FIs Embrace FinTech Options To Bolster Business Banking

There is more than one way to embrace collaboration in today’s business banking environment. This week’s look at the latest in open banking and bank-FinTech collaboration finds financial institutions (FIs) exploring both partnerships and acquisitions to strengthen their offerings for corporates, while third-party service providers have also boosted their data-sharing capabilities to empower those financial service provider tie-ups.

City National Bank, Extend Pair On Virtual Cards

To launch its new virtual commercial card offering, City National Bank is working with FinTech Extend, the companies recently revealed. Their tie-up will see City National Bank enabling its business clients to access Visa’s virtual corporate card technology that the bank can issue on-demand, with support for Google Pay and Apple Pay mobile wallets. In a press release, the bank pointed to use cases such as enabling employers to issue virtual cards for employees or suppliers, as well as the capability to establish spending limits and custom expiration dates to enhance spend control.

Virgin Money Taps Codat For Data Sharing

To bolster its business banking proposition, Virgin Money is reportedly working with FinTech Codat to facilitate data connectivity between corporate customers and the bank. Reports in NS Banking said the partnership is part of Virgin Money’s SME Wellness Tracker, a financial management portal staged for launch later this year. The FI is also reportedly exploring the adoption of Codat’s data connectivity capabilities to strengthen its Working Capital Solutions for SMEs offering, as well as to empower relationship managers with data analytics. In a statement, Virgin Money Group Director Gavin Opperman said, “a key part of our approach is collaboration with external partners like Codat, bringing expertise and knowledge to help build a compelling customer proposition.”

Apollo Bank Adopts CheckAlt Lockbox Technology

Miami-based Apollo Bank is turning to a third-party FinTech to strengthen its corporate payments and treasury management offering. The bank recently announced a partnership with CheckAlt to adopt its lockbox technology, allowing corporates to automatically accept, process and reconcile check payments. In its announcement, Apollo Bank said it “knew it did not want to build its own in-house lockbox scanning department,” instead turning to a FinTech partner to streamline the rollout of such an offering.

PNC Acquires Tempus Technologies

While more financial institutions are turning to third-party FinTech collaborations to bolster their business banking offerings, PNC Bank is one FI that turned toward M&A to strengthen its proposition. The bank recently announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Tempus Technologies to strengthen its treasury management services, with the takeover allowing the FI to launch a unified channel through which corporates can manage payables and receivables across payment rails. “Leveraging Tempus Technologies’ patented solutions and our existing industry-leading Treasury Management platform, we will provide our clients with convenient, immediate and secure payments options based upon their business’ individual needs,” said PNC Corporate & Institutional Banking Executive Vice President and Head Mike Lyons in a statement.

The Clearing House Facilitates Third-Party Data Sharing

In a new initiative designed to make it easier to share data with third-party platforms, The Clearing House has announced its Streamlined Data Sharing Risk Assessment, a “centralized approach” for data aggregators and third-party finance apps to exchange data with banks, according to The Clearing House’s Senior Vice President and Connected Banking Product Executive Ben Isaacson. According to its announcement, The Clearing House’s new data-sharing capability tackles the friction that FIs traditionally face when individually facilitating connections with third parties.

Token Lands Funding For Open Payments Offering

As open banking continues to proliferate across Europe and the U.K., more financial service providers are exploring the opportunity within the open banking framework to streamline payment workflows. In support of that initiative, investors have placed $15 million in Series B funding for U.K.-, Germany- and U.S.-based Token, an open banking platform. The company, which secured the investment from SBI Investment Co. and Sony Innovation Fund by IGV, as well as several existing investors, is promoting the adoption of account-to-account payment functionality. Its offering uses open banking’s payment initiation framework to enable PSPs, Banking-as-a-Service platforms and merchants to integrate an API for payment initiation and automation.