US Inches Toward Open Banking With CFPB Notice

With more and more FinTechs introducing their own banking services, the competition is heating up.

Small business lending platform BlueVine is the latest FinTech to take this path, having taken the wraps off of its banking solution this week with the launch of BlueVine Business Banking.

The solution, which secured about 20,000 SMBs to pilot the technology in the last year, provides deposit account and payment solutions that aim to compete with traditional banks that, as CEO and Co-founder Eyal Lifshitz described, “nickel-and-dime” businesses.

While FinTechs are increasingly competing directly with traditional financial institutions (FIs), they’re also continuing to play the important role of collaborator.

Plus, the U.S. moves closer to its own open banking rules that could further catalyze the bank-FinTech collaboration landscape.

In this week’s look at the latest in bank-FinTech partnerships…

Oracle Links Smaller FIs to AML Tech

While the bank-FinTech partnership paradigm typically involves a smaller FinTech working with a larger bank, Oracle is turning that on its head with a new solution to help combat financial crime. The technology conglomerate announced this week a new cloud service to help smaller banks integrate anti-money (AML) laundering protections via its Financial Crime and Compliance Management Cloud Service. In its announcement, Oracle said it has taken its experience working with large FIs and will now bring those same capabilities for small banks to streamline compliance and combat illicit activity.

“With criminals getting increasingly sophisticated, mid-sized banks struggle to keep pace with the complexity and cost of fighting financial crime,” said Sonny Singh, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Financial Services. “We’re leveling the playing field by bringing the same modern crime detection and reporting capabilities afforded to larger institutions to mid-sized banks in a package that suits their unique requirements and cost structures.”

First Horizon Bank Adopts NCR Technology

Tennessee’s First Horizon Bank revealed a new partnership with NCR to adopt the latter’s D3 digital banking platform, the firms recently revealed. With a focus on enhancing the end user experience for corporates, First Horizon aims to provide a more personalized service to small and medium-sized firms and empower them with financial management tools, as well as offer these clients a more consistent banking experience.

“Early performance metrics indicate that we are on par with or ahead of the top national banks in terms of engagement and speed,” said the bank’s Chief Digital Officer Pat Kelly in a statement. “Plus, leveraging the cloud to deploy digital banking has allowed us to introduce updates more often and innovate faster. That’s a critical advantage in the new normal.”

TrueLayer Launches in Australia

API FinTech TrueLayer is launching in Australia, recent reports said, and will seed accreditation from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to operate as an Accredited Data Recipient. The company provides open banking technology to banks and FinTechs, allowing them to securely open up data to their customers. Its APIs also support account verification and payment capabilities.

“TrueLayer is a proven global leader enabling banks and FinTechs to thrive in the open banking economy by building APIs to securely access their customers’ banking data, verify their accounts and initiate payments in real time,” stated the company’s incoming Head of Australia Operations Brenton Charnley.

CFPB Seeks Open Banking Guidance

Recent Business Insider reports said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is seeking guidance on providing consumers with access to their financial records in what analysts say could hint at the development of open banking rules in the U.S.

In a notice issued by the CFPB, the agency announced its advance notice of proposed rulemaking and is now seeking comments related to the development of rules, citing Dodd-Frank requirements that – subject to CFPB rules – financial service providers must provide consumers with access to their financial information.