Daily news

Token.io Teams Up with Santander to Drive Innovation in Payments

Token.io Teams Up with Santander to Drive Innovation in Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Token
  • Token.io has teamed up with Santander UK, a subsidiary of Banco Santander.
  • Santander UK will leverage Token.io’s open banking connectivity and infrastructure to enable account-to-account payments for credit card repayment.
  • Founded in 2015, Token.io most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2017.

Account-to-account (A2A) payment infrastructure company Token.io has forged a partnership with Santander UK.

The goal of the collaboration is for the bank to leverage Token.io’s open banking connectivity and infrastructure to enhance the customer experience and develop new, real-time payment solutions. Santander will first use Token.io’s infrastructure to enable direct payments from external bank accounts as an option for credit card repayments, creating a more seamless payment experience compared to both direct debit and manual bank transfer. These direct account-to-account payments for card repayments also support biometric Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) for payments made on mobile devices.

“We are thrilled to partner with Santander, a forward-thinking institution committed to driving open banking innovation and enhancing the experience of millions of customers,” Token.io CEO Todd Clyde said. “Token.io’s technology, combined with Santander’s dedication to exceptional service, will undoubtedly set new standards for how financial institutions leverage open banking to create innovative value propositions that meet the evolving needs of consumers and businesses.”

A subsidiary of Banco Santander, Santander UK has more than 14 million customers in the U.K. The bank offers mortgages, auto financing, unsecured loans, credit cards, banking, savings and investment accounts, as well as insurance products. In addition to using Token.io’s technology to support its A2A offering, Santander UK also plans to leverage the fintech’s infrastructure to enhance its real-time money movement capabilities for its retail banking customers.

This week’s news from Token.io comes just days after the U.K.-based fintech announced that it had expanded its partnership with global payments platform Ecommpay. The global payments platform added Token.io’s virtual accounts in four new markets — France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain — to its Open Banking Advanced solution. The virtual accounts will enable e-commerce companies to get real-time settlement confirmation and make API-powered refunds or payouts, boosting both the speed and efficiency of transactions.

“Our partnership with Ecommpay continues to demonstrate the immense potential of open banking in transforming payment experiences and also highlights the opportunities that PSPs can realize when they embrace innovative, customer-centric solutions,” Clyde said.

Token.io made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015 and returned to the Finovate stage two years later at FinovateEurope in London. The company provides direct connectivity to more than 567 million bank accounts in 20 markets. Token.io’s customers include HSBC, BNP Paribas, and Global Payments, as well as fellow Finovate alums Mastercard and ACI Worldwide. The company has raised $90 million in funding according to Crunchbase, most recently securing a Series C investment of $40 million in 2022.

Photo by Markus Spiske

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Revolut Debuts Payment Terminal Hardware

Revolut Debuts Payment Terminal Hardware
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Revolut
  • Revolut has announced the launch of Revolut Terminal, a wireless POS device aimed at larger businesses in the U.K. and Ireland.
  • Revolut Terminal offers advanced features like multi-location management, customer analytics, and integration with Revolut Pay.
  • Revolut Terminal is different from the Revolut Reader, which targets micro-businesses.

International challenger bank Revolut is pushing further into the business-to-business space this year. The company just announced the pending launch of Revolut Terminal, an advanced Point of Sale (POS) device designed for larger businesses across the U.K. and Ireland.

The new payment terminal, which is wireless and claims 99.9% uptime, is geared toward helping businesses manage transactions efficiently and securely across multiple physical locations. Revolut plans to launch the Revolut Terminal just ahead of Black Friday, which is timely for businesses that want to prepare for the increase in retail traffic before the holiday season.

Revolut’s new POS device integrates with Revolut Pay and will allow customers to make payments directly from their Revolut accounts without having to enter card or bank details. For merchants, Revolut Pay provides competitive transaction fees, which, at 0.5% + £0.02, are considerably less than traditional card processing fees.

“We’re excited to be offering Revolut Terminal as an all-in-one, powerful POS solution for our business customers,” said Revolut General Manager of Merchant Acquiring Alex Codina. “This launch comes as we continue to invest into our B2B offering and particularly double down on the hospitality and retail industries as an acquirer. A truly reliable payment solution is the difference between closing the sale and losing money, with Black Friday round the corner, Revolut Terminal is built to withstand high customer demand; and it could be yours in time for the busy season at an exclusive, reduced rate.”

In addition to the competitive pricing, the Revolut Terminal provides access to advanced POS features, including multi-location management, table mapping for restaurant businesses, analytics and insights into customer behavior, and integration with customer catalogues.

The Revolut Terminal builds on the success of the Revolut Reader, which the company launched in 2022. The Revolut Reader is a smaller, wireless dongle-type of payment acceptance tool aimed to help micro-businesses and entrepreneurs accept payments at 0.8% + £0.02 per transaction. The lightweight, portable card reader integrates with Revolut Business accounts and offers essential POS functionalities, including tipping and analytics.

Revolut offers an entire suite of tools for its business users. In addition to its flagship multi-currency accounts, the company also provides expense management tools, corporate payment cards, as well as a line of payment acceptance tools that includes hardware, APIs, analytics, and integrations.

“We’re continuing to see lots of momentum in Revolut Business, having this summer surpassed $500 million in annualized revenue and onboarding over 20,000 new customers per month,” said Revolut Business General Manager James Gibson. “Revolut Terminal marks the latest investment in our business customers, with merchants of all sizes now able to easily accept payments directly into their Revolut Business accounts, without juggling multiple providers.”

Last month, the company spun out its wealth management app into a standalone entity. And earlier this year, the company cemented its reputation as Europe’s most valuable fintech after receiving a $45 billion valuation.

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TSB Bank Teams Up with Financial Literacy App Doshi

TSB Bank Teams Up with Financial Literacy App Doshi
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Doshi App
  • Financial literacy platform Doshi has teamed up with London-based TSB Bank.
  • TSB bank will visit schools to encourage students to use Doshi’s financial literacy app.
  • Headquartered in London, Doshi made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2024.

Gamified financial literacy platform Doshi has teamed up with London-based TSB Bank. The financial institution will spend the next six months traveling to schools to encourage students to use Doshi’s app to learn about responsible savings and spending, as well as other issues critical to financial literacy.

The initiative is targeting 1,000 students between the ages of 13 and 18. Doshi features a series of interactive lessons on financial topics based on financial goals such as managing debt or avoiding stress over saving and spending. The app leverages gamification strategies including awarding points and showcasing leaderboards to enable users to check their progress. The app also rewards students who complete the learning modules with perks like shopping vouchers to help boost engagement.

“Entering adulthood Money Confident is vital to ensuring young people are set up to enjoy a lifetime of stable finances and informed financial decisions,” TSB Head of Responsible Business Kate Osiadacz said. “We’re on a mission with Doshi to help young people boost their knowledge using the app’s innovative learning platform, so that they start their financial lives in the best place possible.”

According to the Young Persons’ Money Index, more than 81% of young people worry about money and/or personal finances. Additionally, the same percentage of young people also want to learn more about better managing their finances as part of their school curriculum.

“Only two out of five young adults have received financial education in secondary school,” Doshi CEO Daniel Rose said. “At Doshi, we believe that financial education is essential for building healthy, confident lives.”

In addition to the Doshi app, the company’s technology is available via its own branded, out-of-the-box website as well as via API integration. Regardless of environment, Doshi delivers more than 1,000 pieces of financial wellness and education content, tools, and videos. With more than 30,000 engaged users, the platform has provided more than 100,000 hours of learning and handed out thousands of rewards to users.

Headquartered in London, Doshi App made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024. At the conference, the company demoed its white-label app that helps banks, credit unions, and fintechs promote financial literacy via a personalized, gamified, learning journeys. In August, the company partnered with Yorkshire Building Society to help provide financial education to first-time, prospective homebuyers.

The partnership between Doshi and TSB Bank is a product of the financial institution’s Money Confident Communities program. This program sends TSB Bank professionals to schools as volunteers to help young people learn more about financial wellness and financial independence. Doshi was one of the companies to successfully apply to TSB Bank’s TSB Labs program which partners with fintechs to enhance the bank’s financial literacy offering.

At the same time, such partnerships are fuel for innovation for fintechs, as well. “As a startup, you don’t get many opportunities to collaborate with senior leaders of a leading U.K. bank,” Rose noted. “Working with TSB has enabled us to co-create an exciting solution with the potential to change the lives of thousands of young adults.”

Photo by Pixabay

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ANNA Money Brings Biometric Re-Authentication to Fraud Fight

ANNA Money Brings Biometric Re-Authentication to Fraud Fight
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, ANNA, Daily news
  • ANNA, a small business banking and tax app for SMEs, has implemented biometric re-authentication strategies to fight fraud.
  • The new re-authentication procedures are designed to help combat the threat of Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud.
  • U.K.-based ANNA made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin.

All-in-one business and tax app for SMEs, ANNA, has become one of the first financial institutions in the U.K. to deploy biometric re-authentication strategies to fight financial crime. The new procedures are being used specifically to prevent fraudsters from using accounts they have accessed illegally.

“ANNA was one of the first in the industry to start pushing these changes live and we continue to make updates and improvements,” ANNA Chief Compliance Officer Leven Li said. “Our random biometric re-authentication programme went live this week and we expect that other financial institutions will likely follow our lead.”

The re-authentication process is initiated whenever someone attempts to access an ANNA account on a mobile device that is different from the one used to initially set up the account. When this occurs, a request for a selfie is issued. Insofar as the fraudster will not be able to produce an accurate facial match, the access attempt is stopped and the account is immediately suspended. Additionally, ANNA has introduced random biometric authentication checks that also leverage a customer selfie to re-verify identity.

The new procedures come as new laws designed to stop Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud in the U.K. came online this week. APP fraud occurs when a person is tricked into sending money to a fraudster who is posing as a legitimate payee. The new regulations require payment services providers (PSPs) such as ANNA to reimburse eligible claims from APP victims when the fraud takes place via faster payments and CHAPs.

And while ANNA currently has a number of strategies to help prevent fraud, including the use of national databases like CIFAs and limiting ANNA accounts to U.K. residents and businesses, the new requirements are designed to help financial institutions, fintechs, and their customers stay one step ahead of continuously-evolving fraud threats – without compromising the customer experience.

“While these measures are mainly aimed at detecting accounts accessed and misused by criminals who have not been through our Know Your Customer process, there’s no friction at all for our regular customers,” Li said. “It’s just a quick selfie — which we are all used to doing — and it’s keeping our customers and their accounts much safer from day-to-day threats, like fraudsters trying to scam their way in or phone snatchers who try to access accounts by bypassing security protections.”

ANNA made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin. At the conference, the company demoed its automated tax calculation solution that manages self-assessment and VAT return. The technology automatically categorizes and reconciles expenses, and calculates VAT and tax in real time. The solution then completes and submits tax and VAT returns to the HMRC.

This spring, ANNA acquired business spend management platform GetCape for an undisclosed sum. The transaction enabled ANNA to enter the Australian market; GetCape is headquartered in Sydney. The goal of the acquisition was to provide a challenge to Australia’s Big Four banks when it comes to offering expense management and corporate cards to SMEs.

ANNA was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in the U.K. Boris Dyakonov and Eduard Panteleev are Co-CEOs.

Photo by Evgeniy Alyoshin on Unsplash

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U.K. Digital Bank Pockit Acquires Monese

U.K. Digital Bank Pockit Acquires Monese
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Digital bank Pockit has acquired multi-currency account provider Monese.
  • Pockit plans to continue operating both brands separately while combining efforts to process $6.52 billion (£5 billion) in annual transactions.
  • Monese’s B2B arm, XYB, will be spun off as a standalone business, and Monese’s 100 employees will join Pockit.

U.K.-based digital bank Pockit announced that it has acquired multi-currency account provider Monese. While financial terms of the deal were undisclosed, Pockit is rumored to have paid a “modest sum” for Monese.

According to the Times, Pockit CEO and Co-founder Virraj Jatania said that the deal would be “transformational” for the company and “great news for millions of customers poorly served by traditional banks.”

Pockit was founded in 2012 and now offers a prepaid card for everyday use, as well as a travel-specific prepaid card that can be used in multiple currencies. The company also offers joint account cards, a credit building tool, a cash advance product, and more. Pockit has raised just shy of $50 million, with its most recent $10 million round led by Puma Private Equity in August of 2023.

Also founded in 2013, Monese offers both personal and business accounts that come with a multi-currency debit card suited for traveling. The company also offers international money transfers for both sending and receiving funds. The company is backed by $201 million in funding, having secured its most recent 2022 round from HSBC Ventures, which wrote off its investment earlier this year.

Monese also has a business-to-business arm called XYB. This core-less banking platform, which helps banks and other financial services companies create and launch new financial services solutions, was spun off as a standalone business earlier this year.

For now, it appears that Monese’s two million customers across 30+ countries will remain with Monese. Pockit has said that, while Monese’s 100 employees will join the Pockit team, they will continue to run both Monese and Pockit as two separate brands. Combined, Pockit and Monese will process around $6.52 billion (£5 billion) worth of transactions each year.

Photo by Engin Akyurt

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3 Takeaways from Klarna Checkout’s Rebrand as Kustom

3 Takeaways from Klarna Checkout’s Rebrand as Kustom
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Klarna, List series

This week, Klarna Checkout, also known as KCO, announced its official rebrand as Kustom. The rebrand comes 12 years after the launch of Klarna Checkout, which at the time set a new standard for e-commerce in Northern Europe. The rebrand also arrives months after Klarna sold KCO to a consortium of investors led by BLQ Invest CEO and Founding Partner Kamjar Hajabdolahi.

“Klarna Checkout is very dear to me, and the impact it’s had on Klarna’s journey is immense,” Klarna CEO and Co-Founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski said in June when the divestment was announced. “I’m so pleased it’s finding a new home, with owners who are carefully handpicked to continue to create outstanding value for our merchant partners.”

A new home back then, and now, a new name. As Kustom, the digital checkout solution stands as one of the largest digital checkout providers in Europe. Kustom has 24,000 e-merchants and annual transaction volume of more than $14 billion (150 billion SEK). Kustom will focus on e-merchants and will add to its suite of payment methods, while keeping Klarna a key component of Kustom’s offering. Additionally, Kustom will focus on optimizing the checkout experience and building related services as opposed to offering its own payment methods or credit products.

“Our full focus will now be on our merchants and continuing to develop this great product based on their needs,” Hajabdolahi said. “We have an incredibly strong customer base, we are profitable, and we have secured financing for strategic acquisitions, which provides an excellent foundation. In the coming months, we will put all our efforts into further developing our infrastructure to expand our offering in 2025, including the introduction of new payment methods.”

Here are a trio of top takeaways from the rebrand.

Kustom will start strong

The rebrand comes at a time of strength for the digital checkout platform. The solution has a market share of more than 40% in Sweden and more than 20% across the Nordics. Kustom will also benefit from its new owners who have been credited for their “Buy and Build” strategy when it comes to acquisitions.

Strategic partnership with Stripe

In addition to its rebrand announcement, Kustom also shared news of a new strategic partnership with payments innovator Stripe. Stripe’s platform will be instrumental to Kustom’s plans to introduce new features and payment methods for e-merchants, starting in the first half of 2025.

Continued collaboration with Klarna

Despite the summer sale and the autumn rebrand, Kustom will retain its relationship with Klarna and, in fact, plans to offer Klarna’s payment methods in the future. Also many of the personnel moves accompanying the rebrand reflect more continuation than separation. Jesper Eriksson, previously Country Manager for Klarna in Sweden, will become Chief Commercial Officer for Kustom. Rasmus Fahlander, previously Senior Product Director for Klarna Checkout, will become CPO. Alexander Olsson, former finance director for the U.S. at Klarna, will take the role of CFO.

Photo by Leeloo The First

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Worldline Launches Embedded Payments Solution

Worldline Launches Embedded Payments Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Worldline
  • Worldline and Online Payment Platform have partnered to launch an embedded payments solution in Europe.
  • The new tool will enable platforms and marketplaces to integrate features like split payments, escrow, and mediation handling.
  • The embedded payments solution is currently available in the E.U., and Worldline plans to expand it to Switzerland and the U.K., as well as add enhancements such as tap-on-mobile and POS integrations.

Payments services company Worldline and payment provider Online Payment Platform (OPP) have partnered this week to launch an embedded payments solution in Europe.

The new solution combines OPP’s payment technology with Worldline’s capabilities in acquiring, acceptance, and point of sale. Using the new embedded payments tool, platforms and marketplaces in Europe can add features such as split payments, advanced escrow, and unique mediation handling. Wordline anticipates that these new tools in an embedded experience will help businesses find new revenue opportunities and boost user engagement.

“Our partnership with OPP reflects our commitment to innovation in payments,” said Worldline CEO Marc-Henri Desportes. “By combining OPP’s robust platform capabilities with our extensive acquiring expertise, we are delivering an embedded payments solution that provides platforms and marketplaces a unique pathway to integrate and leverage new payment opportunities.”

Worldline designed its new embedded payments tool to offer a holistic, turnkey solution that works across multiple currencies and payment methods. The user-friendly interface allows for fast onboarding with a high level of security that can help reduce fraud and increase consumer trust. Additionally, the embedded payments tool is compliant with both E.U. and U.K. regulatory standards.

“With this joint offering, we are setting a new benchmark in the payments landscape,” said OPP Founder Richarad Straver. “Our approachability, combined with Worldline’s unrivalled footprint, allows us to provide a seamless and efficient experience for platforms and their sub-merchants. This solution not only facilitates transactions but also supports our clients with features like escrow and mediation, enhancing trust and security in every transaction.”

The new embedded payments tool is currently available in the EU. Worldline and OPP have plans to expand availability into Switzerland and into the U.K., having recently secured the EMI license for the latter region. The company also notes future plans for advancements such as tap-on-mobile and point of sale integrations, which it anticipates will further enhance the user experience.

Embedded payments in the U.K. are quickly growing and evolving as businesses across multiple sectors seek to enable companies to offer payment services within their existing interfaces rather than redirecting their customers to third-party payment processors. This is especially true in the E.U., where the growth of open banking and open APIs has accelerated the adoption of embedded payments as merchants seek to make transactions more seamless and ultimately enhance their customer experience.

France-based Worldline began facilitating card transactions in 1973 and currently has 18,000 employees in more than 50 countries and counts annual revenue of around $4.4 billion. Gilles Grapinet is CEO.

Photo by Anastasia Nelen on Unsplash

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AutoRek Joins Swift Partner Program

AutoRek Joins Swift Partner Program
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, AutoRek, Daily news
  • Automated reconciliation software company AutoRek has joined the Swift Partner Program.
  • The partnership will enable companies to have greater integration between their operations and third-party data sources.
  • Scotland-based AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023.

AutoRek, an automated financial controls platform based in Scotland, has joined the Swift Partner Program. The move will enhance the consolidation and reconciliation of financial data and provide greater integration between companies’ operations and their third-party data sources. Leveraging its predefined catalog of API connections, AutoRek will consume messages directly from the Swift network, making the reconciliation process more efficient and providing wider data management. This will eliminate the need for AutoRek customers to both source and manage files and statements from the third-parties they are working with. Futhermore, AutoRek will investigate the creation of additional solutions to help its customers maximize the company’s connection with the Swift network.

“AutoRek is on a mission to set the benchmark in trust for finance operations and controls,” AutoRek Head of Strategic Partnerships Alastair MacKenzie said. “As a member-owned organization, we believe this collaboration with Swift will allow us to gain in-depth insights to help meet the needs of the world’s leading financial services firms.”

SWIFT, which stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, offers a network that enables financial institutions to communicate and exchange information about financial transactions in a secure manner. Launched in 1973 and owned by the banks and member institutions that use the messaging network, the Belgian-based cooperative connects more than 11,500 banking and securities organizations, market infrastructures, and corporate customers in 200+ countries and territories.

AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope last year. At the conference, the company’s Kashif Aslam demonstrated how AutoRek’s technology helps financial institutions — including banks, asset managers, insurers, and payments businesses — manage high-volume reconciliation challenges. “Some of the benefits include a significant reduction in cost through automation of otherwise manual and intricate business processes, an increase in control over your data through increased transparency so you can see and track everything that’s happened to your data throughout its lifespan within the system, and an increased ability to demonstrate compliance with financial regulation,” Aslam explained.

In the months since then, AutoRek has forged partnerships with J.P. Morgan Payments, global funds network Calastone, and French IT services and consulting firm Capgemini. The company’s customers include fellow Finovate alums eToro and Marqeta.

Founded in 1994, AutoRek is headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland. Gordon McHarg is CEO.

Photo by Richard Harris

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Glia Unveils Unified Interactions Index Online Calculator

Glia Unveils Unified Interactions Index Online Calculator
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Glia
  • Customer interaction technology company Glia launched its Unified Interactions Index Online Calculator this week.
  • The new offering is based on the company’s Unified Interactions Index, and enables financial services companies to benchmark the quality of their customer interactions against that of their peers.
  • A multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner, Glia most recently demoed its technology at Finovate’s all-digital conference in 2021.

Leave it to customer interaction technology innovator Glia to take the idea of “Knowing Your Customer” to another level.

This week, Glia unveiled its Unified Interactions Index Online Calculator. Based on the company’s Unified Interactions Index, the new tool enables financial services companies to benchmark themselves against more than 500 peer companies in terms of the efficiency, effectiveness, and overall experience in customer interactions.

“Customer interactions are the new litmus test for loyalty, but until now financial institutions haven’t had an accessible way to compare their interaction strategy with peers and relate it to tangible KPIs,” Glia Co-Founder and CEO Dan Michaeli said.

Glia’s calculator gives financial institutions apples-to-apples benchmarking data on how they compare against peers and competitors. From the answers to 14 questions, the calculator provides a score that categorizes respondents into one of three areas –front runner, pacer, or straggler — based on the efficiency, effectiveness, and experience of their customer interaction strategy. With this information, Glia provides customer recommendations to help the institution improve its interaction strategy, and improve business results based on their own unique circumstances.

“Our calculator offers a quick, simple way to evaluate where an institution stands and then provides actionable steps on easy areas of improvement,” Michaeli added. “This ultimately helps deliver the information and tools necessary to modernize and enhance customer interactions and drive successful business outcomes.”

Headquartered in New York, Glia made its Finovate debut (as SaleMove) at FinovateFall in 2015, earning its first of several Best of Show awards. Most recently, the company demoed its technology before Finovate audiences at our all-digital conference in the spring of 2021. Today, Glia has partnered with more than 500 banks, credit unions, insurance companies, and other financial institutions around the world to help them improve the customer experience, boost loyalty, and drive revenues. The Glia Interaction Platform unifies voice, digital customer service, and AI in an architecture that eliminates data siloes and enables companies to shift traffic between channels, enabling customer interactions to evolve naturally.

The launch of Glia’s new offering follows the introduction of the company’s ChannelLess AI-powered Interactions for Financial Services experience. This platform, in the words of Glia Chief Product Officer Jay Choi, combines a best-in-class virtual assistant, back-end AI tools, and a data analysis solution for managers to help them “find new ways to drive efficiency, performance, and increase the value delivered by the contact center.”

Photo by Yan Krukau

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Plaid Introduces Pay-by-Bank for Billpay

Plaid Introduces Pay-by-Bank for Billpay
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Plaid
  • Plaid has launched a pay-by-bank tool for bill payments in the U.S., allowing consumers to securely pay bills directly from their bank account without manually entering their account details.
  • The tool provides offers billers cost savings and lower risk with fewer returned payments through its risk engine, Signal.
  • Plaid’s pay-by-bank tool is already being used across industries like telecommunications and property management, integrating seamlessly with existing payment processors like Adyen, Nuvei, and Checkout.

Pay-by-bank is back in the news cycle today– this time in the United States. Fintech infrastructure player Plaid unveiled a pay-by-bank tool for billpay.

The new tool, which is powered by Plaid’s network, provides businesses with a lower cost, more secure option for consumers to pay bills directly from their bank account with less friction. Because it leverages Plaid’s bank network, the new pay-by-bank tool does not require consumers to find their checkbook, manually enter their account and routing numbers, and wait for verification. Instead, the solution, which is embedded into a biller’s existing payments flow, connects to consumers’ accounts by securely entering their bank login credentials.

“Plaid provides both market-leading authentication through online banking and traditional account and routing number validation in the background,” the company explained in a blog post. “There’s no need to stitch together multiple vendors, so no matter how the user prefers to pay with their bank account, Plaid’s end-to-end Pay by Bank solution can securely accept it. Plaid Pay by Bank is available across all channels: online, in-app, in-store, and hosted contact center solutions.”

Plaid’s pay-by-bank is available as an all-in-one solution that includes processing, or it can be integrated with a biller’s existing payment processor such as Adyen, Nuvei, Checkout, and others.

Pay-by-bank offers two major benefits to billers. The first is cost savings. Plaid estimates that payments made directly from the consumer’s bank account offer a 40% lower processing cost when compared to credit card payments. The second benefit is lower risk. Plaid’s risk assessment results in fewer returns for recurring payments.

To decrease the risk of returned payments, Plaid leverages Signal, its risk engine that uses machine-learning-driven network insights that mitigate failed payments, connecting to closed accounts, or accounts with insufficient funds. Signal offers a feature called Smart Retries that provides guidance on when to retry failed payments. Plaid reports that this decreases non sufficient funds (NSFs) on first payments by up to 80%.

Plaid’s pay-by-bank tool is already in use with a handful of customers across telecommunications, property management, insurance, automotive, and other industries. One such company, a digital rent payment business Domuso, has integrated Plaid’s new bill pay experience into its existing payments platform.

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Alloy Helps Commercial Lenders, Embedded Finance Providers Fight Fraud

Alloy Helps Commercial Lenders, Embedded Finance Providers Fight Fraud
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alloy, Alumni News, Daily news

Back before regtech was cool, a Brooklyn, New York-based company called Alloy was introducing Finovate audiences and others to its technology that enables banks and other financial institutions to build fully-customizable APIs for customer identification and compliance. Even more, the company demonstrated how its graphical rules engine implements compliance rules in a way that actually optimizes conversions and coverage. Alloy’s technology empowers companies to choose which data sources are used and how they are applied. This lets companies decide how to customize and optimize this aspect of their own onboarding processes.

We first met Alloy in 2016, when the company demoed its technology at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. In the years since then, Alloy has grown into an end-to-end identity risk management platform with more than 600 banks, credit unions, and fintechs using its technology to manage fraud, credit, and compliance risks. The company has raised more than $207 million in funding according to Crunchbase. Glia most recently secured an investment of $52 million in follow-on Series C funding in September 2022 from Avenir, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and other investors.

Alloy was founded in 2015 by Tommy Nicholas (CEO), Laura Spiekerman (President), and Charles Hearn (CTO) who met while working at a payments startup. In their mission statement they note that, in the company’s early days, they faced skepticism from investors, but were heartened by client feedback, which they said was “overwhelmingly positive” and inspired the founding trio to forge ahead.

These days, more and more companies are getting the message. In the past few days, Alloy announced partnerships with commercial lending platform Numerated and embedded finance and payment solutions provider Sonovate.

Alloy’s strategic partnership with Numerated will enable the latter’s customers to conduct robust fraud checks seamlessly from within their own lending operations. The partnership will bring streamlined onboarding, enhanced fraud prevention, and a unified digital experience to Numerated’s platform. This will help Numerated’s customers capture deposits and offer competitive lending products to their SME and commercial borrowers.

“Fraud prevention and lending automation are crucial in today’s financial landscape,” Numerated CEO Dan O’Malley said. “By partnering with Alloy, we are ensuring that our platform not only meets but exceeds the expectations of financial institutions looking for secure, scalable lending solutions. This partnership allows us to deliver the best of both worlds — top-tier risk management combined with the efficiency and speed of automation.”

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Numerated leverages advanced data and AI to help companies automate their business lending operations — from application to closing. With 500,000+ businesses and 30,000+ lenders among its customers, Numerated processes $400 million in loan volume every hour and, since inception, has processed more than $50 billion in loans on its platform.

With Sonovate, Alloy’s identity risk technology will be deployed to help the company combat rising fraud trends in the U.K. as it seeks to scale its operations. In a statement announcing the partnership, the companies noted a report from UK Finance that underscored the challenge of more sophisticated, AI-powered tools that fraudsters are using against financial institutions. The report discovered that $1.5 billion (£1.17 billion) was lost to financial criminals in 2023 alone.

“With its network of data sources, Alloy gives us the power to protect our business and customers from financial crime and the flexibility to make adjustments as needed as our business scales,” Sonovate Global Head of Risk and Compliance Tom Wilson said. “We are excited for this next step in our global growth.”

U.K.-based Sonovate serves recruitment businesses, consultancies, and labor marketplaces with embedded finance and payment solutions for their workforces. Sonovate provides swift credit decisioning, same-day funding, credit insurance, collection services, and both timesheet and workflow automation. Founded in 2014, the company has funded nearly $8 billion in invoices, supporting 3,300 businesses and 50,000 workers in 44 countries.

In addition to its partnerships with fintechs, Alloy announced last month that it was working with Meridian Credit Union, to help Canada’s second largest credit union enhance its user experience and reduce fraud risk for its 380,000+ members. Also this year, Alloy published its 2024 State of Embedded Finance report which examines trends in embedded finance risk management and compliance.

Photo by Soloman Soh

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Chimney Joins the Jack Henry Digital Banking Platform

Chimney Joins the Jack Henry Digital Banking Platform
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Chimney, Daily news, Jack Henry
  • Property data innovator Chimney announced a new collaboration with digital banking solutions provider Jack Henry.
  • The collaboration will make Chimney’s product suite available on Jack Henry’s digital banking platform.
  • Chimney won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2023 in New York. Previously known as Signal Intent, the company also won Best of Show at our online FinovateSpring conference in 2021.

A collaboration between property data innovator Chimney and Jack Henry will help financial institutions empower their homeowners with actionable advice about their home value, home equity, borrowing power, and more. That’s because Chimney has made its product suite, including its latest offering Chimney Home, available via Jack Henry’s digital banking platform.

Chimney’s embedded financial tools enable banks and other financial institutions to engage more account holders digitally, generate more deposits, and fund more loans by leveraging intelligent recommendations to guide customers to the products that are most appropriate for them. Chimney Home, the company’s latest product, gives homeowners actionable information about the value of their home, potential borrowing power, and the availability of pre-qualified offers — all embedded within the bank’s digital channels.

“For many years, financial institutions have lacked the resources needed to personalize product recommendations for homeowners,” Chimney Co-Founder and CEO Matthew Covi said. “At the same time, getting approved for a home equity loan is a big feat, sometimes taking months and causing frustrations for many consumers. That’s why we created Chimney Home.”

Among the financial institutions currently using Chimney’s tools via Jack Henry’s digital banking platform is Financial Plus Credit Union. The technology will help the institution better serve members who are homeowners with the data they need to maximize their home’s value and equity. Chimney’s offering also replaces the credit union’s previous, more cumbersome cross-departmental strategy in favor of an omni-channel approach that makes access easier for homeowners and the process more efficient for the credit union’s mortgage services team.

“By combining financial health data and blending it with a homeowner’s property data, we’re empowering financial institutions to make more personalized loan recommendations in the fiercely competitive home equity space and allow account holders to take action on those recommendations right within their digital banking app,” Covi said.

Chimney won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2023 in New York. Previously known as Signal Intent, the company won Best of Show in its debut at our online FinovateSpring conference in 2021. Headquartered in New York, the company announced this spring that it had topped the 30 bank-client milestone.

Jack Henry first demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2010. Today, the Monett, Missouri-based company provides banks and credit unions with an ecosystem of modern technology solutions developed internally as well as the ability to integrate with leading fintechs. Founded in 1976, Jack Henry is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the ticker JKHY. The company has a market capitalization of $13 billion.

Photo by Pixabay

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