UMB Boosts Expense Management With Fraedom Collab

U.K. corporate expense management solutions provider Fraedom, which was recently acquired by Visa, will be providing its commercial card technology to U.S.-based UMB Financial Corporation, the companies announced in a press release sent to PYMNTS on Wednesday (Sept. 5).

Through their partnership, UMB will develop a suite of commercial card solutions for corporate customers that includes expense management and reporting, as well as a mobile app linked to the solutions. Existing corporate customers of UMB will be migrated to the Fraedom platform, the firms noted, which will be white-labeled with UMB logo and design.

“Partnering with Fraedom will enable us to bring significant benefits to our business customers across the U.S.,” said Uma Wilson, UMB senior vice president and director of product management, in a statement. “Our new suite of commercial card services will enable them to achieve enhanced operational efficiencies and help ease customers’ day-to-day needs.”

Wilson added that their collaboration will also improve the user experience and provide faster access to features linked to their commercial card and expense management solutions.

In another statement, Fraedom CEO Kyle Ferguson said their collaboration exemplifies the improvement in services that banks can achieve when working with FinTech firms.

“This partnership is a great example of the way banks can differentiate their services and stay competitive in the face of ever-evolving market demands,” he said. “For banks, partnerships are a great way to accelerate the development and introduction of services to bring solutions to the market [that] the industry expects.”

After UMB customers are migrated to the Fraedom platform, their partnership will focus on enhancing existing services through the launch of a new mobile app to complement the browser platform. The companies said they expect the app to launch in the first half of next year.

“We see mobile as a key element of the partnership moving forwards,” Ferguson added.