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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Brightwell is launching a new cross-border payments solution called ReadyRemit.
Integrating ReadyRemit will enable Brightwell customers to help their end clients send money to 90% of the world’s population.
The new tool is leveraging partnerships with Mastercard and The Bancorp Bank.
Payments technology company Brightwellunveiled its new cross-border payments solution today. The new offering, ReadyRemit, is a cross-border-payments-as-a-service tool.
Powered via partnerships with Mastercard and The Bancorp Bank, ReadyRemit will enable Brightwell’s business and fintech clients to offer their end customers a cross-border payments solution with built-in compliance capabilities. The new tool aims to be faster than traditional money transfer tools, taking place in near-real time or on the same day the transfer was initiated.
“Our partnership with The Bancorp Bank, N.A., and Mastercard will enable customers to build a new revenue stream by offering low-to-no-code platform integrations containing everything needed to launch a global payments program in as little as 30 days,” said Brightwell Senior Vice President Hal Ramakers.
ReadyRemit will enable Brightwell’s clients to send payments to 90% of the world’s population and to more than 100 countries. Clients can make a range of payment types, including B2B, B2P, P2P, and P2B, and send the funds to 280,000 cash payout locations, including bank accounts, mobile wallets, and cash-out locations.
“Our Cross-Border Services enable fast, smart, and simple access to funds whenever and wherever you are,” said Mastercard Senior Vice President, Debit, North America Vickie Van Meir. “Our work with Brightwell supports a reliable, equitable payments experience, broadening financial access around the world.”
Brightwell offers a suite of payment products that includes a corporate expense program, global payroll service, an ATM program, fraud protection, and more. The company launched as a division of West Suburban Bank in Chicago, Illinois in 2009 under the name Prepaid Solutions. In 2011, the company split from West Suburban Bank, rebranded to Brightwell, and moved its headquarters location to Atlanta, Georgia.
Virtual card and spend management platform Extend announced a partnership with Bank of the West.
The collaboration will enable small and medium-sized businesses to take advantage of virtual card technology to enhance spend management.
Extend made its Finovate debut three years ago at FinovateSpring 2019, demoing its platform, app, and APIs.
Virtual card and spend management innovator Extend has teamed up with Bank of the West. The collaboration will enable Bank of the West’s small and medium-sized business clients to leverage Extend’s technology to create and control digital company cards and enhance spend management.
Bank of the West cardholders will be able to sign up for Extend in a process that does not require any technical integration. After enrolling their commercial cards, SME users can access Extend online or through a mobile device to create unique virtual cards; send virtual cards to workers, vendors, suppliers, and others directly from the application; attach purchase orders and receipts to transactions; and manage recurring expenses and subscriptions. Companies will be able to provide employees with a budget for issuing virtual cards, and virtual cards can be approved, modified, or canceled at any time.
“Bank of the West is committed to optimizing B2B payments, and our relationship with Extend offers our clients an efficient, easy-to-use solution for better spend management,” Bank of the West Managing Director Dominique Fracchia said. “Using Extend and their Bank of the West cards, businesses can create, distribute, and manage virtual cards to pay vendors, empower employees, track spending, and more.”
The offering is designed to bring the benefits of virtual cards and spend management to small and medium-sized businesses. Extend’s technology helps SMEs manage vendor payments, reconciliation, and other tedious and manual – but essential – payment tasks. In addition to saving time and boosting efficiency, Extend’s solution also helps businesses obtain real-time insights into – as well as real-time control over – company card spending.
“With Extend, Bank of the West is delivering new spend management capabilities that ensure its clients don’t wonder who paid what, when, why, or to whom,” Extend CEO and co-founder Andrew Jamison said. “This is what clients need from payments technology today – the power to run their businesses better, with the support of their preferred financial partners.”
New York-based Extend made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2019. The company demoed its virtual card distribution platform, its app – which instantly gives employees access to virtual cards – and its APIs that enable fintechs to take advantage of the technology. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $54 million in funding from investors including March Capital, Point72 Ventures, and FinTech Collective.
Bank of the West is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has more than 600 branches and commercial banking offices in the midwest and western United States. A subsidiary of French banking group BNP Paribas, Bank of the West has more than $94 billion in assets and 1.7 million customers. Nandita Bakhshi is President and CEO.
Thomson Reuters agreed to acquire tax automation software company SurePrep for $500 million in an all-cash deal.
“The acquisition will support our strategy to empower tax and accounting professionals with the very best technology to simplify workflows, drive insights, and improve efficiency,” said Thomson Reuters President of Tax and Accounting Professionals Elizabeth Beastrom.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.
Business information services firm Thomson Reuters recently announced it is acquiring tax automation software company SurePrep in a $500 million all-cash deal. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.
Thomson Reuters offers four tax and accounting solutions: Checkpoint, a suite of online research and information; ONESOURCE, tax compliance technology; CS Professional Suite, integrated tax and accounting software; and Onvio, cloud-based software to manage projects, billing, and more. Purchasing California-based SurePrep will enable Thomson Reuters to accelerate its investment in advancing the automation and customer experience of its tax tools.
The two companies first partnered in April of this year to offer solutions for tax and accounting professionals. Once the two companies are combined, Thomson Reuters will bring its client base of tax and accounting professionals a suite of complementary solutions.
“Thomson Reuters sees significant value and opportunities in SurePrep,” said Thomson Reuters President of Tax and Accounting Professionals Elizabeth Beastrom. “The acquisition will support our strategy to empower tax and accounting professionals with the very best technology to simplify workflows, drive insights, and improve efficiency.”
SurePrep was founded in 2002 and has since grown to draw more than 23,000 tax professionals to its client base. The company leverages AI to help accounting firms increase productivity by collecting, processing, and extracting data from client documents. SurePrep then enters that data into firms’ tax compliance software. The company is expected to generate approximately $60 million in revenue this year and grow more than 20% each year for the next few years.
Before jumping into the content of this post, I’d like to recognize and thank our military veterans and their families for their continued sacrifice.
The Association of Military Banks of America (AMBA) is launching a new debit card called the Patriot Card.
The card is launching in partnership with digital accounts and payment processing company MOCA Financial.
AMBA will donate a portion of the interchange generated by every swipe of the Patriot Card to military and Veteran support organizations and causes.
The Association of Military Banks of America (AMBA)unveiled a new debit card today called the Patriot Card. AMBA, a military bank trade association, is launching the new payment card through a partnership with digital accounts and payment processing company MOCA Financial.
The Patriot Card aims to offer Veterans a safe, flexible, and reliable card that they can use to receive, spend, and save their government benefits. Features of the new card include a virtual card option, fee-free person-to-person transfers, card-to-card transfers, and low fees.
AMBA will donate a portion of the interchange generated by every swipe of the Patriot Card to military and Veteran support organizations and causes.
“AMBA is thrilled to offer Veterans a new, safer, and more flexible option to receive payments and manage their finances,” said AMBA President and CEO Major General (Ret.) Steven J. Lepper. “We teamed with MOCA because they share our determination to help Veterans achieve financial success. The Patriot Card will provide Veterans who prefer not to use bank or credit union accounts to manage their money an alternative that is equally safe and secure.”
Transactions made using the Patriot Card will be routed across either VISA’s network or the Armed Forces Financial Network (AFFN). AFFN serves consumers of more than 375 military banks and defense credit unions and will enable users of the Patriot Card to access more than 800,000 ATMs and 2.3 million retail locations across the globe.
“We’re honored to be able to play such a monumental role in serving Veterans worldwide,” said MOCA President Shawn Sinner. “We hope that this advancement continues to make life easier for Veterans, Military, Military Spouses, and families.”
Apiture, a digital banking solutions provider, launched its Data Engage solution this week.
The new offering helps financial institutions access data-driven insights into how their customers are using Apiture’s digital banking platform.
Data Engage was made possible courtesy of a partnership between Apiture and Pendo. Both companies are based in North Carolina and made their Finovate debuts this year.
Digital banking solutions provider and new Finovate alum Apitureintroduced its Data Engage solution this week. The technology, made possible courtesy of a partnership with fellow Finovate newcomer Pendo, will give banks and other financial institutions access to data-driven insights into how their customers are using Apiture’s digital banking platform. Data Engage further gives these firms tools to provide in-channel guidance and personalized messages to boost customer engagement. Pop-up messages, marketing notices, tutorials, and more are examples of the kinds of communications that can be leveraged to educate users and encourage adoption of new features.
The new offering is the first of four modules available from Apiture’s Data Intelligence solution. This technology gives users a variety of data analytics and benchmarking tools to help attract, retain, and cross-sell digital banking customers.
“With Data Engage, our clients can easily evaluate their users’ activities and enhance the online experience using no-code, highly intuitive tools that promote the expanded use of digital banking capabilities,” Apiture CEO Chris Babcock said.
Taking the Finovate stage for the first time at FinovateSpring in May, Pendo offers analytics, in-app guidance, and feedback capabilities to enable developers to create software that delivers better, more productive experiences for users. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Pendo claims that its “software that makes your software better” produces 15% decrease in support tickets, 30% more qualified leads, and a 5% reduction in customer churn.
“This partnership enables Apiture’s clients to harness data-driven intelligence,” Pendo co-founder and CEO Todd Olson said. “It maximizes user engagement with their digital banking solution. And the best part? It delivers a better user experience.”
Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, Apiture made its Finovate debut in September at FinovateFall. At the conference, the company demoed its technology that can embed banking capabilities into the software of non-financial, third-party businesses. Apiture used the example of a travel agency that had embedded its technology to support basic banking tasks such as opening an account, viewing account balances, and transferring funds between accounts.
Apiture’s new product news comes in the wake of the company’s latest partnership announcement. In September, Apiture announced that Newtek Business Services Corporation had selected its digital banking platform to support the digital capabilities of Newtek Bank. Over the summer, Apiture reported that it had secured $29 million in funding in a round led by Live Oak Bank. The investment boosted the North Carolina-based fintech’s total funding to $69 million.
Founded in 2017 as a joint venture between First Data Corporation and Live Oak Bank, Apiture has more than 300 bank and credit union clients in the U.S. – and more than 300 employees of its own. With more than 40 core interfaces and over 200 fintech partners, Apiture’s digital banking platform has been praised by entities ranging from Javelin and IBS Intelligence to American Banker and Forbes.
J.P. Morgan Payments and Mastercard partnered to launch Pay-by-Bank, an ACH payment tool that leverages open banking.
Billers who offer consumers an option to a pay via ACH can integrate Pay-by-Bank into their existing payments page.
Pay-by-Bank is currently in a pilot phase with a small number of U.S. billers, but will be rolled out to more billers in 2023.
Today’s news proves you can indeed teach an old dog new tricks. ACH, a technology that is 50+ years old, is getting a makeover with open banking.
J.P. Morgan Payments and Mastercard have joined forces this week to launchPay-by-Bank, an ACH payment tool that leverages open banking and consumer-permissioned data to make it easy for users to pay bills directly from their bank accounts.
“We realized years ago that the way people think about money and commerce is changing,” said Mastercard North America Executive Vice President Chiro Aikat. “They want to pay and get paid how they choose, where they choose and when they choose. We’re excited by this new partnership with J.P. Morgan Chase, and our opportunity to empower people with enhanced payment experiences.”
Billers who offer customers an option to pay using ACH can integrate Pay-by-Bank into their existing payments page. Customers who opt to use the new technology will be prompted to find their bank, complete the bank’s account login process, and share their bank account information with JP Morgan Chase.
Pay-by-Bank makes for a better user experience. Consumers will no longer need to type in their routing and account number each time they go to pay a bill. As for the billers, they will not be faced with the liability of storing consumers’ account information.
“Billers and consumers both get greater payment choice,” said Aikat, “but the partnership also propels payments innovation on two fronts — in the ease of the user experience and in the security of data sharing.”
J.P. Morgan Payments Head of Payments and Commerce Solutions Max Neukirchen echoed this sentiment. “The technology behind Pay-by-Bank reduces the likelihood of unauthorized transactions and frees our clients from the need to retain — and the responsibility to securely maintain — consumer banking information,” Neukirchen said.
As an additional benefit to consumers, Pay-by-Bank leverages machine learning to estimate the optimal time to initiate the payment based on the consumer’s historical transaction behavior and risk patterns. This helps reduce the risk of non-sufficient funds for the consumer and helps ensure the merchant receives the payment on time.
Pay-by-Bank is still in a pilot phase with a small number of U.S. billers and merchants, but J.P. Morgan Payments and Mastercard anticipate they will expand the program next year.
Tonik is adding two new loan products to its suite of banking tools.
The new offerings include Flex Loan, an unsecured personal loan, and Big Loan, a home equity line of credit.
Tonik received the first digital bank license issued by the Philippines’ central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Tonik is one of the first neobanks in the Philippines. Today, the Singapore-based fintech announced it is adding two new lending products to its existing suite of digital banking tools.
The new offerings are called Flex Loan and Big Loan. Flex Loan is an unsecured personal loan that doesn’t require collateral and offers borrowers up to $4,300 (Php 250,000) at a rate of 2.49% monthly interest for a term of up to 24 months. Big Loan is a home equity line of credit of up to $43,000 (Php 2,500,000) that enables users to borrow against the equity on their home when they offer their property to the bank as collateral.
“Powered by our purely digital platform and the most competitive market rates, Flex Loan and Big Loan offer accessible, safe, and badly needed credit for the huge underserved market in the Philippines,” said Tonik Founder and CEO Greg Krasnov. “With these new loans, we are excited to speed up efforts in accelerating credit inclusion in the country.”
Big Loan may be Tonik’s most notable new product. That’s because home equity lines of credit are relatively new to the Philippines. Tonik’s Big Loan offering marks one of the first fully digitalized collateral product available in the Philippines. Once the borrower applies for the loan and submits the necessary paperwork, Tonik makes the funds available within seven business days.
Tonik’s other banking tools include Stash, a savings account; Group Stash, a group savings account; Time Deposit, a high-interest savings account; Quick Loan, its flagship personal loan; and physical and virtual debit cards.
Tonik received the first digital bank license issued by the Philippines’ central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Founded in 2018, and with offices in Singapore, Manila, and Chennai, Tonik has raised $175 million from top international investors, including Sequoia India, Point72 Ventures, and Mizuho Bank.
Finastra has announced a strategic alliance with Ohio point-of-sale (PoS) financing and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) company Jifiti.
The alliance will bring new PoS financing capabilities to financial institutions in Finastra’s Banking-as-a-Service ecosystem.
Finastra was formed via a merger between Finovate alum Misys and D+H in 2017.
Just last week we highlighted the state of Ohio as a place where innovation in fintech and insurtech was thriving. Today, we learn that financial software company and Finovate alum Finastra has inked a strategic alliance with one of Ohio’s fintech innovators: Columbus-based point of sale financing company and Buy Now, Pay Later platform Jifiti.
The collaboration will bring embedded financing capabilities to financial institutions in Finastra’s Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) ecosystem. These capabilities will enable banks to empower merchants with point-of-sale financing options such as Buy Now, Pay Later and split payments. Whether transacting online, in-store, or by call center, consumers will be able to access this expanded range of financing options. Jifiti’s platform will be pre-integrated with Finastra’s systems, making deployment easy for financial institutions currently using Finastra to power their core banking operations.
Finastra Senior Director for Solution Management, BaaS & Orchestration Jeanette Kescenovitz put the partnership in the context of the recent launch of Finastra’s BaaS embedded consumer lending offering. “We look forward to leveraging Jifiti’s best-in-class retail point-of-sale solution to give financial institutions a simple way to provide a seamless, embedded finance offering with a fully digital-first experience,” Kescenovitz said.
Jifiti offers a modular, white-label platform that supports a wide range of point-of-sale financing options. These options include installment loans, lines of credit, split payments, BNPL, and B2B financing. Founded in 2011, the company introduced its B2B Buy Now, Pay Later solution for banks, lenders, and merchants last month. The addition of the offering for business customers significantly enhanced the capabilities of Jifiti’s platform, enabling the technology to cover virtually all types of Buy Now, Pay Later options.
“The B2B market was the next logical step in our journey at Jifiti,” company CEO and co-founder Yaacov Martin said when the launch was announced. “We aim to give every customer the financing that best suits their needs. Now we can help our bank and merchant partners extend that same level of customization to their business customers through specialized B2B-embedded finance.”
Checkout.com and Shieldpay announced a partnership this week.
The collaboration will bring Checkout.com’s merchant clients more transaction processing options, including digital escrow.
This official partnership announcement comes a year after Checkout.com and Shieldpay first started collaborating.
Global payments platform Checkout.com and digital payments solutions provider Shieldpay have aligned this week. The two have joined forces to offer B2B merchants more transaction processing options.
In addition to straight-through processing, or processing transactions without manual intervention, merchants using Checkout.com will have access to Shieldpay’s payment engine and digital escrow capabilities. Shieldpay’s technology helps businesses add trust, transparency, and extra security when conducting transactions online. In an era when digital payments fraud is at an all-time high, it is essential for both the buyer and the seller to instill trust in the payments process, especially when dealing with high-value transactions.
“Together with Shieldpay, we’re bringing our merchants even more value and flexibility for their B2B transactions,” said Miyesa Hussain, Strategic Partnerships at Checkout.com. “Shieldpay’s digital escrow technology is truly innovative and further enhances the payout process for our customers. We’re excited to see where this partnership takes us.”
Shieldpay’s digital escrow tool was created to protect buyers and sellers across multiple deal types– including M&A, supply chain payments, capital raising, domain name transfers, real estate transactions, and more. The company offers KYC and KYB checks on all parties, full transparency, and flexible and efficient contracts. Leveraging this tool, Checkout.com customers can hold funds in safeguarded accounts until both the buyer and the seller are satisfied that the conditions of the transaction have been met. Once they approve the transaction, the money is then transferred to the verified merchant or the marketplace customer. Shieldpay can also help marketplaces disburse funds to submerchants.
This official partnership announcement comes a year after Checkout.com and Shieldpay first started collaborating. Shieldpay has already helped a handful of Checkout.com’s merchant clients manage complex payments. As an example, the two provide the payment flow for in-person digital payment acceptance company KodyPay*. In the arrangement, Checkout.com acts as the acquirer and provides a payment gateway facility to accept payments, while Shieldpay provides seller verification and disbursement.
“We are both on a similar mission as payments innovators and the services that our platforms offer to the market work in perfect harmony, said Shieldpay Head of Partnerships Daniel Dunne. “With these key drivers aligned, we are looking forward to the future of this partnership and growing together, and we are now envisioning new opportunities to further collaborate.”
*In other news, KodyPay announced a $5 million Pre-Series A financing round.
Real-time payments software company ACI Worldwide has appointed Thomas Warsop as its Interim Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Warsop was formerly the non-executive Chair of the ACI Worldwide Board of Directors. He replaces Odilon Almeida, who was the company’s CEO from March 2020 until now. Almeda was named CEO after Philip Heasley – who had served as CEO and President for 15 years – retired. Independent board director Adalio Sanchez will assume the role of non-executive Board chair.
“As ACI advances its vision to lead the real-time payments revolution, the Board is determined that now is the right time to transition to a new leader focused on accelerating our technology transformation and delivering operational excellence across our business,” ACI Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Chair Mary Harman said.
A member of the company’s board of directors since the summer of 2015, Warsop became non-executive chairman seven years later in June of 2022. In addition to his tenure on the ACI board, Warsop brings his experience as Group President at Fiserv to his new position. Warsop has led a number of private equity firms previous to joining the ACI board including One Call Care Management, York Risk Services Group, and The Warranty Group. He also held executive roles at Electronic Data Systems, ranging from President of the firm’s Business Process Outsourcing unit in the Asia Pacific to Vice President of Global Financial Services.
“ACI is uniquely positioned to support banks, merchants, and billers around the world,” Warsop said in a statement. “We have market-leading software platforms in use at many of the world’s leading financial institutions and are poised not just to benefit from, but to drive, the rapidly approaching real-time payments revolution.”
ACI Worldwide’s C-suite news comes less than a week after the company announced third quarter results. The report included a 35% year over year increase in new ARR bookings, as well as “notable booking success across all segments, providing visibility into future revenue growth,” then-CEO and president Almeida said. At the same time, the company the impact of inflationary pressures on both interchange revenue and foreign exchanges rates. Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 was down year over year, but the company did iterate its full-year guidance.
Challenges notwithstanding, ACI Worldwide has continued to forge partnerships with institutions around the world, helping them enhance their payment operations. The company teamed up with Sweden’s Westpay in September, who will deploy ACI Secure eCommerce to bring new capabilities to its in-store payment solutions. Also that month, ACI Worldwide announced a partnership with loan management software provider GOLDPoint Systems. ACI will help the Provo, Utah-based company to digitize its billpay operations via its ACI Speedpay solution, which is used by thousands of billers in the U.S.
Founded in 1975 in Omaha, Nebraska, ACI Worldwide is currently headquartered in Miami, Florida. The company is a leading force driving innovation in real-time electronic payments for banks, processors, billers, networks, and more. ACI Worldwide serves 19 of the top 20 banks worldwide, enables more than 80,000 merchants, and provides electronic billpay technology for thousands of organizations. Processing more than 225 billion consumer transactions a year, the company serves more than 6,000 customers in 95 countries around the world.
A publicly traded fintech on the NASDAQ under the ticker “ACIW,” ACI Worldwide has a market capitalization of $2.4 billion. The company has been a Finovate alum since 2011, demoing its business banking solution in partnership with mShift at FinovateFall. ACI Worldwide returned to the Finovate stage five years later to lead a presentation on its latest innovations in ecommerce payment technology at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2016.
SEON is giving away its fraud prevention tools for free.
The free tier will include up to 2,000 API calls each month at a rate of two queries per second.
“We’re determined to tackle fraud head on,” said SEON CEO and Co-founder Tamas Kadar. “This version will help us to serve a greater number of online businesses than ever before, and it is a major step towards building a truly fraud free world.”
Online fraud prevention platform SEON‘s mission is to democratize the fight against online fraud for businesses of all sizes. Today, the Hungary-based company is furthering its efforts toward this goal by giving away fraud prevention tools for free.
The Forever Free version of its online fraud prevention software will support up to 2,000 API calls each month at a rate of two queries per second and includes email support from SEON’s customer service agents.
“We’re determined to tackle fraud head on,” said SEON CEO and Co-founder Tamas Kadar. “This version will help us to serve a greater number of online businesses than ever before, and it is a major step towards building a truly fraud free world.”
SEON has always offered businesses free access to its technology via a 14-day free trial. Starting today, after a user’s trial period expires, they will automatically be converted to SEON’s Forever Free plan. Businesses that want more capabilities can convert to SEON’s Pro plan, which offers more API calls and responses around 10 queries per second, for businesses with higher transaction volumes and a need for a faster speed.
“As a company, we make it tough for fraudsters by intelligently combining real-time social signals, phone, email, and IP lookup details with device intelligence and machine learning to uncover fraud patterns and discover revenue opportunities. We enable fraud prevention teams to go further with access to insightful, real-time data from one source.”
SEON doesn’t think of itself as a typical fraud prevention company. The company’s business model is based on a product-led growth (PLG) strategy via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, which makes the technology more accessible to a wider range of businesses.
“Sadly, for too long, this level of protection has only been available at a very high price point. That’s why for years, we’ve strived to make our service as accessible as possible. Through our ‘forever free’ option we’re able to go even further in that effort,” Kadar added.
The second half of the year has been a busy one for SEON. In the past couple of months, SEON has formed partnerships with SaaS anti-money laundering company, Lucinity and AI-powered decisioning platform, Provenir. And in the last few weeks, the company has made several updates to its system, including improving the accuracy of its IP, BIN, email, phone, and platform checks.
Sometimes “futuretech” means technology that helps ensure that we actually have a future!
This week we’re taking a look at recent initiatives in the fintech world to help promote sustainability. These efforts have been growing as more and more companies respond to customer concerns about the impact of their financial behavior on the climate. From technology that helps consumers measure and track their carbon footprint to new payment cards that eschew plastic for renewable, environmentally-friendly materials, businesses in the fintech industry have pursued a wide variety of strategies in support of “climate consciousness.”
The news that the Bank of Ireland has begun issuing new bio-sourced debit cards is one of the latest examples of this trend. The cards are made from 82% bio-source renewable materials such as field corn and decompose in months – compared to plastic, which lasts for hundreds of years. The cards will be available to both personal and business customers and the Bank of Ireland expects its entire portfolio to be switched over to the bio-sourced cards by 2026.
“The environmental credentials of these bio-sourced cards are exceptionally strong and with 60,000 already being used by third-level students, we will now radically expand the rollout across our entire cards business in Ireland and the U.K.,” Bank of Ireland Chief Sustainability & Investor Relations Officer Eamonn Hughes said.
The Bank of Ireland expects to save 17 tons of CO1 and nearly four and a half tons of plastic every year with the new initiative. The Bank first issued bio-sourced debit cards for third level students in September 2020. In addition to the new bio-sourced cards, the Bank of Ireland also announced that it was upgrading its card designs to make it easier for users to correctly insert the cards in machines and ATMs.
The decision to pursue bio-sourced cards is based in part on research the bank conducted on young shoppers over the past year. The Bank learned that 63% of those in Ireland between the ages of 18-25 have become “more aware of shopping sustainably” over the past 12 months. Additionally, more than half of those surveyed, 54%, said they were “happy to pay more for sustainable goods.”
In other fintech sustainability news, Zurich-based F10 is hosting what it calls the world’s first climate-focused fintech incubator in the Nordic region. The six-month program will feature startups from the U.K., Israel, Sweden, Lithuania, Switzerland, and Canada that are innovating in areas ranging from sustainable investing to waste trading. Head of F10 Nordics and Baltics Anders Norlin said, “the variety of climate fintech solutions presented reinforces the interest for more innovative solutions in the needed transition towards a net zero society.”
The startups participating are: Azzera (Canada), Eljun (Sweden), GreenGrowth (U.K.), OCO (Lithuania), Spritju (Sweden), SustainSME (Switzerland), Weather It Is (Israel), and Xworks (U.K.).
U.K.-based digital challenger bank Tandem launched its Tandem Marketplace this week. The new offering is a consumer-based hub for information on how to live a more sustainable life with tips on everything from retrofitting your home to keeping energy costs low. For example, among the tools available on the Marketplace are an EPC (“energy performance certificate”) checker to help U.K. homeowners understand their EPC and learn ways to improve it.
“We are in the middle of a climate crisis and a cost-of-living crisis,” Tandem Chief Impact and Marketing Officer Georgina Whalley said. “People shouldn’t have to choose between heating and eating. This is why we have created our Marketplace, people need more information and support to make greener choices.”
Tandem Marketplace is only the most recent sustainability initiative the bank has pursued. In September, Tandem Bank announced that it had joined the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings (CEEB) sponsored by the Green Finance Institute. The coalition consists of more than 300 businesses and organizations from finance, policy, and civil society, working to develop a market for financing net zero carbon and climate resilient buildings in the U.K.
“This is a brilliant opportunity for Tandem to join leaders across a range of sectors to develop green and innovative financial products that will address the retrofit investment gap,” Tandem Bank CEO Susie Aliker said. “With over 28 million homes in need of retrofitting by 2050, collaboration is key to successfully tackling Net Zero targets.
Founded in 2014, Tandem is one of the U.K.’s original digital challenger banks.
