This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Meniga has appointed Simon Shorthose as its new CEO.
Shorthose will be replacing Meniga Co-founder Georg Ludviksson, who served as CEO for 14 years.
Shorthose has previously worked at fintech SaaS companies Kyriba and Mambu.
Digital banking company Meniga announced a change in leadership today. The Iceland-based company has appointed Simon Shorthose as its new CEO.
Shorthose comes to Meniga having previously worked at fintech SaaS companies Kyriba and Mambu, where he served as Executive Leader and Head of Global Sales, respectively. He has also been on the management team of two unicorn tech companies.
“It is a huge privilege to lead Meniga, and I am very excited about taking on the challenge of helping major banks build greater digital engagement and insights and financial coaching with their customers and helping drive enhanced targeted marketing,” said Shorthose. “Looking forward to the future, I remain focused on delivering the best service to our customers and taking Meniga through the next stage of growth. I’d also like to thank Georg for trusting me with this responsibility and for his remarkable leadership from the start.”
Shorthose said that Meniga is in a “prime position for growth” with the recent shift toward the cloud and modernization in banking technology. He also cited demand for improved mobile channels, deeper customer engagement, and enhanced loyalty.
Meniga Co-founder Georg Ludviksson, who served as the company’s CEO for 14 years, is stepping down but will remain a shareholder of the company. “After a most exciting and fulfilling 14 years, I am now passing the baton over to Simon. I’ve seen first-hand his strengths and feel confident that Meniga will thrive under his leadership,” said Ludviksson. “With his 20-year track record of proven results in tech on a global scale, I put my complete trust in Simon to continue our mission to help banks create an unrivaled digital banking experience and bring Meniga to new heights.”
Meniga was founded in 2009 and powers banking apps used by more than 100 million people in more than 30 countries. The company offers tools such as data management, PFM, and cashflow analysis; as well as cashback rewards, carbon footprint tracking, and market insights.
The company presented at FinovateEurope earlier this year. The demo showcased how Meniga leverages information on users’ carbon footprint to help banks provide customers with contextual recommendations on sustainable products and investments.
Earlier this year, we unveiled our Sustainability Scholarship Program for demoing companies. Our new initiative supports startups that are embracing environmental sustainability, social equity, and responsible governance (ESG).
With FinovateFall just weeks away, we are excited to share the names of the six demoing companies to win Sustainability Scholarships for our upcoming autumn event, September 12 through 14, in New York.
Remember that early-bird savings for FinovateFall end after September 2nd. Register today and save your seat!
Headquartered in the U.K and founded in 2019, Daizy helps users become more conscious investors with an AI that gives them the data-driven stories behind America’s biggest companies.
Deborah Yang is co-founder and CEO. Follow Daizy on Twitter. Connect on LinkedIn.
Debbie – Winner of the Female Founded/Owned category
Based in Miami, Florida and founded in 2021, Debbie is the Noom for debt loss. The company leverages behavioral psychology and rewards to help users pay off 3x more debt and help lenders recession-proof members.
Co-founder Frida Leibowitz is CEO. Follow Debbie on Twitter. Connect on LinkedIn.
Deposits – Winner of the Person of Color Founded/Owned category
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Deposits is a cloud-based fintech platform that gives banks and brands an easy-to-use turnkey solution to build best-in-class financial experiences from payments to lending.
Joseph Akintolayo is CEO. Follow Deposits on Twitter. Connect on LinkedIn.
Energy Shares – Winner of the Environmental category
Headquartered in Pasadena, California and founded in 2020, Energy Shares is a FINRA registered broker-dealer and equity crowdfunding platform for utility scale renewable energy projects in the U.S.
Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and founded in 2020, Investii is an actionable, wealth-building app empowering healthy savings habits, financial confidence, and alternative credit data.
Nishant Deshpande is co-founder and CEO. Connect with Investii on LinkedIn.
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, MinervaAI is an AI-driven platform that provides simple and effective sanctions, KYC, KYB, IDV, and enhanced due diligence to help businesses grow.
Co-founder Jennifer Arnold is CEO. Follow MinervaAI on Twitter. Connect on LinkedIn
Australia’s Heritage Bank teamed up with Convera to launch its new online international payments solution.
Convera was formerly known as Western Union Business Solutions (WUBS) and was acquired for $910 million in 2021 and subsequently established as a standalone company.
Hello Clever raised $3.1 million (A$4.5 million) in seed funding in a round led by Vectr Fintech Partners. The company enables shoppers to get real-time cash back from participating merchants.
A pair of fintech headlines out of Australia have caught our eye at mid-week. First up, Heritage Bank, a financial institution based in Queensland and serving customers across the country, announced the launch of its new online international payments offering, courtesy of a partnership with Convera. The new service will enable Heritage Bank customers to send and receive money to locations around the world directly from their online and mobile bank accounts. The service will be available 24 hours a day, regardless of where the banking customer lives, and operates in near real-time.
“With the explosion of online purchases now taking place across international marketplaces, our new international payments service provides a seamless facility for our members,” Heritage Bank CEO Peter Lock said. “This fantastic new service allows our members to send and receive money internationally, direct from our online and mobile banking system, in close to real time and around the clock no matter where they are.”
The new service is made possible thanks to a partnership with Convera, a payments technology solution provider known up until recently as Western Union Business Solutions (WUBS). Western Union sold WUBS to Goldfinch Partners and The Baupost Group for $910 million last year, and the company subsequently was set up as a standalone entity – Convera. Processing more than $110 billion in total payments volume in 2020 and more than $170 billion in 2021, WUBS represented 7% of Western Union’s revenues in 2021.
On its own, Convera is the largest non-bank fintech in the international B2B payments industry with capabilities in more than 140 currencies across 200+ countries and territories, and more than 60 international banking partners. The company also has more than 30,000 SMBs, financial and educational institutions, law firms, and NGOs among its customers.
“Our research forecasts that one-third of post-COVID economic recovery in Australia will come from modern, digital, deliverable services which is why we’re committed to supporting and implementing the digital transformation of financial institutions and providing the tools and solutions to do so,” Convera Regional Vice President and Head of APAC Sam Fitzpatrick said.
Second up: Hello Clever, an Australia-based fintech that gives consumer’s real-time cash back, has raised $3.1 million (A$4.5 million) in seed funding. The round was led by Vectr Fintech Partners and featured participation from CrossFund, Yolo Investments, Magnivia Ventures, Son Tech Ventures, Boston Ventures, and others.
“2022 has been an exciting year,” Hello Clever co-founder and CEO Caroline Tran wrote on the company’s blog this week. “We have been working diligently to launch our full suite of products and now we have achieved a significant milestone – being the first company to pioneer ‘Buy to Earn’ or a new category in payments that democratizes rewards in a different way.”
Hello Clever’s “buy-to-earn” ecosystem connects shoppers and businesses to make shopping and payments an easier, more seamless process for all involved. Offering itself as an alternative to Buy Now, Pay Later platforms, Hello Clever leverages open banking, fast payments, and AI to help consumers locate the best merchants for their shopping preferences and then provides cash back in real time when consumers shop at participating retailers. Hello Clever also gives consumers the ability to track their spending in real-time across bank accounts. The company’s real-time payment API is powered by the New Payments Platform (NPP), PayTo, and PayID.
“We want to introduce a new ecosystem that allows consumers to be financially healthier and our merchant partners to increase sales (and) reduce operating costs,” Tran wrote. “That’s why we are not a single product – it’s a ‘Clever way’ of executing payment strategies to achieve better business outcomes. From Hello Clever as a consumer facing app, we know have evolved into building Hello Clever Business, Hello Clever Business API, and Hello Clever Yield – which is our path into financial investing for Gen Zs.”
Founded in 2021, Hello Clever is headquartered in Surry Hills, New South Wales.
Square is launching its first integration with ClearPay this week.
Square merchants in the U.K. can now leverage Clearpay (known as Afterpay outside of the U.K.) to offer a BNPL payment option to their customers making purchases both online and in-person.
The integration is the result of an acquisition between Square parent Block and Afterpay in January of this year for $29 billion.
Block’s Square is launching its first integration with ClearPay (also known as Afterpay) in the U.K. this week.
The move will make ClearPay’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) technology available clients making purchases at both in-person and online Square merchants. End customers will have the option to pay in four interest-free installments over the course of six weeks, while merchants will receive payment right away.
There is record demand for BNPL among U.K. consumers. The BNPL model is the region’s fastest growing online payment method. Last year, consumers spent $15 billion using BNPL on e-commerce purchases. This figure is expected to double by 2025.
“The integration across platforms furthers our goal to give sellers of all sizes omnichannel tools that help them to grow by meeting consumer shopping habits, whatever and wherever they are,” said Head of Square Alyssa Henry. “Clearpay provides our ecosystem with a new tool beyond an alternative payment method; it enables an omnichannel commerce solution that can offer true value to our sellers.”
Today’s news comes after Square’s parent company Block acquired Afterpay for $29 billion in January of this year. Outside of the U.K., Square has already seen positive results from its integration with Afterpay. The company reported that in the U.S. and Australia, the average transaction size among customers using Afterpay is three times greater than non-BNPL purchases. Across the globe, Square noted a 180% increase in new customers using Afterpay offered by Square sellers between February and March of this year.
Founded in 2009, Square is a fintech pioneer. The company was among the first to offer mobile point-of-sale payments. Today, Square offers a holistic merchant services platform and competes with some of the largest traditional players in the space, as well as newcomers including Stripe and PayPal. Earlier this year, Square teamed up with Apple to launch Tap to Pay on iPhone. The new service will offer sellers a solution to accept contactless payments with no additional hardware.
Fraud detection and prevention specialist Rippleshot announced a partnership with risk intelligence company Flashpoint to help fight payment card fraud.
The partnership will combine Rippleshot’s network of more than 4,500 FIs with Flashpoint’s fraud mitigation technology to help firms detect data breaches and fraudulent activity faster.
A 2022 Finovate Awards finalist, Rippleshot is based in Chicago, Illinois. The company made its Finovate debut in 2014.
Fraud detection and prevention solution provider Rippleshot has teamed up with risk intelligence firm Flashpoint to help financial institutions take more proactive steps to fight payment card fraud.
Rippleshot’s technology relies on a data consortium of more than 4,500 financial institutions – as well as AI/ML, automation, and data-driven strategies – to quickly detect data breaches and determine when and where the breach occurred. Combining Rippleshot’s compromised and high-risk merchant data and insights with Flashpoint’s payment and credit card fraud mitigation solution will enable financial institutions to upgrade their fraud prevention strategies.
“Flashpoint is a market leader in delivering intelligence that provides a detailed view into what cyber criminals in illicit communities are seeing,” Rippleshot CEO and co-founder Canh Tran said. “By pairing that with Rippleshot’s compromised and high-risk merchant data, this partnership will equip the industry with unparalleled financial intelligence to react much more quickly to instances of verified card fraud and proactively stop further damage from fraudsters.”
A Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateSpring in 2014, Rippleshot was named a finalist in the Best Back-Office/Core Services Solution category of the 2022 Finovate Awards for its collaboration with fellow Finovate alum Fiserv. The international financial services technology company embraced Rippleshot’s Card Risk Office Fraud Warning product, an early breach detection solution that enables FIs to spot potentially fraudulent activity 30 to 60 days before network alerts.
“Card fraud is a complex and ever-changing problem that demands a collaborative and proactive approach to tackle it effectively, so that cardholders can feel secure about the financial information they are using, storing, or transacting with,” Tran said when the partnership was announced. “We are excited to partner with Fiserv, a fintech leader that shares our passion and expertise when it comes to fraud-fighting technologies.”
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Rippleshot has raised $7.3 million in funding according to Crunchbase. The company includes Method Capital , CMFG Ventures, and Wintrust Ventures among its investors.
Greg Palmer’s Finovate Podcast continues to be the source of many of fintech’s most compelling conversations.
From discussions with innovation experts to deep dives with veterans of the VC world, the Finovate Podcast is a great way to learn about the trends that fintech enthusiasts are most enthusiastic about.
Here’s a rundown of recent episodes you might have missed over the summer.
Michael Butler, President and CEO, Grasshopper Bank
Finovate Podcast host Greg Palmer talks with Grasshopper Bank President and CEO Michael Butler on surviving and thriving as a neobank, and lessons for the broader fintech ecosystem. Episode 142.
“(Grasshopper) is a company that is focused on providing digital financial solutions to the business and innovation economy, mainly SMBs that are focused on technology and are technophiles by nature. We think there’s a big demand pull that has been coming for some time in the business side, and we think it’s the next great place for disruption from a digital banking perspective.”
Tony Ulwick, Creator, the Outcome-Driven Innovation Process
Greg Palmer introduces Tony Ulwick, founder and CEO of Strategn and creator of the Outcome Driven Innovation process, to Finovate audiences in this podcast conversation. Ulwick explains the importance of focusing on innovation that matters and successfully bringing new ideas to the market. Episode 141.
“I thought: if we just knew the metrics they were going to use to judge the value of our product a year and a half ago when we started developing it, we could just design the product to meet those metrics and we’d win in the marketplace. It sounds simple enough. But the (next) thought was: what are those metrics? How can we capture them? Do they exist?”
Tiffani Montez, Principal Analyst, Insider Intelligence
Podcast host Greg Palmer talks with Tiffani Montez, Principal Analyst with Insider Intelligence. In their conversation, Montez discusses strategies for keeping customers happy in times of economic uncertainty – and finding opportunity in challenging times. Episode 140.
“How do you safeguard consumer trust? We know that digital trust is the confidence that consumers place in their bank’s digital channels. And they have a prime opportunity to build this up as a commodity. We know over the last year the largest U.S. banks have come to aid in a time of pandemic related crisis. And customers have repaid that flexibility with greater trust in their primary financial institutions.”
“I would be remiss not to say that I struggle with startup nomenclature like this (neobank). These organisms evolve so quickly. Terms like “neobank” – at first they seem grandiose, way beyond what the businesses actually are. And then, before you know it, the end up feeling overly narrow and constricting.”
Currencycloud teamed up with Future FinTech Labs (FTFT Labs) to help the New York City-based fintech launch its Tempo app.
Tempo is designed to make it easier, more secure and more effective for U.S. immigrants to send money overseas.
Acquired by Visa in 2021, Currencycloud has processed more than $100 billion in cross-border money transfers since inception in 2012.
Global payments solutions and infrastructure company Currencycloud has partnered with Future FinTech Labs (FTFT Labs) to help the NYC-based fintech launch a new remittance solution for U.S.-based immigrants. The new offering, an app called Tempo, will help immigrants living in the U.S. send money securely to North America, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, and the Philippines.
Tempo will gives FTFT Labs customers access to a multi-currency wallet that makes sending money internationally easier and more cost-effective compared to other high-fee remittance services. Tempo app users will be able to leverage both FTFT Labs’ Conversion Tool to buy and trade currencies and use FTFT Labs’ Funds feature to top off their digital wallet.
“Tempo represents an easy, fast, and secure way to transfer money cross-border,” FTFT Labs CEO Sean Liu said. “Working with Currencycloud and using the breadth of services it allows us to offer our customers a seamless process from start to finish. We are confident we will be able to continue to make remittance a seamless process for our end users.”
Tempo users pay a fee of $2.99 pre-transaction – although the company is currently offering customers fee-free transactions when they sign up. Transfers via Tempo take place instantly rather than over the three business days typical of other money transfer apps, and users can send as little as $20 or as much as $1,500. Tempo sees its transfer amount limit as an advantage compared to other money transfer apps that do not have a limit, seeing the limit as a way to help ensure “a high level of security, by design, for users.” The Tempo app is available for both Android and iOs devices.
Making its Finovate debut in 2012, Currencycloud most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2018. The London-based company serves banks, fintechs, and foreign exchange brokerages, helping them and their customers make seamless and secure cross-border transactions in multiple currencies. Since inception, Currencycloud has processed more than $100 billion transferred between more than 180 countries. Acquired by Visa in 2021, the company includes fellow Finovate alums Dwolla and Mambu among its partners. Currencycloud maintains offices in New York, Amsterdam, Cardiff, and Singapore.
“Migrants in the U.S. should be able to send money cross-border without friction and without prohibitive costs,” Currencycloud VP of Sales Lewis Nurcombe said. “A fintech like Future FinTech Labs understands the needs of working people wanting to send money to family and friends, and as such is successfully reimagining how money flows for this huge market.”
Future FinTech Labs is a subsidiary and research and development center for FTFT Group. FTFT Labs is dedicated to designing, developing, and providing operational support for FTFT’s digital banking and payment services offerings.
Active in 15 countries in Latin America, payments infrastructure provider Geopagos has secured an investment of $35 million. The equity funding round was led by Riverwood Capital and featured participation from Endeavor Catalyst. The sum represents the company’s first institutional financing and will be used to fuel the development of new embedded payments solutions and help the firm expand throughout Latin America.
Geopagos provides financial institutions, fintechs, retailers, software companies and other organizations with end-to-end digital solutions to help them launch or grow their payment acceptance businesses in the area. These solutions include terminals that enable mobile phones to operate as point of sale devices as well as technology that turns websites into e-commerce platforms.
With clients including Santander, BBVA, Banco Estado de Chile, and Finovate alum Fiserv, Geopagos processes more than 150 million transactions and more than $5 billion in volume a year. The Buenos Aires-based company was founded in 2013 by Sebastián Núñez Castro, Julián Lisenberg, Fernando Tauscher, Raúl Oyarzun and Damián Harburguer.
“Latin America is a market with very low card penetration and Geopagos is well positioned as a software enabler and infrastructure provider to boost card acceptance and digital payments across the region,” Riverwood Capital co-founder and managing partner Francisco Álvarez-Demalde said.
Speaking of payments in Latin America, blockchain-enabled accounts receivable and B2B payments company PayStand has acquired Yaydoo, an accounts payable, cash flow management, and liquidity solution provider based in Mexico. Yaydoo is one of the fastest-growing startups in Mexico, with more than 150 employees working in more than six different countries. Founded in 2017 and operating throughout Latin America Yaydoo raised $20.4 million in Series A funding last year and this year was named a “Súper Empresa 2022” and a “Súper Empresas para Mujeres 2022” by Expansión Top Companies México.
“Together, PayStand and Yaydoo will redefine the boundaries of B2B fintech across the continent,” PayStand CEO Jeremy Almond said. “The combined company will be one of the first global B2B blockchain platforms at a significant scale. The resulting company will have processed over $5 billion in payments, added 300 additional employees, and built a network of over 500,000 connected businesses, the largest of any commercial B2B blockchain in the world.”
Founded in 2013, PayStand made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, one year later in 2014. The company leverages blockchain and cloud technology to digitize receivables, automate processing, lower time-to-cash, remove transaction fees, and drive new revenue. A member of the 2021 CB Insights Fintech 250 and named to the Inc. 5000 for a second year in a row in 2021, PayStand has secured $86 million in funding, most recently raising $50 million in a Series C investment led by NewView Capital and featuring participation from SoftBank’s SB Opportunity Fund and King River Capital.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
This week, we take a look at more of the fintech entrepreneurs, analysts, and experts who will share their knowledge and insights into the fintech industry at FinovateFall next month.
Day One will feature Joe Lichtenberg, Global Head of Product and Industry Marketing for Intersystems, with his Mastermind Keynote address: How Next Generation Architectures Empower Financial Services Firms with Trusted Business Insights. Lichtenberg’s morning presentation will introduce a new architectural approach that is providing business decision makers with a consolidated, accurate, and real-time view of their business.
Personetics President of the Americas Jody Bhagat will deliver a Mastermind Keynote: How Mid-Market Banks Can Find Their Sweet Spot with Digital Plus Human Interactions in the afternoon of Day One. Bhagat will discuss how mid-market banks can evolve their relationship models to do more of what they do best: supporting customers with advanced money management capabilities and Digital Plus Human interactions.
VantageScore EVP and Chief Product Officer Rikard Bandebo will deliver a Mastermind Keynote in the afternoon of Day Two of FinovateFall. In a presentation titled Leveraging Data Analytics to Drive Financial Inclusion, Bandebo will talk about new tools and analytic strategies to discover not just newly scoreable consumers, but newly lendable consumers, as well.
Day Three of FinovateFall will feature a Mastermind Keynote during the Payments Stream. Tom Ward, Partner with Sidley Austin LLP and recent CFPB Enforcement Director, will deliver an address titled The CFPB in the Biden Administration – Enforcement and Regulatory Priorities for Fintechs in 2022 and Beyond. Ward’s presentation will explain the CFPB’s enforcement priorities as they relate to fintech and the organization’s current focus within the industry.
Co-founder and Chief Impact Officer for Symend Tiffany Kaminsky will deliver a Mastermind Keynote during the Customer Experience Stream on Day Three. Kaminsky’s presentation – Upping the Ante: Using the Science of Decision-Making for Effective Customer Engagement – will help businesses leverage behavioral science to better engage with customers and hyper-personalize customer outreach efforts.
Our Artificial Intelligence Stream on Day Three will feature a Mastermind Keynote from Kore.ai SVP of Marketing Michael Kropidlowski. In his address – Creating Extraordinary Customer and Employee Experiences for the Banking World – Kropidlowski will show how conversational AI is revolutionizing the customer experience in banking.
Visit our FinovateFall 2022 hub today and reserve your seat. Register by September 2nd and take advantage of early-bird savings!
Alliant Credit Union announced a partnership with lending-as-a-service fintech Upstart.
The agreement will make Alliant part of the Upstart Referral Network.
Upstart SVP of Lending Partnerships Michael Lock said the move will help Alliant “grow its membership while providing greater access to affordable credit.”
Alliant Credit Union first partnered with Upstart in May 2022. With today’s announcement, Alliant becomes part of the Upstart Referral Network. Under this agreement, Upstart offers qualified loan applicants tailored loan offers in around five minutes. When the applicant decides to pursue the loan opportunity, Upstart transitions the client from its own user interface to an Alliant-branded experience, where they finish the online member application and close the loan.
“As part of the Upstart Referral Network, Alliant will be able to grow its membership while providing greater access to affordable credit,” said Upstart SVP of Lending Partnerships Michael Lock.
With more than 650,000 members and over $15 billion in assets, Alliant Credit Union is among the top 10 U.S. credit unions. Alliant SVP, Chief Capital Markets Officer, and Head of Commercial Lending Charles Krawitz said that the company is “very particular” when it comes to selecting partners. “Our partners must embrace doing things the right way, with legal and risk compliance maturity,” said Krawitz. “We believe Upstart has invested in robust systems that ensure borrowers are well-vetted, and that they will make a strong partner for delivering value and options to our members.”
Founded in 2012, Upstart differentiates itself in the alternative lending space by partnering with banks and credit unions seeking to increase their approval rates and lower their loss rates. The company’s AI-first lending tool enables financial institutions to reach a wider variety of end customers, including those with less favorable credit files.
Upstart went public in December 2020 and was in the news headlines recently due to concerns about a drop in funding as well as a decline in earnings. Company CEO Dave Girouard said that the decline was “disappointing” and “unacceptable,” adding, “It may be natural for you to question whether Upstart’s AI-powered risk models aren’t working as designed, but we’re confident this isn’t the case, that, in fact, our models continue to improve with respect to accuracy and risk separation.”
Teslar Software announced a partnership with Missouri-based community bank, The Seymour Bank.
Courtesy of the deal, The Seymour Bank will use Teslar’s lending process automation platform to modernize and streamline its commercial lending business.
Teslar Software made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Francisco.
The Seymour Bank, a Missouri-based financial institution with more than $137 million in assets, has selected Teslar Software to enhance its commercial lending strategy. The bank will use Teslar’s lending process automation platform to reduce reliance on manual processes and boost efficiencies..
“With Teslar, we will become more accessible to our customers, delivering a portal that allows them to easily and quickly monitor the status of their loans and securely communicate with us,” The Seymour Bank vice president Heather Johns said. “Plus, Teslar’s automated workflows will save time for our employees, resulting in a better, more efficient experience.”
In addition to the digital customer portal, designed to improve convenience, The Seymour Bank will also leverage Teslar’s technology to improve its ability to track documentation and monitor exceptions. The institution, founded in 1939 and headquartered in Seymour, MIssouri, outside of Springfield, prides itself in its commitment to local involvement and customer service. But, in the words of Johns, the bank “also want(s) to be recognized for modern technology and seamless experiences.” The partnership with Teslar will bring the benefits of modern, automated technology to both the bank’s customer-facing and back office operations.
“The Seymour Bank is a locally owned bank that has prioritized serving its customers and community for more than 80 years,” Teslar Software founder and CEO Joe Ehrhardt said. “We look forward to supporting the bank as (it provides) more digitized, seamless interactions to enhance both the customer and employee experience.”
Teslar’s partnership with The Seymour Bank comes just weeks after the firm announced that it had teamed up with National Bank & Trust to streamline the Texas-based financial institution’s lending process with a new suite of automated workflow and portfolio management tools. Chartered in 1888 as The First National and headquartered in La Grange, Texas, National Bank & Trust is a full-service bank dedicated to providing customized service, “lightning fast lending”, and future-focused technology.
Winner of the 2020 Finovate Award for Best Fintech Partnership for its PPP.bank initiative – a free website developed in collaboration with Citizens Bank of Edmonds and Mark Cuban – Teslar Software was founded in 2008 and made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2015. Since then, the company has grown into a robust, portfolio management system provider and strategic partner to help community and regional banks compete in an increasingly tough and crowded environment for lending services.
The customer journey is vital in today’s financial services landscape and cloud-enabled business innovation is the vital ingredient.
A good user experience is a critical factor in helping consumers differentiate between firms and helping brands build lasting relationships with customers.
According to the Harvard Business Review, firms with leading customer satisfaction rankings can grow their revenues two and a half times faster than their competitors. Moreover, research by Forrester demonstrates that customers are over twice as likely to stick with a brand when their problems are solved quickly.
Yet, great digital experiences rely on intuitive GUIs and an agile, cloud native strategy, both of which are not easy to achieve. In this article, we’ll demystify how to get started with cloud computing in software engineering for banking and help you develop a leading customer UX.
What Are the Challenges of Cloud Business Innovation in Banking?
Approximately US$1.3 trillion was spent in 2020 on digital transformation, yet Deloitte data shows 70% of projects fail. That equates to over US$900 billion wasted — so what’s going wrong?
Just as an HD TV relies on good HD content, great apps need high interactivity with data, an always-on presence, security, and scalability to perform under high demand.
Eric Newcomer, WSO2 CTO, argues that cloud business innovation goes wrong when there’s a messy middle. In other words, when there’s a lack of clarity about how strategy, outcome, and skill coordinate the microservices within a platform, cloud business innovation becomes dysfunctional.
Within banking specifically, the stakes of digital transformation are extremely high. Today’s financial services firms must deal with an onslaught of cyberattacks and regulatory constraints, not to mention increased competition from new fintech entrants better-equipped to deliver excellent customer experiences. So how can financial institutions ensure they foster an innovative and successful cloud-first environment?
How to Overcome These Challenges
Great cloud computing in software engineering needs equally great cloud native practices and technology, focusing specifically on integration and APIs. Without this focus, customers lose the always-on, always integrated feel that today’s users demand.
Therefore, financial services firms require an all-in-one platform delivering accelerated and enhanced engineering processes to speed up innovation in their cloud environment. Unfortunately, building robust and agile platforms from scratch can be timely and costly.
Instead, partnering with existing solutions providers allows financial service firms to focus on developing cloud banking innovations and better deliver security, compliance, and ideal customer experiences. You can read more about overcoming challenges for banks to generate fintech innovation here.
The Role of Digital Platform-as-a-Service Within Financial Services
An “opinionated” digital platform-as-a-service (digital PaaS) accelerates cloud banking innovation by tackling some of the core complexities of developing digital applications. As a result, you can build, deploy, and iterate new versions more easily.
Digital PaaS platforms enable diagrammatic and low-code functionality, providing a great developer experience. In turn, your teams can increase their productivity and attention to quality assurance for end-users.
Moreover, digital PaaS integrates with automated deployment tools using Docker and Kubernetes. As a result, you can test, develop, and deploy new user features for maximum customer satisfaction faster than ever before, using just a few clicks.
Digital PaaS solutions deliver seamless platform functionality and integration with your existing data warehouses, allowing you to leverage efficient and scalable consumer solutions.
How Low-Code Digital PaaS Enables Cloud Computing in Software Engineering
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to cloud computing in software engineering, so what makes a digital PaaS-based method the most appropriate for financial services?
A digital PaaS approach provides a highly stable environment to create and manage APIs since it establishes core conventions and assumptions within your workflows. These assumptions include the programming language and dev environment, all the way to the publishing process on software marketplaces. As a result, you can remove barriers to collaboration and shorten project lead times. Similarly, as a cloud-enabled solution, you provide collaborative space for your teams to work.
Moreover, you can easily build platform microservices and provide teams with autonomy over their software output. Software teams can publish updates to critical platform elements accordingly without jeopardizing the rest of your platform or relying on slower project teams, keeping your user experience competitive.
However, the benefits don’t stop when you hit publish. Digital PaaS solutions allow you to run professional DevOps systems and make improvements in step with live user trends. Consequently, you can remain competitive and establish a close relationship with customers.
Finally, once your APIs are built, you can share them through marketplace and import or export data with other SaaS platforms. As a result, you can leverage other data sources for enhanced features. For example, you can capitalize on open banking ecosystems, enhance your security through additional identity checks, and more.
And so, with complex development and deployment tasks that are both easy to learn and use, you can deliver fresh digital services faster — and more accurately — than ever.
Introducing Choreo by WSO2
With around only three in ten digital transformations being successful and the heightened competition within banking today, financial services companies need to innovate at speed and scale.
Choreo is a digital PaaS that helps companies manage and develop APIs, services, and integrations quickly. Choreo enables developers and operations teams to go from ideation to production in hours or days versus weeks and months via a seamless environment that eliminates the complexity of cloud native computing.
Choreo provides a diagrammatic and pro-code environment side by side, allowing you to create an outline and make detailed tweaks in minutes. It includes a developer marketplace with over 400 pre-built connectors that makes it easy to discover, reuse, publish, and share.
With security and transparency at its foundation, you can easily trace code changes and root issues across your entire development history. You can also benefit from AI-assisted coding and enhanced governance features.
Find out more about Choreo and create an API with just a few clicks.
