Experian CIO on Digital Identity, Personalization, and Building Trust with Consumer Data

Experian CIO on Digital Identity, Personalization, and Building Trust with Consumer Data

In a digital world, there’s no way around digital identity. The topic touches all corners of fintech and ecommerce, and while it can create a stumbling block, leveraging consumer identity data can also hold great opportunity.

We recently spoke with Experian’s Kathleen Peters for her thoughts on digital identity and how financial services companies can use consumer data to their advantage.

Peters started her career as an engineer at Motorola and later moved into voice and messaging encryption technology. Eventually, she began working in Experian’s global fraud and identity business and now serves as the company’s Chief Innovation Officer.

The fintech industry has always struggled with digital identity. Why is digital identity so difficult to get right?

Kathleen Peters: A consumer’s identity is personal; every interaction and transaction requires their identity. Consumers expect a seamless and frictionless experience, but also rely on organizations to protect their information. The balance is crucial and challenging.

As an industry, fintech is known for creating compelling and personalized online journeys. But that experience can suffer if the fraud-prevention routines are perceived as burdensome by consumers.

Every year, Experian conducts a survey of consumers and business leaders, asking them about sentiments, trends, and other matters around fraud and identity. Year after year, the number-one consumer concern is online security. When transacting online, people want to know that their information is safe and secure. In striking a balance with consumers to instill trust, industry players need to show some sign of security that reinforces privacy.

Putting this balance into practice, if a consumer or business is performing a large online transaction, they want to see added layers of identity verification. Conversely, if they are performing a simple online purchase, industry players should not over-index with heavy-duty identity resolution (e.g., facial recognition, passcode) on low-risk, low-dollar transactions. In short, we need the right fraud‑prevention treatment for the right transaction; it is not a one-size-fits-all exercise.

It is important to know a customer’s identity for compliance reasons, but are there business use cases for this as well?

Peters: When it comes to KYC (Know Your Customer) compliance, you want to verify that you are dealing with a real person (not a made-up entity) and ensure that you are not dealing with criminals or people on watch lists. This is a basic compliance check and mitigates the risk presented by increasingly resourceful “bad actors” who have become very sophisticated in how they find and exploit vulnerabilities.

For commercial entities, especially small businesses, you want to know that they are a real business. You want to know that the principals involved in the business (the owners, board members) are not criminals or people on watch lists, or that the company itself is not somehow engaged in things that you do not want to deal with. In this sense, KYC applies to consumers and businesses alike in terms of a compliance check. There is a different level of compliance for consumers versus businesses, but the KYC concepts remain similar.

With KYC, businesses can check the box that indicates that “I am compliant.” That does not necessarily grow a bank, fintech, or online merchant’s topline revenues. Compliance is certainly a core element of identity, but so is identifying a potentially fraudulent transaction. For example, recognizing synthetic identity scams can prevent an organization from losing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in fraud losses. 

When the concept of personalization was introduced in fintech, there was a lot of discussion of privacy concerns and fears that consumers would perceive banks’ efforts as “creepy.” Does this still exist today?

Peters: Our annual Global Identity and Fraud Report shows that people hold banks in high regard. They possess an especially strong degree of trust from consumers. Yet, unknown fintechs that may reach consumers through a banner ad or other similar means may not yet possess that same amount of trust. Building trust with consumers is critical, especially for fintechs, and it starts with transparency and reinforcing the value exchange.

What is the best way for banks and fintechs to build trust among their consumers?

Peters: Banks and fintechs need a layered approach to identity resolution that accommodates the balance between fraud detection and the online experience to build consumer trust early in their relationship. Establishing that trust should be a top priority and involves having visible means of security, being transparent about why you are collecting certain types of data, and delivering value for that data exchange (e.g., personalized offers, speed). And that value needs to be immediate and a tangible benefit, not a down-the-road promotion or assurance.

According to our Global Identity and Fraud Report, consumers are willing to give more data if they trust the entity and feel as though they are receiving value.

Once the value exchange is established, those feelings of trust and recognition lead to increased brand loyalty, a holy grail for banks and fintechs.

Given this, what are ways banks and fintechs can leverage consumer data combined with an increase in their trust to better connect with consumers?

Peters: Building relationships with consumers comes down to recognizing them, protecting their information and offering a personalized experience. Consumers want to feel confident that their online accounts are secure, and that they don’t need to jump through hoops to access the resources they need.

It comes down to identifying and understanding consumers and their needs. The best way to do that is with a lot of data. It serves as a vast resource to look at the multitude of behaviors historically and predict the next likely behaviors and intent. Predictive modeling like this can be hard to do, especially if you do not have a lot of historical data. However, with aggregated data, scores, and solutions from a provider like Experian, it can be a very powerful way to drive engagement.

For instance, if a consumer is in-market for a new credit card, banks and fintechs may want to engage their consumers with a personalized offer or increase dollar-value transactions—both ways to build trust.


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Envestnet to Acquire Redi2 Technologies to Boost Billing & Accounting

Envestnet to Acquire Redi2 Technologies to Boost Billing & Accounting
  • Envestnet acquired revenue management and hosted fee-billing solutions company Redi2 Technologies.
  • Envestnet will use the buy to modernize its billing, accounting, and back office capabilities.
  • Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Financial wellness technology firm Envestnet announced its 16th acquisition today. The Chicago-based company announced it has purchased revenue management and hosted fee-billing solutions company Redi2 Technologies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Massachusetts, Redi2 offers a revenue management platform tailored to financial services companies. The tool offers fee calculation, invoice creation, payouts and accounting, and billing compliance. Among Redi2’s products are Revenue Manager, which provides client revenue accounting and billing services for asset managers; Wealth Manager, which delivers multi-party billing and payouts for broker-dealers and asset managers; and BillFin, which offers advisory billing and invoicing for financial advisors.

Envestnet will use Redi2’s technology to modernize its billing, accounting, and back office capabilities. The company anticipates the additional expertise will drive client engagement and ultimately boost revenue.

“Redi2 is a pioneer and innovator in the cloud-based delivery of wealth and investment management billing software, making them an ideal partner as we continue to strengthen our financial wellness ecosystem,” said Envestnet Executive Vice President of Business Lines Tom Sipp. “This acquisition enhances our strategic enablement of service and data, and over the next two years will create operating leverage by bringing Envestnet and Redi2’s administrative, revenue, and billing services together.”

Envestnet was founded in 1999. The company’s most noteworthy acquisition was its purchase of Yodlee in 2015. The Yodlee acquisition broadened Envestnet’s wealthtech offerings, launching it into the world of open finance. Envestnet is a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ENV and has a market capitalization of $4.66 billion.


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GoCardless to Acquire Latvian Open Banking Data Platform Nordigen

GoCardless to Acquire Latvian Open Banking Data Platform Nordigen
  • Bank payments company GoCardless has announced its intention to acquire open banking platform Nordigen.
  • The Latvia-based fintech, a Finovate alum since 2018, connects to 2,300 banks in Europe and the U.K. via its free API.
  • Terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close later this summer, were not disclosed.

Bank payments company GoCardless has announced its intention to acquire Nordigen, an open banking platform based in Latvia. GoCardless will integrate Nordigen’s open banking connectivity into its account-to-account network. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close later this summer.

“The Nordigen acquisition will take us to the next level,” GoCardless co-founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi said. “By intelligently combining free, state-of-the-art open banking connectivity with deep payment expertise, we can now offer open banking-as-a-service to any developer, partner, or fintech.” Takeuchi added that the acquisition will “lead to experimentation … that will create even more compelling use cases.”

Nordigen leverages open banking to help banks and lenders make more creditworthy loans. The company offers solutions that automate income and liability verification, and provides critical insights into prospective borrowers from account data for scoring models. Nordigen offers high-performance analytics including transaction categorization, feature engineering for credit modeling, and the capacity to generate risk scores from account data. Operating in 13 countries and partnered with more than 50 banks and lenders around the world, Nordigen connects to more than 2,300 banks in Europe and the U.K. via its free API.

“Our mission at Nordigen is to help companies around the world adopt and use Open Banking to enable greater financial transparency and financial inclusion,” Nordigen CEO Rolands Mesters said in a statement. “We share GoCardless’ enthusiasm for the growth of Open Banking and are excited to partner with people who not only share our passion for disruptive innovation in financial services, but who will also help us bring Open Banking freely to a much wider audience.”

Acquisition talk has not slowed down Nordigen, which has forged partnerships at an impressive pace this year alone. In June, Nordigen announced that it was working with Sherpa CRM, Landlord Fusion, HES FinTech, BUNNI, and Acounto. Already this month, Nordigen reported that it has expanded its collaboration with Latvian financial services company AS DelfinGroup.

Founded in 2016, Nordigen made its Finovate debut in 2018 at FinovateFall in New York. The company returned to the Finovate stage the following spring for FinovateEurope in London. Prior to the acquisition announcement, Nordigen had raised $4.2 million in funding from investors including Black Pearls VC and Superangel.


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5 Goals Driving the CFPB’s New Office

5 Goals Driving the CFPB’s New Office

Earlier this spring, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a new effort to promote competition and innovation in consumer finance. Backing this effort, the CFPB is opening a new office, The Office of Competition and Innovation.

The Office of Competition and Innovation will replace the Office of Innovation, which relied on an application-based process to grant companies special regulatory treatment. The new office takes a much broader approach, and will consider obstructions hindering open markets and learn how large players make it difficult for small companies to operate. Ultimately, The Office of Competition and Innovation aims to make it easier for end consumers to switch among financial providers.

In order to pursue its mission to increase competition, the Office of Competition and Innovation will pursue the following four goals:

  1. Make it easy for consumers to switch providers
    When users can switch among financial services providers, there is more pressure on incumbents to offer better services, and new players have a better opportunity to acquire customers.
  2. Research structural problems blocking successes 
    The new office will have access to resources to examine what is creating obstacles to innovation. This could impact, for example, the payment networks market or the credit reporting system, both of which are considered oligopolies.
  3. Understand the advantages big players have over smaller players 
    Larger players have built-in advantages over small newcomers. As an example, big companies benefit from a large marketing reach, multi-faceted teams, and a built-in customer base. As the CFPB points out, this may threaten new competition.
  4. Identify ways around obstacles 
    Obstacles for smaller players include lack of access to talent, capital, or even to customer data. The CFPB is addressing the latter issue via a future open finance rule under Section 1033 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act that will give consumers access to their own data.
  5. Host events to explore barriers to entry and other obstacles 
    The new office will organize events such as open houses, sprints, hackathons, tabletop exercises, and war games to help entrepreneurs, small business owners, and technology professionals to collaborate, explore obstacles, and share frustrations with government regulators.

“Competition is one of the best forms of motivation. It can help companies innovate and make their products better, and their customers happier,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “We will be looking at ways to clear obstacles and pave the path to help people have more options and more easily make choices that are best for their needs.”

In financial services, open finance may be one of the best ways to promote competition. But because the U.S. does not have formal regulation around open banking or open finance, there isn’t enough incentive (yet) for financial services players and third party providers to cooperate when it comes to data sharing. In late 2020, however, the CFPB issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that solicited opinions from stakeholders on how customers’ data should be regulated. This was only a very early step in the process, and industry players still lack a standardized approach to open finance.


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OpenFin Lands Strategic Investment from ING Ventures

OpenFin Lands Strategic Investment from ING Ventures
  • OpenFin received a strategic investment from ING Ventures.
  • The amount of the investment was undisclosed, but adds to the company’s $47 million raised since 2010.
  • ING is an OpenFin OS client. The company began using OpenFin’s technology last year to accelerate its desktop transformation strategy.

Enterprise productivity company OpenFin received a strategic investment from ING Ventures this week. The amount of the investment was undisclosed. The New York-based company plans to use the funds to expand what it calls “the operating system (OS) of enterprise productivity,” or OpenFin OS.

OpenFin OS helps financial services organizations power internal and customer-facing digital experiences. OpenFin counts more than 2,400 banks, wealth management firms in 60+ countries as OpenFin OS users. Clients include 23 of top 25 global banks, including Barclays, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and more. OpenFin is aiming to expand the OpenFin OS “to every user within financial services.”

Today’s investor, ING, is an OpenFin OS client. The company began using OpenFin’s technology last year to accelerate its desktop transformation strategy. As a result of the implementation, ING employees can access intuitive workspace management and automated workflows, and as a result increase their productivity. 

“Our investment in OpenFin further validates our determination and commitment to digital transformation and innovation,” said ING Ventures Co-Head Frederic Hofmann. “We are excited to partner with OpenFin as they have proven to be the best in class app platform in this space, transforming distribution and significantly enhancing end-user productivity across the finance industry.”

The amount of today’s funding round was undisclosed, and so was the amount of OpenFin’s most recent round it received in December 2020. Despite this, we know that today’s investment brings the company’s total raised to north of $47 million since it was founded in 2010. That’s the amount of the previous eight investments OpenFin received from investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Barclays, CME Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, NYCA Partners, Pivot Investment Partners, SC Ventures, and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital.

Last April, OpenFin launched Workspace, a tool to help business users consolidate and automate their work across applications and tasks using a single interface. Since then, the company was awarded the “Best Workplace for Change and Transformation” by Harrington Starr.


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Brazil’s Travelex Bank Partners with ThetaRay for Transaction Monitoring, Sanctions Screening

Brazil’s Travelex Bank Partners with ThetaRay for Transaction Monitoring, Sanctions Screening
  • Tel Aviv, Israel-based ThetaRay announced a partnership with Brazil’s Travelex Bank.
  • Travelex Bank will deploy ThetaRay’s transaction monitoring and sanctions screening solution, SONAR, to enhance its ability to combat money laundering.
  • ThetaRay made its Finovate debut in 2015. The company has raised more than $112 million in funding.

Transaction monitoring technology provider ThetaRay will help Brazil’s biggest FX specialist, Travelex Bank, enhance its transaction monitoring and sanctions screening capabilities. Travelex Bank will deploy ThetaRay’s SaaS-based anti-money laundering solution, SONAR, to provide both domestic and international transaction monitoring, as well as real-time sanctions screening for international payments.

Travelex Bank Chief Compliance Officer Célia Pizzi highlighted ThetaRay’s ability to meet the institution’s transactions monitoring and sanctions screening needs with a single platform. “ThetaRay’s SONAR will enable us to expand our product services portfolio and improve customer service while improving our overall AML operations,” Pizzi said. “SONAR will provide higher efficiency and secure risk coverage, enabling new businesses and lines of revenue.”

SONAR leverages an advanced type of AI, “artificial intelligence intuition,” that gives banks and financial services institutions a risk-based approach to effectively identify suspicious transactions and individuals. Without bias or thresholds, SONAR provides a comprehensive profile of customer identities across cross-border transaction paths that leads to a quick and accurate identification of money laundering threats. According to ThetaRay, SONAR offers a 95% detection rate and a 99% reduction in false positives when compared to rules-based AML solutions.

“Travelex Bank represents a new generation of global institutions that is readying its money transfer and payment infrastructure for changing conditions,” ThetaRay CEO Mark Gazit said. “Travelex is a provider that looks to the future and prioritizes trust, confidence, and quality.”

Travelex Bank represents international exchange corporation Travelex in Brazil (along with the brokerage Travelex Confidence). The bank provides a wide variety of services including international remittances, imports and exports, crypto exchange transactions, registration services, and more. The firm’s adoption of SONAR, in addition to bolstering its AML capabilities, will also enable Travelex Bank to offer new, compliant products and services.

A Finovate alum since 2015, ThetaRay has spent much of this year forging partnerships with a number of fintechs and banks. In March, ThetaRay announced a partnership with Dubai-based Mashreq Bank and teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Payoneer. Also this spring, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based company reported that it had selected sanctions screening firm Screena as its screening solutions partner, and had partnered with omnichannel money movement platform Qolo to provide transactions monitoring.

With more than $112 million in funding, ThetaRay includes Benhamou Global Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), and ABN AMRO Ventures among its investors.


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CIBC Bank USA Chooses Velocity Solutions’ Akouba Digital Lending Platform

CIBC Bank USA Chooses Velocity Solutions’ Akouba Digital Lending Platform
  • Chicago, Illinois-based CIBC Bank USA has announced a partnership with Finovate newcomer, Velocity Solutions.
  • CIBC will leverage Velocity Solutions’ Akouba Digital Lending Platform to lower costs, better manage risk, and increase per-loan profitability.
  • Velocity Solutions made its Finovate debut in the fall of 2021. The company acquired the Akouba platform in 2018.

CIBC Bank USA has chosen Velocity Solutions’ Akouba Digital Lending Platform to support its small business banking division. The Chicago, Illinois-based commercial bank, founded in 1989 as The PrivateBank and Trust Company, will leverage Akouba’s cloud-based SaaS platform to lower the cost, time, and risk associated with the loan origination process. At the same time, the platform will help boost the profitability of every loan made.

“We’ve made tremendous progress with the platform since we acquired Akouba in June 2018,” Velocity Solutions EVP of Product Management Mike Triggiano said. “We’re continually refining the platform and adding new features and functionality. It’s been a thrill to enhance Akouba’s industry-leading technology over the past two years, and the opportunity to add CIBC Bank USA to our growing list of clients is definitely one of the most exciting milestones in Akouba’s history to date.”

Added to Velocity Solution’s product suite four years ago, Akouba is designed to accelerate loan origination for both retail and commercial lending. The only small business loan origination platform endorsed by the American Bankers Association (ABA), Akouba reduces end-to-end time, streamlines operational processes, and helps increase profits. The platform does all this while giving financial institutions the ability to retain control over the decision, pricing, credit policy, risk metrics, and loan amounts, as well as the borrower experience.

“At CIBC, we are building an innovative, relationship-focused bank,” CIBC Bank USA President of Retail and Digital Banking and Head of U.S. Strategy and Administration Brant Ahrens said. “Akouba gives our small business clients the ability to seek financing on any device at any time in any place that is convenient for them.”

Velocity Solutions made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York last September, where the company demoed its Akouba platform. In the months since, Velocity Solutions has introduced a number of new solutions including VelocityConnector that enables efficient and secure API connections between banking data systems; its VelocityScore feature, which helps indicate the ability of accountholders to repay loans; and its Consumer Liquidity Engine, which makes a range of flexible overdraft options and affordable short-term loans available to bank and credit union customers and members.

Founded in 1995, Velocity Solutions is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Christopher Leonard is CEO.


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Wirex Launches Crypto Line of Credit

Wirex Launches Crypto Line of Credit
  • Wirex launched a new line of credit, enabling users to borrow stablecoins against their crypto holdings.
  • The new credit offering enables users to access the value of their crypto holdings without needing to sell off their crypto assets.
  • Users can borrow up to $100,000 issued in USDC, USDT and NXUSD in exchange for their BTC and ETH holdings.

Cryptocurrency payments platform Wirex introduced a new line of credit this week.

The new offering, Wirex Credit, enables Wirex’s five million customers to instantly borrow up to $100,000 issued in USDC, USDT, and NXUSD. Wirex uses clients’ BTC or ETH (with more crypto options launching soon) as collateral with zero origination or setup fees. Users can borrow up to 80% of the value of their crypto holdings and only pay interest once their credit line goes live.

Wirex Credit helps customers access the value of their crypto holdings without having to sell. This is especially useful in the current crypto environment. Because the value of BTC and ETH is down, users would have to sell their holdings at a loss if they wanted to make a purchase using crypto. By converting their holdings to stablecoins first, Wirex clients can make purchases using crypto without selling at an inopportune time.

Users can take advantage of Wirex Credit within the Wirex app and receive stablecoins immediately, with no affordability or credit checks.

“This is a landmark point in Wirex offering more ways for everyday users to utilise crypto, and we’ve made it as convenient and straightforward as possible for our customers to take a crypto-backed loan,” said Wirex CEO and Cofounder Pavel Matveev. “Wirex’s vast ecosystem of products means there are huge opportunities for using Wirex Credit, from HODLing to debit card purchases, or using the Wirex Wallet to earn in DeFi protocols.”

Founded in 2014, Wirex offers an app linked to a Visa debit card that allows customers to spend their cryptocurrency online and in-store at over 61 million locations. The company offers free domestic and international ATM withdrawals, no annual fee, zero exchange fees, near instant crypto transactions, live transaction notifications, and the ability to instantly top up via their debit card with zero fees. Today’s line of credit launch rounds out this set of financial services tools, bringing the company one step closer to providing a comprehensive financial services offering.


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Intelligent Identity Security Innovator Sontiq Urges Customer Engagement to Fight Fraud

Intelligent Identity Security Innovator Sontiq Urges Customer Engagement to Fight Fraud
  • Intelligent identity solution provider Sontiq has issued a new report on security in financial services.
  • The report, 2022 Digital Safety and Security Report for Financial Services, underscores the importance of engaging customers and members in the fight against cyberfraud.
  • Sontiq made its Finovate debut in the fall of 2021 and was acquired a few months later by TransUnion for $638 million.

Intelligent identity security firm Sontiq has warned that the growing sophistication of cybercriminals and increased awareness and concern over the challenge to digital security from the public have created both new challenges and new opportunities for financial institutions. In a new report, the 2022 Digital Safety and Security Report for Financial Services, Sontiq highlights the way cybercriminals have leveraged advanced technologies – including automation and AI – to achieve what Sontiq called a “historic level of data compromise” in 2021.

“Consumers are increasingly anxious about cyber threats, but feel unprepared to take action or deal with the fallout,” Sontiq SVP of Enterprise Risk Solutions Al Pascual said. “Notably, they don’t want generic security advice. Financial institutions can combat increased identity risks with personalized, self-service tools that are seamlessly embedded into the digital banking experience.”

Here are some of the key takeaways from Sontiq’s report.

Financial institutions must understand the threat landscape

“What consumers, organizations, and the media often misunderstand,” the report noted, “is that the data breaches with the greatest impact on individuals are often not the high-profile ones that capture headlines.” Sontiq’s research distinguishes between high-profile breaches at institutions like Facebook/Meta and LinkedIn and high-risk breaches at companies like Gallagher and Waste Management. This is because “high-risk” breaches, while involving fewer victims, tend to involve compromises of more valuable personally-identifiable information compared to “high-profile” breaches.

Synthetic identity fraud is a bigger threat than identity theft

A growing number of financial services companies are recognizing the challenge of synthetic identity fraud, with Sontiq observing that 72% of financial services firms believe that synthetic identity fraud is a “much more pressing issue” compared to traditional identity theft.

Why so? And what’s the difference?

Traditional identity theft involves stealing a real person’s PII (personally-identifiable information) and using that data to engage in criminal activity. And make no mistake: traditional identity theft is still an issue, costing $24 billion in losses and victimizing more than 15 million individuals in 2021. Synthetic identity fraud, by comparison, involves a blending of both real and fictitious information. This enables the fraudster to create a completely new, made-up identity that can then be used to fraudulently open accounts, and apply for loans and credit cards. A newer arrival on the cybercrime scene, synthetic identity fraud also comes at a significant cost. The Federal Reserve has estimated that synthetic identity fraud losses have climbed to $20 billion, making it the “fastest growing financial crime.”

Personalized, proactive identity protection gives financial institutions the opportunity to differentiate themselves

In its report, Sontiq makes it clear that consumers are uncertain about who to turn to in the event of a security breach. “Nearly half of Americans,” the report notes, “say they would not know what to do if their identity was stolen.” Because of this, more than half of American fraud victims (54%) have indicated that they believe their financial institution can play a major role in helping them “navigate and resolve their identity fraud issues.” Breach victims across generations – under 35, between 35 and 54, and over 55 – all turned to their financial institutions for assistance in comparable numbers (50%, 48%, and 44% respectively).

This has resulted in a significant growth in the identity theft protection services market. Analysts project that this market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.4% over the next 10 years.

There are a variety of ways that financial institutions can seize this opportunity by deploying better anti-fraud tools and partnering with fintechs and cybersecurity specialists. But key to all of these efforts, according to Sontiq, is customer engagement. Educating financial services consumers on what to do to enhance their own online security – and what to do in the event of a security breach – is critical. Also important is the role of empowerment, and helping consumers understand what they can do to enhance their own defense against fraud.

“Getting consumers to adopt a self-service approach to identity protection also has the potential to help a financial institution better invest resources,” the report noted. “Informed, engaged customers who actively protect their identities become potent allies – finding fraud earlier and reducing overall risk to them and the financial institution.”

Download the free white paper to read the full report.

Sontiq made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021. At the event, the Nottingham, Maryland-based company demonstrated its BreachIQ solution. BreachIQ identifies and diagnoses a consumer’s security breach history to provide personalized, protective actions the consumer can take to improve financial health and enhance security. The technology effectively leverages AI to turn ID fraud risk into a consumer financial health opportunity.

Launched in 2019, Sontiq was formed when EZShield acquired identity theft protection provider IdentityForce. Last spring, Sontiq announced its acquisition of Breach Clarity, a post-breach fraud specialist and Finovate Best of Show winner. In October 2021, Sontiq itself was acquired by fellow Finovate alum TransUnion for $638 million. In a statement, TransUnion said that Sontiq’s identity security technology compliments its own digital identity assets and solutions.

“TransUnion is committed to empowering consumers to shape their financial futures,” TransUnion President of U.S. Markets and Consumer Interactive Steve Chaouki said. “With Sontiq, we will ensure that consumers and businesses have a comprehensive set of tools to protect the financial profile they have built.”


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Increasing Resiliency and Agility to Anticipate Ongoing Market Volatility

Increasing Resiliency and Agility to Anticipate Ongoing Market Volatility

The following is a sponsored post by Tim FitzGerald, EMEA Financial Services Sales Manager, InterSystems.


If the last few years have proven anything, it’s that market volatility will occur with monotonous regularity. Even if we can’t predict the exact nature of the turbulence – whether it’s the impact of geo-political events, pandemics, elections, or disasters – the effects are being felt with increasing frequency. Being able to anticipate and respond to sudden market changes has become increasingly important.

As many organizations look to obtain the capabilities needed to become more agile and resilient in the face of this ongoing volatility, the role of data has become more widely recognized. In particular, in a landscape where things can change very quickly, there is a growing understanding of the importance obtaining fresh data.

Today, the ability to see and work off data in real-time is essential for a financial services firm to compete. However, despite the clear need to be able to use fresh data, many firms face significant challenges in accessing and leveraging data in real time. At the heart of these difficulties lie the growing volume, velocity, and complexity of the data firms are dealing with.

Consequently, if firms are to become more resilient and agile to anticipate and respond to market volatility, they must begin by solving these challenges. At its core, this requires organizations to not only bridge their data silos, but also to simplify their data architecture.

The growing burden of data silos

For large numbers of financial services, siloed systems across multiple departments are proving to be a sizable burden. These ever-growing data silos lead to data that is inconsistent, disparate, and difficult to interpret. Often, these organizations have also amassed overly complex data infrastructures that rely on a disjointed set of technologies for data management, semantic layers, data pipelines, data integration, and analytics, making it difficult to obtain information and insights in a timely manner.

Together, these issues prevent firms from being able to get the insights they need to adapt to changing market conditions, capitalize on crucial business opportunities, comply with changing industry regulations, and gain an accurate understanding of risk and decisions related to financial data. Put another way, it severely impacts their agility and resiliency. Ultimately, it is far simpler for these organizations to have a system that is easy to understand, use and adapt, rather than trying to navigate hundreds of different applications dispersed across many locations.

A data architecture fit for modern-day volatility

As market volatility continues to bring these challenges into stark focus, a new architectural approach, the smart data fabric, which speeds and simplifies access to data assets across the entire business has emerged as a solution for financial services firms.

Powered by a unified data platform, the smart data fabric accesses, transforms, and harmonizes data from multiple sources, on demand, to make it usable and actionable for a wide variety of business applications. Analytics capabilities embedded within the platform, including data exploration, business intelligence, natural language processing, and machine learning, make it faster and easier for firms to gain new insights and power intelligent predictive and prescriptive services and applications.

In addition to simplifying their data architecture, implementing a unified data platform allows existing legacy applications and data to remain in place. This helps firms to maximize the value from their previous technology investments, including existing data lakes and data warehouses, without having to “rip-and-replace” any of their existing technology.

Moving forward in a volatile landscape

Faced with continued market volatility, the ability to incorporate real-time transactional data and eliminate delays in accessing data stored in production applications and data silos offers financial services firms a wide range of benefits. Not least is that business leaders will be able to make decisions based on accurate and current data, rather than data that is weeks old, helping to eliminate errors and missed business opportunities.

This consistent, accurate, real-time view of the data they need to run their business will also enable firms to make more informed and better decisions, and give them the resiliency and agility to anticipate and adapt to changing market conditions. Armed with a complete 360-degree view of both their business and their customers, financial institutions can turn their data into a true business enabler. This will empower firms to better capitalize on crucial business opportunities, comply with changing industry regulations, and gain an accurate understanding of risk and decisions related to financial data. Above all, it will ensure that they are no longer on the back foot when spikes occur and can instead continue to move their businesses forward during times of uncertainty.


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Superapp Bano Taps Currencycloud for FX Converter

Superapp Bano Taps Currencycloud for FX Converter
  • Australian superapp Bano has selected Currencycloud to facilitate low FX rates.
  • Integrating Currencycloud’s API offers Bano users access to Currencycloud’s low FX rates, which makes investing in the U.S. stock market more accessible for Bano users.
  • “Bano is committed to simplifying financial management for Australia’s GenZ and Millennials,” said Bano Head of Financial Markets and Treasury Randall Maccan.

Visa-owned Currencycloud announced this week it has been selected by Australia-based superapp Bano. Bano will leverage Currencycloud’s FX Converter to facilitate remittances for its Millennial and Gen Z users.

Bano is a digital banking app regulated by ASIC and AUSTRAC. The startup, which is is accessible in over 180 countries, offers physical and virtual Visa debit cards with features such as bill-splitting, fund requests, FX conversions, cashback, rewards, and multi-currency accounts.

Integrating Currencycloud’s API offers Bano users access to Currencycloud’s low FX rates and low AUD to USD conversion rates. This low conversion rate will make investing in the U.S. stock market more accessible for Bano users.

“Bano is committed to simplifying financial management for Australia’s GenZ and Millennials,” said Bano Head of Financial Markets and Treasury Randall Maccan. “Enlarging the breadth of our superapp services with products like the FX Converter is a key part of this mission. Our partnership with Currencycloud has meant we can create a product that will provide a much-needed service for our customers, especially international students in Australia.”

Founded in 2012, Currencycloud facilitates cross-border, multi-currency transactions. The London-based company has processed more than $100 billion to over 180 countries for bank and fintech clients including Starling Bank, Revolut, Penta, and Lunar. 

In July of last year, Visa snapped up Currencycloud in a deal that valued the company at $963 million. Last October, the company partnered with Plaid, embedding Plaid’s Payment Initiation Services into its own solution to allow customers to fund their accounts without ever leaving the platform.


Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich

Digital Financing Platform Funding Societies Acquires Payments Solution CardUp

Digital Financing Platform Funding Societies Acquires Payments Solution CardUp
  • Digital financing platform Funding Societies agreed to acquire payments solutions company CardUp.
  • The announcement comes four months after Funding Societies closed a $294 million Series C investment.
  • Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Digital financing platform Funding Societies has agreed to acquire payments solutions company CardUp for an undisclosed amount. The news comes four months after Funding Societies raised $294 million in Series C funding.

Singapore-based Funding Societies will leverage CardUp’s payments products to complement its own lending capabilities. The new tools will empower its SME clients to manage and pay expenses, receive payments, and borrow funds.

CardUp, which is also headquartered in Singapore, offers payment capabilities, such as card payments to non-card accepting recipients, online payments acceptance, invoice automation tools, and licenses and integrations with third-party software to help businesses make and collect payments. The no-code solutions make it easy for companies to improve cash flow management, unlock rewards on existing credit cards, and automate tasks. Since it launched in 2016, CardUp has served “tens of thousands” of business clients ranging from micro businesses to corporates.

CardUp will continue to operate its consumer and business services. The company’s employees across Asia will transition over to the Funding Societies team and CardUp CEO Nicki Ramsay will join Funding Societies’ management team to lead its payments business.

Funding Societies, which is licensed and registered in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and operates in Vietnam, connects small businesses with financing while offering alternative investment opportunities for individual investors. The company offers a range of financing products, including micro loans, term loans, invoice financing, supply chain financing, revolving credit, and more. In 2021, Funding Societies connected small businesses with $1 billion in working capital. Funding Societies also supports businesses with a credit card that offers 5% cashback.

“Acquiring CardUp enables us to leapfrog and accelerate our market leadership in the regional fintech space, integrating payments capabilities, enhanced user experience, and local licenses to our digital lending experience across key markets,” said Funding Societies Co-founder and CEO Kelvin Teo. “We are excited to work with the CardUp team and are honored to join forces with them.”


Photo by Ilya Chunin on Unsplash