Resolving the Financial Fault Line in Credit Risk Decisioning

Resolving the Financial Fault Line in Credit Risk Decisioning

This is a sponsored post by Carol Hamilton, Senior Vice President, Global Solutions at Provenir.

New survey data reveals uncertainty in the accuracy in credit risk modeling, underscoring the need for AI, machine learning, and alternative data.

Consumer credit markets have changed dramatically over the past two years during the Covid-19 pandemic, translating into economic uncertainty for millions across the globe, and it seems for the fintechs and financial services organizations that serve them.

After all the disruption we’ve seen over the past 24 months, how sound are credit risk models? This was the question we sought out to find the answer for with a global research study that surveyed 400 decision makers in the industry. The results were more than a little unsettling — only 18 percent of fintechs and financial services organizations believe their credit risk models are accurate at least 75 percent of the time.

That’s pretty astonishing — especially given the fact that the rest of the respondents indicated they believed their credit risk models were accurate less than 75 percent of the time.

Credit risk modelling is at the heart of every fintech and financial services company and this financial fault line in credit risk decisioning should send chills down the spine of the entire sector.

This “risky business” uncertainty in credit risk modelling accuracy may be why real-time credit risk decisioning was respondents’ No. 1 planned investment area in 2022, as organization’s work to resolve this financial fault line in credit risk decisioning. The survey underscored the growing appetite for AI predictive analytics and machine learning, data integration, and use of alternative data as the means to improve credit risk decisioning.

Aside from improving credit risk modelling accuracy, organizations are also employing credit risk decisioning platforms to help address the key priorities of fraud detection/prevention and financial inclusion. And increasingly these credit risk analysis strategies employ the use of alternative data.

Fraud continues to grow for financial services and lending firms, both before and during the pandemic, with identity fraud being a key factor.

Sixty-five percent of decision makers in our survey indicated they recognize the importance of alternative data in credit risk analysis for improved fraud detection. Additionally, 51 percent recognize its importance in supporting financial inclusion. Alternative data is a more varied way for lenders to evaluate those individuals with a thin (or no) credit file put together a more holistic, comprehensive view of an individual’s risk. This vastly benefits those who can’t be easily scored via traditional methods, while also benefitting financial institutions, by expanding their total addressable market.

To level-up credit risk decisioning, organizations need more data, more automation, more sophisticated processes, and more forward-looking predictions. And to do that, businesses need AI that can provide immediate impact to the decisioning process. AI-enabled risk decisioning is seen as key to usher in improvements in many areas, including fraud prevention (78%), automating decisions across the credit lifecycle (58%), improving cost savings and efficiency (57%), more competitive pricing (51%), and improving accuracy of credit risk profiles (47%).

For unbanked and underbanked consumers, AI gives organizations the opportunity to support those consumers’ financial journeys. Financial services organizations typically struggle to support these consumers because they don’t come with a history of data that is understandable by traditional decisioning methods. However, because AI can identify patterns in a wide variety of alternative, traditional, linear, and non-linear data, it can power highly accurate decisioning, even for no-file or thin-file consumers.

While AI and machine learning, and alternative data may have been on the credit risk decisioning “nice to have” list a few years ago, fintechs and financial services organizations are quickly realizing legacy technology and methods simply are not up to today’s task of credit-risk decisioning. By deploying new technology such as AI and machine learning, and embracing alternative data, organizations are on their way to improved confidence in the accuracy of their credit risk models – moving to remediate their credit risk “risky business.” In doing so, they will be more prepared to react to changes moving forward, while supporting inclusive finance.


Carol Hamilton is Senior Vice President, Global Solutions at Provenir, which helps fintechs and financial services providers make smarter decisions faster with its AI-Powered Risk Decisioning Platform. Provenir works with disruptive financial services organizations in more than 50 countries and processes more than 3 billion transactions annually.

Bulgaria-based Payhawk Raises $100 Million for Business Spend Management

Bulgaria-based Payhawk Raises $100 Million for Business Spend Management
  • Bulgaria-based Payhawk extended its Series B funding round by $100 million to $215 million.
  • The investment values Payhawk at over $1 billion and brings its total funding to $239 million.
  • The company currently serves businesses in 30 countries and will use the recent funding to pursue further global expansion.

Bulgaria may be known more for its beaches and opera singers than it is for its fintech. Business spend management platform Payhawk may soon change that, however. The Bulgarian-based fintech just extended its recent Series B round by $100 million and is now valued at over $1 billion. This new valuation makes Payhawk Bulgaria’s first unicorn.

The fresh funding brings its Series B round to $215 million and boosts its total funding to $239 million. Today’s round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and saw participation from Sprints Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, HubSpot Ventures, and Jigsaw VC.

Payhawk’s $1 billion valuation is a huge leap forward for the fintech. Just three months ago when the company first announced its Series B round, Payhawk was valued at $570 million. It now sits 75% higher.

Payhawk, which currently serves businesses in 30 countries, will use the investment to expand its presence in the mid-size enterprise market and pursue global expansion. The company will open offices in Paris and Amsterdam this month and will add one in New York in September.

To support this growth, Payhawk plans to ramp up its workforce by 3x. The company plans to grow from 100 to 300 employees by the end of this year. As part of this expansion, Payhawk will increase the size of its product team by adding 60 additional senior software engineers to meet customer demand for new features.

Payhawk was founded in 2018 to offer businesses a way to control company spending. In addition to payment cards, the startup offers invoicing, employee reimbursement, and billpay tools along with accounting software integration, built-in spending policies, and analytics.

“Every employee that deals with company payments feels that there should be a better way to do it, but this huge problem was never tackled by a strong product team with a hardcore engineering background,” said Payhawk Founder and CEO Hristo Borisov. “This is what Payhawk brings to the market.”

MX Teams Up with Embedded Banking Platform Rize

MX Teams Up with Embedded Banking Platform Rize
  • Multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner MX announced a partnership with embedded banking platform Rize.
  • Together the two fintechs will make it easier for developers to build and launch new financial services and products through a single API.
  • Virginia-based fintech-as-a-service innovator Rize was founded in 2015 and has recently partnered with Walnut Insurance and TrueNorth.

A partnership between financial data and modern connectivity company MX and embedded banking platform Rize will enable fintech and other developers to build, launch, and scale new financial solutions via a single API.

The collaboration, announced late last month, will provide access to Rize’s banking infrastructure and compliance program. Both current and new clients also will be able to securely link bank accounts from 16,000+ financial institutions and fintechs by way of MX’s data connectivity network, which leverages machine learning to clean and enrich transaction data.

“Our partnership with Rize is all about developing new financial products and services through one API,” MX EVP of Partnerships Don Parker said. “By cutting the associated time and costs of development, we’ll open up MX functionality to a wider range of fintech companies and organizations already working to improve financial strength and access to quality financial tools.”

Powering 85% of digital banking providers and thousands of banks, credit unions, and fintechs, MX most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage last fall in New York for FinovateFall. At the conference, the multiple-time Best of Show winner showed its Open Finance portal that improves the data sharing experience between providers and recipients for the benefit of the customer. The technology relies on modern, token-based connectivity to give financial institutions the ability to monitor and manage how customer data is shared.

In the months since its appearance at FinovateFall, MX has forged partnerships with Deposits.com to promote financial inclusion in underbanked communities, and with H&R Block, where the Lehi, Utah-based fintech will help the tax preparer provide customers of its Spruce mobile banking platform with greater transparency. In February, MX teamed up with Cadence Bank, a regional financial institution based in Tupelo, Mississippi with more than $50 billion in assets and 400+ branches in the American South, Midwest and in Texas. MX began the year with the appointment of Shane Evans as Interim Chief Executive Officer. Evans took over the top spot from MX founder Ryan Caldwell, who transitioned to the role of Executive Chair.

Irish Postal Services Provider Taps Tink to Offer Money Management Tools

Irish Postal Services Provider Taps Tink to Offer Money Management Tools
  • Open banking platform Tink partnered with Irish postal services provider An Post.
  • Tink will provide data and analytics that fuel An Post’s Money Manager app.
  • The new partnership serves as an inroad for Tink into the Irish market.

Visa-owned open banking platform Tink formed a new partnership this week that will bring its open banking capabilities to users of Irish postal services provider An Post.

An Post, which offers not only parcel and mail logistics but also financial services, operates a network of 920 post offices for its 1.5 million weekly customers. An Post offers many of the major services typical of high street banks, including current accounts, savings accounts, credit cards, loans, and a currency card that allows users to purchase and top up 16 currencies.

Leveraging Tink for data and analytics, An Post now delivers a Money Manager app that helps users track their income and spending, set budgets, and receive insights about how they can better manage their funds.

“The partnership with Tink is the next step in our transformation journey, to firmly position ourselves as a challenger to the banks in Ireland, and to give customers access to simple money management tools that will enable them to build their financial confidence,” said An Post Financial Services Director John Rice. “As the leading open banking platform in Europe, Tink was a clear choice of partner for us to provide the data and analytics that sit at the core of our Money Manager app.”

For Sweden-based Tink, the partnership with An Post serves as an important inroad into the Irish market. “An Post is in the perfect position to help simplify money management for its customers through the power of open banking technology,” said Tink UK & IE Banking Lead Tasha Chouhan.

More than 10,000 developers use Tink’s tools to help financial services firms leverage the power of open banking via a suite of open banking tools including income verification, payment tools, risk insights, and more. Tink currently serves 18 markets from its 13 offices and integrates with more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions reaching over 250 million end customers across Europe.

Founded in 2012, Tink is a two-time Finovate Best of Show Award winner, and most recently demoed at FinovateEurope 2019. The company acquired FinTecSystems earlier this year, a move that expanded Tink’s reach into the DACH region with a range of new customers including N26, DKB, Santander, Solarisbank, and Check24.

FinovateEurope 2022 Sneak Peek: Dynamic Planner

FinovateEurope 2022 Sneak Peek: Dynamic Planner

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 15 digitally and on March 22 and 23, 2022, in London. Register today and save your spot.

Dynamic Planner is one system for all your financial planning needs, matching people with suitable portfolios through engaging financial planning.

Features

  • Review a client’s risk and sustainability profile and portfolio
  • Receive powerful cash flow planning aligned to a client’s risk profile
  • Access independent fund research and suitable recommendations

Why it’s great

Dynamic Planner is a complete and yet flexible system, using a single definition of risk to avoid miscalibration and ensure nothing is lost in translation in the planning and advice process.

Presenters

Ben Goss, CEO & Co-Founder
Goss is an award-winning entrepreneur with more than 20 years’ experience at the forefront of financial services.
LinkedIn

Yasmina Siadatan, Sales & Marketing Director
Siadatan heads Dynamic Planner’s sales and marketing-led growth strategy. She previously worked for Lord Sugar, winning BBC One’s The Apprentice in 2009.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope 2022 Sneak Peek: Crassula

FinovateEurope 2022 Sneak Peek: Crassula

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 15 digitally and on March 22 and 23, 2022, in London. Register today and save your spot.

Crassula is a fintech software platform providing solutions for businesses to create financial products. Crassula’s white label solutions allow businesses to build PSP, banking, and FX products the way they want them to be in days, not months.

Why it’s great

Crassula allows businesses to build products the way you want them. Products are fully customizable to personal preferences, with individualized logos and colors, and can easily link into existing ecosystems via an API connection.

Presenters

Daria Dubinina, CEO and Co-founder
Dubinina is a leading strategist and entrepreneur. She has dedicated more than ten years to mastering payments, e-commerce, and business development.
LinkedIn

Alex Zhukov, Business Development Manager
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope 2022 Sneak Peek: Harmoney

FinovateEurope 2022 Sneak Peek: Harmoney

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 15 digitally and on March 22 and 23, 2022, in London. Register today and save your spot.

Harmoney is a modular, next-generation, digital platform of solutions for complex onboarding and client lifecycle management compliance processes.

Features

  • Getting rid of compliance processes frustrations
  • Increasing data quality
  • Substantially saving costs

Why it’s great

Get rid of compliance process frustrations via a digital, customer-friendly onboarding and client lifecycle management platform which is built with a truly end-to-end perspective.

Presenters


Thomas Van Maele, CEO & Co-founder
Van Maele holds masters’ degrees in Business Engineering and Technology Management. Previously, he worked as a Senior Corporate Finance Advisor at KPMG and as a partner at the Econopolis wealth manager.
LinkedIn

Thierry van Alphen, Head of Business Development
Van Alphen holds a Solvay Business School MBA and has 22 years of experience in financial services at ING in several senior roles in Belgium and the Netherlands.
LinkedIn

Digital Banking Solutions Provider Bankjoy Announces 16 New Credit Union Partners

Digital Banking Solutions Provider Bankjoy Announces 16 New Credit Union Partners
  • Michigan-based banking solutions provider Bankjoy announced 16 new credit union partners.
  • Combined, credit unions represent more than 350,000 members and more than $3.3 billion in assets
  • The partnership news follows the company’s launch of a new small business banking platform.

Digital banking solutions provider Bankjoy has added 16 credit unions to its digital service ecosystem. The new partners combined represent more than 350,000 members and more than $3.3 billion in assets. Additionally, they serve members in states ranging from New Mexico, Texas, and Nevada, to Ohio, Illinois, and Alaska.

The credit unions newly partnering with Bankjoy include:

  • Cooperative Teachers Credit Union
  • Directions Credit Union
  • Elko FCU
  • Estacado FCU
  • Firelands FCU
  • Fremont FCU
  • Glass City FCU
  • Impact Credit Union
  • Las Colinas FCU
  • Lone Star Credit Union
  • Midwest Community FCU
  • OU FCU
  • Streator Onized Credit Union
  • Trius FCU
  • True North FCU
  • Pyramid FCU

“Credit unions like Estacado, Cooperative Teachers Credit Union and others are partnering with fintechs like Bankjoy to provide modern digital banking platforms that keep pace with members’ needs,” Bankjoy CEO Michael Duncan said. He highlighted growth in deposits in credit unions across the country, adding “as these trends continue, we’re adding more credit unions to our platform and look forward to helping them deliver a superior experience.”

Bankjoy’s partnership news comes in the wake of the company’s addition of a modern business banking platform to its offering. The platform, introduced in December, gives banks the tools its small business customers need and include solutions for invoicing, payroll, company formation, wire transfers, and entitlements.

Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, and founded in 2015, Bankjoy also reported late last year that it had been chosen as the first official Corelation Certified Partner. The partnership enables credit unions who use Corelation’s Keystone core to efficiently integrate with Bankjoy. It also makes it easy for Bankjoy’s credit union partners to migrate their core to Corelation without disrupting the member experience.

“To support the credit union movement, it is critical for fintechs to partner with likeminded organizations who are committed to a member-centric approach,” Duncan said. “Our collaboration with Corelation has been incredibly successful, delivering tremendous value to credit unions.”

A Finovate alum since 2016, Bankjoy has raised $1.8 million in funding from investors including SixThirty and CheckAlt.


Photo by Quang Anh Ha Nguyen from Pexels

Innovation in the Face of Invasion: Flying the Flag of Ukrainian Fintech

Innovation in the Face of Invasion: Flying the Flag of Ukrainian Fintech

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent shockwaves around the world – and the fintech industry has not been immune to the reverberations. As Axios noted last week, fintechs such as money transfer giant Wise and financial services company Brex have limited or halted fund transfers altogether to Russia and Ukraine. The reasons given for the service changes have varied, with some organizations emphasizing solidarity with Ukraine and others citing operational challenges. But the fact remains that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced many fintechs, in Europe especially, into scramble mode is impossible to deny.

The crisis in Ukraine also has brought renewed interest in the role of cryptocurrencies. As economic sanctions – including the expulsion of a number of Russian banks from global financial messaging service SWIFT – take their toll on the Russian economy, the idea that Russia and the country’s elites could turn to cryptocurrencies to limit the financial damage may be edging from possibility to probability. The Ukrainian government has asked cryptocurrency exchanges to freeze the accounts of Russians and Belarusians and, at this point, it appears that some of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges are moving in that direction.

Ukrainian fintechs are also committing their technology and talent to the cause of defending their country from Russian aggression. For one, the country’s leading neobank Monobank is accepting SEPA transfers to help fund the Ukrainian army, and announced that it has raised more than 11 million Ukrainian hryvnia ($395,830) to date.

That said, one of the biggest concerns from Ukrainian tech companies in general and fintech companies in specific is panic from these companies’ customers. TechUkraine’s Nataly Veremeeva urged clients of Ukrainian firms to maintain their relationships, noting that the income from these partnerships helps support both the Ukrainian economy and the Ukrainian military. Importantly, the fact that Ukraine has been under threat from Russia for nearly a decade has helped Ukrainian companies develop a resiliency that is being brought to bear today, Veremeeva explained.

This point was underscored by Senka Hadzimuratovic, spokesperson for one of the more famous Ukraine-founded tech companies, Grammarly. Backup communications and temporarily transferring certain critical business responsibilities to Grammarly team members living outside of the country have been among the precautions taken by the company.

Ivan Kaunov, Head of Growth and co-founder of Finmap.online, a Ukraine-based financial management app for SMEs, spoke for many of his fellow Ukrainians late last week. “Today Russia (has) invaded Ukraine. All our teammates (are) in safe places, We, as a nation, unite(d) and ready to resist.”

A brief primer on fintech in Ukraine

There is a wide variety of fintech companies in the Ukraine. These firms range from neobanks like Monobank, a five year old financial institution with more than four million customers, to payments companies like IBox and EasyPay, to financial services technology companies like Neofin and Wallet Factory, to cryptocurrency exchanges like Kuna. One way to get a broad cross-section of the country’s fintech sector is via the Ukrainian Association of Fintech and Innovation Companies (UAFIC). The organization, founded in 2018, is a membership-based NGO designed to support the development of Ukraine’s fintech industry. Approximately 66% of the association’s members are fintechs, with another 14% representing IT companies and MFOs, and banks making up 6%.

Last fall, the UAFIC announced a collaboration with leading financial sector associations in Ukraine- including the Independent Association of Banks of Ukraine (NABU), the Association of Financial Institutions, the All-Ukrainian Association of Credit Unions, and the Insurance Business Association. The goal of the alliance is to help design legislation to support the development of open banking and payment services in the country.

“Recently, fintech companies and banks have realized that working on the basis of OpenBanking technologies is much more profitable than competing with each other,” UAFIC Board Chairman Rostislav Duke said. “The financial ecosystemn is receiving new signals of openness and willingness to cooperate and partner in the market. Our work will promote greater access to information for all financial market participants.”

Another way to learn more about the Ukraine fintech industry is via TechUkraine, a platform dedicated to supporting the country’s technology ecosystem. A spin-off from the Export Strategy of Ukraine for ICT Sector, TechUkraine is geared toward encouraging what Director Veremeeva called “a great story of government and business working together to achieve a truly significant goal – Ukraine (as) an innovation-driven, universally recognized tech destination that delivers high value for the global economy.”


Photo by Katie Godowski from Pexels

FinovateEurope 2022 Sneak Peek: ForwardAI

FinovateEurope 2022 Sneak Peek: ForwardAI

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 22 and 23, 2022 in London. Register today and save your spot.

ForwardAI’s Predict-as-a-Service is a premium cash flow forecasting and planning tool for companies that want to offer predictive cash flow solutions to small business clients.

Features

  • Offers simple access to historical, real-time, and predictive cash flow data
  • Creates cash flow projections and comparisons
  • Provides custom and template business pivot scenario-building

Why it’s great

Predict-as-a-Service provides a premium cash flow experience for a company’s small business clients while also offering opportunities to offer proactive financial support and custom financing.

Presenter

Nick Chandi, CEO and Co-Founder
A repeat entrepreneur with multiple successful companies, Chandi is using his prior experience to help bridge the gap between financial institutions and small businesses.
LinkedIn

BNPL Consolidates: Zip to Buy Sezzle

BNPL Consolidates: Zip to Buy Sezzle
  • Consolidation in the Buy now, pay later (BNPL) industry continues as Zip agrees to acquire competitor Sezzle.
  • The deal values Sezzle at $355 million.
  • After the acquisition is finalized, Sezzle will rebrand to Zip and the company’s CEO Charlie Youakim will lead Zip’s U.S. business.

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) player Zip (formerly known as Quadpay) is acquiring Sezzle in a deal that values Sezzle at $355 million.

Zip CEO and co-founder Larry Diamond expects the deal will help Zip scale up its operations. “Combining with Sezzle positions us as a leading global BNPL provider and prioritizes our ability to win in the important U.S. market.”

Following the deal, Zip’s customer base will increase from 9.9 million to 13.3 million and the number of merchant partners will grow from 82,000 to 129,000. Additionally, The Financial Review estimates that Zip’s total transaction volume will rise from $8 billion to $10.4 billion, and that almost $6.5 billion of this will be from U.S. users.

After the deal closes, Sezzle will rebrand as Zip and the company’s CEO Charlie Youakim will lead Zip’s U.S. business. “I believe the transaction will position us to win in the U.S. and globally,” Youakim said.

Today’s announcement is yet another indication of consolidation in the increasingly-crowded BNPL space. Industry giant Afterpay sold to Block (formerly Square) on February 2nd. And on February 17th, digital payments firm Latitude agreed to acquire Humm’s BNPL operations.

Australia-based Zip was founded in 2013, seven years before BNPL took off as an alternative payment method. Zip is publicly traded on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASK) under the ticker ZIP. The company allows users to split their purchase into four installments over the course of six weeks. With Zip’s app, shoppers use their Zip Virtual Card to pay for their purchase in installments anywhere that Visa is accepted, both online and in-store.

Similarly, Sezzle allows shoppers to use their Sezzle Virtual Card to pay for purchases in four installments over the course of six weeks. The company also offers a long-term financing tool in partnership with Ally and Sezzle Up, an alternative credit solution that helps shoppers build their credit.

Minnesota-based Sezzle was founded in 2016 and went public on the ASK in 2019 under the ticker SZL. At the time, Sezzle said it opted to list on the ASX instead of in U.S. markets because, prior to 2020, the BNPL model was more commonplace in Australia, given that Afterpay, a major player in the BNPL arena, is headquartered in Melbourne.


Photo by Jessica Lewis on Unsplash

Who’s demoing at FinovateSpring 2022? See Buddy, Solve Finance, Engage People and More Demo their Latest Innovations

Who’s demoing at FinovateSpring 2022? See Buddy, Solve Finance, Engage People and More Demo their Latest Innovations

Latest agenda | Speaker lineup | Who attends? | Register

FinovateSpring, the West Coast’s premier fintech showcase, is returning in-person to San Francisco!

Fintech’s biggest innovators have been working harder than ever during the pandemic. So the quality of companies demoing their latest innovations is higher than ever. And they can’t wait to show you their latest technologies live from the Finovate stage.

They’ll have just 7 minutes to show you what they can do. Make sure you’re there to see it for yourself!

Here’s a look at who’s demoing so far:

Learn more about how their technology can help you spot opportunities for growth in your organization and run with that potential. And discover how you can meet these organizations face-to-face at their booths.

The demoers will zero in on these themes accelerating the transition to a new era of fintech: