Fimple, a leading provider of core banking and financial solutions, is thrilled to announce a strategic partnership with CR2, a global pioneer in the digital banking and payments industry. This partnership is set to revolutionize the way banks engage with their customers, offering unparalleled digital onboarding, transaction capabilities, and customer engagement through CR2’s innovative platform.

CR2’s BankWorld platform, known for its API-led composable architecture, enables banks to offer a seamless digital experience, incorporating features such as digital onboarding, virtual cards, and a unique digital wallet with native card issuing. This collaboration aligns with Fimple’s mission to provide comprehensive support to its clients, ensuring the efficient integration and maintenance of cutting-edge banking systems.

By leveraging CR2’s agile platform, Fimple will empower financial institutions worldwide to quickly adapt to market changes, drive revenue, and improve operational efficiencies. CR2’s extensive integration experience and interoperability with all payment rails enhance Fimple’s core banking solutions, enabling rapid product and service development with highly configurable and low-code digital tooling.

This partnership signifies a mutual commitment to providing financial institutions with the tools they need to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Together, Fimple and CR2 will work closely to ensure the seamless deployment and ongoing enhancement of digital banking and payment solutions, enabling banks to not only meet but exceed customer expectations in digital engagement.

The impending March 2025 migration deadline of FedWire to the ISO 20022 standard by all financial institutions (FIs) presents a strategic opportunity to revolutionize their payment infrastructure and services, according to a new Datos report, sponsored by Finzly, the pioneering provider of modern payments systems.

According to the Datos survey of US corporate finance professionals from 1,037 midsize and large organizations, around 57% are interested in using automated payables and receivables software, with 46% saying they plan to use ISO 20022 for this purpose. The survey found that 17% are already using the ISO standard. This challenges the perception that businesses are not interested in utilizing the new standard and gives FIs a clear business case for incorporating ISO 20022 standards into strategic roadmap prioritization efforts in 2024. The full report can be downloaded for free here.

ISO 20022 presents various benefits for FIs, including improved payment services, strengthened customer relationships, and diversified revenue streams. Furthermore, it offers unparalleled flexibility, interoperability, and efficiency compared to legacy formats, positioning FIs for long-term success in an increasingly digital economy.

The survey results highlight the immediate market opportunity for FIs to capitalize on existing customer demand for intelligent payment routing and embedded banking services enabled by ISO 20022 messaging standards.

With the March 2025 deadline looming, FIs face the critical task of implementing a cohesive strategy and selecting a suitable vendor partner to navigate the complexities of ISO 20022. Failure to do so could leave FIs at a competitive disadvantage and expose them to operational risks in an evolving landscape.

“The transition to ISO 20022 is more than a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic move to enhance efficiency, interoperability, and security in payment systems,” remarked Erika Baumann, Director of Commercial Banking & Payments for Datos, “FIs must embrace this change to remain competitive and future-proof their operations.”

According to Booshan Rengachari, founder and CEO of Finzly, “As the industry normalizes ISO 20022 as the primary message standard, FIs must act decisively to secure their position in the evolving financial ecosystem. By embracing ISO 20022, FIs can meet today’s demands and anticipate tomorrow’s needs, driving innovation and growth in the digital age. Finzly is well-positioned to meet certification deadlines for Fedwire migration to ISO 20022 with all its Fedwire clients, while also supporting other financial institutions seeking to transition to an ISO 20022-native solution for their Fedwire processing.”

KYND Limited, a leader in cyber risk management, is excited to announce an innovative new Exposure Management solution. Powered by KYND’s market-leading risk intelligence and combining best-in-class aggregation risk insights with bespoke, granular cyber disaster scenarios, it enables insurers to more accurately evaluate and manage the accumulation and catastrophe exposure across their portfolios to drive better informed, profitable underwriting decisions.

As systemic risk becomes a central concern for insurers, the sector has been grappling with the challenge of limited capacity struggling to align with the burgeoning demand for cyber insurance. This pressure compounds insurers’ accumulation risk, especially given the existing modelling challenges experienced by market participants. To attract more capacity to the market and open up new opportunities, insurance carriers need more accurate insights and alternative modelling techniques to better understand potential losses, assess the accumulation of risk, and evaluate their capital exposure.

KYND’s newly launched Exposure Management has been designed with insurers in mind to successfully meet the needs of the rapidly growing market. Delivered via an interactive and adaptive model, KYND harnesses its industry leading, proprietary data on portfolio organisations’ cyber footprint and exposure, steering away from reliance on market statistics and assumptions. This innovative approach empowers insurers to proactively manage accumulation risks within their portfolios by leveraging KYND’s deterministic catastrophe modelling and loss projections. As a result, insurers can swiftly attain an accurate assessment of potential cyber incidents in their portfolio, seamlessly model the impact of customisable cyber disaster scenarios, and enhance capacity through improved risk and accumulation communication with providers.

Andy Thomas, CEO of KYND, said: “Rather than a ‘black box’ model, we provide complete transparency into the data and logic behind our exposure analysis. By allowing partners to explore actual vulnerabilities and realistic disaster situations in a flexible way, we offer unparalleled clarity risk exposure and accumulation that facilitates a better understanding of loss potential and empowers optimised risk management strategies, ultimately supporting the creation of a more sustainable cyber insurance market. Insurance carriers urgently need new ways to understand their level of risk, and we’re delighted to say that KYND’s latest development represents a groundbreaking leap forward that combines precision, granularity, and adaptability to meet this need.”

Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF), today announced that seasoned financial services industry executive Suni P. Harford has been appointed to the company’s Board of Directors, effective April 1, 2024. Ms. Harford will stand for election to the Board by Capital One shareholders in May 2024. As a member of the Board, Ms. Harford will serve on the Audit Committee and Risk Committee.

Ms. Harford brings more than 30 years of risk management, compliance, and banking experience as a senior executive at global financial institutions. Most recently, Ms. Harford served as President of UBS Asset Management as well as Chair of UBS Asset Management’s Executive Committee and Risk Committee. While at UBS, Ms. Harford also served as the UBS Group Executive Board Lead for the firm’s sustainability and impact efforts. Ms. Harford joined UBS in 2017 as the Head of Investments where she was responsible for the investment teams for traditional asset classes and UBS O’Connor, a multi-strategy hedge fund.

Prior to joining UBS, Ms. Harford worked at Citigroup for almost 25 years, most recently as the Regional Head of Markets for North America. Ms. Harford was also a member of Citibank’s Pension Plan Investment Committee and a director on the board of Citibank Canada.

“I am thrilled to welcome Suni to our Board of Directors,” said Richard D. Fairbank, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Capital One. “Suni has deep experience in banking, having worked for more than three decades supporting clients in the United States and internationally for some of the largest and most sophisticated institutions. She has a proven ability to navigate the opportunities and risks in our industry, and brings a can-do attitude and reverence for rigorous and open problem-solving that will be valuable to our Board. I look forward to serving with her for years to come.”

Ms. Harford served as a co-chair of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Investing and has held seats on the board of several industry associations, including the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation and the Securities Industry Financial Management Association. She has been named the Chair of the Bob Woodruff Foundation’s Board of Directors. She is also a founding sponsor of Veterans on Wall Street, a coalition of major financial services firms established to support military veterans and their transition into the financial services industry. She is involved in many organizations in this regard and received the Outstanding Civilian Service Award from the US Army for her efforts.

Equifax®  is launching a real-time, Know Your Business (KYB) online Business Verification Solution offering to help U.S. lenders and businesses of all sizes make faster, more informed decisions before onboarding new accounts or vendors. 

"Businesses, both large and small, help drive economic growth – which in turn impacts the communities where they operate," said Sal Hazday, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Equifax U.S. Information Solutions Commercial Business. "Equifax continues to develop solutions and resources to help provide businesses of all sizes with the information they need to make informed decisions, and our new Business Verification Solution is designed to help companies gain visibility into who they are working with before the relationship is formed."

The Equifax Business Verification Solution leverages industry-leading data and analytical models, providing an easy-to-read, combined report that provides a more complete view of the business applicant and the principal. The solution's robust verification process is based on a comprehensive risk model and allows customers to evaluate multiple aspects of a small business, including:

• Business verification and fraud alert score – These scores help to analyze the business and identify the potential for fraud. 
• Principal owner information – Provides the name of the business principal, guarantor, or both, along with address and tax ID. 
• Associated businesses – List of other businesses potentially associated with the business owner and/or principal. 
• Updates to public records – Identifies adverse business events, such as bankruptcies, judgements and liens, as well as potential discrepancies between the inquiry information and correlated data.
• Credit summary report – Summarizes recent credit-seeking activity conducted on behalf of the business.
• Company profile – Includes information that most closely matches the inquiry information, including business name, legal name, address, firmographics, and more.
• Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC) screening – Screens businesses and the business owner(s) and/or principal(s) against OFAC lists. 

Equifax is committed to helping small businesses thrive through innovative products like the new Business Verification Solution and the OneScore for Commercial credit score. OneScore for Commercial launched in May 2023 and helps lenders and service providers score as many as 50% more applications through the power of Equifax commercial data, helping to increase the predictability of default on commercial accounts.

Alloy, the identity risk management company behind nearly 600 leading banks and fintech companies, today announced Alloy for Embedded Finance, a new product custom-designed for sponsor banks, BaaS providers, and their fintech partners to collaboratively manage identity risk and stay ahead of regulatory requirements.

Oftentimes, sponsor banks have not had sufficient oversight or control over whether their fintech partners have adhered to the banks’ government-mandated compliance requirements. Alternatively, in models where sponsor banks have taken on all compliance responsibilities, they have often forced their fintech partners into a one-size-fits-all approach to compliance that doesn’t suit fintechs’ evolving risk needs and often adds unnecessary friction to their user experiences.

Alloy for Embedded Finance solves these challenges. The new product leverages the strength of Alloy’s existing platform while introducing a new parent/child account configuration. Sponsor banks (or ‘parent accounts’) have the ability to designate different levels of autonomy and guardrails for each of their fintech partners (or ‘child accounts’), depending on how mature the fintech is, how much of the process the fintech wishes to own, and the risk appetites of both parties. With this construct, sponsor banks can seamlessly build compliance policies, then issue and enforce them to each of their fintech partners all at once. More mature or ‘autonomous’ fintechs can customize their controls on top of these baseline policies, giving them the flexibility to tailor risk measures that don’t add unnecessary friction for end users. Regardless of the autonomy level a fintech partner has, their sponsor bank retains total oversight of their policies to ensure they are fully compliant.

“Sponsor banks can’t operate without controlling the CIP/KYC and AML/BSA policies of the fintechs in their program—recent enforcement actions make this clear,” said Tommy Nicholas, CEO and Co-founder at Alloy. “At the same time, risk programs that are ‘one size fits all’ result in terrible user experiences for fintechs that pride themselves on providing a frictionless interface. Alloy for Embedded Finance solves both sides of this problem.”

Alloy for Embedded Finance arrives during a period of massive potential for the embedded finance industry: Ernst & Young predicts that the global embedded finance market across the entire value chain will grow to $606B by 2025. However, the industry has been plagued by compliance challenges, with regulators increasing pressure on sponsor banks to ensure their third-party partners meet compliance requirements. According to data from advisory firm Klaros Group, sponsor banks drew one-third of all formal enforcement orders by federal banking agencies in the fourth quarter of 2023. With regulatory attention unlikely to slow down, it is more critical than ever for sponsor banks and their fintech partners to work collaboratively to meet compliance requirements so they can truly capture the full potential of the embedded finance market. Alloy already works with many of the leading sponsor banks, BaaS providers, and fintechs in this space, including Grasshopper, Evolve Bank & Trust, Liberis, Treasury Prime, and Marqeta.

Checkbook, an all-in-one payments platform, announced a multi-year collaboration with Visa aimed at expediting disbursements to businesses, institutions, and individuals across millions of endpoints around the country.

This announcement builds on Visa and Checkbook’s incremental collaboration with Checkbook having participated in the Visa FastTrack program in 2021 and their Virtual Card program enabled by Visa. The latest collaboration, this time involving Checkbook’s implementation of Visa Direct, further strengthens the relationship and expands the solutions Checkbook is offering to businesses looking to disburse fast and seamless payments to individuals and other businesses.

“Our goal at Checkbook has always been to offer our customers a comprehensive suite of modern payment options with a single API,” says PJ Gupta, CEO and Founder of Checkbook. “By offering real-time payments through Visa Direct, we are enhancing our customers’ ability to send and receive fast payments seamlessly.”

“In today’s ‘always on’ world, businesses and consumers demand quick and convenient access to cash flow – whether paying insurance claims, disbursing wages, tips or rebates – speed and efficiency have become the name of the game,” said Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore, North America Head, Visa Direct. “We’re proud to collaborate with companies like Checkbook that are helping to streamline global money movement and disburse funds quickly and securely with Visa Direct.”

Fast payments optimize the way businesses send money to their customers and to each other. Examples include paying insurance claims, vendors and contractors, wages, tips and rebates amongst others. However, most organizations encounter unexpected complications and overhead in facilitating these payments. With Checkbook’s payments platform, creating and sending real-time payments directly to customers’ bank accounts through eligible cards is done via one simple API call. Checkbook also offers a broad feature set that helps make managing the payments lifecycle painless. Businesses can track payment status and monitor account activity from their dashboard or via Checkbook’s robust API. All these pieces contribute to the success of Checkbook’s product – a payment infrastructure tailored to meet customers’ payment needs when and how they need it.

Visa Direct provides a single point of access and reach to 8.5B+ endpoints, helping transform global money movement by facilitating the delivery of funds to 3B+ eligible cards, 3B+ bank accounts and 2.5B+ wallets2 around the world. In Visa’s FY23 alone, Visa Direct surpassed 7.5 billion transactions. Checkbook customers are part of that, which helps save them time and resources.

In a move towards greater transparency and responsible credit reporting in the buy now, pay later (BNPL) industry, Experian® today announced it will now include “pay-in-4” BNPL loan information from Apple Pay Later on consumers’ credit reports, making Apple the first major BNPL provider to fully furnish “pay-in-4” loan information and payment history directly to the credit reporting agency. 

Experian is committed to driving transparency in the BNPL industry and doing so in a way that doesn’t inadvertently negatively impact consumers. Given this, Apple Pay Later loans borrowed today onward will appear on a consumer’s Experian credit report with a BNPL designation starting March 1. While consumers will be able to see their Apple Pay Later loan information on their Experian credit report, the information won’t be factored into existing traditional credit scores but may in the future as new credit scoring models are developed.

When BNPL account information becomes more widely reported to Experian by additional BNPL providers, a consumer’s BNPL history will be visible to lenders who request an Experian credit report — enabling lenders to make more informed decisions when determining whether to extend credit offers.

“We designed Apple Pay Later with our users’ financial health in mind, and an important part of this is ensuring that their loans are reflected in their overall financial profiles,” said Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. “By reporting Apple Pay Later loans to Experian, we aim to help promote greater transparency and responsible lending for both the borrower and the lender, while providing users with the opportunity to further build their credit.”

Experian’s role as the first credit bureau receiving Apple Pay Later loan information underscores the company’s commitment to drive industry transparency while protecting consumers. Experian has a longstanding history of working with leading BNPL providers and is in active conversations to expand the reporting of BNPL information on consumer credit reports.

“Experian has long supported the use of expanded data sources, including BNPL information, to help consumers build their credit profile and improve their financial health,” said Jennifer Schulz, CEO of Experian North America. "We applaud Apple for taking this meaningful first step and look forward to working with other leading BNPL providers to drive greater transparency that will benefit lenders and consumers alike."

 

Marqeta, the global modern card issuing platform that enables embedded finance solutions for the world’s innovators, today announced that its platform processed more than $1 billion in volume in a single day for the first time, a significant new milestone for the company. This announcement comes shortly after Marqeta’s Q4 and Full Year 2023 earnings, where it announced that it had exceeded $200 billion in annual TPV only two years after it reached $100 billion, representing the unparalleled scalability and resilience of its modern platform.

“This milestone showcases the remarkable strength of our platform and steadfast ability to expand with our customers and help them grow," said Simon Khalaf, Marqeta’s Chief Executive Officer. “As more brands look to embed financial products into their offerings, our proven experience and knowledge of what it takes to deliver exceptional user experiences and operate card programs at scale make us ready to meet the demands of this growing market.”

Marqeta celebrates this milestone following a transformational 2023, marked by the expansion of its credit card platform to serve both consumer and commercial needs with full-scale processing and program management capabilities. Marqeta also outlined its path to profitability, renewing the majority of its customer volume and optimizing operational efficiency.

Moneyhub, the leading provider of Open Banking, Open Finance and Financial Wellness solutions to the Pensions and Investment industry has today submitted its response to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) Advice Guidance Boundary Review proposals (DP23/5). 

The FCA’s proposals seek to bridge the ‘Advice Gap’ which has resulted in just 8% of adults* reportedly taking financial advice, leaving millions of people unsure where to get help with decisions about investments, savings, pensions or retirement planning. 

Open Banking, Consumer Duty and Pensions Dashboards unlock consumers’ access to their data whilst putting customers’ needs at the heart of every financial services business. The Advice and Guidance Boundary Review can unite these regulatory initiatives so that, when it comes to managing their money, consumers can quickly and easily see both what they have and what to do next. The Data Protection and Information Bill will enable new Smart Data schemes and enable consumers to control their data like never before.

Sam Seaton, CEO of Moneyhub said:

“The FCA's proposals are a game-changer which Moneyhub supports. We know consumers are missing out on potentially higher returns on their money because products are too complicated; They don't know who to trust and advice is too expensive. Data is the answer for making advice accessible and implementing the new proposals. 

“Targeted support, simplified guidance and holistic advice will co-exist using the same underlying ‘open data rails’ with an appropriate regulatory framework over the top.

“Matching consumers who have defined objectives, needs and characteristics with suitable products, using data sharing and automated ‘nudges’, is a logical extension of the use of consumers’ data. Our financial wellness platform is already helping consumers to become more aware and informed, combined with our technology firms can now deliver targeted support and simplified guidance to millions of consumers”.

Vaughan Jenkins, Managing Director of Partnerships at Moneyhub said: 

“Moneyhub supports the Government and the FCA's desire to build a framework which consumers can trust, recognising the complexity faced by consumers in making financial decisions.  We believe that Open Finance, within the emerging Smart Data environment, will play a significant part in the realisation of these ambitions. 

“We urge regulators and policymakers to orchestrate Open Finance, Consumer Duty and the Advice and Guidance Boundary Review into a single coherent and comprehensive agenda for sustainable change. 

“Product manufacturers should be required to publish Open APIs that support customers’ access to their data and enable them to share data by their consent. This is the key to improving competition in favour of consumers”