A Baker’s Dozen of Our Favorite Russian Fintechs

A Baker’s Dozen of Our Favorite Russian Fintechs

News this week that Russia’s Yandex had agreed to acquire the country’s biggest online bank Tinkoff was a reminder of how vibrant fintech is not just in Europe, or even just in Central and Eastern Europe, but in Russia, as well.

As our Senior Research Analyst Julie Muhn noted in her coverage of the news, “This is a pretty big deal, not necessarily because of the size of the transaction, but because of the players involved. Yandex is essentially the Google of Russia– it is a tech giant in the region. And Tinkoff Bank is the world’s largest digital bank in terms of customers, boasting more than 10 million clients.”

With this in mind, we want to send out a shout-out to the many fintech companies based in Russia that have demonstrated their technologies live on the Finovate stage over the years. Here’s a look at our Russia-based alums going back to our first European conference in 2012.

PayReverse – FinovateAsia 2018. Founded in 2017. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a white label cashback service.

Ak Bars Digital Technologies – FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 2016. Headquartered in Kazan. Offers a payments via face recognition technology, Face2Pay.

Tinkoff – FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 2006. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a digital ecosystem of financial and lifestyle products and services.

JuicyScore – FinovateMiddleEast 2018. Founded in 2016. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a digital risk-management-as-a-service solution for the financial industry.

SMART Valley – FinovateEurope 2018. Founded in 2017. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a distributed innovation platform that enables key players to collaborate effectively.

Speechpro – FinovateSpring 2017. Founded in 1990. Headquartered in St. Petersburg. Offers a voice biometric technology, VoiceKey.FRAUD for use in contact centers. Finovate Best of Show winner. U.S.-based subsidiary of Russia’s STC Group.

Sberbank – FinovateSpring 2016. Founded in 1841. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers banking and financial services as the core bank of an international financial group. One of the largest banks in Russia and Europe.

C24 – FinovateEurope 2015. Founded in 2013. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a multi-channel platform that enables users to connect and aggregate their accounts with different banks. Became Paysend.

LifePay – FinovateEurope 2015. Founded in 2012. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers payment services as one of the largest mPOS EMV chip and pin companies in Russia.

My Wishboard – FinovateEurope 2014. Founded in 2013. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a social crowdfunding platform to help users fund their goals along with the help of friends, family, and subscribers.

SoftWear Finance – FinovateEurope 2014. Founded in 2012. Headquartered in St. Petersburg. Offers a platform that enables banks to provide their customers with the best possible user experience regardless of platform or device.

Yandex.Money – FinovateSpring 2013. Founded in 2002. Headquartered in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Offers a fast, reliable way for online businesses to collect payments for Russians and customers in Russian-speaking countries. The solution, since sold to Sberbank, originally was launched by Yandex, the leading IT company and search engine in Europe.

LifePAD – FinovateAsia 2013. Founded in 2012. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a “personal online bank manager” in a table, providing customer service 24/7.

Eight Trends at This Year’s FinovateFall Event

Eight Trends at This Year’s FinovateFall Event

The health crisis and economic environment have shaken up the fintech industry. Some of the trends we saw at last year’s event have been placed on the back burner because firms are not only cutting costs but also are enhancing their focus on serving customers in a new way.

So while this year’s FinovateFall trends assessment isn’t a completely new set of ideas, it certainly doesn’t mirror our forecast from the beginning of the year. As you may have guessed, every trend at this year’s conference will be filtered through a COVID-19 lens.

Here is what you can expect to see:

Digital

By the end of 2020, every product and service must be accessible online. A solid digital customer experience has become table stakes. Because of this, at this year’s show, you can expect to hear the term “digital transformation” in every session.

AI

There’s something almost comforting about seeing AI as a top trend once again this year. While much of the world, the economy, and our working environments have changed, AI still brings technological advancements to every sub-sector in fintech. And since most services must take place 100% digitally, companies need every improvement possible to maintain superior customer service.

Remote

Again, since most of our interactions must take place remotely, we have to re-think and re-invent many of the ways we used to do business. Everything from internal communication and collaboration to customer authentication to payments must now incorporate remote-friendly practices.

Fighting fast-tracked financial crime

While security technology was already a hot topic in the pre-COVID environment, it is even more so now. Now that many employees are working from home, hackers have taken advantage of wifi networks with weak security standards. Aggravating the situation, hackers have implemented new phishing attacks that prey on human emotion to gather sensitive information.

Customer experience

Like AI, this is another trend that the industry had on its radar in 2019. It has now, however, been heightened by the onset of the public health crisis. Now that consumers of all ages are accessing products and services remotely, financial services companies have had to not only fast-track digital transformation efforts but also create new initiatives to serve customers that are not digital natives.

Banking-as-a-service

The “as-a-service” trend has been around essentially since the dawn of fintech. However, the offerings are starting to mature now with the onset of open banking; the increased flexibility; and mutual benefits across banks, third parties, and end customers.

Challenger banks

Because challenger banks were born in the digital realm, they were practically made to serve customers during a pandemic. In addition to their digital expertise, many of them offer products and services for consumers facing economic uncertainty. And investors have taken notice, challenger banks have been some of the top recipients of VC funds in 2020.

Communication

Because most people are dealing with the realities of a remote working environment and living situations, communication is extra challenging right now. Along with technologies that enable face-to-face conversations via video, many financial services companies are taking a second look at chatbots, their phone-based customer service, and other channels. In the end, we will not see a single communication channel come out on top as the winning one. Instead, we’ll see multiple winners as different consumer groups find the channel that suits their preferences.


Photo by James Orr on Unsplash

Top Ten Fintech Hires of 2020 … So Far

Top Ten Fintech Hires of 2020 … So Far

This week’s announcement that Stripe had hired former General Motors Chief Financial Officer Dhivya Suryadevara as its own new CFO is a reminder that the hunt for top talent in fintech has never been hotter. As tech titians and financial services giants embrace fintech solutions, the pressure to find the most effective leaders, the most insightful technologists, and other key executives is forcing companies to up their game when it comes to attracting the best of the best.

With that in mind, here are another nine companies who in 2020 have done just that: made a major, C-suite addition to their leadership ranks that should help propel their respective companies to the next level.


Nicolas Weng Kan – Yolt CEO – news. Former Google Compare CEO Kan took the helm of ING’s smart money app, Yolt, as well as Yolt Technology Services (YTS), a provider of open banking services in Europe last month. Yolt won Best Personal Finance App at the Wealth & Finance FinTech Awards earlier this month.

Anna Manz – London Stock Exchange CFO – news. The London Stock Exchange has a new Chief Financial Officer as former Johnson Matthey CFO and executive director Anna Manz succeeds David Warren, who had held the position since 2012. Prior to her time at Johnson Matthey, Manz spent more than 16 years in executive roles with Diageo.

Lucy Hagues – Capital One UK CEO – news. Hagues, who spent three years as Chief Marketing Officer at Capital One UK and is an alum of the firm’s graduate program, replaced outgoing CEO Amy Lenander. Hagues is the first program graduate to reach the CEO’s office.

Nkihil Rathi – Financial Conduct Authority CEO – news. Appointed CEO of the FCA at the age of 40, U.K. head of the London Stock Exchange Rathi is the first member of an ethnic minority to lead the regulatory body.

Steven van Rijswijk – ING CEO – news. ING Chief Risk Officer Steven van Rijswijk is the company’s latest CEO. He took over for outgoing Ralph Hamers who is headed toward a CEO post at UBS. Van Rijswijk’s promotion comes after 25 years of service at the bank.

Brady Harris – Dwolla CEO – news. Former President of payment solution provider Payscape, Harris was tapped by Dwolla founder Ben Milne to lead the company this spring. Milne praised Harris for helping lead Payscape’s merger with Payroc, “creating a full-service payment powerhouse that operates in 46 countries.”

Michael Miebach – Mastercard CEO – news. “Putting products first” might be one way to describe Mastercard’s decision to replace its outgoing CEO Ajay Banga – who is transitioning to the role of executive chairman – with the company’s chief product officer Michael Miebach. A 10-year Mastercard veteran, Mieback is credited for being a “key architect” of the company’s “multi-rail strategy.”

Hironori Kamezawa – MUFG CEO – news. The appointment of Kamezawa as Chief Executive Officer of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group was a bit surprising, insofar as the outgoing CEO has only been in place for a year. But observers speculated that Kamezawa’s leadership will likely mean a broader and more aggressive embrace of fintech by the company.

Asger Hattel – Signicat CEO – news. A new year, a new CEO for the Denmark-based digital identity solution provider as former CEO and Head of Nets Merchant Services Asger Hattel took leadership of Signicat in January. Hattel replaces company co-founder Gunnar Nordseth, who will remain as a shareholder and help support business development.


Photo by Sebastian Voortman from Pexels

5 Things Giving Fintechs Hope Right Now

5 Things Giving Fintechs Hope Right Now

Let’s face it, 2020 hasn’t been the year we were anticipating. We’re experiencing increased stress levels created by not only by fears of contracting a life-threatening virus, but also an economic downturn of unknown proportions.

And from a business perspective, stay-at-home orders and lack of childcare create a frustrating environment for co-worker communications. Not only that, but the lack of in-person meetings and a firm handshake makes it difficult to land partnerships.

Despite these (and many more) woes, here are a handful of silver linings:

Digital is working

Even for firms who have yet to implement it, the technology is available for them to create a fully-digital banking experience. While many of these capabilities have been around for awhile, we have now reached a point where consumers feel comfortable with interacting with tools such as remote onboarding, remote deposit check capture, and even chatbots.

Funding is on

At the onset of the public health crisis earlier this year, many prepared to say farewell to VC funding. And though funding has declined and valuations are stagnant, the fintech industry is still experiencing growth. So far this week alone, we’ve seen five fintechs raise $262 million in funding.

Fintechs are hiring

Layoffs and furloughs have taken place within the industry and there may be another round of layoffs in the future as the coronavirus drags on. However, we may ultimately see many of these employees shift to new positions. That’s because there are plenty of fintechs hiring. A search on Angel List reveals that more than 800 fintechs are currently seeking to fill roles. And the new remote working environment enables many companies to tap into global talent.

Partnerships are strong

Social distancing requirements may be preventing companies from gathering together in conference rooms and sealing a deal with a handshake. However, that doesn’t seem to be stopping fintechs from inking deals. Over the past month, we saw 10 major fintech-bank partnerships. Much of this collaboration was driven by the sudden need for traditional providers to digitize their offerings.

Transformation is mandatory

This point may seem like a strange silver lining. In fact, many may view mandatory transformation as more of a storm cloud, since fintech as an industry will not come through this crisis scot-free. Unfortunately, there will be cut backs and unplanned exits. Here’s the silver lining part– companies that fight to see the other side of the crisis will be better off for it. And so will their customers.


Photo by Kristopher Roller on Unsplash

A Baker’s Dozen of Our Favorite North Carolina Fintechs

A Baker’s Dozen of Our Favorite North Carolina Fintechs

After nCino’s impressive initial public offering this week – the largest, one-day gain for a U.S.-based tech IPO since the Dot Com Days – everyone now will be able to name at least one Finovate alum from the great state of North Carolina.

But there’s more to Carolina fintech than nCino. Among Finovate alums alone there are at least a dozen other companies from the Tar Heel State whose innovations in and contributions to fintech are also worth noting.

Cognitect

  • Enterprise information systems development firm. FinDEVr London 2017. Founded in 2003. Headquartered in Durham.

CrediVia

  • Online marketplace for commercial real estate loans. FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 2018. Headquartered in Raleigh.

Finzly

  • Digital transformation and open banking solution provider. FinovateFall 2019. Founded in 2012. Headquartered in Charlotte.

LendingTree

Passport

  • Mobile payments platform for integrated urban transportation. FinovateEurope 2016. Founded in 2010. Headquartered in Charlotte.

Shoeboxed

Sitehands

  • On Demand marketplace for IT field services. FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 2016. Headquartered in Charlotte.

Spreedly

  • Networked Commerce enablement platform. FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 2007. Headquartered in Durham.

Stratifyd

  • Augmented Intelligence platform. FinovateFall 2019. Founded in 2015. Headquartered in Charlotte.

Tradier

Zenmonics

  • IT services and mobility product provider for financial markets. FinovateFall 2013. Founded in 2007. Headquartered in Charlotte.

Zogo Finance


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Halftime Heat Check: The Biggest Fintech Headlines of 2020

Halftime Heat Check: The Biggest Fintech Headlines of 2020

Two of the biggest stories of 2020 so far – the global public health crisis of COVID-19 and the worldwide resurgence in social justice activism – have had as much impact on the fintech industry as they have the rest of the world.

The mobilization of banks and fintechs to facilitate financing for small businesses, for example, or to offer discounts on their services for essential workers in other industries has been impressive.

And it has been heartening to see companies in the financial technology and services space join with corporations and entrepreneurs in other industries to express their commitment to fighting ethnic discrimination and actively encouraging diversity.

But behind the bright lights of these two, year-defining stories, there have been some pretty impressive fintech-specific headlines that are worth remembering as we dive into the second half of the year. With that in mind, here is our take on the biggest fintech stories from the first half of 2020.


The collapse of Wirecard early this summer was the first major negative headline for the fintech industry this year. What began as an inquiry into a missing $2.1 billion in cash has turned into a major scandal involving the arrest of former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun and talks that the company could become an attractive acquisition target thanks to its relationships with the major card companies.


With Visa’s acquisition of Plaid at the beginning of the year and Mastercard’s purchase of Finicity near 2020’s midway mark, card companies are putting their money where they believe the future of fintech lies: open banking and the leveraging of consumer-permissioned data.


If you had nCino on your bingo card of fintechs most likely to be among the first to go public this year, then you are a luckier soul than most. The news that the Wilmington, North Carolina, Bank Operating System provider is planning an IPO for later this year was a sign that some fintechs still see the public markets as an optimal way to raise capital.


The boost in e-commerce brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic was a major boon for digital payments company Stripe, which raised $600 million this spring, earning a valuation of $36 billion.


Starting as a student loan refinancing company and since expanding its portfolio to include loans, investment products, and debit cards, SoFi made yet another expansion to its product suite with its $1.2 billion acquisition of payments company Galileo.


From the outside, $7.1 billion might be a lot to pay for the ability to help younger consumers better understand and manage their credit. But Intuit’s decision to acquire Credit Karma in the first few months of 2020 may have been an early sign of the sort of consolidation that could await the fintech industry on the other side of COVID-19.


A $500 million Series D round has sent the valuation of U.K.-based fintech Revolut soaring to more than $5.5 billion. Led by Silicon Valley-based VC firm, TCV, the February investment set an optimistic tone for Q1 VC fintech funding before the reality check of the coronavirus set in.


In acquiring Radius Bank for $185 million early this year, P2P lending pioneer LendingClub became the first U.S. fintech to acquire a licensed bank. Boston, Massachusetts-based Radius Bank is an online bank with $1.4 billion in assets.


By mid-year, the rise of the retail trader a la Robinhood and Dave “Stoolpresidente” Portnoy may have become a bit of a cliche. But that only makes Morgan Stanley’s $13 billion acquisition of ETrade – announced back in February – that much more of a prescient move to diversify its online and self-directed customer base beyond the ultra-rich.

Three Things We’ve Learned from the Paycheck Protection Program

Three Things We’ve Learned from  the Paycheck Protection Program

The U.S. Government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was set to expire yesterday, but the Senate voted to extend the loan program by five weeks, making the new deadline August 8, 2020.

Since it was initiated on April 3, the PPP has helped banks provide billions in working capital to 4.8 million small businesses. The extension offers businesses more time to apply for the $130 billion in unspent funds that remain in the program.

The PPP has had a rocky existence, caused by a muddy application system, confusion from both businesses and banks on the terms surrounding the funds, and the fraudulent (or at least unethical) acquisition of loan money by major corporations. That said, there are a handful of lessons learned we can take away from this experience. Here is a summary of the top three.

Open banking would have made a positive impact

In the height of the coronavirus, many small businesses struggled to find a bank that would lend PPP funds to them. Much of this was due to the fact that banks had difficulty underwriting loans of new clients. With open banking, businesses could opt to share their data with other financial institutions. This availability of data would not only help businesses speed up the application process at the bank of their choice, it would also offer banks access to crucial data regarding businesses’ historical finances.

It is possible for the government to move fast

“Move fast and break things” is typically a mantra of agile startups, and not a slow-moving government. However, given the serious economic threat that the coronavirus-induced stay-at-home orders posed, there was no time for a lengthy revision process and regulatory approvals.

The PPP is part of the CARES act, which includes multiple provisions for unemployment benefits, tax rebates, grants, and more. Early voting on the bill began March 22 and by the morning of March 25, Senate Democrats and Republicans announced they had come to an agreement on the 300-page document. A few hours after the agreement, the President signed the bill into law.

“Like all compromises, this bill is far from perfect, but we believe the legislation has been improved significantly to warrant its quick consideration and passage, and because many Democrats and Republicans were willing to do the serious and hard work, the bill is much better off than where it started,” said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Communication and transparency are king and queen

One of the biggest speed bumps encountered was confusion around the terms of the loans. Businesses not only had difficulty during the application process, many also had trouble in determining if they were eligible for the loans. And even if they were eligible, many businesses still didn’t understand if the funds needed to be repaid and what the stipulations for repayment were.

There is no other loan in America where the applicant is unaware of their responsibility to repay. Because of this confusion (and the legal and regulatory ramifications), in early June President Trump signed a new law relaxing some of the PPP regulations and addressing some of the original flaws.

This mistake is easy to excuse, given the tight deadline to organize and originate the program. However, it doesn’t discount the need for lenders to maintain transparency and ensure borrowers know what is expected when it comes to repayment. It reminds me of a millionaire I once met who, after originating a mortgage on his new home, didn’t understand that he was expected to pay his mortgage every month. He assumed that the bank would automatically deduct the funds from his account each month on his behalf. After 6 months of missed payments, his credit score was trashed.

Since we have yet to conquer the virus and are reeling from low unemployment, we still have a lot to learn. One of these lessons is to take things one day at a time. As we do so, let’s take stock of lessons learned so that we can help each other during this crisis.


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4 Things We Know for Sure Now that 2020 is Almost Halfway Over

4 Things We Know for Sure Now that 2020 is Almost Halfway Over

Between extreme wildfires, murder hornets, and the ever-present coronavirus, 2020 has been quite the year so far. Now that the year is almost halfway through, it’s a good time to catch our breath and look at some of the lessons learned.

In some ways, it seems as if we packed decades worth of news, digital developments, and economic losses into the first six months of this year, so there’s a lot to cover. That said, we still have another six months to go before we reach 2021 so there is plenty more room for further changes in the fintech industry.

To help digest what’s happened, we’ve picked up four key things we know for sure now that 2020 is halfway over.

Digital is the new brick-and-mortar

If there is a bright side of the coronavirus for the fintech industry, perhaps it is the positive effect stay-at-home orders have had on firms’ digital initiatives. When consumers aren’t able to conduct banking activities in person, they are pushed to online and mobile channels, even if they have never used digital banking in the past.

For banks that already had a robust digital strategy in place, this has been a time to shine. However, those that were still in the midst of developing and implementing their strategy have found themselves trying to catch up. In this instance, however, they are not catching up with their competitors, they are catching up with the new, online-only status quo.

What we know for sure is that this digital push is here to stay. Forced into the digital channel, consumers have had to adapt to practices they have never done before, such as remote deposit check capture. Now that they’ve experienced the benefits of the digital experience and have adapted their habits, many of these users won’t be visiting their bank branch as frequently.

Economic hardships will persist

Even though stay-at-home orders are being lifted in some areas, Consumers have decreased spending across the board. Whether it is because they have lost income or because they are afraid to leave their home because of the virus doesn’t matter– they are spending less and spending in different areas, which will cause many businesses to go under. In fact, it already has. The Washington Post recently reported that more than 100,000 small businesses have closed their doors forever.

Many have predicted that the worst of economic hardship is yet to come. And in all likelihood we won’t begin to fully recover until there is a vaccine. This means that it remains crucial to focus on supporting the customer. Banks can find even more creative ways to help consumers through their financial hardship and retain communication with them so that they know what to expect. In doing so, they will end up with a stronger consumer relationship on the other side of the crisis. Fintechs, on the other hand, have the opportunity to scoop up new clients who are in need of innovative products such as budgeting tools and services for gig economy workers.

Consolidation has begun

Fintech industry analysts have predicted that the economic side effects of COVID-19 will bring consolidation in the sector. And while some will acquire or become acquired, others will shut down as VC funding constricts. We’ve already seen a bit of M&A activity in the space over the past 6 months, though it is difficult to attribute all of it to the coronavirus.

In one vivid instance, neobank Moven announced in late March that it plans to shutter its B2C business and focus on the B2B side of things. The reason for the bank’s closing, explained founder and CEO Brett King, was that a major round of funding that Moven had in the works fell through. Since Moven’s enterprise business was growing because of the high number of banks making the move to go digital, it made more sense for the company to invest all of its resources into that side of the business.

In the traditional bank space, rumors began to circulate last week that Goldman Sachs is looking to merge with another bank. Among the potential partners are Wells Fargo, PNC, and U.S. Bancorp.

Payments will change for the better

Consumers in the U.S. have been hesitant to adopt a digital payments solution. That is, until now. The pandemic-fueled low-touch economy has both consumers and merchants looking for ways to transact without touching cash, cards, or keypads.

One of the most promising, pre-existing mobile payments technologies for the region is Apple Pay. Adoption for the tap-to-pay technology has been growing since Apple launched it in 2014. Now, six years later, Apple Pay transactions account for 5% of all global card transactions.

At the start of 2020, that 5% figure didn’t seem like bad traction. However, now that almost 100% of consumers are interested in making payments with the fewest number of touch-points, we’ll see hockey-stick growth not only with Apple Pay usage but also with its competitors Samsung Pay, Google Pay, and even peer-to-peer money transfer technologies such as Facebook Pay and Square Cash.

Three Ways Digital Identity is Combating the COVID-19 Crisis

Three Ways Digital Identity is Combating the COVID-19 Crisis

Technology companies from every corner of the globe have been lending their talent, resources, and solutions to help deal with the health and economic implications of the COVID-19 crisis. While those firms in health technology have obviously played the lead role, innovators in virtually every field of technology are bringing their unique expertise to the challenge.

Here are three ways that companies specializing in digital identity and identity management are helping organizations, institutions, and individuals manage the global pandemic.

Know Your Carrier

One of the key ways that countries like South Korea have “flattened the curve” of the pandemic is through an approach called “test and trace.” This strategy relies on accurately identifying those who have the coronavirus and then tracking down all those individuals who have had contact with the infected individual so that they can be tested for the virus.

For example, In China, in addition to temperature checks outside of public places like restaurants, officials are leveraging smartphones and QR codes to identify those who are infected with the virus, and to track their recent movements to locate others who may have been in contact with the infected person. In the West, the news that Apple and Google are collaborating to develop a contact tracing solution that will help us meet this specific challenge is a positive sign. Yet as hopeful as this opportunity may be, it is not without caveats.

“It’s really important to get the cooperation of the public,” Recode Executive Director Kara Swisher told CNBCs Squawk Box Monday morning during a discussion on the Apple/Google initiative. She flashed her sleep and activity-tracking Oura ring, noting that wearables could be among the mobile technologies that could be used to make contact tracing as seamless as possible. “More power to the tech companies means more power to the tech companies,” she said. “The only question is will they give it back when this is over?”

Know Your Customer

Getting money into the hands of unemployed and furloughed workers is one challenge. Getting money into the bank accounts of businesses forced to close their doors during this period of quarantine and social distancing has proved, in some ways, to be an even steeper challenge. Many in the small business community were caught off guard, for example, when they learned that in order to access federal COVID-19 relief funds they would need to have a relationship with a participating financial institution.

The issue is that, even in an emergency, knowing your partner is paramount. And in order for banks to be financially responsible, they need to pursue the same measure of KYC diligence on applicants for emergency funding as they would for any other banking customer. To fail to do so would leave these institutions vulnerable, potentially, to massive fraud losses – turning an already challenging environment for banks even worse. Making it easier for financial institutions to engage needy SMEs by leveraging many of the innovations in Big Data and advanced machine learning – while remaining compliant and financially responsible – is a slam dunk opportunity for a sizable number of fintechs.

This is a reminder that regtech may not be appear to be the most important subsector within financial technology. But in the same way that the global pandemic is causing us to think as much about epidemiologists as we do about emergency room doctors, the current challenge in KYC also reminds us of how important innovations in regtech are not only within technology, but also for society as well.

Know Your Crew

While many are understandably eager to “re-open the country,” it remains likely that thousands of workers will continue to work remotely – at least in the near term. This phenomenon has been a boon for companies like Zoom that provide technology that enables online conferencing and makes it easier for workers who do not traditionally work from home to do so.

One major challenge for these newly-homebound employees is ensuring that they are logging into their company’s networks and platforms in a safe and secure manner. Beyond having the infrastructure to support remote work, having the capacity to authenticate legitimate remote workers, and to make sure that the data they are transmitting back and forth remains out of the hands of hackers and cybercriminals is critical.

Indeed, one of the discontents of the “Zoom Boom” is that many people using the platform have raised major privacy concerns, including reports that Zoom conferences have been infiltrated by hackers, interrupting live presentations with obscene images.

As with KYC, this is another area where fintech’s regtech calvary is coming to the rescue. Firms like Onfido and Jumio, among many others, have made their identity verification technologies available for free to organizations and institutions in the health and home care fields that are on the frontlines of the fight against the virus.

3 Ways to Avoid Occupy Wall Street 2.0

3 Ways to Avoid Occupy Wall Street 2.0

In a COVID-19 world, the rich may not necessarily be getting richer, but it has become clear that the virus is taking a toll on lower income populations. And with this, the global pandemic is shining a light on income disparity.

Do you remember the last movement to highlight income inequality?Occupy Wall Street. The movement started in September 2011 as groups assembled at major financial districts and banks to make their voices heard about income distribution, bank reform, student loan forgiveness, and capitalism in general. Nearly 200 protestors camped out in Zuccotti Park in New York’s financial district, ultimately costing the city $17 million.

So with the income inequality fresh on consumers’ minds, here are a few ideas on how banks and fintechs can be their ally instead of their perceived enemy.

Be flexible

While you don’t need to bend over backwards, offering some flexibility is key. And even though offering flexibility on payment plans can be essential, it’s not all consumers are looking for. Your call center, for example, is likely overloaded right now. Instead of having callers wait on hold, can you direct them to a chatbot or make an option for them to request a call back from an agent at a certain time?

Straying from traditional operations and bending some rules (in a compliant manner, of course!) can make a huge difference to a stressed-out consumer that is just looking for someone to understand their situation.

Be generous

You don’t have to forgive a customer’s mortgage payment for them to like you. Peer-to-peer payment company Venmo is doing a great job at engaging with its customers during this time. The company is depositing $20 into consumers’ accounts in exchange for their generosity toward healthcare workers or others in need.

Select an idea that works for your organization’s image. You can give away gift cards to Netflix or offer free gift cards to local restaurants for take away meals. The giveaways can be in under $10 and done at random or as a daily or weekly online drawing. For something more simple, you could host a larger cash giveaway with only one or two winners.

Show unity

Play a role in your community, even if it’s not an in-person effort. Advertise in the local paper that your staff is volunteering to drop off groceries for elderly citizens, display uplifting sayings to encourage passersby, or even place rolls of toilet paper on front steps of houses in nearby neighborhoods. If toilet paper isn’t your style, mail coloring sheets and simple art supplies to customers with small children. For smaller banks, publish the phone number of a representative who can help customers sort through financial issues.

Small actions can have big outcomes during a crisis like this. During a time when people are “looking for helpers” as Mr. Roger’s instructed, banks have a great opportunity to be the helpers in their community.

Fintech Joins the Fight Against the Coronavirus

Fintech Joins the Fight Against the Coronavirus
Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

How are fintech companies lending their technology and talent to help the world better manage the COVID-19 pandemic? From insights into the impact on financial services to digital identity solutions to help with remote medical services, fintech companies from across the world are all-in when it comes to coping with the current global health crisis.

One of the key early posts on the impact of the coronavirus on financial services was put together by Jim Marous, co-publisher of The Financial Brand, owner of Digital Banking Report, and host of the Banking Transformed podcast. Looking at both negative and positive impacts of coronavirus on fintech, Marous’ How Will the Coronavirus Impact the Banking Ecosystem, is an excellent first stop.

Another worthwhile read is Ron Shevlin’s Forbes column, which lists fintech companies that are providing technology help during the crisis. The continuously updated list, started on March 23rd, currently has more than 125 companies that are “extending free, discounted, or accelerated deployment offers to financial institutions.”

Here’s a look at three ways that fintechs and financial services companies are doing their part to make a difference.

Safety First

In times of crisis, leadership is paramount. Much of the fear and anxiety that comes with tough times can be alleviated by giving people and institutions clear guidelines on what the best practices are in order to manage the challenge.

In this regard, credit to the American Bankers Association for their guidance to community banks, issued earlier this week, on the importance of communicating “early and often” with customers. As a dinosaur who still visits his bank branch a couple of times a month, I have found it fascinating – and a little disconcerting, at first – to watch my local bank transition from gloved bank tellers (and no more free cookies!) to drive-up service only.

With this in mind, the ABA both encouraged branches to emphasize their digital channels, as well as provided suggestions on how to make in-branch visits safer for those customers who still required that access. Similar recommendations on personal responsibility (“if you feel sick, stay home”) as well as social distancing were made for bank employees whose jobs require them to be physically onsite.

Go Digital

The trend toward cashlessness and digital currencies is one area of fintech that will be positively affected by the social distancing of the COVID-19 crisis. Both the central bank of Russia and the National Payment Corporation of India have urged citizens in their respective countries to use digital payments in lieu of cash to help stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Africa, where mobile payments have helped contribute to financial re-inclusion, is also finding these technologies to be a potential resource for supporting public health. With cash deemed a conduit for the spread of the coronavirus by the World Health Organization, countries where mobile payment technologies are emergent are likely to see an even more accelerated rate of mobile and digital payments adoption.

Note that Safaricom, the telecommunications company behind the region’s leading mobile money service, M-Pesa, announced that it would waive fees on all P2P transactions under $10 for three months. Mobile money services in Ghana also have been encouraged by the country’s central bank to waive fees and lower KYC requirements to ensure access.

Maybe the image of a dystopian future in which books are incinerated will be replaced by one where massive bundles of cash put to the figurative – if not literal – torch. ” ATM Marketplace’s David Jones recently reported a conversation with an analyst who granted that reports of cash being disinfected or burned in Asia are making a pretty good case for the future of contactless payments.

Serve Somebody

Conducting their normal operations is one of many challenges businesses are facing at present. Fortunately, firms like U.K.-based challenger bank NorthOne are providing free banking services to SMEs and restaurants during the crisis.

“Small business owners across the country are having incredibly hard conversations right now around the kitchen table and desperately trying to figure out how they can keep the lights on through this crisis,” NorthOne co-founder and CEO Eytan Bensoussan said. “The last thing they need to worry about is finding a branch or paying bank fees.”

But the loss of revenue due to the various lockdowns and stay-at-home orders issued in many countries is even more of an acute problem. While governments haggle over publicly-sourced solutions for small businesses, a group of U.K. fintechs in the lending business – Trade Ledger, Wisefunding, and NorthRow – have teamed up to offer a turnkey origination and underwriting platform to enable banks and lenders to digitally fund SMEs.

“The government’s capital injection is a massive boost to an underserved market at an extreme time of need,” Trade Ledger CEO Martin McCann said, “but it’s impact will be lost if lenders aren’t able go get these loans to their customers quickly.”

The technology community in general, and to some degrees fintech, as well, has come under various strains of criticism of late. From overvaluation to questions of work culture to concerns that the innovations of Silicon Valley increasingly cater to the young and affluent, many of these critiques have merit. But all that said, as many of these companies are showing, there may be in the current crisis an opportunity for technology – and fintech – to remind the world of its enduring value to us all.


We would be remiss not to highlight our Finovate alums that are offering their services and solutions to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. These alums include Alpharank, Banno, Cunexus, Datanomers, Digital Onboarding, Finovera, Finscend, Horizn, Hydrogen, Inspirave, Invest Sou Sou, Kasasa, Moxtra, Pinkaloo Technologies, Plinqit, Q2, StreetShares, Temenos, and Teslar Software.

Searching for Fintech’s Top Female Tech Talent

Searching for Fintech’s Top Female Tech Talent
Photo by Chelsi Peter from Pexels

The number of women in technology in general, and fintech in specific, is growing. That’s the good news.

As Julie Bort and Rachel Sandler wrote in their 2018 feature on female engineers for Business Insider, “for all the arm waving about the lack of women in STEM professions, the truth is, there are some powerful role-model female engineers having fabulous careers and creating tech used by millions, if not billions of people everyday.”

A report from consulting firm Korn Ferry supports this. The study, conducted last year and looking at the top 1,000 U.S. companies by revenue, noted an increase of 2% in the number of women who held the role of CIO or CTO last year. “The industry with the highest percentage of women CIOs/CTOs,” the report noted “is financial at 25%.”

By comparison, the number of women fulfilling the role of Chief Technology Officer within the tech industry remains fewer, maybe even far fewer, than you might suspect. By industry, Korn Ferry ranked technology behind financial, healthcare, retail, and consumer, besting only the services industry.

Women like Padmasree Warrior, who served as Cisco Systems’ CTO between 2007 and 2015 and, before that, as CTO for Motorola for four years, have been among the relatively few women at the top tier of technology leadership – especially at the largest tech companies. Elissa Murphy, at GoDaddy, Selina Tobaccowala at SurveyMonkey, and Raji Arasu at StubHub are just a few of the female CTOs in charge of technology at some of our economy’s newer, most innovative companies.

Pamela Rice, former SVP of Technology at OnDeck and current CTO of Earnest, during her presentation at FinDEVr Silicon Valley.

Turning to fintech – and our own experience at Finovate – a woman like Pamela Rice comes to mind. The former Senior Vice President of Technology at OnDeck who represented the company at our developers conference FinDEVr, Rice is currently Chief Technology Officer for Earnest. The San Francisco, California-based company she joined in 2019 provides consumer financing options for underbanked populations including recent college graduates. Last summer, she participated in a company-hosted, Tech Meet-Up on Diversity and Inclusion, sharing her thoughts on the value of making diversity “part of the DNA of everything you do.”

We took a look at how the fintech industry was faring in terms of female representation at the CTO level. There is still a great deal of progress to be made. Here is a sample of the women who are increasingly providing technical leadership for fintechs large and small.

Marianna TesselIntuit – With more than 20 years experience as a VP of Engineering for companies like Ariba, Docker, and VMWare, Tessel took the helm as Intuit’s Chief Technology Officer in January 2019.

Educated at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science – and having served as a captain in the Israeli Army – Tessel was praised by new Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi as a “transformational change agent” who has created “an engineering culture that has accelerated innovation.”

At Intuit, Tessel is responsible for leading the company’s product engineering, data science, information technology, and information security teams around the world. She first joined Intuit in 2017, leading product development for the firm’s Small Business and Self-Employed Group, including the company’s QuickBooks product family.

Rija JavedMarketFinance (formerly MarketInvoice) – After more than four years as an engineer for Wealthfront, including roles as Director and Senior Director, Javed joined U.K.-based MarketFinance as the company’s Chief Technology Officer in 2018. This made her one of the first female fintech CTOs in the country.

“Having Rija on board underlines our focus on hiring the best talent and building innovative technology to deliver business finance solutions,” MarketFinance CEO and Co-founder Anil Stocker said. “It’s the foundation we’ll use to help thousands of business(es) access funding quickly and easily.”

While at the Wealthfront, Javed built the company’s first mobile app. Transitioning to the company’s investment products platform, she helped scale Wealthfront’s offerings including the development of a new brokerage and banking platform. With degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto, Javed is also a mentor for the New York Academy of Sciences.

Ekate KuznetsovaToken Transit – Sometimes the only way for a woman to make sure that there’s a woman’s place at the tech table is to build the table herself. That’s the approach of Kuznetsova, who parlayed her experience in software engineering at Akamai and Google into launching a fintech startup of her own. Token Transit, for which Kuznetsova is founder, CEO, and Chief Technology Officer, provides mobile ticketing and payment verification solutions for public transportation.

Launched in 2016 and available in more than 75 cities in the U.S. and Canada, Token Transit enables people to pay for fares and passes with their credit, debit, or commuter benefits card and provides them with a digital ticket that is stored on their smartphone.

Kuznetsova earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied Mathematics and Computer Science.

While the ranks of female CTOs in fintech remains modest, it should be mentioned that there are women – from VPs of Engineering to Chief Scientists – who are not only currently leading tech teams, but also are likely among the CTOs of tomorrow. For a peek at one shortlist, check out Angie Chang’s spotlight on 21 female executives who could become one of the Fortune 100’s next CTOs.


Know a woman who’s driving technology innovation at one of your favorite fintechs? Send us a note at research@finovate.com!