AMRO has partnered with bicycle rental company Swapfiets to offer Swapfiet clients access to ID & pay.
  • With ID & pay, customers can sign up and pay for a service in seconds while securely storing their ID in a single app.
  • ID & pay works across multiple merchants and service providers. ABN AMRO likens it to “to having a Google login combined with PayPal.”

ABN AMRO is flexing its payment innovation muscle this week in a new partnership. The Dutch bank is teaming up with bicycle-as-a-service company Swapfiets to launch a new functionality that combines payment and identity authentication.

Swapfiets is leveraging ABN AMRO’s ID & pay, a tool that allows customers to sign up and pay for their Swapfiets membership using an electronic ID. When new and existing Swapfiets clients want to pay for their monthly bicycle rental membership, ID & pay allows customers to sign up and pay in seconds and enables users to securely store their e-ID in a single app.

“ID & pay originated from a need we identified among our business clients. A need to offer their customers a much simpler onboarding and payment process,” said ABN AMRO Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer Edwin van Bommel. “This app beats every other onboarding process in the market as an easy-to-use way for customers to provide ID and pay for products and services.”

What’s unique about ID & pay is that, once users sign up initially, they can use their verified identity and payment credentials to pay at other merchants and services that also use ID & pay. ABN AMRO likens the functionality to having a Google login combined with PayPal, but with credentials held within ABN AMROā€™s secure, in-app environment.

“We hope this collaboration will make even more people enthusiastic about cycle memberships and our underlying idea of owning less and using more,” said Swapfiets CEO Marc de Vries.

This isn’t ABN AMRO’s first foray into the subscription management space. In 2020, the bank partnered with Subaio to integrate Subaio’s white label subscription management feature into Grip, ABN AMROā€™s PFM app that enables users to see all of their recurring payments in one place.

ABN AMRO demoed alongside Fincite at FinovateEurope 2019, where the pair showcased how Fincite’s Automated Advice Engine offers clients and advisors investment recommendations based on ABN AMRO investment strategies. 

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PNC Bank Turns to Blend to Digitally Optimize its Mortgage Application Process

PNC Bank Turns to Blend to Digitally Optimize its Mortgage Application Process
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Blend, Daily news
  • Blend and PNC Bank announced a strategic partnership to help the bank digitally optimize its online mortgage process.
  • The partnership between Blend and PNC Bank comes in the wake of Blend’s Instant Home Equity product, launched in August.
  • Blend made its Finovate debut in 2016 and is also an alum of Finovate’s developer conference, FinDEVr.

A strategic partnership between PNC Bank and cloud banking software company Blend will help the financial institution digitally optimize its online mortgage application process. With its new mortgage application platform, PNC will enable its customers to digitally apply for a mortgage and import information such as bank and payroll data directly into the application simply by providing their credentials. Customers further will benefit from a single portal for tracking the status of their mortgage application, completing any additional tasks, as well as reviewing and electronically signing loan documentation. The portal also allows PNC’s mortgage loan officers to collaborate in real time with customers.

PNC EVP and Head of Mortgage Peter McCarthy called the partnership “an ideal combination of digital self-service technology and support for our customers as they navigate one of the biggest and most important purchases in their lifetimes.”

The strategic partnership announcement comes just over a month after Blend announced the launch of its automated instant home equity product. Integrating a range of recent enhancements to its mortgage suite, the solution provides income and identity verification, title, decisioning, property appraisal, and notarization. Lenders can use Blend Instant Home Equity to provide borrowers with a personalized offer that can be approved instantly and closed within a few days.

“Leveraging all that we’ve built on the Blend platform – for both Mortgage and Consumer Banking solutions – we’re able to deliver an instant home equity experience to help our customers ensure a seamless experience for applicants, grow their home equity businesses, and reduce costs to originate in a challenging marketplace,” Head of Blend Nima Ghamsari said.

Blend demonstrated its Data-Driven Mortgage solution at FinovateSpring 2016 and returned later that year to present its technology at our developers conference FinDEVr Silicon Valley. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Blend enables financial services companies to process an average of more than $5 billion in transactions a day. The company leverages low-code, drag-and-drop design tools to enable developers to build new products quickly. Its platform is integrated with trusted services ranging from eSign to identity verification to help financial institutions deliver seamless customer experiences.

PNC Bank is a part of the PNC Financial Services Group, one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the U.S. Offering retail banking to more than 12 million consumers and small businesses across the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest, PNC Bank also provides asset management services to affluent and ultra-affluent individuals and families, as well as corporate and institutional banking. As of June of this year, PNC Bank had $320 billion in assets under administration.

Photo by Pixabay

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Square Taps Visa for Instant Transfers in Canada

Square Taps Visa for Instant Transfers in Canada
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, VISA
  • Visa is expanding its integration with Square’s instant transfer feature into Canada.
  • Square’s Canadian merchant clients can access their funds in real time, instead of waiting for the next business day.
  • Instant transfers are enabled by Visa Direct, a VisaNet processing capability that facilitates real-time delivery of funds.

One of the themes at FinovateFall earlier this month was how organizations can leverage real time data. When it comes to the movement of money, timing is everything. So it’s no surprise to see Visa’s announcement this week that it will expand its integration with Square’s instant transfer feature into Canada.

Under the new integration, Square’s Canadian merchant clients can now access their funds faster than the next business day. When they link an eligible debit card, Square’s Canada-based merchant clients can transfer funds instantly to an external bank account.

Used for rapid merchant settlement, Square’s instant transfers are enabled by Visa Direct, a VisaNet processing capability that facilitates real-time funds delivery directly to bank accounts. As a result, businesses experience increased cash flow, which can be a major pain point, especially for small businesses.

“Cash flow management and more immediate access to funds is critical for small businesses to survive and thrive in a rapidly evolving payments ecosystem,” said Visa Canada’s VP and Head of New Payments Jim Filice. “Together with Square, we’re committed to supporting Canadian small businesses and helping to identify solutions that can benefit them by delivering fast, reliable and secure access to funds.”

Photo by Laura Tancredi

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Ethoca and ChargebackZero Team Up to Help Merchants Minimize Chargebacks

Ethoca and ChargebackZero Team Up to Help Merchants Minimize Chargebacks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Ethoca, MasterCard
  • Ethoca announced a partnership with India’s ChargebackZero to help merchants eliminate chargebacks.
  • The collaboration will integrate Ethoca’s chargeback alert technology into ChargebackZero’s Intelligent Dispute Prevention & Management Solution (iDPMS).
  • Ethoca made its Finovate debut in 2015 at FinovateFall. The company was acquired by Mastercard in 2019 for an undisclosed sum.

Ecommerce fraud and chargeback prevention company Ethoca has teamed up with India-based ChargebackZero to help merchants minimize chargebacks. The partnership will also bring greater transparency to consumer transactions, and make it easier for merchants to share the details of confirmed fraud and dispute incidents.

The collaboration will enable merchants to rely on a chargeback alert system that notifies them in the event of an impending chargeback. Notifications are made via the ChargebackZero dashboard, which combines a variety of alert types from card issuers with ChargebackZero’s dispute management tools. The alerts allow merchants to identify and revolve customer disputes with the customer’s issuing bank in near-real time. By preventing chargebacks, including chargebacks that occur post-authorization, the partnership will make it easier for merchants to accept more orders without increasing their exposure to potentially fraudulent activity.

Ethoca offers a suite of solutions to help merchants and issuers eliminate chargebacks, reduce card not present (CNP) fraud, recover lost revenue, and improve the customer experience with a better dispute resolution process. Ethoca’s Consumer Clarity solution connects issuers to merchant order and account history details in real time. This gives issuer call center agents with the data they need to manage real-time conversations with cardholders when disputes arise. Ethoca also offers its Ethoca Alerts technology, which provides issuers and card-not-present merchants with access to a global collaboration network that enables them to share fraud and customer dispute data in real time, rather than in weeks as is normally the case with chargebacks.

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Ethoca made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2015. In the years since then, the company has inked partnerships with fellow Finovate alum TSYS, as well as Pegasystems, BlueSnap, and Cartes Bancaires. Ethoca agreed to be acquired by Mastercard in the spring of 2019 for an undisclosed sum. Calling Mastercard “a natural home,” Ethoca CEO Andre Edelbrock said the acquisition would “bring our services to more places and more people, ultimately contributing to the beset possible online payment experience.”

Ethoca serves more than 5,400 merchants in 40+ countries and more than 4,000 card issuers in more than 20+ countries. Eight of the top ten North American ecommerce brands, 14 of the top 20 North American card issuers, and six of the top ten U.K. card issuers use Ethoca’s technology to eliminate chargebacks, prevent fraud, and recover lost revenue.

Photo by Pixabay

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Taulia and Standard Chartered Team Up to Collaborate on Working Capital Finance

Taulia and Standard Chartered Team Up to Collaborate on Working Capital Finance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Standard Chartered Bank, Taulia
  • Taulia and Standard Chartered signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on working capital finance solutions.
  • The partnership will initially focus on supply chain finance and dynamic discounting.
  • The agreement will offer Taulia access to Standard Chartered’s global client base.

Supply chain finance company Taulia has inked an agreement with Standard Chartered this week. The agreement comes in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate across a range of working capital finance solutions.

The two will begin by focusing on supply chain finance and dynamic discounting, two solutions that Taulia offers to buyers. Taulia will use its expertise in this area, combined with Standard Chartered’s global client base, to help clients build a more resilient and sustainable supply chain.

Ultimately, the partnership aims to enable suppliers to access working capital in a more efficient and cost effective manner.

“We are excited to work with Taulia to explore new and innovative ways to support our clientsā€™ working capital needs, as well as extending the Bankā€™s leading sustainable trade expertise into their business network,” said Standard Chartered Global Head of Trade & Working Capital Kai Fehr. “Tauliaā€™s footprint also complements that of the Bank, offering greater opportunities for us to support companies in the West with their supply chain flows into Asia, Africa and the Middle East.”

Taulia was founded in 2009 to help businesses improve their supply chains by providing financing options with flexible payment terms. Used by a network of two million organizations, the company’s tools help businesses accelerate payments and free up working capital. Taulia processes over $500 billion every year. Among Tauliaā€™s clients are Airbus, AstraZeneca, Nissan and Vodafone.

Taulia was acquired by SAP earlier this year and today’s agreement marks the first MoU that Taulia has signed with a banking institution post-acquisition. Taulia anticipates that having the backing of SAP will help it access further opportunities across SAPā€™s ecosystem and deliver a differentiated experience for both buyers and suppliers.

“We believe that all CFOs should focus on their cash strategy to ensure growth during these turbulent times and our partnership with Standard Chartered will deliver cash when and where it is needed, especially in emerging markets,” said SAP Head of Working Capital Management CoE and member of the Taulia Leadership Team Thomas Mehlkopf.

Photo by Tiger Lily

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Stash Launches its New Infrastructure Platform, Stash Core

Stash Launches its New Infrastructure Platform, Stash Core
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Stash
  • Investing and banking services fintech Stash unveiled its new infrastructure platform, Stash Core, this week.
  • Stash’s new banking account experience is the first new solution built on Stash Core. Credit, savings, and lending solutions are expected to be launched in the future.
  • Stash Core features integrations from a wide number of partners including fellow Finovate alums Mastercard, Marqeta, Mambu, and Alloy.

With its latest innovation, investing and banking company Stash is bringing to market a new proprietary infrastructure platform, Stash Core. The offering supports Stash’s new banking account experience now, and will enable new capabilities in credit, savings, and lending in the future.

“Stash Core gives us flexibility and ownership of every customer touchpoint,” Stash co-founder and CEO Brandon Krieg said. “It’s the future of inclusive finance and transformative to our business.”

Stash’s new banking account experience is built on the Stash Core and provides access to an upgraded Stock-Back Debit Mastercard, enhanced customer support, and benefits such as increased rewards. Stash’s Stock-Back Debit Mastercard gives cardholders the ability to invest in stocks every time they spend on gas, groceries, travel, dining, and more. The company notes that it has provided more than 59 million stock rewards to date and, going forward, will allow cardholders to earn up to 4x more with their new upgraded cards.

“With Stash Core and the Stock-Back Debit Mastercard, we are able to deliver the very best in financial tooling, customer service, and AI-powered, personalized wealth-building for those who want to earn stock and invest as they spend,” Krieg said.

Teased at FinovateFall in New York earlier this month, Stash’s new solution benefits from integrations with Mastercard, Stride Bank, Marqeta, Mambu, Alloy, and others. In an extended blog post, the Stash team described the decision-making that went into the development of Stash Core. The discussion highlighted the importance of building an infrastructure that would enable Stash to “more quickly innovate and introduce new products and services faster” to provide the best possible customer experience.

With more than two million customers and nearly $3 billion in assets under management, Stash helps individuals embark upon their investing journey with as little as $3 per month. Offering a suite of financial products ranging from investing and banking to education and advice, Stash reports that its members are 18% more financially literate than the average American. The company experienced $125 million in annualized revenue in the past year, and announced that weekly contributions have climbed by 30% over the past two years.

Founded in 2015, Stash made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017. In the years since then, the company has secured more than $347 million in funding, forged partnerships with companies from Apex Clearing to the San Francisco 49ers National Football League team, and acquired financial literacy app, PayGrade.

Photo by Pixabay

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Cinchy Launches Credit Union Edition of its Dataware Platform

Cinchy Launches Credit Union Edition of its Dataware Platform
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Cinchy, Daily news
  • Data firm Cinchy unveiled the Credit Union EditionĀ of its Cinchy Dataware Platform today.
  • The solution is made specifically to help credit unions easily access and leverage their data without having to replace their core banking system.
  • Cinchy won Best of Show for its demo at FinovateFall 2019.

Data access and control firm Cinchy unveiled a credit union-specific solution today. The company is launching TheĀ Credit Union EditionĀ of its Cinchy Dataware PlatformĀ to help credit unions extend the life of their core systems, avoiding the need to replace their existing core with a new one.

The new solution enables credit unions that are currently constrained by their core banking systems. Many of the outdated systems result in siloed data, which makes it difficult for the credit union to leverage their data to create better systems, an improved user experience, and cost savings.

Cinchy’s calls the capability “liberating data.” Today’s new launch enables credit unions to access their data in three ways. First, with real-time data from core banking system and applications without the need for copy-based integration. Second, with tools including auto-versioning, auto-backup, auto-protection, auto-correction, and auto-tracking. And third, with user accessibility that allows for instant collaboration.

“At Cinchy our goal is to enable organizations to save money by liberating and controlling their data in ways that were not previously possible,ā€ said Cinchy CEO Dan DeMers. “Today weā€™re making this a reality for credit unions with the introduction of the Cinchy Dataware Platform Credit Union Edition.”

Founded in 2017, Cinchy leverages data fabric to help banks access data from apps and other silos and assemble it within an easy-to-access data network. Among the company’s clients are TD bank, Colliers International, AIS, and Natixis. Cinchy has been named aĀ Deloitte Technology Fast 50Ā Company to Watch and a Top Growing Canadian Company byĀ The Globe and Mail. The company most recently demoed at FinovateFall 2021 and won best of show for its demo at FinovateFall 2019.

Photo by Markus Spiske

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Nordigen to Provide Open Banking Data for Teenit

Nordigen to Provide Open Banking Data for Teenit
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Nordigen
  • Nordigen has been selected by Teenit, an Amsterdam-based PFM tool, to provide open banking services.
  • Nordigen will enable Teenit to securely connect to customers’ bank accounts to source transaction and account balance information.
  • “Open banking goes hand-in-hand with personal financial management tools as access to customer information enables PFMs to stay up-to-date with their suggestions and analytics,” said Nordigen CEO and Co-Founder Rolands Mesters.

Personal financial management (PFM) tool Teenit has selected Nordigen for open banking. The Amsterdam-based PFM company will offer its users an aggregate view of their finances, complete with insights and analysis on their spending and saving habits.

By integrating with Nordigen’s freemium offering, Teenit can securely connect to customers’ bank accounts to source real-time data on their transactions and savings account balances. With open connectivity to its users’ financial data, Teenit can better fulfill its mission of educating teenagers on money management.

“We wanted to serve education to young customers, no matter what bank they choose,” said Teenit CEO Tatiana Pastukhova. “The integration with Nordigen enables us to fulfill our purpose easily. With parentsā€™ authorization, we are able to connect directly to young customer bank accounts anywhere in Europe, visualize for them their money flows in a teenager-friendly manner and analyze them to further personalize the offered educational content.”

Latvia-based Nordigen was founded in 2016. The company’s freemium model offers access to account information, such as the account holderā€™s name, bank account numbers, transactions, and account balances for free via bank APIs. Nordigen’s paid products include enriched, transaction-level information that helps make sense of raw transaction and account data.

“Financial literacy and education is incredibly important for all demographics, and starting to build a foundation of knowledge from a young age will be very beneficial for Teenitā€™s user base,” said Nordigen CEO and Co-Founder Rolands Mesters. “Open banking goes hand-in-hand with personal financial management tools as access to customer information enables PFMs to stay up-to-date with their suggestions and analytics.”

Nordigen was acquired by GoCardless earlier this year to deepen the bank payment company’s expertise in the open banking arena and enable it to become a banking-as-a-service provider.

Photo by Ivan Samkov

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