Alumni profile

N-iX Enhances Partnership with Mitek

N-iX Enhances Partnership with Mitek
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Mitek

Software solutions and engineering firm N-iX announced today it has enhanced its partnership with digital identity verification tools company Mitek Systems. Under the agreement, N-iX has tapped Mitek to enhance its digital identity verification and fraud prevention efforts.

Specifically, N-iX will leverage the Mitek Verified Identity Platform (MiVIP), a tool that allows organizations to aggregate multiple identity verification services using a low-code, no-code approach. MiVIP will help N-iX deploy the identity verification capabilities quickly, and will offer an easy-to-navigate experience for end users to maximize customer onboarding.

“By leveraging Mitek’s technologies, we are better positioned to meet the evolving needs of our clients in secure KYC, onboarding, and fraud prevention tools,” said N-iX Financial Services Client Partner Nataliya Maslak. “This partnership underscores N-iX’s ongoing commitment to fostering innovation and achieving excellence in the financial services domain and the digital security landscape.”

N-iX anticipates that Mitek’s MiVIP will enhance the service for end users while keeping digital transactions secure. With MiVIP, organizations can select a range of identity verification services and build multiple KYC processes with customizable workflows that will suit a range of risk profiles, products, and regulatory requirements. The technology guides end users throughout the onboarding process at their own pace and reengages them if they click out of the flow.

N-iX was founded in 2010 to offer technology to companies across financial services. The Florida-based company has been partnered with Mitek since 2016, using Mitek’s tools to develop customer lifecycle management and know your customer products. N-iX has built a cross-border payment engine for Currencycloud, a peer-to-peer lending platform for a U.K.-based fintech, instant money transfer solutions for Lebara, and a cloud-based Forex trading platform for Finatek.

Mitek was founded in 1986 and offers technology for mobile check deposit, new account opening, identity verification, and more. The company’s solutions are crucial to 99% of U.S. banks for mobile check deposits. Its technology is utilized by over 7,900 organizations, and its mobile check deposit and account opening tools serve more than 80 million consumers. Last year, Mitek formed partnerships with lending solutions company Abrigo and data and analytics company Equifax.

Mitek is publicly listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker MITK and has a current market capitalization of $633 million.

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SumUp Secures $1.6 Billion in Private Credit Debt

SumUp Secures $1.6 Billion in Private Credit Debt
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, SumUp
  • U.K.-based fintech SumUp has raised $1.6 billion (€1.5 billion) in a private credit debt transaction.
  • The deal was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and will enable SumUp to refinance debt and pursue international growth opportunities.
  • SumUp won Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2013, a year after the company was founded.

In a deal led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, U.K.-based fintech SumUp has secured $1.6 billion (€1.5 billion) in a private credit debt transaction. The financing will enable SumUp to refinance current debt as well as take advantage of growth opportunities around the world.

The deal gives SumUp a set of new investors: AllianceBernstein, Apollo Global Management, Arini, Deutsche Bank AG, Fortress Investment Group, SilverRock Financial Services, and Vista Credit Partners. It also comes six months after the company raised $307 million (€285 million) in equity and debt in a round led by Sixth Street Growth. Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, Fin Capital, and Liquidity Capital also participated in that financing.

In a statement SumUp CFO Hermoine McKee pointed to an evolution in the company’s “requirements from capital markets” in explaining SumUp’s most recent fundraising effort. “Lenders understand and support our mission to create a world where everyone can build a thriving business, and recognize our successful methods of achieving, sustaining, and balancing profitability and growth,” McKee said. “This new financing will support us as we focus on providing best-in-class support experiences for our merchants and giving them the products and tools they need to succeed.”

To this end, SumUp noted in a statement that the company has generated positive EBITDA since December 2022, as well as achieving a “decade of sustained growth.” The company currently counts four million businesses among its partners, who rely on SumUp for services ranging from payments and order processing to customer acquisition and money management.

“SumUp has always enjoyed solid and steady support from the investor community, and it’s this continued backing which has enabled us to grow sustainably over the past 10+ years, serving millions of merchants of all sizes globally,” McKee said.

Founded in 2012, SumUp won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2013. The company began this year with its SumUp Beacon event which introduced merchants to a range of new SumUp solutions. These new offerings included SumUp Business Account, SumUp Invoices, SumUp Kiosk, and SumUp Online Store. SumUp also unveiled a pair of new Point of Sale (POS) solutions: POS Lite to enhance over-the-counter sales, and POS Pro to provide enhanced inventory management.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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Small Business Lending Platform JUDI.AI Inks a Trio of New Credit Union Customers

Small Business Lending Platform JUDI.AI Inks a Trio of New Credit Union Customers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, JUDI.AI

What do Apple Federal Credit Union, Carter Credit Union, and SCE Credit Union all have in common?

All three financial institutions announced this month that they are teaming up with small business lending platform JUDI.AI.

In a series of blog posts at the company’s website, JUDI.AI’s Director of Marketing Kyle Thom welcomed the three credit unions to what he called “our growing group of 35+ forward-thinking community lenders who are on a mission to reinvent small business lending.”

JUDI.AI offers credit unions and community banks an alternative approach to helping small and medium sized businesses secure the funding they need. The company enables financial institutions to digitally transform their credit decisioning and underwriting operations to assess the financial health of their small business customers and members on a continuous basis.

In addition to instant cash flow analysis, automated underwriting, continuous monitoring, and real-time portfolio reporting, JUDI.AI adds automated analysis of current banking data to supplement traditional financial data sources such as credit scores and financial statements.

Here’s a look at JUDI’s new partners:

  • Apple Federal Credit Union. $4.3 billion in assets. 240,000+ members, Twenty-one locations across northern Virginia.
  • Carter Credit Union. $722 million in assets. 55,000+ members. Eleven locations in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Fort Worth, Texas.
  • SCU Credit Union. $1.1 billion in assets. 67,000+ members. Eight locations in southern California and southern Nevada.

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, JUDI.AI made its Finovate debut at our all-digital fintech conference, FinovateWest 2020. Most recently, the company demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2022. At the event, Thom and JUDI.AI Chief Product Officer Su Ning Strube, demonstrated how the platform enables lenders to process 50% more SME loan applications without committing any additional resources, and approve 20% more loans with no added risk.

“What makes JUDI.AI unique in that we identify cash flow metrics that are predictive and correlated to future defaults, and we combine that information in our proprietary small business model with traditional credit scores to calculate the creditworthiness of any borrower,” Su Ning Strube explained from the Finovate stage.

In addition to the credit unions signed in April, JUDI.AI this year has also welcomed Canadian alternative lender Glasslake Funding and Hawaii’s Kauai Federal Credit Union to its client roster. Kauai FCU is the first and only certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) on the island of Kauai.

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SoFi to Act as Sponsor Bank for Rapid Finance’s New Line of Credit Prepaid Card

SoFi to Act as Sponsor Bank for Rapid Finance’s New Line of Credit Prepaid Card
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile
  • Small business banking platform Rapid Finance is launching a Rapid Access Mastercard, a prepaid card through which small businesses can access their line of credit.
  • Rapid Finance’s card program is the first program sponsored by SoFi Bank.
  • Rapid Access Mastercard will be managed by Galileo, which SoFi acquired in 2020 in a deal valued at $1.2 billion

SoFi and its subsidiary Galileo are teaming up this week with small business banking platform Rapid Finance to launch the Rapid Access Mastercard. The new offering is a prepaid commercial card that allows Rapid Finance’s small business customers with a line of credit in good standing to access their funds.

The card will give companies using Rapid Finance’s line of credit a simple way to access the working capital they need, even outside of traditional banking hours. The company’s line of credit offers access to financing from $5,001 up to $250,000 with terms ranging from three to eighteen months.

“This card program underscores Rapid Finance’s commitment to empowering businesses with flexible and accessible financial solutions,” said Will Tumulty, CEO of Rapid Finance. “With the Rapid Access Mastercard, small business owners can better seize market opportunities, manage their cash flow and support their business growth in a way that is more convenient for them.”

This announcement is perhaps more notable for SoFi than it is for Rapid Finance. That’s because Rapid Finance’s card program is the first program sponsored by SoFi Bank. SoFi earned its banking license in 2022, but has since abstained from a pure-play BaaS agreement. The bank partnered with Pagaya in 2021 to offer lending-as-a-service, but the loans are underwritten by Pagaya, which means SoFi isn’t taking any credit risks.

While SoFi will serve as the sponsor bank for Rapid Finance, the prepaid card aspect will be managed by Galileo, which SoFi acquired in 2020 in a deal valued at $1.2 billion. Galileo was founded in 2001 and currently offers digital banking tools, card and lending products, cloud infrastructure, and more.

“This collaboration underscores Galileo’s commitment to helping small businesses do more with their money, faster,” said Galileo CEO Derek White. “We look forward to working together alongside SoFi Bank to help Rapid Finance quickly develop and scale this flexible payment program to support SMBs’ ability to gain swift, easy access to the funds they need to be successful.”

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Lucinity’s AI-Powered Platform Delivers Innovations in Workflow Automation

Lucinity’s AI-Powered Platform Delivers Innovations in Workflow Automation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Lucinity

Regtech innovator Lucinity is starting to draw attention.

The company, headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland, made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. At the conference, Lucinity demonstrated its AI-enabled copilot, Luci, which enhances financial crime compliance via insight generation, report writing, and automation. The solution uses GenAI to streamline tasks for compliance professionals, enabling them to make informed, data-driven decisions and to address higher order challenges directly. The technology performs internet searches, background checks, fraud detection, sanctions screening, and more.

As the team explained at FinovateSpring last year, financial crime fighters spend a significant amount of their time reviewing fraud alerts to determine whether or not they are significant. A major challenge lies in the fact that accurately evaluating the risk of a given alert requires understanding a great deal about the context in which the alert occurred. Compounding this challenge is the reality that much of the information required to do this can be scattered across multiple systems, making the process both more complicated and more time-consuming. Lucinity’s technology helps financial crime professionals simplify and understand the data quickly; a tier 1 bank estimated that Luci could save them $100 million a year by slashing alert review times from an average of 2.5 hours to 25 minutes.

“What we are doing with Lucinity is taking different transactions, KYC information, etc. and creating a picture or story of what the possible financial crime could look like,” Lucinity Co-founder and CEO Gudmundur Kristjansson explained during the company’s demo. “And with that story, we’re enabling the financial crime investigators to take the investigation time from hours to minutes.”

The company’s innovations have been noticed. Just last month, Lucinity secured the Chartis Research Award for Workflow Automation. The honor recognizes the way the company’s technology leverages AI and automation to enhance compliance processes and remove inefficiencies. Lucinity was also named to Chartis Research’s top 50 Financial Crime and Compliance Companies (FCC50) for 2024.

“Through our focus on workflow automation, Lucinty is able to save thousands of hours from the investigation process, drastically reducing the cost of compliance for financial institutions,” Kristjansson said. “This means that banks can then shift resources to revenue-generating areas of the business, rather than pouring more resources into compliance.”

Lucinity enters 2024 with a host of new partnerships. Icelandic neobank indó, financial crime fighting platform Neterium, and fellow Finovate alum Trustly were among the firms Lucinity joined forces with in 2023. This year, in addition to the accolades mentioned above, the company announced the appointment of Theresa Bercich as Chief Product Officer and recognition of her as a Co-Founder. In a statement, Kristjansson credited Bercich for her work on Luci and for her contributions to the company as a whole. “Her journey from a data scientist to VP of Product, and now to CPO and Co-founder, mirrors the growth and dynamic evolution of Lucinity itself,” Kristjansson said.

Lucinity has raised more than $25 million in funding. The company’s total includes an investment of $17 million it raised in 2022. Keen Venture Partners led that Series B round.

Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.

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Econans and SkenarioLabs Team Up to Give Banks New Green Finance Options

Econans and SkenarioLabs Team Up to Give Banks New Green Finance Options
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Econans, SkenarioLabs
  • Finland-based SkenarioLabs and Sweden’s Econans announced a collaboration this week.
  • The partnership will provide financial institutions with a number of new green finance tools.
  • SkenarioLabs made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope. Econans demoed its technology at our online European fintech conference in 2021.

SkenarioLabs, a predictive data analytics solution provider for the real estate industry, has announced a new partnership with fellow Finovate alum, Econans. The collaboration between SkenarioLabs and the Swedish financial advisory platform will give banks a range of new green finance tools.

The joint venture between the two companies will help financial institutions navigate regulatory trends based on concerns over climate change. These trends include the EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD) – among others. The partnership between Skenario Labs and Econans will provide institutions with a future-proof, end-to-end solution that helps them meet reporting obligations and supports building energy transition.

“We’re thrilled to announced our partnership with Econans – Energy Transition Unlocked – a pioneering Swedish finance advisory platform,” SkenarioLabs shared in a post at LinkedIn. “Together, we strive to pave the way for a more resilient future in real estate – exciting times ahead!”

Founded in Finland in 2015, SkenarioLabs made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. At the conference, the company demoed two solutions. The first was its green finance offering that analyzes the potential for enhancing energy performance. The solution then recommends financing options that help reduce carbon emissions. The company also demoed its climate resilience solution. This technology helps institutions understand and manage the impact of climate change – as well as emerging laws and regulations – on their real estate portfolios.

Econans made its Finovate debut three years ago at our online European fintech conference in 2021. The company, founded in Sweden in 2018, offers digital simulation and automated advice to help people better manage their personal finance journey through major life events such as buying a home, having children, and planning for retirement. Econans’ technology helps boost consumer’s confidence in their financial services partner and delivers higher conversion rates for banks and real estate companies. The firm’s white label solutions are easy to integrate and currently have more than 500,000 end users per month in Sweden.

Photo by Mihis Alex

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FIS Teams Up with Stratyfy to Limit Card Fraud

FIS Teams Up with Stratyfy to Limit Card Fraud
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, FIS, Stratyfy

Payment, banking, and investment systems provider FIS announced today that it is partnering with Stratyfy to bolster the capabilities of its SecurLOCK card fraud management solution.

After testing the new SecurLOCK capabilities with customers, FIS anticipates that the updated tool will increase accurately identified card transactions and help prevent fraud. This will reduce friction for end consumers by minimizing fraud and disruption experienced because of false positives.

“With sophisticated fraudsters using new technologies to increase fraud attacks, both businesses and consumers are facing more risk than ever before,” said FIS Head of Fraud Services Eric Kraus. “This new collaboration is a continuation of a commitment to implement new technologies, helping businesses prevent fraudulent behavior to protect the consumers they serve.”

Founded in 2017, Stratyfy provides predictive analytics and decision management solutions for financial institutions. The company demoed one of its solutions, UnBias, at FinovateFall 2022, and won a Best of Show award for its presentation. Among the company’s other solutions are Credit Risk Assessment and Fraud Detection. Stratyfy is one of 80 graduates of FIS’ Fintech Accelerator, having completed the 12-week program in 2020.

“It’s rewarding to see how our unique machine learning approach can enable better outcomes through this solution,” said Stratyfy CEO, and co-founder Laura Kornhauser. “Our relationship with FIS showcases the tremendous value that is possible through partnerships, and we’re thrilled to continue to build upon this important work.”

Banking technology company FIS was founded in 1968, and has a current market capitalization of $40 billion. Earlier this year, the Florida-based company acquired post-trade SaaS platform Torstone Technology to enhance its own capital markets offering. According to Crunchbase, the purchase marks FIS’ 26th acquisition.

Photo by RDNE Stock project

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Coconut Software, PayTic Earn Spots in the First Cohort of the UK Fintech CTA

Coconut Software, PayTic Earn Spots in the First Cohort of the UK Fintech CTA
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Coconut Software, Daily news, PayTic

A pair of Canada-based Finovate alums – Coconut Software and PayTic – have earned spots in the first cohort of the UK Fintech CTA program. The program runs for eight-weeks, much of it conducted online, and includes a needs assessment and company analysis, participation in the Innovate Finance Global Summit, virtual market briefings, mentor-matching and coaching, as well as strategic business-to-business introductions.

In addition to the digital sessions, participants in the program will be invited to attend local events in the U.K. that will help the firms build and grow their in-market presence and their network. This will enable them to introduce their value proposition to key market participants, investors, as well as potential customers.

Joining Coconut Software and PayTic are a number of other Canadian startups including Symend, OneVest, VoPay, Four Eyes Financial, Octav, and Sibli.

“We are so excited to be selected for the first cohort of the UK Fintech CTA, proudly representing our country’s growing payments landscape as we expand our efforts in the U.K.,” PayTic noted on LinkedIn last week. “Thank you Canadian Technology Accelerators | Accélerateurs technologiques canadiens for this recognition and opportunity to scale!”

Headquartered in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, PayTic made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring. The company offers a SaaS solution that manages all of the significant aspects of program management for card issuers and BIN sponsors in a single interface. PayTic’s technology serves as a central hub within the payments ecosystem, enabling users to automate reconciliation, network report generation, dispute submission, fraud detection, network fee analysis, and robust business intelligence.

At FinovateSpring, PayTic founder and CEO Imad Boumahdi and Director of Product Kate Firuz demoed how PayTic’s platform can help banks, card issuers, BIN sponsors, and fintechs save significant amounts of money by analyzing and optimizing network fees against program activity. The technology enables users to instantly reconcile data across the payments ecosystem from the program and account level to the transaction level. This empowers users to identify exceptions in real-time, generate accurate reports, and remain compliant.

Founded in 2020, PayTic has raised $4 million in funding. Visa Accelerator and Outlierz Ventures are among the firm’s investors.

More than 4,000 kilometers to the west via the Trans-Canada Highway (44 hours if you’re driving), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Coconut Software is the other Finovate alum that will be joining PayTic as part of the UK Fintech CTA program. Founded in 2007, Coconut Software offers a customer engagement platform to help financial institutions better schedule, manage, and measure customer, prospect, and employee interactions.

Coconut Software made its Finovate debut as part of our special all-digital FinovateSpring conference in 2021. At the event, Senior Solutions Engineer Andre Doucette demoed enhancements to the firm’s appointment scheduling and lobby management technology. These upgrades improved the platform’s online queuing and lobby management capabilities.

Named to the 2023 Technology Fast 50, Coconut Software counts a number of North American financial institutions among its customers, including RBC, Arvest Bank, Vancity, and Rogue Credit Union. The company has raised more than $35 million in funding from investors including Klass Capital and Information Venture Partners. Katherine Regnier is founder and CEO.

Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.

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Envestnet | Yodlee Taps Ocrolus for Financial Document Automation

Envestnet | Yodlee Taps Ocrolus for Financial Document Automation
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Envestnet, Ocrolus, Yodlee

Document automation platform Ocrolus announced it has teamed up with financial data aggregation and account verification expert Envestnet | Yodlee this week.

Under the agreement, Envestnet | Yodlee will leverage Ocrolus’ technology to enhance digital document capabilities for its clients. Specifically, Envestnet | Yodlee’s 47 million customers will be able to improve their user experiences by offering their end-users the option to either submit documents or digitally connect bank accounts. Customers will also be able to automate the extraction of financial data from the documents that the end consumer uploads.

“While the financial services industry has undergone significant digital transformation, documents are still a critical source of data,” said Ocrolus Co-founder and CEO Sam Bobley. “We are thrilled to partner with Envestnet | Yodlee to provide a more comprehensive and smoother customer experience across a variety of financial services use cases.”

New York-based Ocrolus leverages AI to capture and analyze data from 1,000 different types of documents and digital forms and boasts an accuracy rate of more than 99%. The company counts more than 400 clients, including Enova, PayPal, Brex, CrossCountry Mortgage, Plaid, and SoFi, who use the solution to detect fraud, analyze cash flows and income, and streamline decisions.

With these capabilities Envestnet | Yodlee anticipates its clients will benefit from more efficient and confident decision-making. “With added document automation capabilities, Envestnet | Yodlee will improve and streamline the onboarding process for credit and lending use cases,” explained company Chief Operating Officer Arun Anur.

Envestnet | Yodlee’s client list includes more than 1,300 financial services and fintech companies, including 17 of the top 20 U.S. banks. The company was founded in 1999 as Yodlee, and changed its name to Envestnet | Yodlee after Envestnet acquired Yodlee for $660 million.

In a digital world, sharing documents can be a huge headache. However, automation platforms such as Ocrolus, this process has become much smoother. Today’s collaboration between Envestnet | Yodlee and Ocrolus marks a significant step forward in enhancing the customer experience.

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Dwolla Launches Open Banking Integrations

Dwolla Launches Open Banking Integrations
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Dwolla

If you have your ear to the ground in the payments space, you have probably heard that pay-by-bank is the latest craze. Operating in the account-to-account (A2A) payments space since 2008, Dwolla is launching a new offering that echoes that trend.

To bring its A2A payments offering into the new era, the Iowa-based fintech announced the launch of Open Banking Services today. The new open banking integrations will expand on Dwolla’s existing API, adding instant account verification, balance checks, and fraud mitigation to the services offered to the company’s mid- to enterprise-sized business clients.

Dwolla’s Open Banking Services are available through a single API that allows businesses to integrate the entire payment experience– from identity verification to exchanging account credentials– into their existing application. The company has pre-integrated with leading open banking service providers to ensure a smoother implementation process for businesses, reduce complexity, and accelerate time-to-market for A2A payment solutions.

Overall, Dwolla eliminates the need for businesses to use multiple vendors. The company’s white-label API streamlines transactions, leveraging The Clearing House’s RTP Network to allow users to send and settle funds in real-time. Dwolla also offers lower transaction fees, improved accuracy, and enhanced security.

“Our vision with Dwolla’s Open Banking Services is to empower businesses with a seamless, all-in-one solution for A2A payments,” said Dwolla CEO Dave Glaser. “By consolidating essential A2A payment functionalities under one roof, we aim to simplify the payment landscape for businesses, enabling faster time-to-market and improved operational efficiency.”

Dwolla is a three-time Finovate alum and most recently demoed at FinovateSpring 2015 where it debuted FiSync. The company has raised $72.4 million across nine rounds of funding.

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CRIF Unveils its ESG Analytics Solution to Help FIs Access Sustainability Data

CRIF Unveils its ESG Analytics Solution to Help FIs Access Sustainability Data
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, CRIF, Daily news

European consumer and business credit data provider CRIF launched its ESG Analytics solution this week. The technology will give banks and financial institutions in the U.K. the ability to quickly and accurately assess the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) profiles of their U.K. and Europe-based suppliers, partners, and customers.

ESG Analytics draws on more than 130 key indicators from data sources in the U.K. and Europe. The technology analyzes information on issues such as water usage, waste production, emissions, and health and safety records, as well as modern slavery and inclusiveness. Financial institutions and banks will only need the U.K. or Europe-based business’ VAT or registration number in order to obtain an ESG score on the company. ESG Analytics also provides granular environmental, social and governance indicators – all available without requiring direct interaction with the company being reviewed.

“Considering the growing attention of the regulatory bodies toward ESG compliance in the EU but also in the U.K., ESG Analytics enables banks, insurers and corporates to understand the impact of businesses they work with today and helps to inform their decision-making in this ever-more important area of work,” CRIF Regional Director for the U.K. and Ireland Sara Costantini said. “And by working with regulatory bodies all around the world, we ensure that we remain at the forefront of regulation so we can pass this knowledge onto U.K. financial institutions.”

ESG Analytics will complement CRIF’s current ESG service, Synesgy, launched last fall. The solution enables businesses in the U.K. to assess the sustainability of their supply chains. Synesgy also helps companies enhance decision-making during the procurement process, avoid operational and reputational risk, and provide greater transparency with regard to ESG.

“Climate change is the defining issue of our time and every one of us has to play our part in protecting the planet for future generations,” Costantini said when Synesgy was launched in September. “For businesses this is no exception. As customers look to companies that are a force for good, it’s crucial that businesses understand both their own ESG performance and that of their entire supply chain.”

Headquartered in Bologna, Italy, CRIF made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014. In the years since, the company has grown into a major international credit bureau and business information provider with more than 10,500 FIs; 1,000+ insurance companies; 90,000+ business customers; and 1,000,000+ consumers in 50 countries using its services.

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Wealthify Taps ClearBank to Launch Instant Access Savings Account

Wealthify Taps ClearBank to Launch Instant Access Savings Account
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Wealthify

U.K.-based Wealthify has sought out ClearBank to serve as its embedded banking partner. Online saving and investing service Wealthify will leverage ClearBank’s banking license and API to launch its Instant Access Savings Account.

ClearBank’s API offers real-time clearing access, or instant money transfers. Wealthify’s new savings account, which tracks the Bank of England’s base rate, pays out 4.91% AER (Annual Equivalent Rate), which equals 4.80% gross at the time of publishing.

Wealthify hopes the new account will help support customers in today’s cost of living crisis. “The way people save has evolved rapidly over the last decade,” said Wealthify CEO Andy Russell. “People want more from their money, and choices during different economic conditions, and we’re thrilled to provide it to them. Wealthify’s savings account—powered by ClearBank—offers speedy setup, a great rate, and the ability to see savings and investments all in one place—a holistic view of your finances, at your fingertips.”

Originally founded in 2016, Wealthify demoed its online investing service at FinovateEurope 2017 and had raised $3.15 million (£2.5 million) before being acquired by financial services giant Aviva in 2020. Wealthify currently offers investment products– including stocks and shares ISAs, junior ISAs, self-invested personal pensions– and general investment accounts along with its savings accounts.

The company’s tech-forward approach leverages human intelligence. All of the investments are managed by a team of professionals. “For wealth management experts like Wealthify, our embedded banking offering is an efficient way for them to focus on quality customer service, without spending unnecessary time and resources on licenses or outsourced projects,” said ClearBank CEO Charles McManus.

ClearBank was founded in 2015 by former Worldpay CEO Nick Ogden. The UK-based company earned its banking license from the FCA in late 2016. While ClearBank itself does not lend, provide credit, or invest end users’ funds, the company does allow its banking-as-a-service clients to leverage its banking license to provide banking services. End customers benefit from $107,000 (£85,000) in deposit insurance from the FSCS.

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