Payments Take Center Stage Of Bank-FinTech Collaboration

Payments has taken center stage for bank-FinTech pairings, with Visa’s FinTech Partner Connect finding new reach to streamline the collaborative process. Plus, Deloitte ramps up its own efforts to modernize payments for financial institutions, and Horizon Bank proves it’s not just the largest of financial institutions (FIs) that can embrace FinTech tie-ups.

Visa Invests In Bank-FinTech Collaboration

Visa recently expanded its Visa Fintech Partner Connect solution, a tool designed to facilitate collaboration between Visa’s issuing customers and FinTechs. By offering a platform for financial institutions to tap into a variety of vetted FinTech collaborators, Visa is accelerating the path to partnerships with Visa Ready providers of technology and services.

The most recent of those providers to join Visa Fintech Partner Connect is Fintel Connect, a marketing technology company for the financial services sector. “Our strength is diving deep into the niche of financial services and solving real pain points financial brands face when growing online — from tracking, to scalability, to compliance,” said Nicky Senyard, founder and CEO of Fintel Connect, adding, “Partnership is at the core of what we do.”

Deloitte Team Up On Payments Modernization

Deloitte is integrating Volante’s cloud-based technology for financial institutions into its own offering for banks, allowing the two collaborators to team up on empowering FIs with payment solutions aimed at modernizing transaction workflows. In their announcement, the companies said they are focusing on streamlining key challenges like regulatory compliance and operational risk to allow banks to accelerate the rollout of modern payment solutions.

In a statement, Deloitte Managing Director of Banking and Payments Technology Tushar Puranik said Volante is “an important and innovative player” that supports banks’ adoption of ISO 20022 payment messaging standards as well as facilitation of real-time payment infrastructure.

Horizon Bank Invests In MOCA’s Card Platform

Austin, Texas’s largest bank, Horizon Bank, shows that bank-FinTech pairings aren’t just for the biggest of financial institutions. The FI is collaborating with MOCA, having integrated its card payment technologies that will now be offered to the bank’s own customer base. Horizon Bank noted in its announcement that the partnership aims to help the bank better compete against larger challenger banks and highlighted MOCA’s technology as enabling card products that are flexible and easy to use for both consumers and businesses.

MOCA provides both physical and virtual card products and solutions for a variety of use-cases and said in the press release that business and consumer end-users can issue their own virtual cards on-demand, support real-time payments and enable contactless transactions.

Atom Bank Taps Funding Circle For SMB Loans

Atom, a U.K. challenger bank, is reviving the strategy of banks teaming up with alternative lenders in its new collaboration with Funding Circle. Together, Atom and Funding Circle are working together to connect 4,000 small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the U.K. to funding, continuing Atom’s existing arrangement to funnel funds via the alt-lending platform. In a statement, Atom bank Chief Customer Officer Edward Twiddy said the bank is “excited” by the partnership.

NorthOne Chooses The Bancorp Bank and Galileo For SMB Services

Mobile small business banking solution provider NorthOne is tapping into the technologies of two new partners to strengthen its SMB offering. The FinTech announced a collaboration with The Bancorp Bank, which will provide banking services to NorthOne’s SMB customers, while Galileo Technologies will integrate enhanced processing services to the NorthOne platform. In its pursuit of a better banking experience for small businesses, NorthOne said it has already eliminated fees for overdrafts and insufficient funds, enhanced its user interface, accelerated processing times and introduced a new suite of transaction tools. Bancorp will provide check deposit, budgeting and expense management, cash withdrawal, cash transfer and invoicing tools, among other features, the announcement said.