How Obsecure is Tackling the Digital Identity Crisis

How Obsecure is Tackling the Digital Identity Crisis

Demoing companies showcasing new and innovative technology are at the heart of Finovate events. We caught up with FinovateEurope 2021 demoer Erez Zohar, CEO & Co-Founder of Obsecure, about the company’s beginnings and the adaptations and takeaways from launching during a pandemic.

Tell us about Obsecure, when was the company founded and what problem was the company founded to solve?

Erez Zohar: Obsecure was founded in January of 2020 with a mission to provide next generation identity trust biometric solutions for assuring the highest level of trust at time of digital onboarding and high risk transactions.

What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Zohar: I spent the last 20 years helping financial service organizations fight financial crime and fraud. One of my key observations was that the industry spends so much effort to spot bad actors and suspicious activities but as a result good customers are being treated as suspects as well. A lot of authentic account opening applications are being declined or abandoned because of complex verification steps. Transaction limits and various authentication challenges are being imposed on good customers. This results in frustrated customers who are likely to abandon a digital onboarding process or switch to a different financial institution, especially in such a competitive market. 

So I decided to develop products that focus on the good customers vs. the bad actors, increase identity trust and remove friction. 

Who are your primary customers and how do you attract them?

Zohar: Our technology is applicable to any digital service. However, our primary market focus at the moment is within financial services and payments / ecommerce. The value proposition is simple. We help you accept more customers which means growing your business. We further help you take on riskier business and keep your customers happy – all while protecting you from bad actors.

Tell us a little bit about the technology behind your solution.

Zohar: Our core technology uses privacy-preserving face biometrics with state-of-the-art biometrics matching and liveness detection. We use this core technology plus other very unique techniques to develop innovative solutions that are different than anything else in the market today. Our two main solutions are: 

  • CyberPrint™ – a biometrics identity verification solution that corroborates identities against their online visual persona. This solution can augment and in some scenarios replace document verification. The goal is to increase trust at time of onboarding and accept customers that otherwise would be rejected. We came up with an innovative approach that both increases trust but also maintains customer privacy which is key to everything we do
  • AuthenticAction™ – a notary-grade digital action signing solution that signs any digital transaction with the biometrics of the customer, ensuring that no one but the true customer can initiate the transaction. Very powerful for high risk transactions such as large wire or alcohol purchase. The innovation here is about using continuous biometrics authentication and combining identity with action into a single channel. 

How did COVID-19 impact your company and its customers? What were some of the big adaptations you had to make? What are your biggest takeaways from the experience?

Zohar: COVID-19 hit not long after we started our journey and we were initially concerned. However, the accelerated shift to digital turned out to be a great driver for solutions like ours. This is also when we decided to expand our offering beyond high risk transactions to remote digital onboarding which is so critical today.

My key takeaway from this experience is to always be thoughtful about how to mitigate risks and at the same time seize opportunities which are presented when the market changes.

What can we expect from Obsecure in the months to come?

Zohar: Our products are innovative and unique in their nature and as such are adopted by innovative and nimble organizations first. Our focus in the next few months is on helping our customers and design partners gain the most value from our solutions and make the necessary enhancements. In parallel we plan to expand our customer base in both the financial services and payment / ecommerce markets. And of course, our roadmap is full of new and innovative ideas which we plan to add to our products.

Watch Obsecure’s FinovateEurope 2021 demo below.


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Three Ways Collaborative Innovation Benefits the Payments Industry

Three Ways Collaborative Innovation Benefits the Payments Industry

How does a technology company with a near-50 year pedigree adapt and grow in a world of rapid technological change? How does a company like this meet the challenge of embracing new opportunities while remaining true to its core competencies and values?

“Our core mission has not changed,” Nick Kerigan, Head of Innovation Execution at SWIFT explained in an interview for Finovate TV. “But we are moving from a world of point-to-point messaging to end-to-end transaction orchestration.”

Watch the rest of the conversation to find out how you can collaborate to Innovate with SWIFT.

On the ways SWIFT’s new strategy benefits the payments industry

In payments, we believe we can unlock huge opportunities that help our community strengthen their many existing market segments like core banking, B2B, and cross-border payments. We also think we can open up bold new opportunities for the future around SME and consumer segments. What we’re essentially trying to do is to create instant and frictionless, account-to-account transactions anywhere in the world. The vision is to make international payments as simple and easy as domestic payments.

Obviously that’s a big goal and it won’t be accomplished overnight. But we do think, particularly with our transaction management platform, that it’s fully achievable.

On the key areas of focus in SWIFT’s new innovation agenda

Innovation is not new to SWIFT; we were created to solve a big industry challenge 40 years ago, so that’s at our heart … A few things are high on our mind: one is cloud and simplifying the journey to cloud. All large financial institutions – and smaller ones as well – have important programs around bringing their services into the cloud. Everyone knows the benefits of doing that – and they also know that can be quite a challenging task.

What we’re doing is aiming to ease that journey for our customers. We’ve launched new cloud-based products and we are also making our existing products cloud-ready so when our customers are ready to migrate and move, we are ready for them.

On the collaborative innovation and the importance of partnership

Organizations in the financial community often find it challenging to balance the imperative of innovation with everything else they have to do on their agenda, which are often driven by forces such as regulations and others, that means that they are “must do.” What we say with collaborative innovation is that one way of unlocking that challenge is to work much more together as a community so the burden isn’t on any one bank or institution, but the burden is more shared.

SWIFT is well-placed to help the industry collaborate because we are a neutral, member-owned organization that sits in the middle of this great financial community. We think that by enhancing collaborative innovation and working together we can maybe unlock some of these problems that individually we struggle to solve.

For more from our Finovate speakers, check out our Finovate TV YouTube playlist.

FinovateEurope: Customer Experience, Collaboration, and the Post-COVID Era

FinovateEurope: Customer Experience, Collaboration, and the Post-COVID Era

The post-COVID era of fintech will be defined by a renewed commitment to the customer experience – both digital and in-person. Add to this an eagerness to find and work with new partners, new markets, and new communities and you have a glimpse at what we saw in fintech’s future at FinovateEurope this month.

Among our demoing companies we saw innovators like Meniga that have developed solutions to help financial institutions better engage their increasingly climate-conscious customers. iProov, a multiple-time Best of Show winner, followed up a demonstration of its biometric authentication solution with a post-Demo Q&A conversation on how the technology is being applied in the fight against COVID-19. Finovate newcomer Cobase, which provides bank connectivity and treasury management solutions to corporates, shared insights into its decision to pivot toward also offering a white-label version of its platform to banks.

There was a moment, before COVID, when fintech’s perennial “Year of the Customer” declaration was in danger of becoming a bit of a cliche. Clearly, COVID turned that potential cliche into a real crisis in financial services as institutions were, due lockdowns and quarantines, literally cut off from their customers. Customer service strategies that had been perfectly appropriate – even innovative – a year ago, were obsolete in a matter of weeks.

How fintechs and financial services companies, internally, with their customers and members, and with each other, responded to this challenge was understandably the overarching theme of FinovateEurope. What we learned was that, in virtually every case, it was an embrace of both digital and human capital that enabled companies large and small to continue to serve their customers. And by taking advantage of a widening range of channels including voice and chatbot, and upgrading their capacity to effectively manage a higher volume and sophistication of digital transactions and activity, these institutions are well-positioned to outperform as the threat of the pandemic subsides.

A large part of this outperformance may well come from a renewed sense of the power of partnerships. The collaborations between financial institutions and fintechs to help facilitate relief funding to small businesses and individuals during the COVID crisis are not likely to be forgotten when the days of mask-wearing and social distancing are gone. And as the Meniga example shows, we should be equally observant to those heterodox partnerships; ones, for example, that add lifestyle offerings rather than just traditional financial solutions. As competition grows – including competition with Big Tech – these brand-redefining partnerships may become a more common response for fintechs and financial services companies, in Europe as well as in the rest of the world.

For more on FinovateEurope, check out the FinovateEurope eMagazine!

And last but not least, congratulations to the winners of Best of Show for FinovateEurope 2021: Dbilia, Proptee, and Quantum Metric.


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FinovateEurope Best of Show Winners Announced

Our first all-digital European fintech conference is in the books. And given a little extra time to resolve a truly historic number of tied votes, our attendees have decided which companies will take home our Best of Show trophies for FinovateEurope 2021.

This year’s winners are:

Dbilia for its digital memorabilia that leverages blockchain and NFTs to enable fans to invest in creatives. Video.

Proptee for its global property app that helps reinvent the way people invest in real estate. Video.

Quantum Metric for its technology that helps retail banks differentiate on the digital experience, improve digital adoption, and enhance internal efficiencies. Video.

Thanks to all of our demoing companies, our partners and sponsors, and to you, our attendees in the fintech and financial services community. Be sure to stay in touch with the Finovate blog in the days and weeks to come for more information on our “Spring Collection” of webinars, networking opportunities, and upcoming conferences – including FinovateSpring in May.


Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The three companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2020 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017
FinovateAsia 2017
FinovateMiddleEast 2018
FinovateEurope 2018
FinovateSpring 2018
FinovateFall 2018
FinovateAsia 2018
FinovateAfrica 2018
FinovateEurope 2019
FinovateSpring 2019
FinovateFall 2019
FinovateAsia 2019
FinovateMiddleEast 2019

FinovateEurope 2020

FinovateFall 2020

FinovateWest 2020

FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Stylopay

FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Stylopay

Stylopay‘s Zoqq is a self-service application and management portal for corporate card programs. Apply in 30 minutes and get approved in 7 days. Pay only card cost.

Features

  • Apply in 30 minutes and get approved in 7 days
  • Get and manage programs in different countries and different currencies
  • Start with 100 cards at low costs with complementary admin and user portals

Why it’s great
Faster application, multi-currency card program, global reach!

Presenters

Sanjit Ghanti, COO
Ghanti is a payments expert. He has a background in hosted BPAAS solutions, business transformation, and operations. He manages IT infrastructure, product launch, and operations.
LinkedIn

Avishek Singh, CEO
Singh has experience in marketing, finance, and start-ups. He also manages business connections, contributes to marketing strategies, and is passionate about innovation.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Dreams

FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Dreams

Dreams is a financial wellbeing platform that helps banks attract the new generation and create superior digital engagement by leveraging the latest insights from cognitive and behavioral science.

Features

  • Increase financial wellbeing: 2/3 of Dreams users feel less stressed about money
  • Increase retention: 4.3x vs. comparable financial apps
  • Attract the next generation: 75% millennial audience

Why it’s great
Dreams leverages cognitive and behavioral science to effectively influence consumer behavior, help the end user create healthier financial habits, and help banks significantly increase digital engagement.

Presenters

Lucia Hegenbartova, Chief Commercial Officer
Hegenbartova is Chief Commercial Officer at Dreams, responsible for building commercial partnerships with banks around the world.
LinkedIn

Elin Helander, Chief Scientific Officer
Helander is Chief Scientific Officer at Dreams, responsible for injecting the latest insights from cognitive and behavioral science into the Dreams app.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope 2021 Launches Next Week

FinovateEurope 2021 Launches Next Week

FinovateEurope is right around the corner! Our all-digital, interactive fintech conference begins March 23 at 9am Central European Time and continues through March 25. Visit our registration page today to save your spot!

FinovateEurope will feature our signature format of innovative fintech demonstrations and in-depth, insightful keynotes, panel discussions, and debates on some of our industry’s most important topics and critical themes. To learn more about our demoing companies, check out our Sneak Peek Series. For more on our thought leadership content, here’s a short, day-by-day summary of what to look out for.

March 23: Martes / Dienstag / Wtorek / Tuesday

Kicking off the event on Day One of FinovateEurope are keynote addresses from Katharina Lueth of Raisin UK, Joe Lichtenberg of InterSystems, and a conversation between HSBC’s Steve Suarez and Louise Beaumont of the Open Banking Working Group.

The afternoon will feature a number of panel discussions and roundtables covering topics such as open innovation and strategic partnerships, the future of hybrid digital customer experience, and leveraging agility to thrive at times of crisis. The day will end with a conversation on digital engagement in the post-COVID era.

March 24: Mercredi / Onsdag / Quarta-feira / Wednesday

On Day Two, FinovateEurope begins with a keynote on open innovation and open banking, and continues with a pair of Mastermind Keynotes from Alex James of GoCompare and Alex Thomson of Quantum Metric, as well as from Annerie Vreugdenhil, Chief Innovation Officer with ING. In addition to a keynote on sustainable finance, the afternoon on Day Two will be devoted to panel conversations on the shift to digital payments and preserving “the human touch” in the digital financial world.

March 25: Donderdag / Giovedì / Čtvrtek / Thursday

The final day of FinovateEurope will feature some of our conference’s most popular sessions, such as our Analyst All Stars presentation. This year, our All Stars include Jost Hoppermann of Forrester, Zil Bareisis of Celent, and Vinod Jain of Aite Group. Day Three will also tackle the growth of morgagetech by way of a Mastermind Keynote from Floris van der Kolk of Ohpen and Rik Douwes of Link Asset Services. Rounding out the day will be a venture capital panel discussion on investment trends in the post-COVID era. This conversation will feature Citi Ventures’ Luis Valdich, Silicon Valley Bank’s Claire Palmer, SixThirty Ventures’ Samarth Shekar, and Mouro Capital’s Manuel Silva Martinez.

See our full agenda. And make sure you reserve your spot today for our first, Europe-themed, all-digital, fintech event!


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FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Aiia

FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Aiia

Aiia‘s open banking platform provides easy ways to innovate on top of financial data and the ability to pay and receive money with open banking payments.

Features

  • Aiia Data: Full access to account information services
  • Aiia Pay: Makes it possible for all to leverage open banking payments
  • Aiia Hub: Puts the end-user in control of their shared data

Why it’s great
Open banking for all. Aiia lets a wide range of financial institutions, fintechs, accounting system providers, payment service providers, and others leverage open banking with one single line of code.

Presenter

Gudmundur Hreidarsson, CTO & Co-Founder
Hreidarsson is the Co-Founder of two major fintech successes in the Nordics: open banking platform and advisor, Nordic API Gateway (Aiia), and the personal finance management app, Spiir.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Data Reply

FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Data Reply

DATA Reply‘s quantum-inspired accelerator, MegaQUBO, solves optimization problems very fast and is applicable to collateral optimization.

Features

  • Massive parallelization and solving speed
  • Focus on the quality of the solution and improved accuracy
  • Service scalability and ease of use

Why it’s great
The quantum-inspired accelerator, MegaQUBO, finds solutions to highly complex optimization problems in real business contexts with great speed and improved accuracy, and it scales with your projects.

Presenters

Sara Felloni, Senior Consultant
Felloni is the Senior Project Manager at DATA Reply. She holds a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics at University of Milan and a PhD in Quantum Information Processing.
LinkedIn

Davide Caputo, Senior Consultant
Caputo is the Senior Data Scientist at DATA Reply. As a quantum computing specialist, he holds a master’s degree in Physics at University of Turin and a PhD in Experimental Physics.
LinkedIn

Blanca Silva Fernández, Consultant
Silva Fernández is a Data Scientist at DATA Reply. As a quantum computing specialist, she holds a master’s degree in Physics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and a PhD in Experimental Physics.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Strands

FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Strands

As experts in big data, AI, and machine learning since 2004, Strands creates highly-customizable digital money management software for top-tier financial institutions worldwide.

Features

  • Offers financial control and wellbeing for retail banking customers
  • Helps users plan ahead and budget with all their accounts in one place
  • Provides visual insight about where every cent goes each month

Why it’s great
Strands’ PFM means smarter money management for the customer, improved bank-user engagement, and a greater share of wallet for the bank. Know how people spend, and then help them do it better.

Presenter

Claudio Cungi, Head of Product
Cungi has six years of experience in management consulting. He joined the CRIF group in 2018 as a Product and Business Development Manager for open banking.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope Early Bird Discount Ends Friday

FinovateEurope Early Bird Discount Ends Friday

Friday is the last day to save big on your ticket to this month’s all-digital FinovateEurope 2021. Register by March 12th and save GBP 100.00 off the price of our three-day, all-access pass.

Kicking off on Tuesday, March 23rd and running through Thursday, March 25th, FinovateEurope will feature a combination of innovative fintech demonstrations, insightful presentations, and an engaging new platform that makes digital networking as easy as an in-person meet ‘n’ greet. Morning coffee and afternoon cocktail not included.

Check out our conference agenda! Get to know our demoing companies! And then make sure to stop by our FinovateEurope registration page and reserve your spot today.

FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Glia

FinovateEurope Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Glia

Glia is a digital customer service platform that connects financial institutions to their customers using chat, voice, video, co-browsing, and AI.

Features

  • Seamlessly move between modes of communication
  • Receive improved sales results and customer satisfaction via richer customer interactions
  • Deliver the best experience for customers and agents

Why it’s great
Glia is seamlessly converting boring phone calls into exciting digital interactions and customer experiences.

Presenter

Dan Michaeli, CEO & Co-Founder
Michaeli is the driving force behind Glia’s vision to combine the human touch with technology to create the best customer experiences.
LinkedIn