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3forge Lands Funding from Morgan Stanley

3forge Lands Funding from Morgan Stanley
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: 3forge, Alumni News, Daily news
  • Low code platform 3forge received funding from Morgan Stanley.
  • The amount of the round, which marked 3forge’s first external investment since it was founded in 2011, was undisclosed.
  • 3forge will use the funds to fuel its global go-to-market strategy and expand its development community. 

Low code platform 3forge has landed its first external investment round since it was founded in 2011. Morgan Stanley invested an undisclosed amount in the New York-based company.

3forge, which counts banks, hedge funds, asset managers, exchanges, and sovereign wealth funds among its clients, offers a low-code platform developers can use to build front-end, enterprise applications. The company is able to reduce development time, minimize maintenance costs, offer scalability and ensure uptime because it built its own web server, database, and messaging layer from scratch in-house.

“We are thrilled to close on an investment by Morgan Stanley, a longstanding partner who truly understands the value and performance of 3forge technology,” said 3forge Founder Robert Cooke. “This is an exciting milestone as we continually expand our capabilities to help enhance client workflows and productivity.”

3forge will use the funds to accelerate its global go-to-market strategy and expand its development community. 

3forge is known for its high-performance data visualization and application development platform. The company’s competitors include companies like Appian and OutSystems, which offer similar low-code solutions designed to streamline the development process. 3forge’s platform, however, differentiates itself because of its ability to handle complex data environments, an attribute that makes it a valuable tool for banks with large data volumes.

Low-code/no-code platforms became popular in fintech in the mid-2010s. Today, their use is changing how banks and developers build and deploy applications. That’s because they enable organizations to create custom solutions quickly– without the need for coding skills. This not only speeds up the development cycle, but it also reduces operational costs.

Banks need to make changes to their applications faster and more frequently than ever before, but there is a talent gap of banks that demand strong developer talent and the availability of developers. The promise of a low-code platform can help banks and fintechs adapt to evolving customer demands and regulatory requirements, while limiting the need to hire new developer talent.

Photo by Sven Piper on Unsplash

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Ncontracts Acquires Third Party Risk Management Company Venminder

Ncontracts Acquires Third Party Risk Management Company Venminder
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Ncontracts
  • Ncontracts has acquired Venminder, a third-party risk management SaaS platform, to enhance its governance, risk, and compliance services.
  • The acquisition will broaden Ncontracts’ expertise in third-party risk management and strengthen its position in both SaaS and knowledge-as-a-service markets.
  • Ncontracts also announced that Hg has acquired Venminder’s previous shareholders and Ncontracts’ investor Gryphon.

Risk management and compliance solutions provider Ncontracts made an acquisition today to help broaden its governance, risk, and compliance capabilities. The Tennessee-based company has bought third party risk management program company Venminder.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Kentucky-based Venminder offers a SaaS platform for third-party risk management that helps more than 1,200 customers manage their vendor relationships– from onboarding to offboarding. With Venminder, firms can manage vendors, track contract data, perform due diligence and oversight, send and score questionnaires, conduct risk assessments, systemically monitor risks across domains, order due diligence assessments on vendor controls, and more.

Ncontracts anticipates the purchase will offer it more depth and expertise in third-party risk management, and will enhance its position in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) and knowledge-as-a-service (KaaS) space.

“We are excited to join forces with Venminder,” said Michael Berman, Ncontracts Founder and CEO. “With our teams coming together to help reduce risk, improve compliance and control costs, we will continue to strengthen the financial industry and the communities they serve.”

Also this week, Ncontracts, which demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022, announced that investor Hg bought out prior Venminder shareholders as well as Ncontracts shareholder Gryphon Investors– which acquired Ncontracts in 2020. With its purchase, Hg will bring both resources and expertise.

“With the investment and support from Hg, we are well positioned to continue our rapid growth,” said Berman. “Gryphon has been a valuable partner, and I want to thank their outstanding team of operating partners, operating advisors and investment professionals.”

Third party risk management is a hotter topic than ever in today’s banking and fintech landscape, especially as the number of banks hit with consent orders rises due to regulatory breaches and compliance issues. With the increasing reliance on third-party vendors for technology, payment processing, and other services, the potential for vulnerabilities and risk has grown significantly.

Exacerbating the issue, regulatory bodies are tightening scrutiny on how banks manage their third-party relationships, ensuring that banks maintain strict oversight, due diligence, and risk mitigation strategies to safeguard sensitive data and operational resilience.

Photo by Edmond Dantès

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Jack Henry Forges Payments Collaboration with Moov

Jack Henry Forges Payments Collaboration with Moov
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Jack Henry
  • Jack Henry is teaming up with payments platform Moov to offer enhanced payment services to SMEs.
  • The services will include the ability to accept payments with the tap of a phone, automate reconciliations to accounting software systems, and more.
  • The companies will begin beta testing the new payment services by mid-2025.

A newly announced collaboration between Jack Henry and digital payments processor Moov will empower regional and community financial institutions to offer enhanced payment services to their SME customers. These services will give SMEs a range of payment capabilities, from accepting payments with the tap of a phone to receiving same-day funds for payments accepted, to automating reconciliations to accounting software systems.

“This innovation is made possible by our technology modernization strategy to offer community and regional financial institutions cloud-native, API-first services that allow them to differentiate strategically, compete successfully, and meet the evolving needs of their customers,” Jack Henry President and CEO Greg Adelson said. “We are pleased to collaborate with Moov on this unique solution that will provide modern, innovative business payment capabilities to our clients that are seamlessly integrated with deposit and core banking services.”

The Jack Henry/Moov collaboration comes at a time when an increasing number of regional and community banks, as well as credit unions, are seeking ways to better serve their small business customers. A 2024 Jack Henry survey revealed that 78% of its clients expect to grow their small business capabilities over the next two years. Unsurprisingly, almost seven out of 10 respondents highlighted payments as the SME service they are most eager to introduce to their customers.

Smaller financial institutions do have their work cut out for them. According to a 2023 Datos Insights survey, 56% of small businesses do their banking with one of the four largest banks. Only 18% bank at a smaller financial institution. As such, solutions like those from the Jack Henry/Moov collaboration could go a long way toward helping regional and community banks, and credit unions better compete with their larger rivals.

“This solution will provide many benefits to SMBs, including one-click enrollment, automated itemized transaction processing and reconciliation, instant balance transfers from linked accounts to cover same-day transaction needs, and an integrated payment relationship with the financial institution,” Moov CEO and Co-founder Wade Arnold said.

Beta testing of the new payment services is expected to begin by mid-2025.

Cedar Falls, Iowa-based Moov offers a money movement platform that provides a straightforward and scalable way to integrate payments into products. As a payment processor, issuer, registered PayFac, program manager, and technology provider, Moov serves as a one-stop payment solution for businesses with complex money movement needs. Named to The Tech Tribune’s 2024 Best Tech Startups in Iowa roster, Moov was founded in 2018.

Founded in 1976 and headquartered in Monett, Missouri, Jack Henry has been a Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateFall in 2010. Today, the company is a major technology solution provider for banks and credit unions, offering its own internally developed capabilities as well as facilitating integrations with leading fintech innovators.

Jack Henry is a publicly-traded company on the NASDAQ under the ticker JKHY. The firm has a market capitalization of $12 billion.

Photo by Jose Cruz

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ACI Worldwide Teams Up with Red Hat

ACI Worldwide Teams Up with Red Hat
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Alumni News
  • ACI Worldwide announced a collaboration with open source solutions provider Red Hat.
  • The partnership will make ACI’s cloud-native Enterprise Payments Platform available on any cloud infrastructure.
  • Founded in 1975, ACI Worldwide has been a Finovate alum since its debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016.

A new partnership between payments technology innovator ACI Worldwide and open source solutions provider Red Hat will make ACI’s cloud-native Enterprise Payments Platform available via any cloud infrastructure. The new availability will make it easier for customers to migrate to the cloud to better operate within the digital economy and to power the next generation of payment services. Via Red Hat OpenShift, banks, merchants, and billers will gain new flexibility and choice in terms of how they deploy their payment services.

“At Red Hat, we are committed to supporting our partners and customers with a flexible, scalable, enterprise-grade technology platform like Red Hat OpenShift, helping them maximize innovation and reduce time to market while enabling the resiliency, performance, and service quality required by leading banks across the globe,” said Stefanie Chiras, Red Hat SVP of Partner Ecosystem Success.

The partnership will enable ACI Worldwide to access Red Hat’s open source portfolio of cloud-native AI and hybrid cloud solutions. ACI customers will benefit from simplified payment operations thanks to the ability to deploy ACI’s enterprise payments platform on any cloud infrastructure. This also provides enhanced resiliency and scale while keeping operating costs low.

“We are excited to extend our collaboration by joining the Red Hat partner ecosystem,” ACI Worldwide head of product management Scotty Perkins said. “We believe that this collaboration will be a game changer for many of our partners and customers to more easily reap the benefits of deploying payment services in the cloud, such as improving operational efficiency, accelerating the launch of new products, and ultimately driving growth.”

Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Florida, ACI Worldwide made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, in 2016. In the years since then, the company has grown into a major payments technology provider that serves the top 10 banks in the world and 80,000+ merchants–as well as thousands of organizations and businesses that rely on ACI Worldwide’s billpay solutions.

ACI’s partnership news with Red Hat comes just days after the company announced that it had extended its partnership with Mexican fintech Mexipay. ACI will help improve Mexipay’s real-time payments infrastructure in order to boost the adoption of instant payments and promote financial inclusion in Mexico.

ACI Worldwide is a publicly-traded company on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol ACIW. The firm has a market capitalization of $5 billion.

Photo by Tom Jur on Unsplash

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Experian to Offer Debt Consolidation in Partnership with Paylink Solutions

Experian to Offer Debt Consolidation in Partnership with Paylink Solutions
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Experian
  • Experian has partnered with affordability software and payments company Paylink.
  • Experian will leverage Paylink’s ReFi solution, which will validate and repay consumers’ outstanding debts by consolidating them into a new loan with better terms.
  • ReFi will allow consumers to conduct a financial reset, while offering lenders the assurance that the new loan is affordable.

Data analytics and consumer credit reporting company Experian is broadening its services this week by expanding its debt consolidation offering. The Ireland-based company is leveraging a partnership with affordability software and payments company Paylink, which will help work around affordability restrictions with debt consolidation loans.

Experian reports that the number one reason consumers search for loans on its marketplace is for debt consolidation. However, lenders are unable to directly pay off customers’ debts when they take out a debt consolidation loan. This means that, during the underwriting process, lenders need to double count both the new loan and existing debts. As a result, some consumers are unable to qualify for debt consolidation loans, since the new loan is considered ‘unaffordable.’ This can result in consumers borrowing from an unlicensed lender, loan shark, or friends and family.

“The benefit of this partnership is twofold, as the ReFi solution offers a valuable tool for lenders to expand their offerings and reach a broader customer base that may have originally been overlooked,” said Experian Consumer Services Managing Director Eduardo Castro.

In today’s partnership, Experian aims to promote financial inclusion and improve access to credit using Paylink’s ReFi tool. ReFi validates and repays consumers’ outstanding debts by consolidating them into a new loan with better terms. After validating a consumer’s card, loan, and overdraft accounts, ReFi confirms balances and settlement amounts, pays creditors, and offers evidence that the accounts are closed.

“ReFi enables a financial ‘reset,’ potentially leading to significant savings and quicker debt repayment,” said Paylink CEO Jake Ranson. “It also provides lenders with assurance that the new loan is affordable and will be used to clear previous debts, helping customers achieve their financial goals. With unparalleled access to data, analytics and market insight, Experian is singularly placed to help ReFi reach thousands more people seeking to realize the opportunities access to reasonably priced credit brings.”

Experian and Paylink are not alone in trying to help consumers struggling with debt. There are a handful of other players in fintech seeking to help consumers solve their debt burdens. Finovate alums Peach, Payitoff, and Debbie, which demoed their technologies at FinovateFall last year, each bring a fresh approach to debt management and payoff. These platforms are not just about numbers; they aim to empower consumers with tools that simplify debt repayment, offering tailored strategies to help users regain financial stability.

Photo by Monstera Production

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Axway Acquires Sopra Banking Software

Axway Acquires Sopra Banking Software
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Axway, Mergers & Acquisitions

The last time we covered open banking infrastructure company Axway, was a little over a year ago in the wake of the company’s acquisition of e-invoicing specialist AdValvas. Today, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based firm is back in the fintech news headlines with another acquisition announcement. The firm has officially sealed the deal with core banking software vendor Sopra Banking Software by acquiring the company for $364 million (€330 million).

First announced in February, the acquisition will result in a 5,000-employee firm led by Axway CEO Patrick Donovan. Sopra Banking Software CEO Eric Bierry will take on the role of deputy CEO.

“The completion of the tie-up between Axway and Sopra Banking Software embodies a unique development opportunity, and the ambitious industrial project we have been working towards can finally come to life,” Axway CEO Patrick Donovan said. “We will be fully committed to this project and I am convinced that, together, our teams will achieve outstanding success.”

The road to the acquisition had more than a few twists and turns. In order to marshal the financing, Axway conducted a share capital increase with preferential subscription rights that amounted to approximately $144 million (€131 million) and secured new credit facilities amounting to $220 million (€200 million). With the capital raised, the acquisition received the required regulatory approvals to initiate the integration of the two companies. Axway noted in a statement that it has set a goal of approximately $772 million (€700 million) in revenue and approximately $110 million (€100 million) in profit on operating activities for 2025.

“Our industry-leading technology platforms and business software have a long and successful track record of driving the transformation of some of the world’s largest banking and financial institutions, and this alliance significantly strengthens our positions, offerings, technologies, and perspectives,” Eric Bierry said. “This operation provides a major opportunity to accelerate our value creation for all our stakeholders through a new Group of critical size with tenfold capabilities.”

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, and founded in 1999, Axway made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Amplify PI Management Platform, an open independent platform for managing APIs across teams, the cloud, and third-party solutions. The platform enables financial institutions to leverage secure, pre-configured open banking APIs to build new solutions and business models using the institution’s existing infrastructure.

Recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave for API Management Software in Q3 of this year, Axway’s platform handles more than one million transactions every day for 11,000+ customers. These customers include nine out of the top 10 global manufacturers, three out of the four major credit card companies, and 17 out of 20 pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Photo by Paul IJsendoorn

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, ASA, Fintech Rundown, Jack Henry, Kani Payments, Moneyhub, Xero

As “Back to School” season begins, we’re looking forward to a surge of fintech news over the next few days and weeks. Finovate’s Fintech Rundown is your one-stop-shop for the latest headlines, announcements, and updates.

Payments

ACI Worldwide partners with Red Hat to make its Enterprise Payments Platform available on any cloud infrastructure.

Bank payment company GoCardless completes its acquisition of Nuapay.

Atlantic Money launches Portals to enable customers to make international money transfers directly from their bank accounts.

Payment service provider Ecommpay adds three Italian Alternative Payment Methods (APMs) to its platform as part of an effort to expand its global presence.

MENA-based payments platform Tarabut acquires U.K.-based account-to-account payments platform Vyne.

Jack Henry announces collaboration with digital payments processor Moov.

Brazilian payment service provider Ume secures $15 million in a round featuring participation from PayPal’s venture arm.

OnlineCheckWriter.com— powered by Zil Money– now allows customers to send checks funded by their credit card or wallet.

Narmi goes live with the FedNow Service in receive mode with Grasshopper Bank.

Paystand expands its payments network into the Canadian market.

Trustly and Newline by Fifth Third partner on U.S. payments. 

Lending

Singapore-based SME lending platform Validus raises $50 million in debt financing from HSBC.

Ant International collaborates with Dock to drive financial inclusion with credit tech solutions.

Embedded finance

ASA announces the integration of five fintechs–PortfolioPilot, Guac, One Goal Finance, Credit Rent Boost, and Column Tax–into its embedded app store, ASA Vault.

Embedded payments specialist Modulr expands its integration with online accounting software provider Xero to add payroll services.

Open banking

Comertbank chooses Salt Edge to comply with Moldova’s open banking legislation.

Wealth management and investing

Legal & General chooses Moneyhub to power its Qualifying Pensions Dashboard Service.

Quilter to acquire NuWealth to enhance its digital capabilities.

Regtech

Kani Payments helps climate-focused fintech Zero streamline its reconciliation and reporting obligations.

Sedric AI raises $18.5 million in Series A round to empower financial institutions with an AI-based compliance platform.

Spring Labs unveils Zanko ComplianceAssist to help financial service firms with compliance.

Small business finance

UNIPaaS and American Express partner to boost B2B card payments for SaaS platforms.

Papaya Global facilitates changing cross-border payroll, helping companies streamline their global payroll processes in every location in just four weeks. 

Real estate

Agora launches Report Builder and Waterfall Automation Tool.

Photo by Oleksandr P

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FinovateFall 2024 Sneak Peek Series: Part 9

By Madeline Clines Posted on
Categories: Addition Wealth, Cyphr, Dimply, FinovateFall 2024, FinovateFall 2024 Sneak Peek, Homegrown, Odin, Starlight, Stride, Themis

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 9 and 10. Register today using this link and save 20%.

Addition Wealth

Addition Wealth is a financial wellness company that empowers individuals to make smarter financial decisions and make the most of their money.

Features

  • Makes financial expertise more inclusive and accessible
  • Provides access to financial professionals, digital tools, benefits information, courses, content, and financial insights

Who’s it for?

Asset managers, retirement players, insurance companies, banks, private equity funds, and employers.

Cyphr

LoanReady by Cyphr is a tool that complements Loan Origination Systems and helps community banks and credit unions get more small businesses approved for loans with readiness screening or empathetic declines.

Features

  • Readiness Screening: Assesses loan eligibility, improving approval rates
  • Empathetic Declines: Provides actionable feedback, enhancing borrower trust
  • Seamless Integration: Complements existing LOS

Who’s it for?

Community lenders, credit unions, and small-to-medium-sized businesses.

Dimply

Dimply is a data driven customer experiences solution for community banks and credit unions that delivers cutting edge, engaging, and embedded personalized customer journeys.

Features

  • Delivers digital customer centricity
  • Individualization is the next frontier of customer experience
  • Provides customer journey orchestration with tailored value proposition

Who’s it for?

Banks, community banks, credit unions, and wealth managers.

Homegrown

Homegrown partners with credit unions, banks, and investors to power growth with energy efficiency data.

Features

  • Offers white-labeled digital engagement – helps customers and members save money on utility bills
  • Delivers personalization – custom results for any U.S. home address
  • Provides impact reporting – track and report user impact

Who’s it for?

Credit unions and banks – particularly those with current mortgage, HELOC, personal loan product offerings, and those with merchant lending networks for solar, HVAC, or home improvement.

Odin

Odin AI enhances enterprise efficiency with intelligent automation, real-time insights, and comprehensive solutions, delivering proven results across diverse industries.

Features

  • Automates complex financial reporting processes
  • Analyzes and categorizes vast amounts of transaction data
  • Scales across departments for enterprise-wide efficiency

Who’s it for?

Large enterprises, financial institutions, and payment providers seeking to optimize operations and enhance data-driven decision-making.

Starlight

Starlight provides proactive, personalized guidance to help households navigate government benefits seamlessly.

Features

  • Provides personalized, proactive assistance navigating benefit systems
  • Offers seamless integration with credit union products for ongoing financial support
  • Delivers quick deployment, enhancing services and member engagement

Who’s it for?

Credit unions.

Stride

Stride stands at the forefront of technology and innovation, using multi-agent GenAI to eradicate tech debt and prevent it from creeping up again.

Features

Stride Conductor exists for one purpose: to eradicate tech debt and prevent it from creeping up again. It acts as an additional team member that’s always looking out for the user behind the scenes.

Who’s it for?

Financial companies struggling with escalating tech debt.

Themis

Themis is a compliance platform that simplifies compliance and collaboration for banks and fintechs, reducing regulatory risk, cutting down on manual work, and boosting partnership efficiency.

Features

  • Simplifies compliance management
  • Enhances bank-fintech collaboration
  • Reduces regulatory risk and manual tasks

Who’s it for?

Banks and fintechs.

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Community Bank & Trust Leverages ValidiFI to Verify Bank Account Information

Community Bank & Trust Leverages ValidiFI to Verify Bank Account Information
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ValidiFI
  • Community Bank & Trust selected ValidiFI to help verify bank account ownership and possession for prospective borrowers.
  • Community Bank & Trust will leverage ValidiFI’s vAuth to verify bank account status and account ownership and possession for its Tax Refund Advance loan program.
  • ValidiFI was acquired by alternative bank and payment data firm Ribbit last June.

Risk mitigation and compliance solution provider ValidiFI announced this week that Community Bank & Trust selected its technology to help verify bank account ownership and possession for potential borrowers.

Community Bank & Trust will leverage ValidiFI’s vAuth to verify bank account status and account ownership and possession for its Tax Refund Advance loan program. Using vAuth will allow Community Bank & Trust to make real-time, accurate approval decisions. The bank will also have more visibility into scams from fraudulent bank accounts, and will ultimately allow Community Bank & Trust to meet customer lending needs quickly.

“Partnering with ValidiFI and implementing their vAuth technology is a natural progression in enhancing our Tax Refund Advance loan program,” said Community Bank & Trust President & CEO Steve Jefferies. “This collaboration allows us to verify account ownership and possession with unparalleled accuracy and speed, ensuring our customers can access their funds quickly and securely while we mitigate the risks associated with fraudulent accounts.”

ValidiFI was founded in 2014 to offer predictive bank account and payment intelligence. The Florida-based company leverages workflow automation company Omni Platform to offer organizations and financial institutions actionable insights. ValidiFI analyzes connections between bank accounts, consumers, and payment performance to help validate bank accounts, detect fraud, and assess credit risk.

“We are excited to be able to help Community Bank & Trust ensure applicants have current authorized access to an account leveraging our real-time microdeposit solution,” said ValidiFI CEO Greg Rable. “This cutting-edge technology enhances the accuracy and security of the verification process, helping to ensure that every applicant is properly validated.”

ValidiFI was acquired by alternative bank and payment data firm Ribbit last June. Greg Rable is CEO.

Photo by Monstera Production

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PayPal and Fiserv Tighten Ties for Faster Checkout

PayPal and Fiserv Tighten Ties for Faster Checkout
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Fiserv, PayPal
  • Fiserv is tapping PayPal to help its merchant clients offer faster checkouts through PayPal’s Fastlane.
  • Fastlane recognizes returning customers via email, allowing them to autofill payment details and complete purchases in as little as one click.
  • PayPal estimates Fastlane users convert more than 80% of the time, with a 50% higher conversion rate and a 32% faster checkout process compared to non-users.

After first partnering more than a decade ago, PayPal and Fiserv have furthered their partnership to help Fiserv’s merchant clients leverage PayPal to offer shoppers a faster checkout experience.

Specificaly, Fiserv will allow its merchant clients to connect to PayPal’s Fastlane, which will ultimately help speed up guest checkout flows in the U.S. Fiserv joins BigCommerce, Bold, Adobe, and Salesforce, which also offer PayPal’s Fastlane.

“We’re excited to deepen our collaboration with Fiserv and extend our innovative products and solutions to a broader audience,” said PayPal Executive Vice President and General Manager Large Enterprise and Merchant Platform Group Frank Keller. “This partnership reinforces our commitment to driving excellence in checkout convenience by partnering with leading payment service providers and e-commerce platforms.”

Fastlane, which PayPal first launched in January and then made generally available earlier this month, recognizes customers early in the checkout process by their email. After customers receive a one-time passcode sent via email, Fastlane allows shoppers to access their saved information by autofilling the fields in the checkout flow. Once verified, customers can complete their purchase in as little as one click. If Fastlane does not recognize a shopper by their email, it allows them to create a Fastlane profile by opting in during their purchase process, enabling faster transactions in the future.

Because the tool does not require users to fill out forms or remember passwords, PayPal estimates that guest shoppers using Fastlane convert more than 80% of the time, have up to 50% higher conversion rates compared to non-Fastlane users, and reduce the time to checkout by 32%.

“Fiserv is committed to simplifying the complexities of commerce, creating value for our clients by making it simple for businesses to enable new, engaging experiences for their customer base,” said Fiserv Head of Merchant Solutions Jennifer LaClair. “Our expanded partnership with PayPal supports our mission to enhance client value by providing simple, cutting-edge solutions to our clients that elevate and accelerate the commerce experience.”

Photo by David Rado

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Practical AI Applications in Banking and Finance

Practical AI Applications in Banking and Finance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Streamly

In today’s Streamly Snapshot, we’re bringing you two conversations that offer a view into real-life AI use cases in the financial services space. While it is seemingly impossible to do business without running into a discussion on AI, separating what is hype from what is practical and useful can be difficult. And because AI development is rapidly and constantly changing, leaders have an even bigger challenge when using AI to get ahead.

Today, we’re featuring two conversations from experts in both AI and fintech who offer their perspectives on how firms can apply AI in practical use cases.

First, Sarah Hinkfuss, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, talks about how banks are currently leveraging AI to solve actual problems, offers examples on how AI is improving the customer journey, looks at how firms can ensure transparency when implementing AI, addresses misconceptions around AI, and discusses how to navigate the challenges around using AI.

Next up, Vivian Yeung, Executive Vice President, Chief Digital & Technology Officer at Fremont Bank, examined what AI in action looks like. Yeung offered examples on how AI is being used to improve the customer experience across different industries and how financial services are being used to personalize the customer experience. She also takes a look into the future of the customer experience and considers the ethical implications of AI implementation.

For more of these types of insightful videos, check out Streamly.com.

Photo by Wallace Chuck

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Numeral Teams Up with HSBC Innovation Banking UK to Boost Embedded Payments

Numeral Teams Up with HSBC Innovation Banking UK to Boost Embedded Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Numeral, Qover
  • Paris-based paytech Numeral announced a collaboration with HSBC Innovation Banking UK.
  • The partnership will enable customers of both companies to embed HSBC Innovation Banking UK’s payment and account services via Numeral’s APIs.
  • Numeral made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023 in London.

French fintech Numeral is collaborating with HSBC Innovation Banking UK to enable clients of both companies to embed HSBC Innovation Banking UK’s payment and account services via Numeral’s APIs. Among the first companies to embrace this new offering is insurtech and fellow Finovate alum Qover, which will leverage the technology to enhance its claim payout operations.

“Innovative companies, for which payments are core to their products, often struggle to find banking partners that understand their unique needs,” Numeral CEO and Co-founder Édouard Mandon said. “This is why we are thrilled to collaborate with HSBC Innovation Banking UK to bring together our unique expertise and offer joint customers an out-of-the-box integration.”

The integration of Numeral’s platform with HSBC Innovation Banking UK’s cash management infrastructure will enable partnering fintechs, insurtechs, and marketplaces to send and receive UK Bacs, CHAPS and FPS payments, as well as SEPA and SWIFT payments. The integration will also facilitate access to HSBC Innovation Banking UK account balances and transactions in real-time. Qover has leveraged the technology as part of an initiative to streamline its end-to-end claim processing, specifically with regards to claim payouts.

“When claims are paid, customers benefit from the safety net that an insurance policy provides,” Qover Chief Customer Officer Ed Ackerman explained. “At Qover, we see the claims journey as the moment of truth for customers. We, therefore, decided to fundamentally reshape the claim experience, leveraging AI at key stages such as claim submission and review.” Integrating with HSBC Innovation Banking UK via Numeral’s API, Ackerman said, enables Qover to automatically initiate claim payouts upon approval and track payouts in real time. “Customers receive their payouts much faster and Qover’s operations have been streamlined,” he said.

HSBC Innovation Banking UK was formed in the summer of 2023, combining the innovation expertise and services of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) UK (now HSBC Innovation Bank) with HSBC innovation teams in the U.S., Israel, and Hong Kong. HSBC UK bought SVB UK after parent company Silicon Valley Bank was shut down last year. With more than 650 employees, HSBC Innovation Banking UK serves businesses from early-stage growth stage startups to late-stage public and private corporations with investment banking, private banking, and asset management services.

Making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2018, Qover offers an embedded insurance orchestration platform that provides coverage for more than four million customers across 32 European countries. The company’s technology enables any business to embed insurance as a native component or as an add-on to their core offering. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Belgium, Qover announced its entry into the Irish automobile insurance market in July and, in June, launched its AI-powered embedded insurance solution, which accelerates the claim settlement process.

Founded in 2021, Numeral made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company showed how its API platform enhances payment operations for financial institutions by automating bank payment processing. This year, Numeral forged partnerships with BNP Paribas in June, and with current account provider Deblock in April. The company introduced its support for Swift payments in February.

Photo by Nil Castellví on Unsplash

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