NNTC, a UAE-based software developer and solutions provider, today announced the successful implementation of its biometric user onboarding module with Smart Engines's identity documents recognition technology at Oman Arab Bank (OAB), a pioneer in the local banking sector. NNTC's AI-powered module, iFalcon KYC Control, facilitates swift, frictionless and secure digital customer onboarding. Any Omani citizen or resident can now open an account through the OAB Online App in under five minutes without needing to visit a branch office, fill out tedious reams of paperwork, wait in long queues or experience delayed onboarding times.

Digital alternatives to in-person onboarding can help banks circumvent substantial losses. According to recent research[1], banks can potentially lose USD 22.75 billion due to slow onboarding processes — more than 35% of bank customers move to competitors due to poor experiences in onboarding. Banks leveraging traditional models and manual processes can take somewhere between 2 to 34 weeks to onboard new customers, 2 to 12 weeks in cases of partial automation, and up to 6 weeks in cases of complete automation.

"AI-driven customer onboarding ecosystems can turn users into customers in a matter of minutes. This dramatic reduction in time to onboard is why banks should rethink their processes. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent restrictions on mobility, this is the right time for banks to shift away from legacy paper-based customer onboarding processes," explained Dmitry Doshaniy, General Manager at NNTC.

"We are proud to present to OAB the results of our research in machine learning and the new neural network architectures creation. Arabic language recognition support is a key requirement for delivering user onboarding solutions in the Gulf market, where the intensive digital business transformation is on the way. Entering the OAB's technology stack is an important step for us on the way of developing new generation ID scanning solutions," said Nikita Arlazarov, Chief Financial Officer at Smart Engines.

NNTC's facial recognition software accelerates user onboarding by allowing identity verification directly via a mobile device. Users can initiate and follow the usual registration flow with AI enhancements. They upload copies or photos of their IDs, and Smart ID Engine automatically extracts primary data from ID cards for filling an application and finds a face photo in an identity document. The user then submits a photograph in the form of a 'selfie', and the software compares the owner's face in the ID card with the 'selfie'. If the pictures match with the desired level of accuracy, a personal account is opened automatically.

"We are continuously investing in new, state-of-the-art solutions to enhance our digital services, improve overall customer experience and reinforce our position as an innovative, agile financial institution. Using biometric technology not only accelerates user onboarding, but it is also more accurate, efficient and secure. Potential customers can now open new accounts with us within a few minutes, while never navigating away from their mobile devices. We foresee that this will help us attract new customers as well as retain existing ones," commented Rashad Al Shaikh, Acting Head of the Retail Banking Division at OAB.

nCino, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCNO), a pioneer in cloud banking and digital transformation solutions for the global financial services industry, today announced the go-live of the nCino Bank Operating System® with new SME banking entrant, Recognise, following the granting of its banking license in November 2020.

SMEs in the UK supply 60% of jobs in the private sector and therefore, have a significant impact on the economy including playing an important role in the UK’s financial bounce-back from the COVID pandemic. Recognise understands that the SME market does not have a “one size fits all” approach. With nCino, Recognise has a nimble, scalable platform to manage clients’ specific needs and enable the bank’s employees to provide more effective customer service regardless of where they are working, all of which has been particularly vital during the pandemic when SME support is of paramount importance.

Built by bankers for bankers, nCino has helped Recognise quickly become operational by providing simple and streamlined SME banking processes. nCino’s intuitive workflow mirrors the loan journey, allowing applications – from enquiry or referral through to the loan drawdown – to be rapidly processed on a single, end-to-end platform. The cloud-based technology also helps financial institutions meet various compliance obligations while providing valuable, timesaving automation in lieu of tedious, manual tasks. With nCino, Recognise is resolving numerous pain points that are faced by SMEs and are common in day-to-day banking operations. Recognise also has the ability to further enhance and leverage the platform as the bank grows.

Jason Oakley CEO at Recognise, said: “We exist to realise the extraordinary potential of UK SMEs, the undisputed backbone of our economy. We recognise their needs, challenges and frustrations, and by addressing them head on we’re driving prosperity, one ambitious business at a time. We do this by having a model that is led by strong relationship management, enabled by cutting edge technology. Our goal is for 80% of our employees’ time to be spent in front of clients rather than on transactional work. By working with nCino and implementing its platform, we have already seen, even at this early stage, how technology plays a valuable part in enabling a strong and effective client experience, which is why we will shortly launch our broker and customer portals to further enhance the experience for our key relationships.”

“The ease of configuration of nCino is already being evidenced as we learn from our early lending activity, and there is no need to wait months to implement enhancements, enabling us to become a SME signature bank in the UK,” added Monica Velasquez-Torres, Chief Technology Officer at Recognise. “New employees have quickly achieved the required competence through our training and testing methodologies by making use of our 'test & play' environment, which is a testament to the ease of navigation and intuitive nature of the nCino Bank Operating System. We’re really excited to be on this journey with nCino and for the future of SME lending in the UK as our services and technology bring a markedly different approach to this underserved market.”

“We’re thrilled to see the impact Recognise is already having on the SME sector now that they are actively lending and building client relationships,” said Charlie McIver, Vice President of Customer Success – EMEA, at nCino. “I’m extremely proud of how the nCino platform is helping Recognise provide a truly innovative service to its SME clients as well as the strong partnership our two companies have formed through the implementation process. Recognise has a thoughtful and ambitious team, dedicated to their mission, and we believe this is just the start of an amazing collaboration.”

Sage, the market leader in cloud business management solutions, has announced several new strategic partnerships that will help small businesses and accountants stay in control of their business.  The innovative apps are fully integrated with Sage Accounting and allow small businesses to remain compliant, stay organised, keep on top of payments, have full visibility of cash flow, as well as engage with their employees.

Sage and its partners are offering these integrated solutions to help customers perform at their best across finance and people management by relieving the burden of admin through automating processes, thereby freeing up time and generating insights to support planning and decision making.  This is especially important against the backdrop of Covid-19 while small businesses are having to navigate frequent government restrictions, job retention schemes and changeable regulations that are impacting on their businesses.

The apps are made available to customers via Sage’s carefully curated marketplace of functionality-rich native-cloud apps that address specific industry needs.

The new Sage Accounting partner-developed apps now available on the Marketplace include:

Small Businesses

Castaway for Small Business: Castaway makes it easy to create anything from simple budgets to complex forecasts to dynamic business models for single entities or consolidated groups.

Quote Onsite: Complete Quote Management solution that allows businesses to create, send and track detailed and professional proposals that are automatically converted to invoices in Sage Accounting.

Accountants

Castaway Advisor Edition: Intelligent forecasting software that enables accountants to create value for clients by producing rich reports and dashboards.

Small Business and Accountants

Syft:  Syft Analytics helps businesses understand financial data, create reports, forecast, track progress and benchmark performance.

"Syft via the Sage Marketplace has already become an essential part of my accounting toolkit. The Support Team helped me to complete a crucial set of Management Accounts for a Financier within hours of signing up. The subsequent on-boarding session was an eye-opener to the amazing capabilities of Syft," said Rob Milne, Senior Financial Manager and Strategic Planner.

“As small business owners and accountants get more accustomed to remote working, they’re realising how critical cloud solutions are to ensuring their business survives and thrives. The Sage Marketplace is full of tried and tested apps which provide customers with cloud add-ons across a broad range of tasks and workflows for finance, payroll, and HR. Sage and its partners are committed to helping small business owners automate time-consuming processes, generating meaningful insights to enable better planning and decision making meaning they can focus on protecting their businesses from the current economic headwinds,” said Neal Watkins, EVP Small Business, Sage.

Customers will be able to take advantage of the integrations between new apps and Sage Accounting over the coming months. The launch is part of a continued wider effort to bring holistic industry-specific functionality to Sage customers via the Marketplace.

To learn more about the apps currently available on the Sage marketplace, click here.

Findings from a new survey show that 2021 may be a year of change for corporate finance. From redefining the CFO role to the use of cutting-edge AI and other technology, there are a lot of reasons for finance teams to feel optimistic about the coming months.

CFO.com Research and AppZen, the leading Finance AI software, surveyed over 200 CFOs, senior finance executives, and CEOs about their technology adoption for finance, along with how they are using automation, the benefits they perceive, and where they might find success in future adoptions. The findings show significant levels of inequality in the technology and the benefits gained, as well as some interesting insights about the adoption of technologies such as automation and artificial intelligence. Key findings include:

• Most of the surveyed executives – 61% – remain optimistic about the future, expecting growth in 2021.
• Reducing manual, time-consuming processes was a priority for 90% of the executives.  
• The surveyed executives expressed regret for not investing more in advanced analytics, AI, blockchain, distributed ledger technology, machine learning, and robotic process automation five years ago.
• The top challenge for digital transformation projects is support from C-suite executives, such as CEOs and chief information officers, according to the surveyed executives.

“Last year, we saw a huge acceleration of digital transformation in finance, and our research confirms that we’ll see even deeper transformation in 2021, championed by the finance organisation,” said Anant Kale, CEO and co-founder of AppZen. “With CFOs taking an increasingly strategic role, the need for agility and incorporating technologies that accelerate company-wide decision-making is imperative. Moving forward, we expect to see a rise in automation and AI among modern finance teams.”

The survey shows that automation will be a top priority moving forward. 90% of respondents agreed that reducing manual, time-consuming processes was a priority. For 51% of the surveyed executives, improving efficiency, reducing manual tasks, and reducing time spent on manual tasks were top priorities for finance — allowing them to support business continuity and resilience at their organisations. Improving cost savings opportunities was a top priority for only 32% of the respondents.

Technology adoption and digital transformation will change the role of the CFO for many companies. 86% agree there is a heightened need for CFOs to provide real-time, accurate and granular data to key stakeholders, meaning the role of CFO will overlap with traditional CIO responsibilities.

It’s not too late. 45% of respondents wish they had invested more in tech. Advanced analytics tops the list of hindsight wants, with 67% wishing they’d made it a bigger priority. Specific wishes included: AI (42%), blockchain (41%) and RPA (43%), all areas prime for investment over the next 12-18 months.

“We share in the optimism for the year ahead and look forward to continuing to innovate and advance technology to help finance teams,” added Kale. “CFOs and finance leaders will not only benefit from leveraging AI, it’s all about reimagining and being open to change across the entire enterprise so efficiency, financial decisions, compliance, and accountability are front and centre. This is critical as organisations undergo digital transformation.”

CFOs and other financial leaders will share their experiences with digital transformation and building modern finance teams during the Mastermind Finance AI Virtual Summit on February 9-10. The event is hosted by AppZen and attendees will hear keynotes from financial leaders at companies such as HP, Microsoft, and more. To secure your spot, register here.

Survey Methodology
AppZen collaborated with CFO Research of Industry Dive to conduct the online survey, polling 211 CFOs and other senior finance executives with a mix of multiple-choice and open-response questions to better understand how CFOs are using digital transformation for business resilience and continuity.  Most (62%) of the respondents were CFOs, executive vice presidents of finance, senior vice presidents of finance, vice presidents of finance or directors of finance; the other survey respondents included CEOs (29%), chief accounting officers (4%), controllers (2%), and treasurers (3%). The survey respondents represented companies with $100 million or more in annual revenues, with 65% in the $100 million to $500 million range, 20% in the $500 million to $1 billion range, 10% in the $1 billion to $5 billion range and 5% in the $5 billion-plus category. Companies represented a full spectrum of industry sectors, including financial services, business/professional services, construction, auto/industrial/manufacturing, healthcare, technology and wholesale/retail. Respondents were based in the UK (10%) and North America Region (90%).

A subsidiary of Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) (‘Equifax’) has acquired transaction data analytics company AccountScore Holdings Limited (‘AccountScore’) to bolster its Open Banking and insights capabilities.

The acquisition will see Equifax enhance its consumer and commercial product offerings, combining traditional credit bureau information held by Equifax with bank transaction data, facilitated by AccountScore.

Integration of these new data assets will enable Equifax clients to benefit from higher rates of automated, digital income verification, to carry out more granular assessments of affordability and expenditure and offer more predictive and inclusive credit scoring, by using the most up-to-date information available.

For consumers, this combined data approach will improve an individual’s ability to demonstrate their creditworthiness by enabling information that isn’t currently used to be taken into consideration. This approach enables financial inclusion for those with ‘thin’ credit files, increasing their potential access to credit at a time of great financial uncertainty.

Patricio Remon, President of Europe at Equifax, said: “This is a really exciting development for Equifax and the acquisition of AccountScore, our long-term partner in Open Banking, is a natural next step as we continue to expand our data and analytics capabilities. AccountScore is a pioneering company with a proven track record of building innovative Open Banking platforms and this signals our commitment to continuously evolve and embrace strategic innovation to support our clients’ digital transformation, and will bring many benefits for their customers.

“More than 2.5m UK consumers and businesses now use Open Banking-enabled products to manage their finances, access credit and make payments. This growth is helping to empower a generation of consumers, giving them more control over their own financial information, offering them greater access to a wider range of financial products and making it much easier to complete simple digital applications.”

Emma Steeley, CEO at AccountScore, said: “AccountScore and Equifax have an established and successful partnership, having collaborated on a number of products and offerings over the last two years. This acquisition allows AccountScore to accelerate its growth and reach new customers, backed by a powerful global company.

“Open Banking is going from strength to strength, with the adoption in both the consumer and SME markets growing rapidly each month. We have seen lenders power improved credit decisions and account management processes using Open Banking to ultimately better service their customers.”

The acquisition positions Equifax at the forefront of the latest trends in Smart Data, including the transition of Open Banking to Open Finance, to incorporate data on additional financial services products such as insurance policies, pensions and mortgages.

Regulatory approval for the acquisition has been received from the Financial Conduct Authority.

TransferGo, one of the world’s fastest growing money transfer companies, today announces a partnership with Thought Machine, the cloud native core banking technology company, to propel its ongoing product innovation and drive global expansion into new markets. By taking advantage of Thought Machine’s next generation cloud native core banking platform Vault, TransferGo will focus on enhancing its customer experience through better, more advanced platform capabilities. 

Building on a successful 2020, during which TransferGo defied market expectations to see cross-border payments grow by over 60%, Vault will be a critical component for sustained growth. By hosting payment services that are highly scalable, flexible, secure and fast in the cloud, Vault will empower TransferGo to expand its real-time payments platform, build products rapidly and release future card and account capabilities without delay. 

Importantly, Vault contains no legacy technology and so allows TransferGo to build and deliver payment services to its exact requirements. The technology will support TransferGo’s mission to continuously drive improvement to its digital payments service and the customer experience for the migrant worker community, helping them to move their money around the world quickly, safely and as cost efficiently as possible. 

“Hot off the heels of a $4m investment from Silicon Valley Bank in November, this partnership demonstrates our momentum in investing, innovating and disrupting the global remittance market,” says Justinas Lasevicius, CFO and Co-Founder of TransferGo. “Our customers are at the heart of every decision we make, and through our work with Thought Machine and their intuitive product Vault, we will introduce more enhanced services and drive impactful experiences for our migrant worker community.” 

“We are proud to be supporting TransferGo on their global rollout and product expansion. It is a testament to Vault’s flexibility and future-proof design that fast-growing, innovative institutions like TransferGo select us to architect their future. Vault’s cloud native design provides banks and fintech companies the tools to build their bank of the future,” says Paul Taylor, CEO and Founder of Thought Machine.

“By tapping into the power of the cloud, TransferGo will enjoy a host of benefits, including unparalleled scalability, reliability, security and speed. Coupled with Vault’s unique horizontal architecture – they will be unshackled from the constraints of legacy product building – free to focus on providing an exceptional customer service and a world-class remittance service.”

Today’s announcement reflects the continued investment TransferGo is making in its award-winning remittances platform. With over 2 million users and securing over $14 million in investments last year, it is committed to expanding its global footprint and launching new services on its cross-border payments platform. TransferGo also recently partnered with VISA and Mastercard, and bolstered its senior leadership team through the hires of Edgardo Savoy as Chief Technology Officer and Francesco Fulcoli as Chief Compliance Officer. These new developments will superpower its technology innovation roadmap.

Copper.co, the London-based digital asset infrastructure provider, completed integration with Avalanche, an open-source platform for launching decentralized applications and enterprise blockchain deployments in one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem.

Institutional clients trading AVAX, the native token of Avalanche, will have access to Copper’s secure storage and trading ecosystem with immediate effect. Copper will add AVAX to the 150+ collection of digital assets supported across Copper’s infrastructure.

Institutional AVAX traders, community, and whales now have access to Copper’s hybrid MPC (multi-party computation) wallet technology, which combines secure offline storage with seamless access to leading online exchanges.

Copper Instills Crypto-Confidence with Leading Institutions

Using Copper’s proprietary technology, mutual clients of Avalanche and Copper can move assets quickly and securely between decentralized applications (dApps) built on Avalanche–including Solidity smart contracts.

Avalanche is the first smart contracts platform that processes 4,500+ transactions/second (tps) and instantly confirms transactions, compared to Bitcoin’s 7 tps and Ethereum’s 14 tps.

Copper Walled Garden infrastructure creates a secure closed environment for the transmission of assets across multiple exchanges, hot wallets, and offline vaults. This setup mitigates malicious attacks against a funds’ infrastructure, as well as prevents fraud risks.

Meanwhile, Copper’s ClearLoop framework connects the universe of exchanges in one secure trading loop – with real-time settlement across networks. AVAX holders will be able to delegate assets in custody to more than 25 exchanges in the ‘loop’, including BitFinex, Bit.com, Deribit, CoinFLEX, and more. Through ClearLoop technology, users can place asset orders instantly, while assets remain secure off-exchange in Copper’s custody. Trades are settled automatically and offline, protecting AVAX holders from exchange credit-risk, exchange security risks (hacking), and from assets being seized or frozen on an exchange.

“It is hugely rewarding for us to work with Avalanche, to underpin the security of a network that will facilitate trade across different financial assets at speed. It is an ethos we share with Avalanche and have already built tools that allow for digital assets to be allocated to exchanges via API, without actually making an on-chain transaction. Therefore, Copper, and now Avalanche, clients can be ready to trade on exchange within 100 milliseconds,” said Dmitry Tokarev, CEO, Copper.co. “At a time where decentralized finance is only growing in popularity but traditional finance is lagging behind, we are working with Avalanche to bring crypto-assets one step closer to the mainstream.”

"Institutional investors have made tremendous progress in sorting the facts from fiction across the cryptocurrency ecosystem, and are beginning to turn talk into action,” said John Wu, President of Ava Labs. “Projects like Copper provide the assurance of secure and robust infrastructure that institutions and sophisticated traders demand. I'm excited to welcome their technology to the Avalanche ecosystem, and look forward to their impact in accelerating adoption amongst this segment."

New research from Next Content / Nuxeo study highlights a pandemic-driven move to digital insurance, from underwriting to online claims reporting.

French insurance customers are increasingly using digital services to manage their insurance policies, according to a new study launched today by content services firm Nuxeo.

The study reveals that 41% of subscription requests made over the past 24 months started via a digital channel (form, email, customer area, instant messaging, etc.) compared to only 36% in branches: physical agencies. Digital subscriptions have increased by eight points compared to 2019 (33%).

Whether it is to subscribe to a contract, modify it, request a certificate, declare a claim or even monitor the progress of a request, the French are increasingly favouring digital services to the detriment of physical insurers. This is a trend accentuated by successive lockdowns and the Covid-19 pandemic, with policyholders favouring remote and autonomous management of their insurance services.

“Insurance customers in France had been gradually moving to the use of digital services to interact with their insurer, but Covid-19 has caused a sharp acceleration in this trend,” said Sean Baird, Director, ECM Product Marketing, Nuxeo. “As the sector moves even further towards a digital model, insurers must adapt their offering to meet changing customer demands and offer more innovative services. A compelling digital customer experience will become integral and companies that cannot provide this will be spurned in favour those that can.” 

Of the online services adopted by policyholders, requests for insurance certificates and supporting documents were most popular, with 73% of respondents having already made such a request. That is followed by monitoring of reimbursements (64%), requests for quotes (56%), reporting a claim (41%), online subscription (39%), and sending photos in the event of a claim (36%).

Policyholders were also asked about their expectations in terms of digital services. The four most anticipated improvements or new digital services are all related to greater autonomy: online subscription (82%), automatic analysis of the photos and reports sent in the event of an accident followed by an immediate response (82%), the ability to modulate a claim (82%) and the ability to make a report or claim directly from a mobile (79%).

“Lockdowns and the Covid-19 pandemic have largely contributed to this acceleration in the use of digital technology, with the French increasingly willing to manage their services remotely and autonomously,” continued Sean Baird, Nuxeo. “This is unlikely to change even when the pandemic fades, as the research shows that customers increasingly prefer these options. It becomes even more important then, for insurers to be agile, innovative and focus on the digital customer experience.”