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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
The week begins as platforms, websites, and applications around the world are reeling from a major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage. The impact, which affected more than 500 companies and generated millions of outage reports according to Downdetector, is among the most significant Internet disruptions since the Crowdstrike incident in 2024.
Meanwhile, here on Finovate’s Fintech Rundown, we’re looking at a handful of newly announced partnerships in payments and a pair of announcements in the crypto commerce space. Be sure to check back all week long for the latest in fintech headlines!
Insurtech boltlaunchesboltAI for Agencies, a conversational and workflow AI agent that brings automation to property and casualty (P&C) insurance firms.
Payment infrastructure provider Finzly announced an integration with Q2.
Finzly will bring its payment experience to Q2’s Digital Banking Platform, enabling financial institutions to offer their customers greater payments capabilities.
Both Finzly and Q2 won Best of Show awards at our all-digital conferences in 2020.
Finzly has announced an integration with fellow Finovate alum Q2 that will bring its payment experience to Q2’s Digital Banking Platform. This will enable financial institutions to offer their customers the ability to send and track a variety of payments, including cross-border, domestic, and instant payments—without having to leave the platform.
“In today’s connected world, businesses and consumers expect their banks to deliver seamless payment experiences. With fintechs setting new expectations for simplicity, speed, and transparency, banks and credit unions must be able to meet these demands effortlessly,” Finzly CEO and Founder Booshan Rengachari said. “By integrating Finzly’s solution into Q2’s Digital Banking Platform, we’re providing financial institutions with a simple, efficient way to offer exceptional payment experiences—including international payments—that exceed account holder expectations, without the need for a complex overhaul.”
A payments infrastructure provider for financial institutions, Finzly offers a payment experience that delivers real-time visibility, competitive FX rates, and built-in regulatory compliance and fraud monitoring. Importantly, the technology is “rail-agnostic,” supporting FedNow, RTP, Fedwire, ACH, and SWIFT. Integrated into the Q2 Digital Banking Platform, Finzly’s technology will help financial institutions expand their offerings, generate new revenues, and grow their customer base.
The integration was made possible by the Q2 Partner Accelerator Program. The program is a component of the Q2 Innovation Studio and enables in-demand financial services companies that are working with the Q2 SDK to pre-integrate their technology into the Q2 Digital Banking Platform. This makes it easy for banks and other financial institutions to collaborate with these companies, buy their solutions, and quickly deploy the technologies for their customers.
A Finovate alum since 2011, Q2 won Best of Show at our all-digital conference in 2020. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 offers a Digital Banking Platform that provides a range of secure, data-driven banking and lending solutions to banks, credit unions, fintechs, and other companies in financial services. Financial institutions using the company’s platform have reported 54% higher deposit growth, 48% higher loan growth, 27% higher revenue per employee, and 13% higher return on assets compared to companies that do not use the platform. This week, the company reported that Open Payment Network (OPN) has become the first integration partner for Q2 Instant Payments Manager, a solution designed to help financial institutions manage instant payments workflows.
Finzly made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019 and won Best of Show in its return to the Finovate stage the following year. Most recently demonstrating its technology at FinovateSpring 2022, Finzly showed how its bank operating system, FinzlyOS, can quickly launch a modern, digital bank equipped with direct connections to all the major payments networks—from ACH and wires to RTP, FedNow, and SWIFT. Earlier this month, the company announced that it is gearing up to support both stablecoin and tokenized deposits in response to a demand for these digital assets that the company described as “exponential.”
“The momentum behind stablecoins is undeniable, and we’re seeing remarkable interest from US banks who recognize this isn’t just a trend,” Rengachari said. “Financial institutions that prepare now with the right infrastructure will be positioned to capitalize on what could be a $2 trillion market by 2028, while those that wait risk being left behind in an increasingly digital financial ecosystem.”
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Finzly was founded in 2012.
Account activation company Pinwheel announced an integration with Q2’s Digital Banking Platform.
The integration will make it easier for Q2 customers to facilitate direct deposit switching as part of the account onboarding process.
Q2 won Best of Show at Finovate’s all-digital FinovateSpring event in 2021.
Frictionless account activation and engagement product provider Pinwheel announced an integration with Q2‘s Digital Banking Platform. The integration comes courtesy of Pinwheel’s participation in Q2’s Partner Acceleration Program, and will enable financial institutions to access income and employment data from Pinwheel’s data network of payroll providers. This coverage includes 1,800 platforms, representing up to 100% of US workers paid through direct deposit. The integration will empower banks and credit unions to offer their customers and members instant direct deposit switching as part of the account onboarding process.
“Removing friction from the deposit switching process is critical for financial institutions to boost activation rates and secure primacy,” Pinwheel Head of Revenue Brian Karimi-Pashaki said. “We’re thrilled to help Q2 customers take advantage of Pinwheel Deposit Switch by making it available through Q2’s Partner Acceleration Program. We are committed to helping credit unions and banks offer the best possible customer experience.”
In a statement, the companies highlighted research that indicated that 40% of newly opened accounts are never activated. One reason for this, according to the study by veteran banking analyst Jim Marous, was friction in the direct deposit switching process. By contrast, integrating Pinwheel’s technology with the Q2 Digital Banking Platform will give all Q2 customers the ability to embed one-click deposit switching.
Pinwheel began the year teaming up with digital banking provider Narmi to help Berkshire Bank launch its new service that enables customers reroute their direct deposits to their Berkshire accounts. Last month, Pinwheel partnered with human capital management software solutions provider Paychex to expand its PreMatch coverage to 45 million Americans.
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 made its Finovate debut in 2011, won Best of Show at our all-digital conference in 2020, and most recently demoed their technology on the Finovate stage at our all-digital FinovateSpring event in 2021. The company provides digital transformation solutions for banks, credit unions, fintechs, and other financial services companies in the US as well as around the world.
Earlier this month, Q2 announced that Signature Bank had selected the company as its new digital banking partner. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Illinois, the bank went live with Q2’s Digital Banking Platform as part of its overall digital banking transformation. In March, United Federal Credit Union reported that it had tripled member engagement within 12 months of deploying Q2 Composable Dashboard. Part of Q2 Engage, the company’s suite of consumer banking solutions, Q2 Composable Dashboard gives financial institutions curated dashboards and the ability to build personalized experiences.
Q2 is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker QTWO. The company has a market capitalization of $4.9 billion. Matthew Flake is CEO.
The week begins with news of investment in insurtech, financial wellness, and risk management. We are also seeing a number of new partnerships in payments and fraud prevention. Check back here all week long at Finovate’s Fintech Rundown for updates on the latest fintech headlines.
Digital banking solutions provider Apiture and digital solutions company Omnicommanderteam up to help banks and credit unions better communicate with their customers and members.
Gold Coast Federal Credit Union enlistsTyfone to accelerate digital transformation.
Crypto / Defi
Ripplepartners with currency exchange provider Unicâmbio to bring crypto-enabled cross-border payments to Portugal.
Insurtech
Australian digital-first insurance broking firm UpCoversecures $19 million in Series A funding.
Via its brand Polly, European digital insurance broker CLARKlaunches its first fully digital underwriting solution in the UK.
Financial software and technology company CSI partners with Mitek Systems to launch its proprietary check fraud detection solution for NuPoint customers.
Backbase and Feedzaiteam up to integrate advanced security capabilities into Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform.
Regtech and compliance
Sardine AIraises $70 million to make fraud and compliance teams more productive.
Investing / wealth management
Halal investment research platform Musaffalaunches new equity crowdfunding round.
BrightwaveintegratesQuartr’s global database of first-party information from public companies with its document analysis capabilities.
Datalignsecures $9 million Seed funding to accelerate AI-powered financial advisory solutions.
Lending and credit
FinastralaunchesAssist.AI, an AI-powered assistant to enhance the trade finance operations within its Trade Innovation solution.
The first week of April begins with a resolution in the Sam Bankman-Fried saga as the former FTX founder and infamous crypto entrepreneur receives a sentence of 25 years in prison.
Crypto
Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison for its role in the FTX scandal.
Q2 is leveraging Bits of Stock’s technology to help its financial institution clients reward their customers with fractional shares of stock.
The partnership was made possible through the Q2 Partner AcceleratorProgram, which makes it easy for fintechs to reach Q2’s financial institution clients.
Bits of Stock showcased its rewards platform alongside its client OMB Bank at FinovateFall last year.
Q2’s financial services clients have a new way to reward their consumers. That’s because fractional stock rewards platform Bits of Stock has teamed up with the digital banking and lending solutions company.
With Q2’s Digital Banking Platform, Q2’s financial services clients can offer their customers fractional stock when they redeem loyalty points or as a reward for certain activities like making a transaction with their debit or credit card, opening an account, applying for a loan, or making a deposit.
“We are pleased to welcome Bits of Stock to the Q2 Partner Accelerator program,” said Q2 Innovation Studio Managing Director Johnny Ola. “Financial Institutions now can offer fractional stocks as rewards on account spend and activity.”
Bits of Stock aims to help community financial institutions and credit unions engage their accountholders by rewarding them with fractional shares of their choice of stock. This enables younger users to build up their stock portfolios by microinvesting. In addition to today’s partnership with Q2, the New York-based company also has partnerships with Jack Henry, OMB Bank, Strata Credit Union, Gravy Stack, and others.
“This partnership is a value multiplier for customers, Q2, and Bits of Stock,” said Bits of Stock CEO Arash Asady. “Both companies are committed to finding innovative ways to empower financial services for consumers at scale.”
The partnership was made possible through the Q2 Partner AcceleratorProgram, an initiative within the Q2 Innovation Studio that allows financial services companies like Bits of Stock to leverage Q2’s SDK to integrate their technology into the Q2 Digital Banking Platform. The program not only creates an easy way for third party fintechs to integrate into Q2’s platform, but it also helps Q2’s bank clients leverage a wide range of new solutions that they can quickly deploy to their customers.
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 claims more than 40% of the top 10 banks in the U.S. as customers. The company’s platform reaches one out of 10 digital banking customers in America. Q2 went public in 2014 and is now traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker QTWO, and has a market capitalization of more than $2.43 billion.
Bits of Stock showcased its rewards platform alongside its client OMB Bank at FinovateFall last year. The two demoed OMB Bank’s Stock Rewards Checking Account that rewards cardholders in the fractional stock of their choice every time they swipe their card. Bits of Stock was founded in 2016 and has received $5.9 million in funding.
The new tool helps banks manage workflows for instant payment schemes, including Clearing House RTP and Federal Reserve FedNow rails.
The Instant Payments Manager supports multiple functions, including Request for Payment, Request for Information, Credit Transfer, and Receipt Confirmation messages.
Digital banking solutions provider Q2 Holdingsunveiled its Q2 Instant Payments Manager this week. The new tool helps banks manage workflows for instant payment schemes, including Clearing House RTP and Federal Reserve FedNow rails.
The Clearing House has offered its real-time payment (RTP) rails since 2017 and the U.S. Federal Reserve is planning to launch its FedNow RTP solution this summer. The new capabilities have many U.S. firms seeking to integrate real-time payment flows into their systems to not only keep up with competing banks, but also with customer expectations. For both of these instant payment message sets, Q2’s new solution supports multiple functions, including Request for Payment, Request for Information, Credit Transfer, and Receipt Confirmation messages.
“Q2 Instant Payments Manager solves the challenges many businesses face around partial B2B payments and exchanging invoice data between billers and payers,” said Q2 SVP of Product Management Dallas Wells. “The new solution will modernize B2B payment flows and provide a competitive advantage for banks and credit unions striving for operating account deposits in a crowded commercial banking market.”
The Q2 Instant Payments Manager is a part of the company’s Q2 Catalyst, a set of commercial banking solutions. Q2 anticipates today’s offering will help banks improve their accounts receivable and payable processes by reducing the times to post and reconcile B2B payments.
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 offers a range of digital financial solutions for consumers, business clients, and fellow fintechs. The company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker QTWO, and has a market capitalization of more than $1.36 billion.
The topic of RTP among banks and fintechs has gained major headway in the U.S. this year. Earlier this week, Plaidunveiled its Instant Payouts solution. The multi-rail payout tool enables a range of financial services firms– including verticals like personal lending, marketplaces, insurance, brokerages, and digital investment platforms– to send funds instantly, 24/7 within Plaid’s Transfer product.
From a collaboration with Visa to a partnership with Q2, new Finovate alum Veem, which made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall, continues to offer the kind of solutions to help make business payments easy, efficient, and affordable.
In fact, within one month of the company’s first-ever demo on the Finovate stage – a presentation of Veem’s Partner Connect product – the San Francisco, California-based company inked two major deals with some of the most innovative companies in financial services and digital banking.
Veem’s partnership with Visa, announced in the first half of October, will give the company’s 400,000+ customers access to a new SMB Visa card program, as well as digital money movement capabilities courtesy of Visa’s real-time push payments platform, Visa Direct. The agreement will enable Veem customers to generate and issue virtual Visa payment cards that can be used to cover business costs ranging from payments to suppliers to more general business expenses. The virtual card program, along with Veem’s spend management tools, also provides reconciliation and other financial benefits to help customers further digitize and streamline their operations. Access to Visa Direct will give Veem’s U.S. clients the ability to send money directly to both bank accounts and eligible Visa cards in more than 160 currencies.
“Visa is renowned for having broad network acceptance both domestically and internationally,” Veem CEO Marwan Forzley said. “Our collaboration helps Veem expand digital payment options for our customers, as we continue to build the next generation global solution for businesses.”
Veem also last month announced that it was teaming up with digital banking innovator Q2. The partnership is geared toward taking the friction out of the accounts payable/accounts receivable process for SMEs by making Veem’s AP/AR automation platform available to the 450+ financial institutions and 1.5 million businesses on Q2’s digital banking platform.
“This partnership with Veem gives our Financial institutions the ability to deliver Veem’s modern payment services to SMB customers with agility and reliability,” Q2 Innovation Studio Managing Director Johnny Ola said. “Businesses are looking for embedded solutions that act as a one-stop-shop to conduct all their day-to-day transactions. With our integration with Veem, we are excited to give our financial institution customers the option to offer small businesses innovative technology solutions.”
The two collaborations were only part of a very busy autumn for Veem, which was founded n 2014. Also last month, the company appointed Jeff Revoy as Chief Growth Officer and Travis Green as Vice President of Product Management. Revoy brings 20 years of CEO, President, and C-level experience at a number of public and VC-backed firms. Previous to his joining Veem, Revoy was Chief Operating Officer for SpaceIQ, a real estate workplace management software company he founded in 2016 that was acquired by WeWork in the summer of 2019.
In September, Veem secured $31 million in strategic funding in a round led by Truist Ventures. The company said in a statement that the capital will help it develop a robust channel partner program to broaden the company’s geographic footprint. The investment takes the company’s total equity funding to just over $100 million.
“This funding round marks an important milestone for the company, putting us in an ideal position to build out our channel partner program and prepare for Veem’s next stage of global growth,” Forzley said when the investment was announced. “Our channel partner network serves as our vehicle to better commercialize our product offering and further expand upon our market development efforts.”
As Veem’s FinovateFall debut showed, the development of its channel partner program has already borne fruit. At the conference, Veem’s Revoy and Connor Grilo demonstrated a new minimal code integration – Partner Connect – that enables banks to offer their clients an all-in-one, global payments platform designed for small and mid-sized businesses that keeps the bank’s branding at the forefront. The solution is integrated with the major accounting platforms so that, with a couple of clicks, users can reconcile what they are sending out from or receiving in Veem with their accounting software.
“There’s no back and forth, there’s no trying to keep two separate systems,” Revoy said from the Finovate stage. “All of this is automated and designed in a way so that, as a business owner, it can be fast, it can save you time, hopefully it will save you money, and will save you a lot of headaches, because everything is tied together.”
A strategic partnership between Finovate alums Q2 and Plaid will give 18 million consumers across more than 500 banks and credit unions the ability to access 5,500+ fintech apps and other digital banking features. The alliance, announced today, combines Q2’s digital banking platform and Plaid’s open finance platform, Plaid Exchange. The goal is to provide customers with a secure and reliable way to both connect accounts to digital apps and services, as well as give them the tools to manage these connections.
“At Plaid, we believe all consumers should have access to digital financial services, regardless of where they bank, and the Q2 team shares this same mission,” Plaid director of strategic partnerships Reed Bouchelle said.
The partnership also will enable Q2’s financial institution customers to leverage Plaid’s APIs to give accountholders fast, easy, and secure digital account funding. New customers will be able to save time and effort by linking their bank accounts during the account opening process to fund new accounts in seconds rather than days.
“Our partnership extends beyond data access,” Bouchelle continued. “With Plaid, Q2 financial institutions will enable consumers to more easily fund new accounts and see a holistic view of spending and net worth across all of their financial accounts,” he said. Bouchelle credited a quartet of Plaid solutions – Exchange, Auth, Identity, and Transactions – for ensuring the comprehensive nature of the new functionality.
Q2 Chief Technology Officer Adam Blue highlighted the needs of financial institutions serving diverse communities in emphasizing the importance of the partnership with Plaid. “To stay competitive in the market, and provide unparalleled customer experiences,” Blue said, “FIs need to offer the services their customers expect. By integrating Q2’s digital banking platform with Plaid Exchange, Q2’s financial institutions will be able to effectively partner with fintechs while providing improved end-user experiences to their customers.”
Austin, Texas-based Q2 was founded in 2004 and made its Finovate debut (as Q2ebanking) at FinovateSpring seven years later. The digital banking and lending solution provider went public in spring of 2014 under the ticker symbol QTWO, and currently has a market capitalization of $4.8 billion. The company’s Plaid partnership announcement comes just weeks after Q2 inked a deal with Stanford Federal Credit Union ($3.6 billion in assets; 77,000 members) to deploy both its digital banking platform and its Q2 Innovation Studio. Q2 also recently announced core processing partnerships with b1BANK ($3.9 billion in assets), Citizens Bank of Edmond ($350 million in assets), and fellow Finovate alum Moven.
Financial data network Plaid works with more than 11,000 financial institutions to ensure broad access to the thousands of digital financial services built on its platform. Making its Finovate debut in 2014 as a presenter at FinDEVr SiliconValley where the company demonstrated its “API for Financial Infrastructure,” Plaid has become synonymous with the movement to democratize digital finance. The company secured a Series D extension – amount undisclosed – from American Express and JP Morgan in August and, later that month, announced a new partnership with advanced bank-to-bank transfer solutions company Astra. Earlier this month, Plaid announced a collaboration with Silicon Valley Bank to make the institution the first to offer ACH account token integration with its technology.
“With Silicon Valley Bank,” Plaid Head of Revenue and Partnerships Paul Williamson said when the partnership was announced, “thousands of fintech innovators now have access to an integrated payment processing solution that combines the power of SVB and Plaid to deliver seamless, convenient digital finance experiences.”
Plaid was founded in 2013 by William Hockey and Zachary Perret (CEO). The company achieved unicorn status in 2018 after securing a $250 million Series C investment that gave the San Francisco, California-based firm a valuation of $2.65 billion.
Moven’s platform is powered by core processing technology from fellow Finovate alum Q2. CorePro, as the technology is named, will give these community banks the ability to build a solution with a front-end based on financial wellness and a backend able to interact with a variety of legacy core systems.
Keith Mansfield, Chief Operating Officer with the Louisiana-based b1 BANK, underscored how the partnership with Moven will enable the institution to offer its customers new tools to enhance their financial wellness. Mansfield added that working with Moven will also help the $3.9 billion AUM bank gain the kind of customer insights that will enable it to “compete with both larger banks and fintech competitors.”
Citizens Bank of Edmond ($350 million in assets) CEO and President Jill Castilla was even more direct, highlighting both the importance of “deliver(ing) exceptional products and exceptional customer service in an increasingly digital manner” as well as the key role that community banks play in the financial lives of a sizable number of individuals and families.
“No one is more skilled at developing relationships and meeting customer needs than community banks,” Castilla explained. She praised both Moven and Q2 as companies that not only understood this reality but also were “committed to bringing a first-class digital experience to underbanked and underserved communities in need.”
The initiative announced this week is not the first time Moven and Q2 have collaborated. Most recently, in the fall of 2020, the two companies teamed up to offer a turn-key digital bank-in-a-box that can be deployed by financial institutions in as few as 30 days. Combining financial data aggregation and savings tools from Moven with Q2’s CorePro cloud processing technology, the new offering provides real-time alerts and notifications, the ability to issue savings and demand deposit accounts, as well as instant external account verification, wishlist savings, and an emergency account.
“Community financial institutions are frustrated with their legacy core provider(s) and want flexibility and affordability in delivering solutions that empower the consumer,” said Bryan Clagett, industry expert and advisor who helped bring Moven and Q2 together for the project. “Digital banking, as we know it, is evolving quickly and bringing together fintech organizations that have complementary competencies is key to the future of the financial services industry.”
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Q2 offers CorePro, a light-weight core processing platform, to power its Banking-as-a-Service and Digital Bank-in-a-Box services for fintechs and FIs.
Features
Real-time updates to the core
Low cost basis means increased account profitability
Unlimited sub-account creation
Why it’s great CorePro is proven at scale.
Presenters
Rahm McDaniel, VP Strategic Solutions McDaniel is VP of Strategic Solutions and an entrepreneur. He has been in the technology industry for 22 years. He joined Q2 in 2013. LinkedIn
Brett King, Founder, Moven King is a world-renowned futurist and speaker, bestselling author, and Founder & Executive Chairman of Moven, a start-up, with the world’s first mobile, downloadable bank account. LinkedIn
Digital banking services company Q2 is getting a boost today. The Texas-based company announced it has acquired Minnesota-based ClickSWITCH.
As part of the agreement, Q2 will integrate ClickSWITCH’s account switching software-as-a-service solution into its product offerings. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2014, ClickSWITCH offers its 450 financial institution clients an account switching solution for their end customers. The company leverages direct integrations with thousands of employers, payroll providers, and financial institutions to help users switch their direct deposits and automatic payments to new accounts. The client onboarding process, as a result, is simplified significantly.
Q2 anticipates the purchase will help its bank clients attract and retain new primary account holders. “We also believe that with ClickSWITCH we can help our customers provide their account holders with a more streamlined, frictionless experience, by offering an end-to-end digital customer acquisition, onboarding, and account switching solution,” added Q2 CEO Matt Flake.
Q2 will not only benefit from exposure to ClickSWITCH’s client base, but will also offer its existing banking-as-a-service clients more deposits, decreased client acquisition cost, and the potential for growth from an increase in cross-selling.
“As a combined force, we look forward to solving a fundamental issue that banks, credit unions, and fintech companies face – managing the complexity and administrative burden of account switching – by providing the most comprehensive and differentiated digital account switching solution in the market,” said ClickSWITCH Founder and CEO Cale Johnston. “We are delighted to be joining the Q2 team and look forward to delivering best-in-class financial solutions.”
