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Elevating the Banking Experience for All: Our Conversation with Sarah Murray of Compliance Systems

Elevating the Banking Experience for All: Our Conversation with Sarah Murray of Compliance Systems
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Interview, Speaker series, Women in Fintech

One of the areas of fintech that has benefitted significantly from the rise of enabling technologies like AI and machine learning is compliance. From reducing the role of manual labor via automation to streamlining complex processes to make rules easier for companies to follow, both regtech firms and compliance teams alike play a major role in ensuring the fintech innovations we enjoy are safe, do what they say they’ll do, and are as available to as many eligible consumers as possible.

We caught up with Sarah Murray, who leads the Deposit Product Team at Compliance Systems. She talked about the impact technology is having on the field of compliance, and discussed the key challenges that Compliance Systems is helping its 1,800 financial institution clients overcome.

How did you get started in fintech? What has led you to where you are today in your career?

Sarah Murray: Before fintech, I was practicing law in private practice, and I just knew I was ready to be out of the courtroom and do something different with my legal career. I started at Compliance Systems eight years ago as a product specialist and counsel; now I am happy to have led the product team for the last five years. I love my job because no two days are the same. I never thought I would spend some days researching legal topics and reviewing regulations, and other days reviewing code and testing software, but I love the challenge each day brings.

Tell us about the work you do for Compliance Systems.

Murray: I lead our deposit product team at Compliance Systems, which consists of attorneys, business analysts, software developers, and quality control specialists who all work toward the common goal of delivering compliant and innovative products to our 1,800 financial institution clients. I love the mixture of technology with the law and getting to keep my legal hat that I went to school for by delivering compliance solutions through technology to our clients.

What are your thoughts on the way technology is helping companies keep up with the changing regulatory environment?

Murray: Overall, I think it’s the job of technology to streamline and simplify, regardless of which industry we’re talking about. In the case of fintech and regulatory compliance, that means automating repetitive and high-risk compliance processes. It also means demystifying regulations where we can for the benefit of the consumers that those regulations are intended to protect.

Our proprietary research engine tool enables us to provide proactive and update-to-date compliance, and our team is constantly monitoring and tracking what is happening in the legal and regulatory spaces in real-time to ensure we can deliver timely compliance solutions to our clients. Our software provides updates through our cloud-hosted solutions, and our compliance safety net tool also provides interactive features that help our clients complete compliant transactions and provide a better level of customer service.

How has this evolved and how do you see it continuing to evolve leading into 2023?

Murray: The market has evolved through financial institutions rethinking compliance and needing to deliver a solution that meets their customers [and] members where they are: on their phones. We deliver compliance in a way that makes sense in a mobile-first environment and develop content with that in mind. This model isn’t necessarily what financial institutions are used to, but it is what customers [and] members strongly prefer: easily navigable, mobile-friendly content.

Financial institutions are telling us they want a single, streamlined approach for a customer, regardless of the channel (e.g. whether it be in branch or online). So, we’ve created a solution that satisfies the requests of both parties. You can open accounts through the same process as you would in a branch location, but on a mobile device with ease.

What challenges are you hearing in conversations with clients? What technologies are resonating most? 

Murray: Our Simplicity Mobile, a mobile-first account opening solution, has been highly successful because it has helped address some of the main pain points for our clients. They communicated that they are looking to have a more streamlined, efficient, and consumer-friendly workflow to open accounts and to reduce friction in that process to avoid abandonment. This solution completed that challenge by offering native HTML content that a financial institution can include within their account opening workflow, and by supporting “click to sign” functionality.

Another challenge we are hearing from clients involves their treasury management solutions. Treasury management operations are a vital component of a bank or credit union’s commercial services, but the content needed to properly document this business can require costly outside counsel or consume internal resources that put a strain on operations. Also, financial institutions are looking for a better, more streamlined way to sign up their customers for their treasury services. They don’t want to have to create and maintain separate contracts for each treasury service and are looking to avoid inundating customers with multiple contracts and documents.

Our delivery model ensures that our clients will always be in compliance and our technology delivers the configurability needed for a treasury management solution, as many aren’t looking for a “one size fits all” fix. Our solution helps minimize operational and compliance risks for our clients while also providing a central hub for all compliance-related updates and content within our solution. Furthermore, our solution offers one master services agreement for treasury services to help improve a customer’s enrollment experience.

Are there any tips you would like to share on providing strong leadership in a male-dominated industry?

Murray: A few tips I have are to be passionate about what you do and work with integrity; work hard to deliver what you say you will do when you say you will do it; don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo and be an advocate for yourself and others. A big thing at Compliance Systems is that we believe in reinvesting in our products based on what we have learned from our clients and the industry. I would say it is important to have that mentality yourself as you grow. Learn from mistakes. Learn from what works. Learn from your colleagues and clients. Together as an industry, we can elevate the banking experience for all.

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Wells Fargo Launches Small Dollar Digital Financing Solution, Flex Loan

Wells Fargo Launches Small Dollar Digital Financing Solution, Flex Loan
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Wells Fargo
  • Wells Fargo launched a new small dollar digital financial solution called Flex Loan this week.
  • The new offering provides loans of $250 and $500, with a flat fee of $12 and $20, respectively.
  • Available in selected markets now, Flex Loan will be available nationwide by the end of the year.

Certainty, simplicity, and clarity are among the virtues of Wells Fargo’s new small dollar digital financing solution, Flex Loan. The new product is a digital, small dollar loan of either $250 or $500 with a flat fee of $12 or $20, respectively. Available only in select markets now, Flex Loans will be introduced across the U.S. by year’s end. Wells Fargo indicated that Flex Loan is part of the financial services company’s efforts to help customers meet short-term cash needs and avoid potential overdrafts.

“What makes Flex Loan different from other payment options is its certainty of approval for eligible customers, the simplicity of obtaining funds in minutes, and clarity around how much it will cost to pay for things like holiday gifts, travel, or an unexpected home or car repair expense,” Head of Personal Lending and Retail Services for Wells Fargo Abeer Bhatia said.

Eligible customers will see the Flex Loan offer in their Wells Fargo mobile banking apps. Once customers take out a Flex Loan and establish their repayment plan (four equal monthly installments), the funds are available in customers’ Wells Fargo account within seconds. Customers can then use the funds via their Wells Fargo debit cards for payments or purchases. There are no applications, late charges, or interest fees.

Flex Loan joins a trio of options announced by Wells Fargo in January that are designed to help customers better manage short-term cash needs. These options are: Early Pay Day, Extra Day Grace Period, and Clear Access Banking. Early Pay Day gives Wells Fargo customers access to eligible direct deposits up to two days in advance. Extra Day Grace Period adds an extra business day to make deposits to avoid overdraft fees. Clear Access Banking offers customers a checkless banking account with no overdraft fees.

With $1.9 trillion in assets, Wells Fargo & Company provides financial services to one in three U.S. households and more than 10% of U.S. small businesses. Wells Fargo is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker WFC, and has a market capitalization of $176 billion. Charles W. Scharf has been CEO of the bank since 2019.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

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Square to Offer American Express Credit Card for Sellers

Square to Offer American Express Credit Card for Sellers
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: American Express, Daily news
  • Square is launching a credit card for its small business clients.
  • The American Express card will be powered by i2c and issued by Celtic Bank.
  • There is no word yet on a launch date, but Square said that more details will be released next year.

Move over, Brex, Divvy, and Ramp. Square is getting in on the business credit card game. The mobile payments company announced today it is expanding on its existing partnership with American Express to launch a new credit card that will be tailored for Square’s merchant clients.

Square already offers a small suite of banking tools, including checking, savings, and loans, but this is the company’s first ever credit card offering. Adding a credit card to the mix will not only round out Square’s in-house banking options, it will also help it compete in the increasingly profitable business banking arena.

“Small businesses can struggle to find fair and simple solutions for their credit needs. Square has spent years building a successful lending program to eliminate this barrier for sellers, and we’re uniquely positioned to innovate even further in this space to expand access to new types of credit products,” said Square Banking General Manager Luke Voiles. “We wanted to create a product on a payment network that has a strong track record of supporting small merchants, making this card a natural progression of our existing relationship with American Express.”

As with most fintechs that offer a credit card, Square is tapping a third party, i2c, to power the credit card offering, which will be issued by Celtic Bank.

According to Square, the credit card will integrate directly into the company’s banking suite to help businesses manage their cashflow and offer them visibility into their business’ finances. At the moment, there are not many details about the new American Express credit card, including the launch date, rewards benefits, or cost. However, Square said it will provide more information next year.

The only thing surprising about this announcement is how late to the game Square is. Square launched in 2009 when fintech was still in its infancy. The company debuted its lending arm in 2014 and remained relatively quiet until the challenger banking boom last year when it unveiled its savings and checking accounts.

In comparison, one of the largest challengers in the business banking arena, Brex, was founded in 2017. The company launched its business credit card offering in 2018 and was an overnight success. Multiple other new players joined in, including Ramp, Divvy, and Expensify. Perhaps Square plans to rely on its existing customer base to give it a competitive edge against the competition. The company had more than 64 million business clients as of 2020.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

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5 Tales from the Crypto: FTX Fallout and Making the Case for Keeping the Faith

5 Tales from the Crypto: FTX Fallout and Making the Case for Keeping the Faith
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, List series

FTX Files for Chapter 11

The fallout over the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX continues. On Friday, the embattled company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, noting that it had in excess of 100,000 creditors – before amending its filing days later to report that the number of creditors might be more than one million.

While 2022 has been a dark year for a number of cryptocurrency companies, none have suffered as FTX has. With a valuation of $32 billion and more than one million users, FTX was the third largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume last year. But all of this came crashing down earlier this month. When rival Binance learned that FTX partner Alameda Research had much of its assets in FTX’s token FTT, Binance began selling its holdings of FTT. This resulted in more selling, in what some observers have called the equivalent of a bank run, which demolished the value of FTT and created a serious liquidity crisis for FTX. An aborted plan by Binance to buy FTX gave the company few alternatives to the bankruptcy declaration it made late last week.

What’s next? The FTX crisis has reached the recrimination stage, with even the company’s performance coach weighing in. (You can read Dr. Lerner’s response to rather lurid allegations about the behavior of the company’s senior executives. Spoiler: he refers to the company’s Bahamas headquarters as a “pretty tame place”). A sizeable swathe of celebrities – from NFL star quarterback Tom Brady to supermodel Gisele Bundchen- who served as brand ambassadors for FTX are also finding themselves under scrutiny – and worse.

And speaking of scrutiny, it appears as if the FBI is in discussions with the Bahamian authorities on extraditing FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to the United States for questioning.

Et tu, BlockFi?

Is cryptocurrency lender BlockFi now endangered due to the crisis at FTX? Media reports from The Wall Street Journal indicate that the company, launched in 2017 and headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, may be considering bankruptcy.

Why? According to reports, BlockFi admitted that while it did not keep the majority of its assets at FTX, the firm did have deposits on the company’s platform, as well as an undrawn line of credit from FTX “and obligations that FTX owed it.” BlockFi has suspended customer withdrawals in the wake of the FTX collapse, is limiting platform activity, and also is reportedly planning to layoff an unspecified number of workers.

BlockFi has not responded to the reporting from The Wall Street Journal at this time. A message at the company’s website reads: “BlockFi is not able to operate business as usual. We have limited platform activity, including pausing client withdrawals as allowed under our Terms. We request that clients not deposit to BlockFi Wallet or Interest Accounts at this time.”

Anthony Pompliano Makes Crypto’s Case

Entrepreneur and investor Anthony Pompliano was interviewed on CNBC’s Overtime program Tuesday afternoon. Asked about the FTX situation, Pompliano made an impassioned case for the future of cryptocurrencies. Pompliano also argued that the American market-based system is the only place where this kind of innovation – and accountability – is possible.

Pompliano runs investment firm Pomp Investments. He was formerly co-founder and partner with Morgan Creek Digital Assets, and Managing Partner with Full Tilt Capital. Pompliano also was a Product Manager at Facebook where he led the growth team for Facebook Pages, and helped launch solutions including AMBER Alerts and Voter Registration. He is the author of a daily email newsletter of business, finance, and Bitcoin called “Pomp Letter.”

Plug and Play Launches Crypto Program

At a time when so many are down on cryptocurrencies, it may be reassuring to hear news that innovation platform Plug and Play is keeping the faith.

In collaboration with founding partners Visa, AllianceBlock, The INX Digital Company, IGT, and Franklin Templeton, Plug and Play has launched its new Crypto and Digital Assets program in Silicon Valley. The goal of the program is to help startups around the world that are innovating in the crypto and digital asset spaces to connect with the program’s aforementioned founding partners to help them pilot their solutions. The program has four main focus areas: stablecoin adoption, decentralized finance, crypto economics, and enterprise blockchain.

“Not only will this unique partnership offer deeper connections on the West Coast and Silicon Valley, but it will also allow us to put our leadership and expertise to work as we advise companies on the benefits of participating in the rapidly growing ecosystem of blockchain, tokenization, and cryptocurrency,” INX Chief Business Officer Douglas Borthwick said.

Companies interested in participating in the Plug and Play Crypto and Digital Assets program are being encouraged to apply.

Binance Battles On

With its decision to acquire FTX now a thing of the past, blockchain company Binance is back to focusing on its own organic growth.

The company announced at midweek that it has secured a license from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). This license — a Financial Services Permission (FSP) — will enable Binance to offer digital and virtual asset custody services to professional clients that meet the FSRA’s conditions for FSP.

“Obtaining this license is a pivotal step in the growth of Binance in Abu Dhabi, and a reflection of the city’s progressive stance on virtual assets,” Binance (AD) Senior Executive Officer Dominic Longman said. “We are excited to continue to strengthen our symbiotic relationship with ADGM and the city of Abu Dhabi and look forward to providing institutional investors with a secure and reliable platform for their virtual asset activities.”

ADGM’s FSRA issued its virtual asset regulatory framework in 2018. ADGM Chairman Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi said that the framework is a core part of ADGM’s goal of supporting fintech innovation in the financial sector and “reinforcing the UAE’s status as a rapidly accelerating global crypto marketplace, with Abu Dhabi and the ADGM as the engine room powering this growth.”

Finovate has held two fintech conferences in the UAE in recent years: an inaugural event in 2018 and a second conference the following year in 2019. Read more about fintech in developing economies in our weekly Finovate Global column, published on Fridays.

Photo by Pixabay

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Railsr Taps Featurespace for Fraud Prevention

Railsr Taps Featurespace for Fraud Prevention
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Featurespace

Embedded finance platform Railsr is teaming up with fraud prevention company Featurespace this week to bolster fraud prevention efforts for Railsr as a company, as well as for its clients.

Railsr will leverage Featurespace’s ARIC Risk Hub, combined with its own fraud teams, to provide its clients with a compliance tool to stay on top of regulations. The fraud tools will be available to Railsr clients with a single integration, making it easier for them to focus on growth while remaining compliant.

“As the market accelerates towards embedded finance, consumers expect a frictionless payment experience that is built into the transaction process. With Featurespace’s AI and ML capabilities, Railsr can provide an enhanced level of customer experience, making consumers’ lives simpler and safer,” said Railsr Global Head of Product for Fincrime and Operations Stuart Hartley.

The ARIC Risk Hub will enable Railsr customers to view and manage their fraud analytics, as well as offer them a single place to access Featurespace’s fraud and AML (FRAML) solutions.

“The Railsr platform is a natural fit for Featurespace,” said Featurespace Chief Commercial Officer Matt Mills. “As embedded finance increasingly becomes expected by consumers, making sure they are protected from fraud and financial crime must be expected in equal measure. Railsr have recognized this early and added a critical layer of self-learning technology to ensure their customers get only the best experience.”

Railsr anticipates the new fraud tools will be available within the next year.

Today’s news comes amid a string of high-profile partnerships for Featurespace last month, including with BBVA, Diebold Nixdorf, and Global Processing Services. Featurespace has more than 30 major bank clients including four of the five largest banks in the U.K. Among Featurespace’s customers are HSBC, TSYS, Worldpay, RBS NatWest Group, Danske Bank, ClearBank, and more.

Founded in 2005 by a university professor and his PhD student, Featurespace has raised $108 million, including its most recent investment of $37 million received in 2020.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

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Brightwell Launches Cross-Border Payments Solution

Brightwell Launches Cross-Border Payments Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Brightwell is launching a new cross-border payments solution called ReadyRemit.
  • Integrating ReadyRemit will enable Brightwell customers to help their end clients send money to 90% of the world’s population.
  • The new tool is leveraging partnerships with Mastercard and The Bancorp Bank.

Payments technology company Brightwell unveiled its new cross-border payments solution today. The new offering, ReadyRemit, is a cross-border-payments-as-a-service tool.

Powered via partnerships with Mastercard and The Bancorp Bank, ReadyRemit will enable Brightwell’s business and fintech clients to offer their end customers a cross-border payments solution with built-in compliance capabilities. The new tool aims to be faster than traditional money transfer tools, taking place in near-real time or on the same day the transfer was initiated.

“Our partnership with The Bancorp Bank, N.A., and Mastercard will enable customers to build a new revenue stream by offering low-to-no-code platform integrations containing everything needed to launch a global payments program in as little as 30 days,” said Brightwell Senior Vice President Hal Ramakers.

ReadyRemit will enable Brightwell’s clients to send payments to 90% of the world’s population and to more than 100 countries. Clients can make a range of payment types, including B2B, B2P, P2P, and P2B, and send the funds to 280,000 cash payout locations, including bank accounts, mobile wallets, and cash-out locations.

“Our Cross-Border Services enable fast, smart, and simple access to funds whenever and
wherever you are,” said Mastercard Senior Vice President, Debit, North America Vickie Van Meir.
“Our work with Brightwell supports a reliable, equitable payments experience, broadening
financial access around the world.”

Brightwell offers a suite of payment products that includes a corporate expense program, global payroll service, an ATM program, fraud protection, and more. The company launched as a division of West Suburban Bank in Chicago, Illinois in 2009 under the name Prepaid Solutions. In 2011, the company split from West Suburban Bank, rebranded to Brightwell, and moved its headquarters location to Atlanta, Georgia.

Photo by Photoholgic on Unsplash

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Bank of the West Turns to Extend for Virtual Cards and Spend Management

Bank of the West Turns to Extend for Virtual Cards and Spend Management
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Extend
  • Virtual card and spend management platform Extend announced a partnership with Bank of the West.
  • The collaboration will enable small and medium-sized businesses to take advantage of virtual card technology to enhance spend management.
  • Extend made its Finovate debut three years ago at FinovateSpring 2019, demoing its platform, app, and APIs.

Virtual card and spend management innovator Extend has teamed up with Bank of the West. The collaboration will enable Bank of the West’s small and medium-sized business clients to leverage Extend’s technology to create and control digital company cards and enhance spend management.

Bank of the West cardholders will be able to sign up for Extend in a process that does not require any technical integration. After enrolling their commercial cards, SME users can access Extend online or through a mobile device to create unique virtual cards; send virtual cards to workers, vendors, suppliers, and others directly from the application; attach purchase orders and receipts to transactions; and manage recurring expenses and subscriptions. Companies will be able to provide employees with a budget for issuing virtual cards, and virtual cards can be approved, modified, or canceled at any time.

“Bank of the West is committed to optimizing B2B payments, and our relationship with Extend offers our clients an efficient, easy-to-use solution for better spend management,” Bank of the West Managing Director Dominique Fracchia said. “Using Extend and their Bank of the West cards, businesses can create, distribute, and manage virtual cards to pay vendors, empower employees, track spending, and more.”

The offering is designed to bring the benefits of virtual cards and spend management to small and medium-sized businesses. Extend’s technology helps SMEs manage vendor payments, reconciliation, and other tedious and manual – but essential – payment tasks. In addition to saving time and boosting efficiency, Extend’s solution also helps businesses obtain real-time insights into – as well as real-time control over – company card spending.

“With Extend, Bank of the West is delivering new spend management capabilities that ensure its clients don’t wonder who paid what, when, why, or to whom,” Extend CEO and co-founder Andrew Jamison said. “This is what clients need from payments technology today – the power to run their businesses better, with the support of their preferred financial partners.”

New York-based Extend made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2019. The company demoed its virtual card distribution platform, its app – which instantly gives employees access to virtual cards – and its APIs that enable fintechs to take advantage of the technology. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $54 million in funding from investors including March Capital, Point72 Ventures, and FinTech Collective.

Bank of the West is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has more than 600 branches and commercial banking offices in the midwest and western United States. A subsidiary of French banking group BNP Paribas, Bank of the West has more than $94 billion in assets and 1.7 million customers. Nandita Bakhshi is President and CEO.

Photo by Pixabay

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Thomson Reuters to Acquire Tax Startup SurePrep

Thomson Reuters to Acquire Tax Startup SurePrep
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Thomson Reuters
  • Thomson Reuters agreed to acquire tax automation software company SurePrep for $500 million in an all-cash deal.
  • “The acquisition will support our strategy to empower tax and accounting professionals with the very best technology to simplify workflows, drive insights, and improve efficiency,” said Thomson Reuters President of Tax and Accounting Professionals Elizabeth Beastrom.
  • The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.

Business information services firm Thomson Reuters recently announced it is acquiring tax automation software company SurePrep in a $500 million all-cash deal. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.

Thomson Reuters offers four tax and accounting solutions: Checkpoint, a suite of online research and information; ONESOURCE, tax compliance technology; CS Professional Suite, integrated tax and accounting software; and Onvio, cloud-based software to manage projects, billing, and more. Purchasing California-based SurePrep will enable Thomson Reuters to accelerate its investment in advancing the automation and customer experience of its tax tools.

The two companies first partnered in April of this year to offer solutions for tax and accounting professionals. Once the two companies are combined, Thomson Reuters will bring its client base of tax and accounting professionals a suite of complementary solutions.

“Thomson Reuters sees significant value and opportunities in SurePrep,” said Thomson Reuters President of Tax and Accounting Professionals Elizabeth Beastrom. “The acquisition will support our strategy to empower tax and accounting professionals with the very best technology to simplify workflows, drive insights, and improve efficiency.”

SurePrep was founded in 2002 and has since grown to draw more than 23,000 tax professionals to its client base. The company leverages AI to help accounting firms increase productivity by collecting, processing, and extracting data from client documents. SurePrep then enters that data into firms’ tax compliance software. The company is expected to generate approximately $60 million in revenue this year and grow more than 20% each year for the next few years.

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich

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The Association of Military Banks of America Launches Debit Card

The Association of Military Banks of America Launches Debit Card
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news

Before jumping into the content of this post, I’d like to recognize and thank our military veterans and their families for their continued sacrifice.

  • The Association of Military Banks of America (AMBA) is launching a new debit card called the Patriot Card.
  • The card is launching in partnership with digital accounts and payment processing company MOCA Financial.
  • AMBA will donate a portion of the interchange generated by every swipe of the Patriot Card to military and Veteran support organizations and causes.

The Association of Military Banks of America (AMBA) unveiled a new debit card today called the Patriot Card. AMBA, a military bank trade association, is launching the new payment card through a partnership with digital accounts and payment processing company MOCA Financial.

The Patriot Card aims to offer Veterans a safe, flexible, and reliable card that they can use to receive, spend, and save their government benefits. Features of the new card include a virtual card option, fee-free person-to-person transfers, card-to-card transfers, and low fees.

AMBA will donate a portion of the interchange generated by every swipe of the Patriot Card to military and Veteran support organizations and causes.

“AMBA is thrilled to offer Veterans a new, safer, and more flexible option to receive payments and manage their finances,” said AMBA President and CEO Major General (Ret.) Steven J. Lepper. “We teamed with MOCA because they share our determination to help Veterans achieve financial success. The Patriot Card will provide Veterans who prefer not to use bank or credit union accounts to manage their money an alternative that is equally safe and secure.”

Transactions made using the Patriot Card will be routed across either VISA’s network or the Armed Forces Financial Network (AFFN). AFFN serves consumers of more than 375 military banks and defense credit unions and will enable users of the Patriot Card to access more than 800,000 ATMs and 2.3 million retail locations across the globe.

“We’re honored to be able to play such a monumental role in serving Veterans worldwide,” said MOCA President Shawn Sinner. “We hope that this advancement continues to make life easier for Veterans, Military, Military Spouses, and families.”

Photo by Robert McGowan on Unsplash

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Experian’s Greg Wright on Opportunities in Financial Inclusion

Experian’s Greg Wright on Opportunities in Financial Inclusion
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Experian, Speaker series

Financial inclusion has been a rising hot topic in the past few years. Providing underserved populations with the tools they need to manage their finances and build their wealth has been a top goal across many banks and fintechs, especially those focused on credit and underwriting.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Gregory Wright, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Experian. Wright was a keynote speaker at this year’s FinovateFall event in New York. He offered key takeaways from his keynote, discussed opportunities for banks when it comes to financial inclusion, and talked about how they can prepare and plan to scale their operations.

Key takeaways from his keynote

I talked about innovation in three parts. The first part was about innovation with purpose. I think being mission-driven and wanting to have an impact in the world helps drive not only what you want to do as a business, it helps drive growth and [has an] impact on consumers and who you serve in the communities you live in. And that also can drive employee engagement; they love to work on something that actually has meaning beyond just making money.

The second part is innovation through scale. So, think about platforms. Think about global scale, how we leverage platforms and data, and cloud computing, and modern APIs so that you can innovate faster, get products to the market faster, and really have an impact not only for your business, but for your clients.

And in the third part, we talked about innovation with analytics. We live in this new world where cloud computing, advanced APIs, and modern APIs pull data from multiple data sources. [They are] able to do that in real time with advanced analytics and automating model deployment. We can bring together things that we’ve never been able to bring together before. That enables us to do analytics and credit scoring in ways we’ve never been able to do before.

On how banks and fintechs can leverage data and technology to drive financial inclusion

So, let’s just talk for a minute about conventional credit scoring. Today, the conventional credit scores can score about 81% of the U.S. population. That’s one-fifth that are not being scored or that are credit invisible. With Experian Lift, we can score between 93% to 96% of the U.S. population. That is a step change in performance. And that’s because we use more data, better analytics, bringing it all together in a big data platform and making it live instantly for consumers. So lenders, banks, fintechs– they need to be doing that every day to score more people, drive financial inclusion, and have better business outcomes.

How do we represent consumers in their time of need? There are one-to-two million credit reports pulled every day. These are the most important financial moments in consumers’ lives. We can help represent that. And I know fintechs want to create a consumer experience that is delightful, seamless, digital, easy. And with analytics and big data platforms, they can make that happen. We can help partner with fintechs to use things like Experian Lift, or, even better, Experian Boost, where we’re allowing consumers to come in, connect their bank account, add data to their credit report in real time based on the bills they pay, and improve their credit score before they even apply for something. We’ve worked with a lot of fintechs to figure out how we not only allow consumers to contribute to their credit report and get a better outcome, but also we can help them with better analytics and scores to score more consumers and get to a better outcome. This is not only good for consumers, because they get to a better financial outcome, it’s good for them. They’re scoring more people, getting to “yes” more often, and helping build their business.

What should companies implement now to prepare for future growth?

It comes down to what they’re trying to do and how they want to grow. I really advocate for innovating with purpose. [They should think] about how they want that consumer experience to feel and what that consumer journey is. How do they make it more digital, more seamless? How do they get to “yes” more often?

And again, we’ve talked about the platform capabilities from Experian that can help them. We’ve talked about how we can go from analytics and model development all the way to production through the Ascend platform. Things that normally take nine-to-twelve months to get a new score into market, into production, through compliance, and through their IT queue suddenly, we can do that in one platform from the analytics to deployment in real time. That’s something that any lender, any bank should be doing because it’s going to help get to “yes” faster, deploy better models in real time, pull data sources from not just the credit bureau but from anywhere. That means you can drive better customer outcomes, get to “yes” more often, not add more risk, and eventually build great businesses.

Photo by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto

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Apiture Unveils New Data Engage Solution to Help Banks Better Leverage Data

Apiture Unveils New Data Engage Solution to Help Banks Better Leverage Data
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Apiture, Daily news, Pendo
  • Apiture, a digital banking solutions provider, launched its Data Engage solution this week.
  • The new offering helps financial institutions access data-driven insights into how their customers are using Apiture’s digital banking platform.
  • Data Engage was made possible courtesy of a partnership between Apiture and Pendo. Both companies are based in North Carolina and made their Finovate debuts this year.

Digital banking solutions provider and new Finovate alum Apiture introduced its Data Engage solution this week. The technology, made possible courtesy of a partnership with fellow Finovate newcomer Pendo, will give banks and other financial institutions access to data-driven insights into how their customers are using Apiture’s digital banking platform. Data Engage further gives these firms tools to provide in-channel guidance and personalized messages to boost customer engagement. Pop-up messages, marketing notices, tutorials, and more are examples of the kinds of communications that can be leveraged to educate users and encourage adoption of new features.

The new offering is the first of four modules available from Apiture’s Data Intelligence solution. This technology gives users a variety of data analytics and benchmarking tools to help attract, retain, and cross-sell digital banking customers.

“With Data Engage, our clients can easily evaluate their users’ activities and enhance the online experience using no-code, highly intuitive tools that promote the expanded use of digital banking capabilities,” Apiture CEO Chris Babcock said.

Taking the Finovate stage for the first time at FinovateSpring in May, Pendo offers analytics, in-app guidance, and feedback capabilities to enable developers to create software that delivers better, more productive experiences for users. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Pendo claims that its “software that makes your software better” produces 15% decrease in support tickets, 30% more qualified leads, and a 5% reduction in customer churn.

“This partnership enables Apiture’s clients to harness data-driven intelligence,” Pendo co-founder and CEO Todd Olson said. “It maximizes user engagement with their digital banking solution. And the best part? It delivers a better user experience.”

Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, Apiture made its Finovate debut in September at FinovateFall. At the conference, the company demoed its technology that can embed banking capabilities into the software of non-financial, third-party businesses. Apiture used the example of a travel agency that had embedded its technology to support basic banking tasks such as opening an account, viewing account balances, and transferring funds between accounts.

Apiture’s new product news comes in the wake of the company’s latest partnership announcement. In September, Apiture announced that Newtek Business Services Corporation had selected its digital banking platform to support the digital capabilities of Newtek Bank. Over the summer, Apiture reported that it had secured $29 million in funding in a round led by Live Oak Bank. The investment boosted the North Carolina-based fintech’s total funding to $69 million.

Founded in 2017 as a joint venture between First Data Corporation and Live Oak Bank, Apiture has more than 300 bank and credit union clients in the U.S. – and more than 300 employees of its own. With more than 40 core interfaces and over 200 fintech partners, Apiture’s digital banking platform has been praised by entities ranging from Javelin and IBS Intelligence to American Banker and Forbes.

Photo by Pixabay

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JP Morgan and Mastercard Leverage Open Banking to Launch Pay-by-Bank Tool

JP Morgan and Mastercard Leverage Open Banking to Launch Pay-by-Bank Tool
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, JP Morgan Chase, MasterCard
  • J.P. Morgan Payments and Mastercard partnered to launch Pay-by-Bank, an ACH payment tool that leverages open banking.
  • Billers who offer consumers an option to a pay via ACH can integrate Pay-by-Bank into their existing payments page.
  • Pay-by-Bank is currently in a pilot phase with a small number of U.S. billers, but will be rolled out to more billers in 2023.

Today’s news proves you can indeed teach an old dog new tricks. ACH, a technology that is 50+ years old, is getting a makeover with open banking.

J.P. Morgan Payments and Mastercard have joined forces this week to launch Pay-by-Bank, an ACH payment tool that leverages open banking and consumer-permissioned data to make it easy for users to pay bills directly from their bank accounts.

“We realized years ago that the way people think about money and commerce is changing,” said Mastercard North America Executive Vice President Chiro Aikat. “They want to pay and get paid how they choose, where they choose and when they choose. We’re excited by this new partnership with J.P. Morgan Chase, and our opportunity to empower people with enhanced payment experiences.”

Billers who offer customers an option to pay using ACH can integrate Pay-by-Bank into their existing payments page. Customers who opt to use the new technology will be prompted to find their bank, complete the bank’s account login process, and share their bank account information with JP Morgan Chase.

Pay-by-Bank makes for a better user experience. Consumers will no longer need to type in their routing and account number each time they go to pay a bill. As for the billers, they will not be faced with the liability of storing consumers’ account information.

“Billers and consumers both get greater payment choice,” said Aikat, “but the partnership also propels payments innovation on two fronts — in the ease of the user experience and in the security of data sharing.”

J.P. Morgan Payments Head of Payments and Commerce Solutions Max Neukirchen echoed this sentiment. “The technology behind Pay-by-Bank reduces the likelihood of unauthorized transactions and frees our clients from the need to retain — and the responsibility to securely maintain — consumer banking information,” Neukirchen said.

As an additional benefit to consumers, Pay-by-Bank leverages machine learning to estimate the optimal time to initiate the payment based on the consumer’s historical transaction behavior and risk patterns. This helps reduce the risk of non-sufficient funds for the consumer and helps ensure the merchant receives the payment on time.

Pay-by-Bank is still in a pilot phase with a small number of U.S. billers and merchants, but J.P. Morgan Payments and Mastercard anticipate they will expand the program next year. 

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