Today In Digital Banking: Finicity Automates Loan Software, Bill Pay Builds Loyalty And Lyft Focuses On Driver Payments

Today in digital banking, seamless bill-paying breeds customer loyalty, Finicity automates loan origination and Lyft looks to meet drivers’ payment needs.

Mastercard’s Finicity Adds Automation To Loan Origination Software

Mastercard FinTech company Finicity on Thursday (Aug. 26) announced an expansion of its one-touch mortgage verification service, which will now be integrated into ICE Mortgage Technology, per a press release. The software integration allows borrowers to grant authorization seamlessly to ensure that lenders can obtain timely verification of assets, income and employment.

ICE Mortgage Technology is a component of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., a leading global provider of data, technology and market infrastructure, the release stated. The joint effort aims to dramatically cut down on turnaround time and enhancing the borrower experience. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae can both accept the digital verification.

Seamless Bill Pay Is The New Customer Loyalty Tool

In the latest “Treasurer’s Guide To AR Payment Optimization: Solving The Online Bill Pay Problem Edition,” PYMNTS takes a close look at how the bill payment needs of both businesses and consumers are shifting, as well as why such shifts make it crucial for FIs to keep online bill payments digital throughout the process. It also examines how these shifts may impact the way payments and banking are conducted in the future.

Businesses are growing more aware of the need to digitize their payment processes, but this is easier said than done for organizations that still use paper documents. Paper invoices are still more widely used by United States businesses than their virtual counterparts, with 75 percent of the approximately 25 billion invoices sent annually still requiring manual processing.

Lyft On Driving Satisfaction With Fast Payments For Workers

Kaushik Subramanian, vice president of payments for San Francisco-based ridesharing giant Lyft, told PYMNTS that identifying the banking and payment needs of its drivers in the U.S. and Canada has been among the company’s primary tasks. To understand drivers’ financial needs, he said, Lyft conducted user surveys and formed driver advisory councils. The resulting information enabled the platform to develop innovations that ensure drivers can access their earnings when and where they need them.

“We initially offered only weekly payouts to bank accounts for drivers,” Subramanian said. “However, after speaking with the driver community, we learned many of them needed to get paid more frequently. Getting paid fast and accurately is incredibly important to drivers.”

Nearly all Lyft drivers are students or work in this capacity to supplement their incomes, he added, making it paramount for the company to create products tailored to fit its drivers’ lifestyles.