First to present was Angelique, CEO of GAINX, who introduced Flow AI, which they described as a tool for ‘innovation strategy management’, including showing where ideas are coming from, predicting what will happen to them, improving and measuring the ROI of ideas, preventing ‘Innovation Drag’.
Next up we had Danny Watkins from MARKET EARLY BIRD, which he describes as ‘Professional read-only Twitter for banks’, relevant for traders and analysts, presenting tweets in a cloud-based interface that is ‘professional, read-only, compliant and organised’ using AI to identify the most relevant.
Philip and John from JUMIO – the ‘biggest/ fastest-growing/market leader in online identity verification’ – focused on their new tool, Net Verify, an address verification tool that works with ANY household utility bill in ANY condition – even, as they demonstrated, crumpled and pulled recently from the bin.
NCINO brought a little team to the stage to talk about their cloud banking software technology – an efficient, compliant endto-end operating system which they demonstrated with a client attempting to take out a small business loan and rather than being declined for a $250k, he was auto-approved for $150k and could provide more details to secure the higher amount.
Dutch company FIVE DEGREES took the stage with their client MUNNYPOT, an online financial advice service, a goal-based investment platform using a Whatsapp-Style chat-based interface making suggestions and recommendations for customers’ investments.
James Stickland, CEO of VERIDIUM the identity access management company, introduced its new product – four-finger authentication or ‘4F, depth of the image makes it harder to spoof.
Dan at SALEMOVE introduced their hybrid robo/human experience, where customers are onboarded faster thanks to software that uncovers where in the sign up customers are getting stuck.
John Saffron from PUSHFOR opened with ‘Smart people push’, its technology is around content sharing, focused on the three Cs – conversion, control, and configuration, the platform lets you set permissions, and send documents with security.
COLLECTAI introduced an efficient debt collection service – a way to ‘reinvent debt collection’ with a platform/API that helps brands manage outstanding payments, invoices, accounts payable and debt collection, at a low cost while still creating a good client relationship.
ING BANK POLAND came to talk about what they mean when they say innovation, and show off their new-look banking channel, built from scratch, it is ‘simple, intuitive, pretty’ and ‘built with customers for customers.’
Next kicked off COMARCH, who introduced their assistant Myra, helping you manage your wealth while in your car, basically, a voice-controlled wealth management tool with some AI in the mix.
We then saw a new digital identity solution from SIGNICAT, suggesting banks were set to lose 43% of retail payments due to PSD2 (Accenture stats) so they built a cloudbased on-demand solution which in the German market uses live video to onboard customers.
EYEVERIFY was, unsurprisingly, talking about an eye print ID solution, a biometric authentication method, based on the veins in the whites of your eyes, and is very secure and fast, and very hard to spoof, it can be used for the login process or authentication.
ENVESTNET YODLEE was next; a company that was referenced by several others as a partner throughout the event with an open API platform and developers portal, where they offer data enrichment and predictive analytics.
The guys at CONFIGO sported jaunty hats during their demo and showcased a ‘personalised and contextual human-centric’ ‘mobile experience platform’ that would let you target different audiences with the right content in real time.
OPENTECH (plus David from MASTERCARD) presented its mobile payment solution, via a funny fake purchase of a Burberry bag, they talked of banks prevailing in payments and offering a ‘smooth, multichannel user experience’ that is secure and also acts as a cross-selling opportunity.
Stefan and Kristoff from Aqubix presented a KYC PORTAL, helping with due diligence and compliance, their platform puts data in one place and provides a ‘holistic’ view, automating risk and notifying banks of suspicious behaviour.
INFOSYS FINACLE presented a closed loop network for faster more transparent payments utilising smart contracts, based on pre-set business rules, and a shared ledger for a single source of truth.
Next up was Brett King of MOVEN (Enterprises), the ‘only profitable neobank in the world’ according to him, and Greg Midtbo, CRO, who said that 2016 had been a ‘transformative year’ as they added another million customers and set up fintech partnerships with banks.
CrowdProcess introduced JAMES, a narrow AI for assessing credit risk in 6 minutes, you provide the data and the system builds the most appropriate model, parsing the most interesting columns in the data set, using machine learning.
After lunch, Tobias, CEO of DSWISS, presented alongside Stephan from UBS, showing off a secure digital wallet, a digital version of the safe deposit box.
Don and David from INFOLIO presented something a little different – tech for a digital workplace, demonstrating a digital canvas’ where you could share documents, categorise things, make lists, annotate documents, chat and so on – all in a secure way, it’s so cool that The Fintech Times now uses it.
Co-founder Marten Nelson presented TOKEN, a turnkey PSD2 compliant solution used by Fidor, whose Head of APIs Stefan Weiss was also on the stage demoing their case study which looked at the opportunity in open banking and the chance for banks to stay relevant and make money as PSD2 comes into force.
MISYS was next up, with Alex and Felix sharing their new product, Fusion Fabric Cloud, so that developers can access powerful valuation tools and reduce weeks of activity to minutes, powerful but easy to use, according to them.
CAXTON CEO Rupert launched his demo with the words ‘The future of the API is dead’ as Blockchain connectivity, he argued, is the faster, cheaper and more secure way to deal with payments.
HOOYU – ‘Know who you’re dealing with’ – offered protection for businesses and individuals from scammers, individuals can use the system to check the identity of someone they are meeting or buying from, blending database checks, biometrics and document checks for the best confirmation of identity.
BANKUP (powered by Solaris bank) is a smart fintech bank for small and mediumsized businesses offering the functionality of a normal bank account plus added value.
AIXIGO was all about technology for personal investments, or digital wealth management as an API, they showed some examples of how their background tech could power an Alexa app for portfolio development, ‘Your developers will love it’ said Mario and Marcus.
Alex and Ike from EPHESOFT talked about ‘extracting meaning from unstructured data’, and presented their document analytics platform which uses big data and unsupervised machine learning, and is already used by US intelligence agencies to spot criminal behaviour.
WEALTHIFY took the opportunity to announce that its investment services are now available as a white-label solution and went on to say that despite low interest rates, the stock market has risen 12.48% in the last year – so everyone should ‘Expect more from your money’.
MENIGA demonstrated an API around financial fitness, comparable to Strava and Fitbit, ‘We transform the way banks and advertisers use transaction data.’
MEMENTO announced that ‘We believe that money is social’ bridging the gap between social and banking and were one of the winners of best in show.
MODE FINANCE demonstrated analytics and forecasting in credit risk management with systems for big brands, performing big data analysis, aiming to ‘Democratise credit rating and credit risk analysis’.
EBANKIT claims that ‘All banks need to engage with customers securely,’ and launched 3.0 of their platform, helping clients to digitally transform with Omnichannel banking.
BACKBASE is a digital banking software solution that they claim is the latest innovation in AI and PSD2.
Connor from LEVERIS introduced another ‘modern banking platform’ – it’s ‘Not an app, bank, system, or middleware’ it’s an ‘Endto-end digital banking platform or bank in a box…’ he claims if Google built a bank it would look like this.
IPROOV lets you authenticate to online services from laptop and mobile, easy to use and secure (MORE THAN ANYTHING, apparently)…‘We can detect replays and spoofs – that’s why it’s so clever.’
Jeff Mullen from DYNAMICS claimed to be trying to ‘solve the largest problems in payments…the older but ‘revolutionary tech’ includes a double use card – you press a button for Visa, another for a loyalty card – and another one that doesn’t display the whole card number, so is useless if stolen.
SWAPER offers ‘premium returns’ from its platform – it’s a P2P marketplace offering unsecured loans at 12% – 14% return, you choose the amount to invest, a term and are shown the expected return.
EDGE LAB demoed its portfolio management technology, ‘‘We help institutions to digitise a crucial part of their business – Investment – in line with all the regulatory constraints.
irst up is MITEK and general manager Sarah shows us how their identity management system works – KYC and a ‘pleasant digital experience’, they use AI and deep learning to improve the software.
XIGNITE offers financial markets data APIs (‘for your apps, in the cloud’) and ‘Reports of the death of API are greatly exaggerated,’ says founder Stephane.
TINK, an app and also provider of software to the likes of SEB and ABN AMRO, presented their app that helps you keep all your money in one place, from any number of banks, and stay on top of your finances.
UNBLU was another contributor talking about ‘creating an in-person experience online’… their tech focused on increasing engagement and sales on online channels, also with a co-browsing functionality.
W.UP performed a delightfully pointless mannequin challenge to kick off their demo, which was for their new product SALES UP and a ‘happy digital banking experience’ where ‘banks are present’, combining internal and external real-time data to help with sales and marketing.’
TI&M In their demonstration, for ‘endto-end digital onboarding’ that is ‘fast but also 100% secure’, they explained that their ‘dynamic but compliant’ forms would change based on user inputs.
WEALTH WIZARDS referred to themselves as the UK’s first online financial advisor, started in 2009 as a tech company, they build apps for ‘regulated financial advice’ and cite three differences from other robo advisors.
DORSUM introduced DAISY, a ‘new way of customer acquisition,’ BOTBOARDING.
I-EXCEED technology solutions introduced the Appzillon technology suite, apparently used by 50 banks globally, they mentioned PSD2 and Open APIs, but with a particular focus on corporate customers.
ETORO, the world’s ‘largest social trading network’, with 6m customers in 100 countries, presented their solution whereby users can follow (and copy) top traders, publish their own stats, and enjoy around 20% returns.
ITSECTOR demonstrated its FlowCredit app, making mention of PSD2, third party APIs and augmented reality.
WORLDCORE works in the payments space, they talked about ‘flexible, usable onboarding’ with the emphasis on security.
HORIZN was a bit different, focused on solving the problem of accelerating adoption – quickly training customers and staff on how to use new features of your technology. TWISTO PAYMENTS provide credit (‘fair financing’) for online and offline clients on a daily basis using a unique risk engine that helps provide financing solutions for underserved segments, offering credit at point of sale with ‘Buy now pay later’.
‘Pan-European leader in payments’ WORLDLINE talked of bank switching in the digital age and were launching some tools intended to attract and retain customers – providing a link between banks and fintechs, using the internet of things.
Graham and Nigel presented HOTDOCS, ‘automated document assembly software’ that involved tagging a word document to turn them into templates.
AVOKA wants to ‘make it easier for people to buy’ with their customer acquisition software.
Laurence Cooke of NANOPAY introduced us to a real-time frictionless payments solution, useful for cross-border, digital cash and B2B transactions, as well as capital markets settlements.
INVOICESHARING Invoices and receipts can be scanned and OCR tech/robots can be used for ‘touchless accounting’.
Based in India, MARKETS MOJO basically provides information on companies to help with your investment portfolio.
ICON SOLUTIONS presented around instant payments, saying that banks and PSPs should use open source code.
ICAR had a decent onboarding (read: identity verification) solution, customers give their email and phone, then scan their ID, information is auto captured, a biometric solution is then used to confirm likeness (blinking required in the selfie).
Dave Tonge, CTO of MONEYHUB (Enterprise), presented a ‘platform not a product’ – ‘The Moneyhub solution empowers consumers to see all their finances in one place, get relevant insights from that data and plan for their futures.
EFIGENCE launched its efi4 platform, a PSD2- ready digital banking platform designed for each individual bank or financial institution.
FINTEC SYSTEMS (Martin and Max) is a banking API provider offering ‘real-time financial data access,’ they help banks reduce fraud and risk by digitising the process and accessing unstructured and missing data.
SENTIFI talked about making use of information on financial markets – ‘crowdbased financial marketing intelligence’.
CREALOGIX presented a VR solution that looked like the other PSD2-ready solutions we’d seen except with virtual reality goggles so users get a very visual overview of finances, spending, budgets and investments.
VASCO – the security people – presented esign live, smile and sign ‘leverages the digital trust platform’ – from step one, security is validated.
MODEL OFFICE was about making compliance ‘more engaging’ (‘Compliance. Alignment. Sustainability.’)
BANK GUARD is a novel security solution based on using images instead of numbers/ letters, for creating one-time passcodes – i.e. replacing a card reader – and authenticating transactions.
In 4 years, TRUSTLY has reached 29 markets and had 800% growth, it’s a direct debit product that helps with conversion (driven by convenience), churn, and security.
Phew. Go have a coffee.
By Kirsty Cooke,
Maparesearch
Mapa Research provides competitor intelligence within digital banking, to help financial institutions improve the customer experience. With hundreds of live bank accounts worldwide, Mapa provides unique insights across major retail banking markets – showcasing the actual user experience from both the public and secure parts of your competitors’ online and mobile banking services. Visit www.maparesearch.com for more information. Mapa Research provides competitor intelligence within digital banking, to help financial institutions improve the customer experience. With hundreds of live bank accounts worldwide, Mapa provides unique insights across major retail banking markets – showcasing the actual user experience from both the public and secure parts of your competitors’ online and mobile banking services. Visit www.maparesearch.com for more information.
