Daily news

Stockpile Taps Green Dot to Offer Debit Cards for Kids

Stockpile Taps Green Dot to Offer Debit Cards for Kids
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Green Dot, Stockpile
  • Stockpile is adding a kids debit card as part of its retail investing product suite for minors.
  • The debit card will be powered by Green Dot’s banking-as-a-service tool.
  • The card will have built-in parental controls and oversight.

Youth-focused brokerage company Stockpile is adding a new product to its lineup this week. The company will begin offering minors a debit card as part of its retail investing product suite.

The payment card, which will be powered by Green Dot’s banking-as-a-service, will have parental spending controls. Parents can set up debit cards for their kids, set and control the access they’d like their kids to have, and maintain oversight over their spending.

“Green Dot’s depth of experience embedding seamless, innovative and value-driven financial tools into their partner ecosystems, along with their passion for providing accessible financial services to consumers and businesses, make them a great fit for Stockpile’s long-term vision and growth trajectory,” said Stockpile CEO Victor Wang. “Partnering with Green Dot adds a new dimension to Stockpile’s hands-on financial learning and access, and will deliver a seamless and responsible debit card experience as an educational stepping stone to investing.”

Stockpile plans to add more tools and functionality to its product suite in the future. Based on competing payment tools for minors, such as Greenlight and GoHenry by Acorns, Stockpile may add budgeting tools, giving options, and a savings account.

Founded in 1999, Green Dot offers direct-to-consumer digital banking tools as well as a B2B banking-as-a-service offering. According to the release, Stockpile is among the first of Green Dot’s partners to build and operate from its cloud-native banking-as-a-service platform.

“We’re proud to partner with Stockpile to embed powerful financial tools and experiences that fuel engagement and value for their customers,” said Green Dot Head of Enterprise Business Development, Embedded Finance Simran Singh. “We’re passionate about giving people and businesses access to seamless, affordable banking and financial tools that build financial confidence and prosperity, as well as partnering with companies like Stockpile that share our values, purpose and vision.”

Notably, this announcement comes the same week that Acorns unveiled a new premium tier that includes access to GoHenry in the U.S. and two months after Greenlight launched a new solution to help teens build credit.

Photo by Blake Wisz on Unsplash

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Digital Banking Software Provider ieDigital Acquires U.S.-Based Connect FSS

Digital Banking Software Provider ieDigital Acquires U.S.-Based Connect FSS
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ieDigital, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • ieDigital, a digital banking software company based in the U.K., has acquired U.S.-based digital banking technology company Connect FSS.
  • Terms of the deal were not immediately available.
  • ieDigital made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2018.

U.K.-based digital banking software company ieDigital announced a major acquisition this week. The firm will acquire its U.S.-based counterpart, digital banking technology company, Connect FSS. Terms of the transaction were not immediately available, but the deal will make ieDigital one of the biggest digital banking software providers in the world.

The acquisition comes at the end of ieDigital’s multi-month search for a business partner that would help the company meet its growth goals, especially with regard to increasing ieDigital’s international reach. The company noted in a statement that the acquisition will bring greater scale and more resources to bear on the challenges facing business customers. The acquisition will also help accelerate innovation as teams from both companies begin to collaborate and work together to design and market new, enhanced digital solutions.

“Joining forces with Connect FSS will enable us to support a broader range of customers in different geographies that we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to reach, and strengthen our technology with insight from our new colleagues in the U.S.,” ieDigital CEO Jerry Young said. Connect FSS President and CEO Grant Parry added that the partnership with a “natural next step” in Connect FSS’s evolution. “Our joint ambition is to provide excellent customer service and tailored solutions to clients,” Parry said.

For now, both ieDigital and Connect FSS will retain their brand identities in their respective markets. The firms will sit as part of a new ieDigital Group in which ieDigital’s Young will serve as CEO while Connect FSS’s Parry will serve as EVP of Strategy.

Founded in 1984, ieDigital made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2018. At the conference, the company demoed its Money Fitness solution which helps users better manage their day-to-day finances. In the years since, the company has grown into a major fintech in the U.K. financial services ecosystem. ieDigital has partnered with four of the five largest banks in the U.K., and has provided digital software solutions to more than 50 financial services businesses.

This spring, ieDigital announced that Suffolk Building Society has chosen the company as its partner for its eSavings platform. The offering will give Society members access to online savings products and will be powered by ieDigital’s Interact software. Interact is a suite of digital services that work in concert with a financial services provider’s existing technology.

Photo by Yelena Odintsova

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Vyzer Lands $6.3 Million in Seed Funding to Transform Wealth Management

Vyzer Lands $6.3 Million in Seed Funding to Transform Wealth Management
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Vyzer has received $6.3 million in Seed funding.
  • The company will use the funds to enhance its wealth management platform and expand its reach.
  • Investors include Moneta VC, iAngels, Guy Gamzu, Jonathan Kolber, and Rafi Gidro.

Wealth management platform Vyzer unveiled today it has received $6.3 million in Seed funding. The New York-based company will use the funds to enhance its platform and expand its reach.

Vyzer was founded in 2020 to offer Limited Partnership investors and family offices with complex portfolios– including alternative assets– a single, holistic view across all of their investments. The company helps users track, analyze, and optimize their investments, view and plan their cash flow, and more. Vyzer’s peer benchmarking tool leverages AI capabilities to offer clients insights into investment strategies, fund managers, and activities of similar investors.

“The funds will enable us to enhance our platform’s AI capabilities, develop new features, and broaden our market presence,” said Vyzer Co-Founder and CEO Litan Yahav. “Our ultimate goal is to simplify and streamline complex wealth processes for our customers, equipping each member with greater insights and control. This, in turn, empowers them to maximize their investment potential and foster wealth growth.”

Today’s funding round marks the company’s first investment and includes contributions from Moneta VC, iAngels, Guy Gamzu, Jonathan Kolber, and Rafi Gidro.

Vyzer’s launch comes amid what is expected to be the largest transfer of wealth in history. Analysts expect that, in coming years, baby boomers will shift $68 trillion to their heirs. This tech-savvy group is increasingly investing in alternative assets, some of which can be difficult to digitize. Vyzer’s technology seeks to fill in that visibility gap. As iAngels Founding Partner Shelly Hod Moyal explained, “Vyzer’s solution provides investors with broad and transparent visibility into their portfolios. It allows them to capitalize on the ever-growing investment landscape by making informed and timely decisions, and it enables them to effectively scale their portfolios at an affordable cost.”

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

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Payments-as-a-Service Platform Rainforest Raises $11.75 Million in Seed Funding

Payments-as-a-Service Platform Rainforest Raises $11.75 Million in Seed Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Payments-as-a-service platform Rainforest has raised $11.75 million in seed funding.
  • The round was led by Accel, and included a $3.25 million venture debt facility courtesy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
  • Rainforest helps software companies embed financial products into their solutions.

In a round led by Accel, payments-as-a-service platform Rainforest has secured $11.75 million in seed funding. The round also featured participation from Infinity Ventures, BoxGroup, The Fintech Fund, Tech Square Ventures, and Ardent Venture Partners, as well as strategic angel investors. The funding included $3.25 million in a venture debt facility courtesy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), making the total equity raised in the round $8.5 million.

Rainforest founder and CEO Joshua Silver referenced his own experience as founder of a healthcare software company and as a payments consultant in explaining the “why” behind Rainforest. “I personally experienced the challenges and tradeoffs associated with embedded payments,” Silver said. “I recruited former colleagues and other all-star payments and SaaS veterans, and together we built Rainforest – the embedded payments platform we always wanted but didn’t exist.”

Rainforest offers an embedded payments solution that helps software platforms monetize their money flows. By building a platform specifically for software platforms, Rainforest believes that it has an edge over most payment providers that build solutions primarily for merchants. The company is able to help software platforms deal with both the risk management and compliance issues that accompany payments, while enabling them to take advantage of the growing opportunity to embed and monetize payments.

“Not every software company wants to become a full-fledged fintech,” Silver said, “but nearly all want to embed financial services.”

Rainforest’s embedded components enable companies to build payment rails to facilitate payments from providers such as Visa and Mastercard, as well as same-day ACH and Plaid verification. Rainforest supports next-day payouts, and the company anticipates adding same-day options like RTP and push-to-card soon. The company notes that its open ecosystem encourages integration with alternative payment networks, vertical-specific ledgers, and other financial service providers. “It’s a game changer,” Rainforest VP of Engineering Chris Church said, “and I’m thrilled to see platforms’ response to it.” The company notes that it secured client commitments representing more than $500 million in processing shortly after launch. In addition to financial services, Rainforest acknowledges interest in its technology from companies in verticals ranging from healthcare and professional services to logistics and construction.

Founded in 2022, Rainforest is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company includes RoadSync, PayGround, and QuoteMachine among its clients.

Photo by zhang kaiyv

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BHG Financial Turns to Cable for Financial Crime Effectiveness Testing

BHG Financial Turns to Cable for Financial Crime Effectiveness Testing
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Cable, Daily news, Funding
  • BHG Financial announced a partnership with financial crime effectiveness testing company Cable.
  • BHG Financial will leverage Cable’s technology to enhance its own compliance programs.
  • Founded in 2020, Cable made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2022.

Unsecured business and personal loan specialist BHG Financial announced a partnership with Cable this week. The company will use Cable’s financial crime effectiveness platform to improve its own compliance efforts.

Headquartered in the San Francisco, California, Cable gives banks, financial services firms, fintechs, and other organizations the tools they need to enhance their compliance programs. These tools include automated risk assessments, automated assurance, quality assurance, management information, and reporting. BHG Financial’s Director of Financial Crime & BSA Officer Bryan Holloway, stated that the partnership underscored the company’s commitment to regulatory compliance by providing “advanced tooling” for “greater efficiency, visibility, and insights across our business.”

BHG Financial has established one of the largest community bank loan and product networks in the U.S. The company has originated more than $16 billion in loan solutions since its founding in 2001.

“We’re delighted to partner with BHG Financial to bolster their automated financial crime assurance and testing capabilities,” Cable CEO Natasha Vernier said. “With increasing regulatory scrutiny on banking and fintech compliance, it’s a privilege to partner with innovative companies like BHG Financial (that are) taking compliance very seriously and embracing the best tooling available to protect their business.”

Cable made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Automated Assurance solution. This technology enables banks and fintechs to automate their compliance assurance and effectiveness testing. Automated Assurance also allows organizations to discover breaches and control failures in the moment. Additionally, Cable’s technology streamlines a number of manual processes including quality control, stakeholder reporting, and record management.

Founded in 2020, the company raised $11 million in Series A funding in May of this year. Stage 2 Capital and Jump Capital participated, along with existing investor CRV. More recently, Cable announced a partnership with Grasshopper Bank, joined the Banking-as-a-Service Association, and introduced new Chief Revenue Officer Candace Sjogren. Sjogren comes to Cable after serving most recently as SVP, Global Head of Sales at crypto-as-a-service provider Zero Hash.

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Pidgin Brings Instant Payments to Exchange Bank

Pidgin Brings Instant Payments to Exchange Bank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Pidgin

Want to feel good about the spread of real-time payments? Alabama-based Exchange Bank, a financial institution that has been serving customers since 1909, has turned to Pidgin to bring instant payments to its account holders.

The partnership between Pidgin and Exchange Bank will give the bank’s customers the ability to access faster payments to transfer funds between accounts, as well as pay employees, vendors, and more. Direct payment routing from financial institution to financial institution means that funds are settled and available in the recipient’s account almost immediately as soon as the transaction is completed.

“Banking has changed drastically since 1909, but our long-standing history is a testament to our bank’s dedication to keeping up with our customer’s needs,” Exchange Bank chairman and CEO Ricky Ray said. Ray referred to the partnership with Pidgin as an example of the bank’s ability to evolve and offer new ways to help its customers “thrive financially.”

Added Pidgin founder and CEO Abhishek Veeraghanta: “Today’s customers are looking for instant payment options to gain more flexibility and control over their transactions. We look forward to empowering Exchange Bank and their customers with more efficient payment options.”

Pidgin leverages its status as a central connection point to the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service as well as faster payment networks such as The Clearing House’s Real-Time Payment Network. Founded in 2022, the company made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall. At the conference, Pidgin demoed its faster payments ecosystem, which enables FIs to send and receive faster payments almost instantly, while providing greater security compared to virtual wallet alternatives.

Pidgin founder and CEO Abhishek Veeraghanta demoing the company’s faster payments technology at FinovateFall 2022.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Pidgin was among the first fintechs to secure certification for the FedNow instant payments service launched by the Federal Reserve earlier this year. Also this year, Pidgin announced a new partnership with U.S. Century Bank, a Miami-based institution with more than $2.1 billion in assets. The bank will leverage its new relationship with Pidgin to provide instant payments to its growing customer base of small business owners, professionals, and entrepreneurs based in south Florida.

Other partnerships forged this year by Pidgin include the company’s work with fraud and compliance platform Effectiv (also a Finovate alum) and Community Bankers’ Bank.

Photo by Richard Solano

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paymints.io Partners with Cross River for Real Time Payments in Real Estate

paymints.io Partners with Cross River for Real Time Payments in Real Estate
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • paymints.io has partnered with Cross River Bank, which will facilitate a connection to The Clearing House’s RTP network.
  • Through the partnership, title insurance companies and real estate brokerages can send and receive digital payments in and out of escrow accounts in real time using paymints.io’s platform.
  • The RTP network will be available in addition to the payment rails that paymints.io already offers, including ACH and wire.

When it comes to real estate transactions, buyers and sellers have come to expect a slow process. But while appraisals and due diligence take time, the transfer of funds doesn’t have to. That’s why paymints.io has teamed up with Cross River Bank to help title insurance companies and real estate brokerages send and receive digital payments in and out of escrow accounts in real time.

paymints.io will leverage Cross River’s operating system, which will create a streamlined connection between Cross River and The Clearing House’s (TCH’s) RTP network, offering both businesses and consumers real-time access to funds for transactions under $1 million. By bringing in Cross River, paymints.io will not need to rely on a third-party provider for real-time money movement.

paymints.io was founded in 2020 to offer real estate companies a compliant and modern payments tool that sends funds via ACH and wire. The addition of the RTP network as a payment rail will facilitate the the receipt of money deposits, client and vendor disbursements to third parties, and account-to-account transfers between companies.

In addition to providing real estate professionals, buyers, and sellers with immediate access to funds, the company also expects the new partnership will cut down on the inefficiencies of paper checks, reduce settlement times, and mitigate wire fraud.

As paymnts.io CEO and Co-founder Jason Doshi explained, “… we view adding the RTP instant payment capability as more than the addition of a payment rail but a true evolution of our product offering. Allowing real estate industry participants to move funds instantly and securely while providing real-time visibility drastically improves the real estate transaction experience.”

Cross River and paymints.io have worked together before. The two partnered earlier this year to modernize real estate transactions with ACH and domestic wire capabilities.

“One of the most impactful benefits of our proprietary banking core is the ability to scale with our partners, allowing innovative industry leaders like paymints.io to grow and expand product offerings,” said Cross River Head of Payments Keith Vander Leest. “paymints.io is transforming financial transactions within the real estate industry and we’re proud to power their real-time payment capabilities.”

The use of TCH’s RTP has grown immensely since its launch in 2020. In the third quarter of this year, TCH reported that it facilitated 64 million transactions valued at $34 billion. With the addition of FedNow, which just surpassed 100 participating organizations, as another real-time payments option, consumer expectations will change and we will start seeing real-time payments become the rule, rather than the exception in the U.S.

Photo by RDNE Stock project

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Coinbase Earns License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore

Coinbase Earns License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Coinbase, Daily news
  • Coinbase has obtained a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore that allows the company to offer digital payment token services to its retail and commercial users in Singapore. 
  • The official license comes a year after the Monetary Authority of Singapore granted Coinbase initial approval last October.
  • Coinbase has recently invested heavily in Singapore by launching new region-specific products, boosting relationships with regional groups, and hiring and training at its Singapore tech hub.

Digital currency platform Coinbase announced this week that Coinbase Singapore has obtained a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

With its MPI license in Singapore, Coinbase can now offer digital payment token services to its retail and commercial users in the country. Today’s announcement comes a year after the MAS granted Coinbase initial approval for the license last October.

As crypto tolerance and acceptance has developed across the globe in recent years, Singapore has proven an important region for expansion for Coinbase. As the company’s blog states, “… we’ve identified Singapore as a vital market for Coinbase. The nation’s progressive economic strategies and approach to regulation sync well with our global mission and objectives.”

Along with its new MPI license in the region, Coinbase has recently released products tailored specifically for Singapore, to include the addition of new funding options for users. Earlier this year, the company launched the ability for retail customers to fund their accounts using PayNow and FAST bank transfers. Coinbase also introduced no-fee USDC purchases with the Singapore dollar (SGD).

Coinbase has made other investments in Singapore, as well. The company has increased training and hiring at its Singapore tech hub and sparked relationships with industry associations including ACCESS, the Singapore Fintech Association, and the Blockchain Association of Singapore. Additionally, Coinbase’s venture arm has made 15 investments in the region.

“The newly acquired license is not only a validation of Coinbase’s operations but also represents a promise and responsibility to the growing crypto and Web3 community in Singapore,” Coinbase said in its blog post, adding, “As we look ahead, we are enthusiastic about further contributing to and growing alongside the crypto and Web3 community in Singapore.”

This positive news comes after a spate of negative press for Coinbase in recent months. In June, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the U.S.-based company for operating as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency; and for failing to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program. That accusation came after company CEO Brian Armstrong petitioned the SEC for clear rules and regulations surrounding crypto.

Founded in 2012, Coinbase currently sees $92 billion in quarterly volume traded and has $128 billion in assets on its platform. The company went public in 2021 and now trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker COIN with a current market capitalization of $18 billion.

Photo by Pixabay

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WorkFusion Launches AI Digital Worker Isaac to Enhance Transaction Monitoring for Banks

WorkFusion Launches AI Digital Worker Isaac to Enhance Transaction Monitoring for Banks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, WorkFusion
  • AI digital workforce solution provider for banks and FIs, WorkFusion unveiled its latest digital worker, an AI transaction monitoring investigator called Isaac.
  • Isaac manages transaction monitoring alerts. The technology routes alerts to human investigators or closes them if they are determined to be non-suspicious.
  • WorkFusion demoed its technology at FinovateFall in 2014.

WorkFusion, an AI digital workforce solution provider for FIs, has launched its latest digital worker, an AI Transaction Monitoring Investigator called Isaac. The new offering leverages machine learning to enhance transaction monitoring alert management. By orchestrating alerts – working first-level alerts, auto-escalating alerts that might require investigation, and auto-closing non-suspicious alerts, Isaac enables anti-fraud analysts to focus on the more complex, higher risk fraud incidents.

“Our new AI Digital Worker, Isaac, reduces the alert review burden by helping to identify which alerts need to be escalated for further review and auto-closes those that it deems as non-suspicious,” WorkFusion VP of Financial Crime Art Mueller said. “Because Isaac creates an easy-to-read dossier with a supporting narrative and documentation, analysts move from authors of reports to editors – saving their time to work on higher-risk and higher value investigations.”

Isaac helps FIs manage transaction monitoring alerts. The technology automates transaction monitoring alert reviews and appropriately routes them to a human investigator, when necessary. If Isaac determines the alerts are not suspicious, it automatically closes them. Additionally, Isaac creates a dossier for each decision with a human-readable justification and supporting documentation. The technology is particularly helpful with transaction monitoring instances that produce a large number of alerts. These scenarios can include structuring, excessive fund transfers, unexpected account activity, as well as other high-risk factors. Note that Isaac is not a transaction monitoring tool itself, and does not initiate alerts on its own.

Headquartered in 2010 and founded in New York, WorkFusion demoed its Active-Learning Automation solution at FinovateFall 2014. Today, the company offers an AI-powered digital workforce that supports teams in operations such as anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, customer onboarding, Know Your Customer (KYC), and customer service. WorkFusion’s solutions are not bots. Instead, the company’s digital workers leverage a combination of process knowledge and technologies – including AI, machine learning, intelligent document processing, and robotic process automation (RPA) – in order to complete jobs rather than merely rule-based tasks.

This summer the Bank of Asia announced that it would deploy WorkFusion’s AI Digital Worker, Evelyn, as part of its enhanced client onboarding experience. Evelyn provides negative news screening, a component of the KYC process that is especially helpful in combating money laundering, as WorkFusion CEO Adam Famularo explained.

“Adverse media monitoring is one of the most effective tools banks and financial institutions have to protect against money laundering,” Famularo said. “However, there are many news articles, most of which are irrelevant false positive, which consume a lot of time. By automating this laborious task, Bank of Asia will reduce its new client onboarding time and ensure a more positive customer experience.”

Photo by Alex Knight

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Micronotes Launches Prescreen Acquire

Micronotes Launches Prescreen Acquire
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Micronotes
  • Micronotes launched Prescreen Acquire, a tool to help community financial institutions reach and acquire new customers.
  • Prescreen Acquire’s algorithms leverage big data to find creditworthy customers in geographical areas lenders are seeking to reach.
  • Prescreen Acquire is added to Micronotes’ other products, including Cross-Sell, and Digital Prescreen.

Digital engagement solutions provider Micronotes has launched Prescreen Acquire, a platform to help community financial institutions (CFIs) acquire new customers and members.

The new technology provides FCRA-compliant credit offers that are personalized to customers’ financial needs. To come up with the most relevant offers, Prescreen Acquire leverages 230 million consumer credit records, pulling credit, email, and direct mail data and delivery data.

The platform combines this big data set with the CFI’s underwriting criteria, rate sheets, and the geographical region they want to target. Prescreen Acquire’s algorithms are able to use this information to acquire new, creditworthy customers that CFIs are looking to reach.

Boston-based Micronotes was founded in 2008 and is privately held. The company’s technologies leverage AI, big data, and machine learning to help financial institutions use their data to better engage their customers, foster involvement, and ultimately build new revenue.

Micronotes’ other products include Cross-Sell, which helps CFIs leverage bank-held data to cross-sell new products using micro-interviews, and Digital Prescreen, which delivers personalized credit offers to customers who hold debt at a competing institution.

Founded in 2008, the company has raised a total of $23.3 million, including a $2 million Series C extension it closed last month. Devon Kinkead is Founder and CEO.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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Lloyds Bank Taps Visa for Virtual Card Solution

Lloyds Bank Taps Visa for Virtual Card Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, VISA
  • Lloyds Bank has partnered with Visa to leverage the payment firm’s Visa Commercial Pay virtual card program.
  • Visa Commercial Pay is available to Lloyds Bank’s business customers.
  • The new tool aims to help businesses control spending, reconcile invoices, and report on expenditures.

In a world where digital banking reigns supreme, digital payment tools are king. That’s likely the motivation behind Lloyds Bank’s recent deal with Visa. The U.K.-based bank has tapped the U.S. payments giant to power its new virtual card solution.

Lloyds Bank’s is launching a new virtual card tool for businesses, Visa Commercial Pay, and is the first bank to launch Visa Commercial Pay in the U.K. The new tool aims to help small businesses to enterprises solve their purchasing and administrative challenges. For example, the solution can help them control spending, reconcile invoices, and report on expenditures.

“Visa Commercial Pay is a next generation payment platform that provides the technology to help businesses simplify and streamline the way they make payments, all in a secure and controlled way,” said Visa Managing Director, U.K. & Ireland Mandy Lamb. “We’re delighted to launch this in the U.K. in partnership with Lloyds Bank, delivering seamless payment experiences for U.K. businesses.”

Visa Commercial Pay works like most typical virtual cards in that it instantly issues virtual card numbers to businesses and their employees, allowing them to make card-not-present purchases right away. Employees can request a single or multi-use card number through their employer’s existing approval workflow and reference fields.

Employers have the option to issue cards individually or by batch and can manage spending via controls based on location, time, purchaser, and merchant.

“We’ve worked hard to create a solution that offers a secure, simplified process that enables businesses to pay their suppliers earlier while protecting their working capital,” said Lloyds Bank Head of Commercial Cards James Sykes.

Virtual card issuance has seen a spike amongst business users in the past few years. Not only has their utility increased with the rise of the digital economy, but the security of the cards has also proven a key benefit. That’s because many cards are issued for one-time or limited use, which reduces the risk for fraud and unauthorized transactions. Additionally, the control, visibility, and reporting capabilities the cards offer employers makes virtual cards a clear choice, especially among small businesses with limited resources.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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Global Corporate Treasury Services Provider Neo Tops $10.5 Billion In Accounts Cleared

Global Corporate Treasury Services Provider Neo Tops $10.5 Billion In Accounts Cleared
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, NEO
  • Neo, an international corporate treasury services provider, has cleared more than $10.5 billion (€10 billion) in its corporate multi-currency accounts since 2020.
  • Founded in 2017, the company has grown from a FX hedging platform to a one-stop-shop to help corporates better manage cross-border transactions.
  • Neo made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2019.

International treasury services provider Neo announced today that it has cleared more than $10.5 billion (€10 billion) via its corporate multi-currency accounts since their launch three years ago. This includes a doubling of its cleared volume in less than a year, as its accounts for corporate treasurers reached $5.3 billion (€5 billion) already in 2023.

Neo CEO and co-founder Laurent Descout said that reaching the milestone was a testament to the scalability of the company’s core banking system technology. He called Neo’s innovation “machine-tooled to satisfy the growing complexity faced by international treasury teams.”

The new milestone also affirms Neo’s commitment to helping corporate treasurers navigate a global B2B cross-border payments market that is expected to top $250 trillion by 2027. This is based on estimates from the Bank of England. But it is not the size of the market alone that makes international corporate treasury operations a challenge. Growth into new markets also means securing different accounts for each new country or currency. For many corporate banks, opening an international bank account is a cumbersome and time-consuming process. Add to this the fact that many firms are unable to secure the international accounts they seek and those that do often deal with significant operational inefficiencies, including a lack of support from cross-border payment specialists.

“Accessing multi-currency accounts has literally become impossible for too many corporates across many different industries,” Descout said.

To this end, Neo offers a platform that enables businesses to set up an international account with their own multi-currency International Bank Account Number (IBAN). This will allow them to manage cash flows with supply chains, hedge FX exposure, and access transaction data from a single location. Companies can also leverage virtual wallets to allow them to make and receive payments in more than 25 different currencies. In addition to transparent and competitive pricing, Neo also offers professional support from a team of international payments specialists.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, Neo made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2019. From its origins as an FX hedging platform, Neo today provides treasury management services to more than 400 corporates across 28 countries. The company delivers payments in 100+ countries, and reaches 8,000+ banks via its Bank Identification Code (BIC) on the Swift network.

Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric

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