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Liberis Teams Up with Identity Risk Management Company Alloy

Liberis Teams Up with Identity Risk Management Company Alloy
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alloy, Alumni News, Daily news
  • Embedded finance platform Liberis announced a partnership with identity risk management innovator Alloy.
  • The partnership will enable Liberis to leverage Alloy’s platform to add automated compliance verifications to the funding application process.
  • Alloy made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVrSilicon Valley 2016.

Embedded finance platform Liberis has teamed up with identity risk management innovator Alloy. Courtesy of the newly announced partnership, Liberis will leverage Alloy’s technology to integrate automated compliance verifications directly into the funding application process. The integration enables Liberis to accelerate its international growth and simplify the merchant experience.

“Alloy is designed to help businesses take control of fraud, credit, and compliance risk, while growing with the clearest picture of their customers,” Alloy CEO Tommy Nicholas said. “We’re confident that our partnership will help Liberis achieve its goal and provide its merchants with a seamless onboarding experience.”

LIberis will gain access and integrations to a global network of more than 190 data sources to streamline KYC, KYB, and AML operations and stop financial crime. The platform will also support the creation of custom, white-label onboarding experiences for partners.

“Alloy’s platform will allow us to enter new markets quickly, optimize our merchants’ fully digitized application for funding and scale to meet our partners’ demand, while also maintaining our high standards for compliance,” Liberis’ Chief Legal & Compliance Officer Alexis Alexander said. Alexander added that one main challenge with compliance checks is that they can increase friction during the onboarding process. To this end, Alloy’s identity risk solution automates and manages onboarding, fraud monitoring, and credit underwriting processes, reducing the amount of paperwork. For those businesses that need more extensive documentation, Liberis will provide a custom, white-label experience tailored to the needs of merchants and partners alike.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York City, Alloy made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVrSiliconValley 2016. Today, more than 500 banks and fintechs have partnered with Alloy to manage identity risk at origination as well as throughout the customer lifecycle. Alloy processes millions of identity decisions daily for the world’s top banks and fintechs in 40 countries across North America, EMEA, Latin America, and APAC. The company has raised more than $207 million in funding from investors including Avid Ventures and Felicis.

Just a few days ago, Alloy issued its 2024 State of Fraud Benchmark Report. The report featured some good news on the fight against fraud. According to the 450+ financial industry fraud decision makers who responded to the firm’s survey, the number of reported fraud attacks has begun to “even out – and for some organizations, to decelerate.” Nevertheless, there were devils in the details, including the number of companies reporting an increase in attempted fraud attacks via consumer accounts (61% of companies) and as well as through business accounts (54% of companies).

“It’s encouraging to see companies getting fraud volume under control using the wide array of identity data and technology available on the market,” Nicholas said when the report was release in late January. “But fraud remains a critical problem because bad actors are always finding new tools – such as generative AI – to steal increasingly large amounts of money.” Indeed, Alloy’s report noted that 56% of respondents lost more than EUR 500,000 ($537,000) to fraud in the last 12 months. Over the same time period, a quarter of respondents had lost more than EUR 1 million ($1.7 million).

Photo by SHOCKPhoto by Szoka Sebastian

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Privakey Unveils Single Sign-On Solution for Enterprises

Privakey Unveils Single Sign-On Solution for Enterprises
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Privakey
  • Authentication platform Privakey has launched its Single Sign-On (SSO) solution, Privakey SSO.
  • The new offering enables enterprises to leverage passwordless authentication and authorization.
  • Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Privakey made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017 in New York.

Passwordless authentication solution provider Privakey launched its Single Sign-On (SSO) solution last week. Designed for enterprises, Privakey SSO responds to the demand for passwordless authentication as cybercriminals leverage social engineering to take advantage of traditional password-based systems.

“Privakey SSO is designed for speed and simplicity in both implementation and user experience,” company CEO Charles Durkin explained. “Small and medium-sized businesses can have Privakey SSO up and running within hours. Large enterprises benefit from a single, highly secure passwordless gateway to authorized applications and services.”

The new offering leverages a strong cryptographic authenticator to incorporate biometric data, PIN, and passkey for both authentication and authorization. Users supply the biometric or PIN, and a device-based secure passkey provides an additional layer of security by verifying the user’s identity as initially registered. Privakey SSO removes the inconvenience of passwords and out-of-band codes. Businesses can deploy the technology as a standalone, company identity platform, or integrate it to enable passwordless login to enterprise identity solutions from companies ranging from Microsoft to Google to Okta.

“We’ve engineered our solution to be fast, easy to use, scalable, and robust, ready to help you eliminate passwords – the primary target of cybercriminals,” Durkin said. He added that the solution was “ideal” for a variety of verticals including financial services, ecommerce, and IT.

Privakey is currently inviting companies interested in its technology to participate in its Privakey SSO Free Beta Test. The beta testing period runs from January 30, 2024 to May 31, 2024.

Headquartered in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and founded in 2016, Privakey made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017 in New York. At the conference, the company demoed its cloud-based, password-free alternative to identity authentication that is consistent, convenient, and secure.

Photo by Aphiwat chuangchoem

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Quavo Fraud & Disputes Launches New Capabilities to its Dispute Management Platform

Quavo Fraud & Disputes Launches New Capabilities to its Dispute Management Platform
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Quavo Fraud & Disputes introduced new automated ACH capabilities to its dispute management platform.
  • Among the new features is a verbal attestation capability that eliminates the requirement of a digital or manual signature.
  • Quavo founder and CEO Joseph McLean will lead a conversation on modernizing fraud and dispute management on February 6th as part of the Finovate Webinar series.

Quavo unveiled new automated ACH capabilities to its dispute management platform, QFD (Quavo Fraud & Disputes) this week. The enhancements make additions to the intake questionnaire, and add a new verbal attestation functionality for WSUD compliance.

Quavo Chief Technology Officer and co-founder David Chmielewski said that the enhancements will reduce friction. “For ACH, the process is cumbersome for consumers,” he explained, “with banks requiring physical or digital signage signatures.” Quavo’s solution to this challenge was innovative. “We poured over Nacha regulations and developed a verbal attestation solution where accountholders aren’t bothered by manual signature requirements,” Chmielewski said. “Quavo reimagined ACH requirements for the automated back-office operations needed to support account holders today and in the future. And this is only the beginning.”

This new release includes enhanced intake questionnaires as well as additional claim reasons to support back-office ACH investigations. The enhanced functionality also includes automated return capability which streamlines back office operations via straight-through processing on ACH disputes. The platform also now offers a new signer disclosure that allows verbal attestation during claim intake. To enable this capability, the platform prompts an agent to read a disclosure to the account holder, which satisfies Nacha’s WSUD requirement with a physical or digital signature.

Quavo’s first customer to go live with the enhanced ACH functionality has completed more than 12,000 automated returns and recovered $7.69 million in funds. This top 25 bank accomplished all of this without human intervention.

Quavo has raised $11 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. The company includes FINTOP Capital and JAM FINTOP among its investors. Founded in 2025, Quavo is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.

Join me February 6th for my conversation with Quavo Fraud & Disputes founder and CEO Joseph McLean on 4 Game-Changing Benefits of Modernizing Your Fraud and Dispute Management.

Photo by Praswin Prakashan on Unsplash

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The OCC Fined City National Bank $65 Million: 8 Steps to Avoid a Similar Fate

The OCC Fined City National Bank $65 Million: 8 Steps to Avoid a Similar Fate
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Thought Leadership

This week, U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) fined City National $65 million in a civil money penalty. The OCC said the California-based bank “engaged in unsafe or unsound practices,” stating that it failed to establish effective risk management and internal controls. The bank also allegedly violated the bank secrecy act.

Additionally, the agency sent City National a cease-and-desist order that stipulates the bank must correct its actions to improve its strategic plan and operational risk management. Specifically, the OCC wants to see the bank improve its internal controls, compliance risk management, anti-money laundering and fair lending practices, and investment management operations.

This is not only bad news for City National, but also for banks across the U.S. That’s because, given last year’s banking crisis, regulators have had their ears a bit closer to the ground than usual and are more willing to strike fines on both banks and fintechs.

So what’s a bank to do in the midst of increased scrutiny? Here are eight actions to take to avoid a similar fate.

Strengthen third-party risk management

In the era of banking-as-a-service (BaaS), multiple aspects of banking leverage third parties, and for good reason. Using a third party fintech to boost security or a lending-as-a-service provider to offer a much-needed service for customers helps bankers focus on what they do best. However, banks must establish auditable processes for managing third-party risks and implement controls to mitigate risks associated with third-party relationships, especially those related to operational, compliance, and fraud risks. And this is not a set-it-and-forget-it action. Once the process is in place, banks need to routinely monitor third party relationships.

Enhance internal controls

Once you take a look at your processes with third parties, examine your own, in-house operations. Modernize and strengthen your internal controls to detect and prevent risk management and compliance issues. And don’t slip on conducting regular compliance audits to identify and correct any weaknesses.

Improve operational risk event reporting

After surveying both your internal and external processes, establish a risk reporting system that can quickly flag any irregularities. The reporting system should be transparent and efficient in order to allow for a quick response from the right party or parties involved. A fast turnaround will help mitigate risk.

Enhance fraud risk management

While internal slip-ups pose their own threat, fraudsters are an even bigger danger, as they can be difficult to predict and control. Make sure you have robust fraud risk management practices in place, including continuous monitoring and proactive measures to prevent fraud. Because fraudsters will strike wherever they find a vulnerability, you need to ensure your entire team is on board. Stay vigilant by conducting regular training exercises for all employees to help them recognize and respond to fraud.

Address discrimination concerns

Even if your organization hasn’t been accused of redlining, proactively create a structure around your fair lending practices. Having a well-documented process in-place will serve you well if you are ever flagged for potential unfair practices. And don’t get complacent. Review your lending practices on a regular basis to ensure fairness and compliance with anti-discrimination laws.

Strengthen your bank’s financial position

Save your reputation by establishing a process that continuously monitors and assesses your bank’s financial position. Quickly address any issues that may impact your banks’ stability. Have a plan in place in the event things go wrong. Establish a strategy to address losses, such as rising costs from lower deposits. The strategy should include proactive measures that will help maintain financial health.

Create a compliance-driven culture

Regulatory action is on the rise, not only in the U.S., but across the globe. Adhering to regulations requires compliance from all levels of the organization, so permeating your culture with compliance will help ensure everyone plays by the rules. And because compliance is dynamic, be sure to regularly review and update your policies to ensure they meet current standards.

Cooperate with regulators

Let’s face it, systems fail and everyone makes mistakes. In the event the regulators come knocking at your bank’s door, be cooperative. Fostering a positive relationship with regulatory bodies and keeping communication open can go a long way. Be proactive in remediating the issues and making the necessary corrections to avoid further enforcement.

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Tales from the Crypto: Funding Startups, Fighting Fraud, and Why the U.S. is a CBDC Laggard

Tales from the Crypto: Funding Startups, Fighting Fraud, and Why the U.S. is a CBDC Laggard
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, Cryptocurrency, Daily news, PayPal

This week in Tales from the Crypto we look at some traditional and alternative ways that investors are backing their favorite cryptocurrency companies, examine a new report explaining why the U.S. lags behind its peers when it comes to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and learn about U.S. Department of Justice charges – and a guilty plea- in a $1.9 billion dollar crypto pyramid scheme.

Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum scores new funding

Has crypto winter yielded to the year’s first crypto unicorn? Swiss crypto banking group Sygnum has raised $40 million in strategic funding in a round led by Azimut Holdings. The round gives the firm a valuation of $900 million, not quite enough for a unicorn horn, but more than enough to raise not just eyebrows but new expectations at what might be in store for cryptocurrency businesses and the funds that invest in them.

The company will use the capital to fuel its expansion into new markets in both Europe and Asia. The investment will also accelerate development of Sygnum solutions such as its bank-to-bank platform, currently supporting crypto offerings from more than 15 banks and FIs around the world.

“Our core thesis has always been that Future has Heritage, and our strategy to build trust via regulation and good governance has guided us throughout all market cycles,” Sygnum co-founder and Group CEO Mathias Imbach said. He underscored the challenge of “closing a successful funding round” in the current financial environment, which fellow co-founder and CEO of the company’s Singapore office Gerald Goh called “a testament to Sygnum’s strong and unique position as a leading regulated financial institution in the global digital asset industry.”

Report: U.S. progress on CBDCs lagging other nations

Former President Donald Trump said recently that he would “never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).” As the front runner for the Republican nomination for President this year, Trump’s words are worth paying attention to.

But according to a new report, the future of any U.S.-created CBDC has plenty of issues – even without the antipathy of the once (and maybe future) U.S. president. According to a report from think tank Atlantic Council, the U.S. is falling behind other countries that are exploring or developing CBDCs. The Council claimed that the U.S. Federal Reserve has deployed “less than 20” people to work on research and development on CBDCs. By contrast, the Council said that the People’s Bank of China has more than 300 people working on their CBDC project. The effort in the U.K. was also praised compared to the U.S., with the Council favorably noting that the Bank of England had deployed a joint task force including both the Treasury and Parliament.

The Atlantic Council says that there is an innovation gap between the U.S. and other developed nations when it comes to CBDCs. The Council also criticized the relatively slow rollout of the U.S. interbank settlement system compared to similar systems in Europe that were deployed sooner. And while the Council accepts that there’s no reason to “disrupt the currency that underpins the global economy,” it still believes that the U.S. dollar needs to “innovate.”

PayPal invests $5 million stablecoin in Mesh

The Fed may not have much faith in crypto. But PayPal is putting $5 million worth of its own crypto to work in support of embedded crypto payments startup Mesh. PayPal announced that it has invested $5 million worth of its own U.S. dollar denominated stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), in the company, which facilitates digital asset transfers and account aggregation.

This investment, announced this week, marks the first time PYUSD has been used as the funding instrument for an investment by PayPal Ventures. “The shift toward digital currencies requires a stable instrument that is both digitally native and easily connected to fiat currency like the U.S. dollar,” PayPal president and CEO Dan Schulman said last year when PYUSD was introduced. “Our commitment to responsible innovation and compliance, and our track record delivering new experiences to our customers, provides the foundation necessary to contribute to the growth of digital payments through PayPal USD.”

Founded in 2020, Mesh enables companies to integrate crypto payments and transfers directly into their existing platforms. The firm has more than 300 integrations with exchanges, digital wallets, and brokerages. This week’s funding follows a $22 million Series A funding round Mesh closed in September. Bam Azizi is co-founder and CEO.

DOJ announces charges, guilty plea in cryptocurrency fraud scheme

On the “Law & Order: Crypto Edition” front, the U.S. Department of Justice has levied criminal charges against two individuals – and accepted the guilty plea of a third – for their involvement in a cryptocurrency fraud scheme called HyperFund. The SEC charged two of the three individuals civilly for their role in what they allege to be a $1.89 billion cryptocurrency pyramid scheme.

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Erek L. Barron, called the amount of fraud “staggering.” Barron added “whether it’s cryptocurrency fraud, or any other financial frauds, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

The scheme ran from June 2020 through November 2022, alleges the Department of Justice. The scheme’s conspirators are alleged to have told investors that they would earn daily returns of between 0.5% and 1% until their initial investment doubled or tripled thanks in part to revenues from crypto mining operations. The DOJ alleges that HyperFund began blocking investors from withdrawing their money in July of 2021 and the scheme collapsed the following year.

According to the SEC, one of the conspirators who agreed to settle civil charges of violating securities laws against fraud, had received more than $3.7 million from the HyperFund platform and its investors. This individual is also the one who has already pled guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud. The maximum sentence for all three conspirators is five years in prison if convicted.

Odds and Ends

  • Former U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne joined Coinbase’s advisory council.
  • Payments infrastructure provider Transak teamed up with Visa to support conversion of crypto into local fiat currencies.
  • Cryptocurrency platform Kraken introduced new Chief Operating and Product Officer Gilles BianRosa.
  • Reuters reported that FTX has abandoned the idea of relaunching its exchange and will instead pursue a liquidation with a goal of repaying customers in full.
  • Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his thoughts on the present and future of cryptocurrencies in a blog post this week.

Photo by Traxer on Unsplash

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Blackhawk Network to Acquire Tango Card

Blackhawk Network to Acquire Tango Card
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Blackhawk Network, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Tango Card
  • Blackhawk Network is acquiring incentive delivery technology company Tango Card.
  • Founded in 2009, Tango Card has experienced 800% growth since 2018.
  • Terms of the deal, which is expected to close later this year, were undisclosed.

It takes two to tango. That’s what prepaid card and payments products provider Blackhawk Network (BHN) may have realized this week. The California-based company has acquired incentive delivery technology company Tango Card for an undisclosed amount.

Once the deal closes, BHN clients, along with Tango’s existing customers, will benefit from Tango’s B2B incentives platform and customer support. Tango was founded in 2009 to help enterprises reward their employees with a prepaid card, charity donation, direct deposit, or via a selection of more than 1,000 gift cards. The company, which first demoed at FinovateFall 2016, experienced significant growth in the past six years, having grown 9x, equivalent to 800%.

“Joining BHN at this time provides a once-in-a-company opportunity to continue innovating in this space, better support our customers’ evolving global needs and create awesome experiences for recipients,” said Tango Founder and CEO David Leeds.

BHN, which is best known for its gift cards and egifts, also offers rewards and incentives tools for enterprises to gift employees, customers, and suppliers. Additionally, the company has a digital payment system for corporate payouts, relief support, and more.

“We have been a longtime partner to Tango and were also an early investor. We are thrilled with the opportunity to combine the best of BHN with the best of Tango to provide leading, global, scalable solutions and innovation to the rewards and incentives industry,” said BHN President and CEO Talbott Roche.

The deal, which marks BHN’s 14th acquisition since it was founded in 2001, is expected to close later this year.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki

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Plumery Partners with Identity Verification Platform Sumsub

Plumery Partners with Identity Verification Platform Sumsub
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Sumsub
  • Digital banking technology company Plumery forged a technology partnership with identity verification platform Sumsub.
  • Via the partnership, Plumery has integrated Sumsub’s verification technology into its banking engagement platform.
  • Headquartered in London, Sumsub made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin.

Mobile and digital banking technology company Plumery will integrate verification technology from Sumsub into its banking engagement platform. The integration comes courtesy of a newly announced technology partnership between the two companies. Of Sumsub’s various capabilities, Plumery first will launch Sumsub’s Know Your Customer (KYC) suite.

“Using our APIs, Plumery has been able to create a completely seamless end-to-end onboarding journey for its users,” Sumsub co-founder and CEO Andrew Sever said. “Through this partnership, we can now combine their innovation-focused digital experience … with the highest levels of compliance and fraud protection, provided by our platform.”

Plumery’s banking engagement platform, Headless, enables banks, fintechs, and financial institutions of various types to build apps on top of its APIs. Headless can be deployed without requiring companies to make changes to the user interface (UI) of their apps or to their core banking technology. The partnership with Sumsub will add KYC and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions to verify new customers by leveraging data such as email addresses, tax residency, and proof of address (PoA). The solution will also screen identity documents and make sure new users pass liveness tests as part of the verification process.

The goal of the combined offering is to give both traditional and challenger banks the ability to provide customizable onboarding flows for their customers while remaining fully compliant. In a statement, the companies noted that the integration can save businesses up to 80% on implementation costs and time. The integration also saves companies more than 50% of onboarding costs for each customer.

“Digital and mobile onboarding has become an essential part of any digital banking experience in the last five years,” Plumery CEO Ben Goldin said. “Now, together with Sumsub, our joint customers can integrate this capability faster and more cheaply than ever before, to launch new propositions and whole banks in record time.”

Founded in 2015, Sumsub – which stands for “Sum & Substance” – has raised more than $37 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. The company made its Finovate debut four years ago at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin. At the conference Sumsub demoed its all-in-one technical and legal platform that manages all of a company’s KYC/KYB/AML requirements. The solution enables firms to covert more customers, accelerate the verification process, lower costs, and reduce fraud.

Sumsub began the year with an announcement that it had joined the MENA FinTech Association (MFTA). The company’s new membership in the six-year old organization will help it boost business growth in the Middle East and Northern Africa, as well as raise awareness about the challenges of identity fraud in the region.

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Ramp to Acquire Procurement Startup

Ramp to Acquire Procurement Startup
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Ramp acquired procurement startup Venue.
  • Venue will help Ramp improve its Procurement product with purchase orders that automatically sync up to accounting platforms, collaboration tools, and new approval workflows.
  • Venue was founded in 2022. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Business finance automation platform Ramp announced it has acquired procurement startup Venue and that it has made improvements to its Procurement product automations. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Ramp expects the acquisition will help it expand beyond corporate cards as it tackles inefficiencies across more of the financial tech stack.

Venue was founded in 2022 to help businesses simplify how they review, approve, and manage the cost of vendor relationships. The company’s tool helps employees request what they need, while offering finance teams visibility into all vendor requests spending. A year after launch, Venue was supporting clients with 500 to 1,000 employees and had raised $1.2 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, Exponent Founders Capital, and Basecase Capital.

“With Venue, we built a frictionless purchasing experience for employees and empowered businesses to buy what they needed while staying in-policy,” said Venue CEO and Co-founder TK Kong. “We’re excited to bring our expertise to Ramp and together help enable more efficiency, productivity, and seamless decision-making for our customers.”

Along with today’s acquisition, Ramp is launching improvements to its Procurement product with support from the Venue team. The combined team will offer businesses more control over and insight into employee spend, speed up review cycles, and help organizations save costs on IT and software spending. Now available for businesses using Ramp Plus, the new features include:

  • Integrates the contract review process into Ramp’s approval workflow.
  • Dynamic intake forms that capture every purchase request in one place.
  • Purchase orders that sync to accounting platforms and offer auto-code matched invoices.
  • Collaboration tools that allow all parties to comment and tag team members within requests.
  • An activity feed to track procurement processes and keep record of approvals and changes made to requests and purchase orders.
  • Seat Intelligence to track who is using the software and ensure businesses are getting their money’s worth from their SaaS contracts.

Ramp’s accounts payable product currently processes over $10 billion in accounts payable volume each year. The company, which is best known for its corporate card and expense management tools, counts more than 15,000 business clients.

Photo by Ihsan Adityawarman

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Jack Henry Unveils Banno Business to Help Regional FIs Bring Banking Innovations to SMEs

Jack Henry Unveils Banno Business to Help Regional FIs Bring Banking Innovations to SMEs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Jack Henry
  • Jack Henry has launched its cloud-native business banking solution, Banno Business.
  • The new solution will help community and regional banks bring modern banking solutions to small and medium-sized businesses.
  • A Finovate alum since 2010, Jack Henry was founded in 1976.

Jack Henry unveiled its cloud-native business banking solution, Banno Business, last week. The new offering enables community and regional financial institutions to bring the innovations of modern banking to SMEs.

“Banno Business centralizes the business banking capabilities and partnerships we’ve created over the years into a single platform,” Jack Henry Managing Director of Digital Solutions Julie Morlan said. “We’ve built our platform to be highly configurable and scalable, enabling banks and credit unions to compete across the business spectrum. With Banno Business, financial institutions can expand and monetize their market share – a $370 billion revenue opportunity – while making a continued impact in their communities.”

Banno Business combines business solutions – such as cash management and commercial lending – with embedded payment capabilities, cash flow tools, reporting, and other features to help business owners better manage their finances. SMEs can also link external accounts to their financial institution via an integration with Finicity (a Mastercard company). Banno Business empowers regional and community financial institutions to leverage their relationships with and knowledge of their local businesses and business owners.

Institutions like High Plains Bank of Colorado are using Banno Business to attract more small and medium-sized businesses as customers, while at the same time helping local businesses improve their finances. The bank’s Chief Experience Officer Brian Otteman praised the ease with which business owners can “manage permissions for their employees, simplify their money movement, and understand their cashflow.” Freedom First Credit Union, a community-based financial institution headquartered in Virginia, is leveraging Banno Business to ingratiate itself to the local business community. “Having a full business solution with the digital user experience that our members know and trust makes for an easy transition to new markets,” Freedom First CU President and CEO Paul Phillips said. “Banno Business positions us to mature existing member relationships and grow net new business; it’s a win for our deposit acquisition strategy and diversifies our portfolio.”

Headquartered in Monett, Missouri, and founded in 1976, Jack Henry made its Finovate debut at Finovate 2010 in New York. The company returned to the Finovate stage four years later at FinovateEurope in London. A leading fintech and solution provider for financial institutions, Jack Henry empowers banks and credit unions to attract commercial accountholders, grow revenues, improve efficiency, and bolster the financial health and banking experience of their customers and members. Jack Henry has approximately 7,500 clients, and more than 10.5 million registered users of its Banno retail platform, which supports the company’s Banno Business offering.

Jack Henry is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker JKHY. The firm has a market capitalization of $12 billion. Last week, Jack Henry announced that CEO and Board Chair David Foss will transition to a new role as Executive Board Chair at the end of June. The company will name current President and Chief Operating Officer Greg Adelson as CEO and President on the first of July.

Photo by Adrien Olichon

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Marqeta and Torpago Partner to Launch Sunwest Bank’s Commercial Card Program

Marqeta and Torpago Partner to Launch Sunwest Bank’s Commercial Card Program
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Marqeta
  • Torpago and Marqeta will power Sunwest Bank’s Sunwest Visionary Card.
  • The new commercial credit card and expense management solution will leverage Marqeta’s modern card issuing API, as well as Torpago’s white-labeled card program solution, Powered By.
  • The added card program is expected to help Sunwest generate new income streams, attract deposits, and improve operating efficiency.

Two partners in the corporate card space, Marqeta and Torpago, recently announced they will power Sunwest Bank’s Sunwest Visionary Card, the bank’s commercial credit card and expense management solution. 

Sunwest’s bank-branded credit card program will leverage Marqeta’s modern card issuing API, as well as Torpago’s Powered By, a white-labeled card program solution that aims to help banks enhance their existing card and expense management offerings.

Torpago said that Sunwest considers the card program modernization effort as a “growth engine.” The San Francisco-based company expects that offering corporate card products under the Sunwest brand will help the bank both deepen existing customer relationships and attract new business.

“By equipping Sunwest with a powerful technology platform, we expect Sunwest to generate new income streams, attract deposits and improve operating efficiency.” said Torpago CEO and Founder Brent Jackson. “Working with Sunwest and Marqeta has been fantastic and we are thrilled to be the engine behind the Visionary Card.”

Torpago was founded in 2019 and offers a range of bank-branded, low-code/no-code technologies, including loan origination and underwriting, card issuing and fulfillment, fraud monitoring, web and mobile apps, expense management tools, third-party integrations, and account servicing. The company also provides services for compliance, cardholder support, and collections.

Torpago’s card issuing, spend controls, and card fulfillment available via Marqeta’s APIs. Oakland, California-based Marqeta helps organizations issue credit and debit cards, prepaid cards, virtual cards, as well as digital wallets. Developers can use Marqeta’s APIs to issue cards, fund accounts, manage payments, and more.

“Marqeta is proud to partner with Torpago to give Sunwest the tools it needs to build a truly differentiated solution from the ground up, enabling Sunwest to customize its card program and deliver a highly personalized and smooth experience for their cardholders,” said Marqeta Chief Revenue Officer Todd Pollak.

For its part of the deal, Sunwest is responsible for acquiring customers for its Visionary Card and will be leveraging its own balance sheet. The bank was founded in 1969 and currently has more than $2.7 billion in assets.  Headquartered in Sandy, Utah, Sunwest and has offices in California, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, and Florida. 

Photo by Tiger Lily

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Fintech Rundown

Explore the latest and most pertinent fintech news in our weekly digest. Stay informed as we continuously update this post with breaking news throughout the week. Check back for real-time updates on how the fintech landscape evolves this week.

Lending

Rapid Finance partners with LoanPro to provide Lending-as-a-Service to small businesses across the U.S.

Union Bank selects Baker Hill NextGen consumer loan origination and TruStage compliance doc prep.

Lendica and CSG Forte partner to deliver an embedded business credit solution to small and medium sized businesses in the U.S.

YouLend secures deal with J.P. Morgan to extend £4 billion in additional financing to SMEs.

SellersFi launches a financing solution with Amazon to provide Amazon sellers with access to credit lines of up to $10 million through Amazon Lending.

CarGurus partners with Chase to expand consumer financing options.

Investing

Alinea Invest brings in $3.4 million to leverage AI for virtual assistant.

Payments

TrueLayer teams up with Worldline to offer instant payouts, deposits, and signups via Worldline Payment Orchestration.

Adyen partners with SME financial operations platform BILL.

B2B blockchain-enabled payment platform Paystand integrates with cloud-based ERP business management system Acumatica.

Brite Payments partners with Swedish EV charging platform Northe EV.

Kantox launches Kantox In-House FX to centralize FX management for global businesses.

PayPal and Venmo launch suite of new product updates.

PXP Financial becomes a Google Pay payment service provider.

Kueski Pay is now available on Amazon Mexico.

REPAY integrates with Lexop to provide seamless payments for credit unions.

BentoBox introduces its new Marketing & Commerce platform for restaurants.

First Bank selects CorServ’s Comprehensive Credit Card program.

TIFIN Give acquires Giving Place to expand its philanthropy platform for wealth enterprises.

CardFlight’s SwipeSimple now allows merchants to create and send invoices from their mobile devices.

Shopify makes 100+ updates.

Loyalty/ Rewards

Bilt Rewards receives $200 million equity investment led by General Catalyst.

Fraud & Security

Financial crime and risk management solution provider Abrigo launches its new AI-powered Fraud Detection platform.

Silverfort raises $116 million for its identity security platform.

Emirates NBD partners with Silent Eight to automate alert disposition and enhance compliance efficiency.

Digital Banking

Lloyds to end mobile banking van service.

KlariVis unveils new product and features within its enterprise banking analytics platform.

i2c partners with The Bank of Missouri to empower fintechs to rapidly launch digital banking products.

BNY Mellon launches virtual account-based solutions.

Challenger Banking

KOHO advances into phase two of Canadian banking license.

DeFi

PayPal Ventures invests in digital asset startup Mesh.

Compliance

Fintech Galaxy launches Open Banking compliance services in the UAE.

Card Issuance/Management

First Bank teams up with CorServ to implement its new credit card program.

Taxation/Accounting Solutions

Intelligent automation platform Xceptor partners with KPMG UK to offer advanced tax solutions for financial services companies.

Identity Verification

Digital identity verification specialist IDVerse teams up with GeoComply.

Photo by Markus Winkler

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A Look into PayPal’s 6 New Releases

A Look into PayPal’s 6 New Releases
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, PayPal
  • PayPal CEO Alex Chriss released a video yesterday unveiling the company’s six new planned launches for the year.
  • PayPal’s new launches include a faster checkout experience, Fastlane, Smart Receipts, advanced offers, CashPass, and updated Venmo business profiles.
  • PayPal will release all of these in the U.S. this year and plans to roll them out across the globe in the future.

Yesterday, PayPal released an Apple-like launch video in which the company’s new CEO Alex Chriss unveiled six of the company’s newest initiatives. In the 17-minute video, which has already received 2.1 million views on YouTube, the payments company unveils the six new innovations it plans to bring to market this year.

Here’s a look at what PayPal expects to release this year:

Faster checkout

To help reduce cart abandonment at checkout, PayPal said it will accelerate the checkout process to get customers to choose PayPal and leverage passkeys to enable customers to log in with their face or fingerprint with one tap. The company says that the implementation of biometrics will not only reduce latency by as much as 50%, but it will also enable customers to check out twice as fast.

Fastlane

Fastlane by PayPal is the company’s new, one-click guest checkout tool that PayPal merchant clients can implement into their online checkout flow. When customers are ready to checkout, they are offered the option to save their information with Fastlane to check out in a single tap. With Fastlane, shoppers do not need to remember their username or password, nor do they have to update personal information or share their credit card credentials with each merchant.

PayPal partner BigCommerce has been piloting Fastlane with its merchant customers, and has reported that Fastlane can recognize 70% of guest checkout users.

Smart Receipts

Smart Receipts will leverage AI to help merchants show consumers personalized product suggestions along with a cashback reward offer on the receipt. When a consumer opens their email receipt– which 45% of PayPal customers do– they will see a new product recommendation at the bottom. The offers help merchants open the door to repeat purchases from customers they have already worked hard to acquire.

Advanced offers

Advanced offers shows consumers more relevant ads by showing them products based on the SKU data of their actual purchases, not just their browsing history. The advanced offers capability will also allow merchants to customize the offers. And PayPal will only change merchants based on performance, not just impressions or clicks.

On the consumer side, PayPal’s use of purchasing data means that they will see more relevant offers based on product details such as type and color. The company has also implemented privacy controls that allow users to opt out of data sharing.

CashPass

Launching this March, CashPass will offer consumers personalized cash back offers from top brands. To redeem an offer, users tap on the offer, shop at the business, and check out using PayPal. Shoppers can stack the savings with other rewards, such as the PayPal Cashback Mastercard.

PayPal’s CashPass launch partners include Best Buy, eBay, McDonald’s, Priceline, Ticketmaster, Uber, and Walmart.

Updated Venmo business profiles

Venmo first introduced business profiles in 2021 in an attempt to capture more revenue from small businesses using their personal Venmo account to accept payment. This year, Venmo will enhance business by allowing them to add subscribe buttons, offer promotions to consumers, and show profile rankings.

All of these updates will begin rolling out in the U.S. this year, though PayPal only offered more specific timing on CashPass, which it said will launch this March. The company also made note that it plans to launch all of these features in more geographies at some point.

Founded in 1998, PayPal handles nearly 25 billion transactions a year for nearly 400 million consumer accounts and 35 million merchants in more than 200 markets around the world. Despite the number of announcements, the market is reacting poorly to PayPal’s release this week. At the time of publishing, the company’s stock is down 0.12%.

Photo courtesy PayPal

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