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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Who needs a SPAC to go public? According to Reuters, cloud-based digital banking technology provider Alkami is looking to enter the public markets the old-fashioned way: with an IPO.
The Reuters report cites sources who requested anonymity, and neither Alkami nor Goldman Sachs – who has been reportedly engaged to lead IPO preparations – have commented on any specific IPO plans Alkami might have. Sources say that an initial public offering could earn the company a valuation of $3 billion and give the state of Texas its next fintech unicorn.
Alkami has raised more than $385 million in funding from investors including D1 Capital Partners, General Atlantic, and MissionOG. The company secured $140 million in its last round in September, and acquired fellow Finovate alumACH Alert a month later.
“Alkami continues to be the go-to partner for FIs wanting to accelerate their digital strategies, plans and results,” company CEO Mike Hansen said when the acquisition was announced. “Together with ACH Alert, we expect to continue to create and deliver winning digital solutions to our clients and their consumer and business digital users.”
Founded as iThryv and making its Finovate debut under that name in 2009, Alkami has grown into a digital banking technology innovator with more than 160 clients, 10+ million users, and $130 million in annually recurring revenue. The company’s platform provides a complete digital banking solution with user onboarding, engagement, and account servicing functionality for both retail and business customers. Users can take advantage of both Alkami’s products as well as third-party services and solutions courtesy of more than 230 integrations.
Named to the 2020 CB Insights Fintech 250 last fall, Alkami recently added a number of women to leadership positions within and around the company. This included inviting financial services veterans Merline Saintil (formerly of Intuit) and Barbara Yastine (formerly of Ally Bank) to join its Board of Directors and hiring former Hewlett Packard Enterprise executive Allison Cerra as Alkami’s new Chief Marketing Officer.
VersaBank is getting in on the digital currency game. The Canada-based bank announced plans to launch VCAD, its own cryptocurrency backed one-to-one by the bank’s Canadian dollar bank deposits.
Key to the launch is a partnership with Stablecorp, a joint venture between crypto asset manager 3iQ and blockchain development company Mavennet. Stablecorp will aid in the commercial launch of VCAD.
VersaBank plans to manage the digital issuance process using VersaVault. The issuance tool is a digital bank vault designed by Versabank subsidiary DRT Cyber to secure digital assets.
“VCAD provides consumers with not only the security afforded by an underlying deposit with a Canadian chartered bank but also the comfort of knowing that each VCAD issued or redeemed will always have one-to-one value with the Canadian dollar,” said Stablecorp CEO Jean Desgagne. “With such clear benefits, we are highly confident in the demand for VCAD as digital currencies increasingly become part of mainstream financial transactions.”
According to CoinTelegraph, VCAD is not the only stablecoin pegged to the Canadian dollar. Other Canadian dollar stablecoins available include Coinsquare’s eCAD and TrustToken’s TrueCAD token.
VersaBank aims to make VCAD publicly available “in the coming months.” In the future, VersaBank and Stablecorp plan to launch VUS and VEuro, which will be U.S. dollar and Euro versions, respectively, of the VersaBank digital currency.
While 2020 made its mark on the financial industry by causing tremendous disruption, 2021 is shaping up to be a year remembered for transformation and adaptation. Companies are hard at work building new digital strategies that will help them to thrive in an increasingly volatile economy.
Fintech developers are taking up the challenge to meet the functionality and performance demands of the financial industry as firms embrace true digital transformation. Their ability to build applications that deliver new features and integrate new capabilities into legacy solutions will be critical for helping firms reshape existing technology infrastructures.
Top 5 Fintech Trends to Watch in 2021
1. Customer-First Solutions
With so many fintech applications to choose from, financial organizations must take the time to consider which solutions are best suited for the needs of their customers. Banks and investment firms once put their own needs at the center of their processes, but in an increasingly competitive marketplace, they have realized that providing a high-quality user experience is paramount to success. They can begin transforming processes by eliminating friction to allow customers to access the services and products they need more quickly.
Fintech developers can help them to eliminate manual processes, reduce external dependencies, and automate common tasks by designing unified digital solutions that address multiple challenges and streamline workflows. By integrating features like document viewing, file conversion, and form data capture into their applications, innovative developers are finding ways to strengthen the connection between firms and their customers.
2. Enhancing Digital Collaboration
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the financial industry has embraced remote work arrangements for the foreseeable future. The transition has created significant demand for digital tools that can facilitate effective and secure collaboration. Not only must physical documents be converted into digital form, but firms also need ways to make those files available to remote employees without threatening data security or causing version confusion.
Organizations frequently turn to a variety of incompatible software solutions and improvised workarounds to meet their viewing, editing, and document management needs rather than implementing a dedicated, all-in-one solution. Unfortunately, these ad hoc measures create inefficient third-party dependencies, expose data to unnecessary risk, and make human error more likely. Fintech developers can integrate these features into a single application through the use of SDKs and web-based APIs.
3. Managing Big Data
Financial services firms gather massive quantities of data on a regular basis. Although much of that data is unstructured and needs to be filtered through sophisticated algorithms to bring notable trends and risks to the forefront, the industry also collects a great deal of data from structured forms. Structured documents such as loan applications, tax filings, and financial statements all provide valuable data insights that organizations can use to make more informed strategic decisions.
Fintech applications with the ability to extract and process data from structured forms accurately is essential for improving the performance of powerful analytics tools deployed by today’s financial firms. Software integrations can further enhance fintech solutions with image cleanup, document alignment, and form recognition features that make the data collection process more efficient and accurate.
4. Disaster Mitigation
After seeing how the COVID-19 pandemic caused massive disruption to global markets and supply chains, financial organizations are reviewing the way they do business to reduce the impact of similar disasters in the future. One of the key steps in this process will be the rapid transition to paperless workflows and an expansion of electronic data capture capabilities to reduce the reliance upon manual processes.
Solutions that incorporate streamlined document viewing, file conversion capabilities, and data extraction tools will be essential to these “disaster proofing” efforts. By automating previously manual tasks, such as data entry, document assembly, and signature authentication, Fintech solutions can help financial companies protect their business processes from future disruptions.
5. Expanded Partnership Opportunities
Although traditional financial institutions like banks have been skeptical of many fintech solutions, the rapidly-changing market has caused them to reassess their technology in order to reach a new generation of customers. Collaboration between banks and innovative fintech startups was already on the rise before the pandemic reduced longstanding barriers to digital transformation. The challenge they now face is how to integrate their operations and data while also launching innovative services across multiple channels.
Fintech developers can streamline this process by building flexible software applications capable of handling a variety of file formats without the need for any burdensome third-party dependencies. In some cases, that may mean building entirely new solutions, while in others it might call for integrating additional features into firmly entrenched legacy applications. The fintech companies with the ability to get innovative software platforms to market more quickly will be able to make the most of their partnership opportunities.
Building Better FinTech Solutions with Accusoft
Accusoft’s diverse library of SDKs and APIs allows developers to easily integrate robust content processing, conversion, and automation capabilities into their solutions. Whether they’re using PrizmDoc Suite to give their web applications the ability to natively view, edit, and convert documents, extracting data from multiple form types with FormSuite for Structured Forms, or building image cleanup, OCR, and PDF annotation features into their on-prem applications with ImageGear, FinTech companies can trust Accusoft to help them overcome the challenges of 2021 and the years to come.
Multiple benefits arose from last year’s drive to digital, including the increase in user data and more control over the user experience. But making the leap to capturing that data and enhancing control over the user experience is easier said than done.
It is this gap that led Quantum Metric to launch its platform for continuous product design. The product uses realtime data from digital customer interactions to inform the decision-making process. As a result, firms can maximize opportunities, find errors, measure engagements, and more.
Quantum Metric offers tools for a range of industries, including retail banking. Some of the company’s retail banking clients include Western Union, Bank of Montreal, Silicon Valley Bank, and Aspiration.
In the video below, Aspiration Chief Product Officer Jody Mulkey explains how his bank uses Quantum Metric to understand sticking points in its application process and better interpret how clients are using the bank’s tools.
Founded in 2015, Quantum Metric became a unicorn company earlier this year after raising $200 million in a Series B funding round. Because the company aids in the transition to digital, Quantum Metric came close to doubling both its staff and revenue in 2020.
Though there is no official word on a public offering, Quantum Metric appointed a new Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Advisory Board Member late last month. The new hires indicate the company may be poising itself for an IPO in the foreseeable future.
Quantum Metric is one of the demoing companies at FinovateEurope 2021, which will take place digitally on March 23 through 25. Register to watch the demo and network with the company during the event. Or, check out a recording of the demo on Finovate.com later this year.
Digital mortgage software provider BeSmartee has secured a strategic growth investment from Boston-based venture and growth stage investment firm M33 Growth. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In a statement, the company said the capital will help accelerate growth of the Huntington Beach, California-based fintech, as well as power further product innovation.
Calling 2020 a “pivotal year for the mortgage industry,” BeSmartee CEO and co-founder Tim Nguyen underscored the value of a platform like BeSmartee’s in “driv(ing) higher volumes for and ROI to” customers. “We believe that M33’s investment and knowledge will help us to bring our product to more customers and continue to build out our capabilities,” he said.
BeSmartee enables banks, credit unions, and non-bank lenders to deliver a complete digital mortgage experience for their customers. The company offers a white-labeled, mortgage POS that helps lenders go to market faster (zero to POS in 30 days) and better compete with tech-savvy fintechs and marketplace banks. BeSmartee’s technology has been particularly helpful to bank and non-bank lenders alike during the COVID crisis, as lenders have moved “with greater urgency” to embrace digital mortgage options. BeSmartee has referred to this demand for POS platforms as “exponential.”
A Finovate alum since 2017, BeSmartee began this year teaming up with NOVA Home Loans, a Tucson, Arizona-based mortgage banker. Earlier this month, the company announced that it had achieved a 100% customer retention rate in 2020, a 91% customer conversion rate, and growth of 50% in its customer base. “We deepened our integrations with LOS partners, pricing engines, and document providers, along with numerous other integrations to deliver a better experience to our customer base,” BeSmartee Operations Manager Rick Johnston said. “The suite of new tools rapidly increased the rate of loan officer adoption and, in turn, skyrocketed lender ROI.”
Apex Clearing Holdings, a digital clearing and custody engine, announced formal plans to publicly list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “APX.”
The Texas-based company is eschewing the traditional IPO route to a public launch, and instead pursuing the listing via a merger with Northern Star Investment Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The deal values Apex at $4.7 billion.
Apex is the sixth fintech to use a SPAC to go public in the past few months, joining SoFi, BankMobile, Payoneer, MoneyLion, and OppFi.
“We are in the first inning of the digital revolution in financial services, and our merger with Northern Star will provide Apex with the resources and flexibility to accelerate our growth, scale our platform, and expand our offerings and market share alongside our clients,” said Apex Clearing CEO William Capuzzi.
Capuzzi, along with Apex President Tricia Rothschild, will continue to serve the company in their current roles. Northern Star Chairwoman and CEO Joanna Coles will join the combined company’s Board of Directors.
Apex was founded in 2012 and helps online brokerages, traditional wealth managers, wealthtechs, professional traders, and consumer brands with account opening and funding, execution of trades, digital asset movements, trade settlement, and the safekeeping of customer assets.
Apex has provided custody for $14 billion in new assets year-to-date and currently serves 200+ clients representing more than 13 million customer accounts. The company has already recorded impressive growth so far this year, seeing 3.2 million customer accounts and more than one million new crypto accounts opened in the past two months.
It’s hard out here for a bank. Your clients are, to put in bluntly, getting older, while the world around you just seems to get younger and younger every year.
“You have to understand who your clientele really is,” Vincent Bezemer, SVP of Americas for Backbase, explained in a recent conversation for Finovate TV. “Let’s face it: most institutions have an aging clientele. And that is really not indicative of what the future of banking should look like. There is this digital divide.”
Financial institutions – from Tier 1 banks to the credit union around the corner – are all working to figure out how to bring a 21st century digital experience to their customers. We caught up with Mr, Bezemer, a technology veteran with more than a decade of experience innovating in the CX space, to hear his thoughts on what institutions need to do in order to not just keep the customers they have, but to attract, engage, and retain new customers, as well.
On the importance of self-directness and becoming the kind of bank that people love
“…(T)here is this need for self-directedness. There is a large part of the population – inclusive of all the demographics – that simply does not want to engage with a person and, if they engage, they want to engage on their own terms.
Supporting that self-directedness – and giving our customers, the banks, and the credit unions the tools to compete in an omni-channel fashion when it comes to digital – is key. The experience on mobile, web, should all be the same. But also the processes should be the same. Whether I’m in collection cycle, whether I’m in a self-service cycle, or maybe when I’m originating products, I want those experiences to be the same. And if I need help, the bank’s team member actually sees that same view that I do as a customer has seen and they can help me with as little friction as possible.
On balancing the unique innovation needs of Tier 1 institutions compared to those of community banks and credit unions
We approach both sizes of our customer base with the same principle that is that we are a platform. As much as Amazon is an e-commerce platform and Netflix is a content platform and Uber is a mobility platform, we really approach it from a banking platform perspective.
With our proposition, you can take the platform as is and build on top of that, which is what a lot of Tier 1s want to do. They have built everything themselves. They basically had unlimited innovation power. But they saw that 80% of their IT budget was there to basically keep their legacy systems afloat. They are now seeing that all of these non-functionals – whether its from an auditing or security or entitlements perspective. They say, “why don’t we just outsource that? Why don’t we just get a product with a roadmap that is supported by hundreds of thousands of people in the Backbase ecosystem, so we don’t have to worry about that any more. Then we can apply our resources to actually create the experiences and the innovations that actually matter in our competitive landscape.”
On the nature of personalization in banking
I think in financial services specifically, personalization falls into two categories: one, do you understand your customer? Do you understand the moments of truth that matter to that customer when they start engaging with you for a certain product? And this is where market data, behavioral data, any type of database you can procure can really help you have that understanding.
But then the second kind of personalization is really a “mass personalization.” Can you give your prospective customer – and also existing customers – the feeling that they can tweak the product ever so slightly? Because if you can, you are relating more with the needs of that person.
So you want personalization in the top of the funnel, driving them to the moment of truth where you want to be there for them. And then, subsequently, you want to understand how you are going to create that process so that the customer feels that you truly listened and that they can make those small customizations.
After piloting the product last year, Citibank Hong Kong formally unveiledCiti Plus, its mobile-first bank designed for digital natives.
The new offering aims to help users “level up” their banking experience by providing financial education, personalized wealth management tips, and easy access to a range of investment products.
“Citibank Hong Kong has shown strong determination in the development of digital banking in recent years. Citi Plus is our latest initiative to bring digital natives a banking experience they admire,” said Citibank Hong Kong Consumer Business Manager Lawrence Lam. “Millennials were invited to participate in research and the co-creation process, through which we could better address target clients’ pain points, and help them grow their wealth via the new service.”
The platform’s gamified user experience encourages users to build their wealth by accomplishing fun tasks. The Citi Interest Booster, for example, enables users to earn higher interest rate of up to 1.8% on their savings by completing what Citi calls “missions.” These missions include tasks such as maintaining a certain balance, funding accounts, investing, exchanging currency, and spending with their Citi Plus card.
In addition to the gamification element, Citi Plus will offer savings goals, debit and credit cards with built-in rewards, easy money transfer capabilities, and a low threshold investment platform. The investment opportunities include access to stocks, money market funds, and mutual funds from Aberdeen Standard Investments, Allianz Global Investors and Franklin Templeton.
In the first three weeks after the pilot launched, Citi received 5,000 registrants interested in Citi Plus, which is open to Hong Kong residents only.
The millennial-friendly user interface and marketing, combined with features such as low-threshold investing, financial education tools, and high interest savings accounts, help Citi compete with the increasing number of challenger banks and neobanks that are enticing young users. Unlike this group of digital banks, Citi has a slight upper hand. That’s because the bank not only has a robust existing user base from which to draw new clients, it also has an established reputation and inherent consumer trust.
This is a guest post written by Shannon Flynn, managing editor at ReHack.com.
Embedded finance has taken the financial industry by storm. What started from banking-as-a-service (BaaS) has now developed into a full-blown feature that enterprises of all kinds are integrating.
The term embedded finance refers to companies that have historically been separate from financial services that now integrate them within a platform or app. During this integration, the company still retains control over the customer experience. It could be something as simple as paying a bill or something more complex, like full-fledged credit cards.
These trends are coming on strong. While they originated with banking services, embedded finance could end up becoming a bigger industry on its own. The reason for this growth can be seen in the following sectors.
Retail
The retail world has evolved and adapted to many historic changes, from e-commerce to new payment methods. Most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has put the spotlight on online shopping. Apps are now using embedded finance.
Delivery apps adapted as food takeout skyrocketed into popularity throughout the pandemic. Users can now save their credit or debit card information to apps like Doordash and Grubhub. Specific apps for restaurants also offer embedded finance options.
Similar things are happening elsewhere in the retail world. Shopify has connected businesses and customers quickly and efficiently with new embedded tech channels. Financial information is saved for customers so payments are a breeze. On the other side of the transaction, the embedded financial tech includes a dashboard for retailers to view and manage profits and individual orders.
These kinds of integrations cut out the need for a bank or other financial institution. Instead, consumers can do it all themselves.
Automotive
The automotive industry has always done business through banks. When someone buys or leases a vehicle, dealers will contact a financial institution to better understand someone’s standing and credit. The industry is shifting, though.
Tesla is a key example of how embedded tech trends are impacting the automotive field. Shoppers can already use car sites and apps to pay their leases, but Tesla goes a step further and offers car insurance. It monopolizes on the opportunity to provide discounts.
Ridesharing has become a massive field. Through apps like Uber and Lyft, customers can call a car in minutes. These apps have evolved over time and now offer embedded financial services where customers can pay right from the app immediately after the driver drops them off.
This form of payment adds an extra layer of convenience that other services like taxis don’t offer.
Tech
In the past several years, big tech companies have gone from prominent to all-encompassing. Notably, Google and Apple have stepped up their financial services in a short period, offering things like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Customers can also use their Apple or Google wallets to store credit and debit cards. Moreover, Apple rolled out its first credit card in 2019.
These advancements mark a shift in the big tech world. Big companies are slowly separating from financial institutions and taking on those roles themselves. For instance, if you use your Apple Card from your Apple Wallet to pay for items, none of that interaction ever leaves the company’s control.
Embedded finance changes are happening on smaller scales in the tech world, too. Data and analytics companies may use tools like machine learning to adapt to consumer behavior when making purchases. They can then better enable companies in all industries to provide more embedded tech.
What the Embedded Finance Trends Mean
These three industries are pillars of innovation around the world. Banking-as-a-service has catapulted financial technology to the forefront of these fields, and embedded finance trends have become the norm. It may even outshine BaaS soon.
Physical branch locations decreased by 7% from 2015 through 2020 due to the rise in online banking. The turn to virtual resources is slowly taking over, which seems to be the natural progression of these industries — especially as the pandemic enforces the use of remote tech.
Embedded finance allows companies and consumers to operate independently from banks and financial institutions. This dynamic gives more agency to the industries themselves, helping to boost engagement and profits.
From here, more mobile apps and websites will directly incorporate financial resources into their dynamics. Big tech companies like Apple and Google are already pushing the boundaries of what embedded tech can do. Others are likely to follow suit.
The Convenience Factor
Embedding financial resources into industries that haven’t historically worked in finance is more than just a way for companies to engage consumers. They’re also a win for customers. After all, people tend to look for the most convenient ways to do things. Having everything in one place is a financial tech trend that is only going to grow from here.
ShannonFlynn is a technology and culture writer with two plus years of experience writing about consumer trends and tech news.
In a round co-led by Abdiel Capital and Tiger Global, low code application development platform OutSystems has raised $150 million in new capital. The funding gives the company a valuation of $9.5 billion, and will help fuel investment in its R&D and go-to-market strategies.
In a statement, OutSystems CEO and founder Paulo Rosado highlighted the challenges businesses face when it comes to keeping pace with innovation in an increasingly digital and software-run world. “Developers are a scarce resource in business today, and the complexities of traditional software development exacerbate the challenges most organizations face when tackling their digital transformation agenda,” Rosado said.
“By fundamentally changing the way software is built, OutSystems makes it possible for every organization to compete, innovate and grow with the developers they already have,” Rosado explained. “We’re focused on helping customers succeed with their most challenging digital transformation initiatives, and today’s announcement is an acknowledgment of our progress on that journey.”
OutSystems gives businesses the ability to deploy and manage critical applications at speed – from enhancing the customer experience to streamlining and automating processes to modernizing legacy systems. OutSystems leverages a visually-based, model-driven development approach to enable institutions to build differentiation into their solution, maximize the development talent on hand, and accelerate the process of concept iteration to uncover new viable ideas.
“OutSystems matched our vision for reusable architecture, robust application lifecycle management, and a visual approach that would allow developers to focus more on delivering business value instead of coding,” Shepherd and Wedderburn Head of Technology Steve Dalgleish said. “It has given us the speed and agility to deliver effective process and technology solutions – both internally and for our clients – including complex, large scale, high-profile projects.”
An alum of our developers conference, OutSystems presented “Low-Code: The Next Evolution in App Dev Platforms (Oh, and 5xFaster)” at FinDEVrNewYork in 2017. In their presentation, the company showed how it helped take a European retail bank, BPI, through a major digital transformation including solutions for mobile banking, internet banking, branch, and contact center.
With headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts and Lisbon, Portugal, OutSystems has customers in 87 countries around the world and partnerships with 350 corporations including AWS, Deloitte, and fellow Finovate alum Infosys.
One of the major players in the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) game, Sezzle, is teaming up with Discover this week. Through the partnership, Sezzle will work with select players on Discover’s network to provide their customers with additional payment options.
The merchants will be able to use Sezzle’s interest-free, BNPL payment technology to process payments on Discover’s network. Sezzle anticipates the partnership will help boost its business development efforts by connecting with Discover’s established relationships.
“Our merchant partners are always a top priority and we know that providing them with additional payment options, such as a buy now, pay later structure, can be beneficial, especially in the current economic environment,” said Discover’s SVP of Global Business Development and Acceptance Jason Hanson. “We are able to leverage our unique technology capabilities and vast network of merchant relationships to provide Sezzle the ability to grow its business and provide new payment opportunities.”
Founded in 2016, Sezzle currently reaches 2.2 million active customers. Last September, the company launched a virtual payments card that helps customers benefit from Sezzle’s BNPL tech when they make purchases at brick-and-mortar stores. The company launched on the Australian Stock Exchange in the summer of 2019 and has a current market capitalization of $1.1 billion.
After 20 years as a player in the retail banking market of the Czech Republic, ING is calling it quits. The firm announced this week that it plans to withdraw from the country’s retail banking scene and is encouraging its customers to consider Raiffeisenbank Czech Republic as their alternative bank going forward.
ING expects to end its operations in the Czech Republic by the end of this year. The company has approximately 375,000 retail banking customers in the country and has worked with Raiffeisenbank to ensure the smoothest possible transition for ING customers to take advantage of the opportunity to transfer their savings and investments. This agreement is pending regulatory approval.
ING Group said that the decision in part reflects an assessment of whether or not operations “are likely to achieve the preferred scale in their market within a reasonable time frame. ING has more than 39 million retail and wholesale customers in 40 markets around the world.
We will stay in the CEE for this week’s Finovate Global Profile, which features payever, a German platform-as-a-service commerce solution for banks and insurance companies. Founded in 2013 and led by CEO Artur Schlaht, payever made its Finovate return last fall at our all-digital FinovateWest event. At the conference, the Hamburg, Germany-based company demonstrated its Commerce Infrastructure that enables banks and insurance companies to connect to hundreds of thousands of businesses – as well as million of consumers – online as well as at the point of sale.
Payever offers a variety of Business Apps that cover the entire sales cycle. The company’s Checkout solution gives customers wide access to a range of payment options without requiring the merchant to undergo complex integrations. With Shop, merchants can build their own online store in without needing any coding experience. The solution features design template as well as cloud hosting and support.
Payever’s PoS technology enables its partners to offer cashless payment acceptance using QR codes instead of expensive hardware. Other solutions offered by payever include a Studio to help merchants better display their wares digitally and Mail, an e-mail marketing solution for building newsletters, sending personalized offers and more – all without needing to code.
Check out payever’s demo from FinovateWest last year.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Eastern Europe
Tinkoffcollaborates with oneFactor to put AI-powered predictive analytics to work in enhancing credit scoring.
South Africa embarks on the second trial of both a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) and a wholesale settlement token for interbank use. For more on the rise of CBDCs, check out our Finovate List Series Feature, Five Things to Know about CBDCs.
