New trends in finance, from open banking to the rise of fintech startups, are shaking the industry and putting customers at the heart of the future of banking, 
None of the respondents had heard of or knew anything about open banking. And, they didn't like the terminology of it
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Digital, NEO, Open Banking, Open Finance
No banking charter? No problem. Fintech companies team up with small-town banks
Los Angeles Times | Julie Verhage | Sep 27, 2019
Customers of Square Inc., the Silicon Valley payments behemoth, might assume that the cash they send to friends on the platform is housed in a glassy building in Silicon Valley, tended to by hoodie-clad tech workers. Actually, that money is more likely to be sitting in a 117-year-old community bank in Iowa.
Partnerships between high-flying tech companies and traditional banks, many of them tiny by comparison, are a key force behind the financial technology boom. Because virtually no tech companies have the license required to perform banking services, many of them partner with existing banks to offer a suite of services including checking accounts, credit cards and the back-end and regulatory work the tech companies aren’t equipped—or allowed—to handle.
Now, driven by the tech industry’s thirst to jump into finance, a new crop of businesses are looking to broker the connections between tech and banks. One such business is Cambr, a little-known division of an investment company called StoneCastle, which counts Square and other fintechs as customers. StoneCastle works with more than 800 small banks, spread across the country, ready to take and hold deposits from Silicon Valley start-ups such as Square.
See: What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts?
“Airbnb, one would argue they are one of the largest hotel chains that doesn’t own a room,” said Josh Siegel, chief executive of StoneCastle Partners LLC. “Our network works in a similar way. We have an account at the bank, it’s the room we rent, and we can rent it out to whoever we want.”
Cambr’s service launched last year as a partnership between StoneCastle, which provides the bank connections, and digital banking platform Q2 Holdings Inc., which works on the software and programming. Square’s Cash App was one of Cambr’s first customers, Siegel said, and it has since added start-ups such as Acorns Grow Inc., MoneyLion Inc., Qapital Inc. and robo-advisor Betterment LLC, in a recently announced deal.
What Cambr aims to offer tech companies is a ready-made strategy to accept deposits that they wouldn’t otherwise have the license to handle.
Here’s how it works: A tech company or start-up might give Cambr as much as $100 billion of customers’ cash, and could then ask the service to spread the money around to potentially hundreds of different financial institutions. A result of spreading out the deposits is that more of the fintech’s cash is insured under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s $250,000-per-account guarantee, offering more coverage than if the money were deposited at a single institution.
The partnership model, which has rapidly become the go-to for financial technology companies, does pose some risks for banks, particularly if fast-moving start-ups draw the ire of regulators, as has happened before.
“The banks are the supervised entities so the buck stops with them,” said Brian Korn, partner and head of fintech practice at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. “The regulators are waiting for situations where there’s a breakdown.”
But many community banks have embraced such partnerships, seeing them as a salve in times of digital disruption. More deposits can allow small banks to grow and make more local loans. In Cedar Falls, Iowa, the 117-year-old Lincoln Savings Bank, which works with Cambr, has boosted its revenue by partnering with fintechs, said Mike McCrary, who runs e-commerce and emerging technology for the bank. McCrary said that when Lincoln Savings Bank considered how it could best position itself for the next 10 years, fintech partnerships were an obvious answer.
See: One size doesn’t fit all: Strict regulations meant for big banks holding back fintech in Canada
“In order for us to be relevant years from now, there had to be something digital,” he said. “Now we’re putting a lot of resources into this area of our business,” including, he said, building out a new team dedicated to working with tech companies.
One option for tech companies has been to apply for an Industrial Loan Charter, which would effectively grant them license to provide financial services. Square first applied for the charter in the fall of 2017, but its request shows no signs of being approved. Social Finance Inc. also applied for an ILC, but withdrew its application altogether.
“It’s not easy to become a bank here, and we haven’t seen much traction in general with the ILC,” Matt Burton, partner at venture capital firm QED Investors, said. “What we have seen is continued demand for non-banks to offer banking solutions.”
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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NextSeed Merges with Collaboration Capital to Form Fintech Investment Bank
Crowdfund Insider | | Sep 25, 2019
Investment crowdfunding platform NextSeed has merged with Collaboration Capital in a move to create a leading “technology-driven impact investment firm open to everyone.” In effect, the NextSeed merger with Collaboration creates a Fintech forward digital investment bank.
NextSeed, a FINRA regulated funding portal that recently received its broker-dealer license, has long been a leader in providing debt-based capital to small businesses while providing access to an interesting asset class to smaller investors. Collaboration Capital is an SEC-registered investment advisor. According to the company’s LinkedIn page, Collaboration is an advisor to “forward-looking families” focusing on the ESG and impact investing sector.
The strategic merger expects to further expand the combine companies mission to “democratize finance.”
Both companies are based in Houston, Texas. NextSeed CEO and co-founder Youngro Lee will remain the CEO of NextSeed while becoming the CEO of the combined entity.
See: Prominent Group of Fintech Leaders Send Letter to SEC Chair Jay Clayton Demanding an Increase in Regulation Crowdfunding to $20 Million
Lee, who previously specialized in international private equity at global law firms Cleary Gottlieb and Kirkland & Ellis, currently serves on the SEC Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee and also serves as the founding President of the Association of Online Investment
Platforms (AOIP).
Christopher Knapp, the founder and CEO of Collaboration, will remain as CEO of the firm.
Knapp previously co-founded and served as CEO of Chilton Capital Management after a long career at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. He launched Collaboration Capital to build a new type of investment firm focused on impact/ESG investing for its clients.
Collaboration seeks to leverage traditional fundamental securities analysis that incorporates select ESG considerations to reduce the overall risk to investment portfolios, while developing portfolios consisting of companies that exhibit sustainable business practices.
According to a note from Nextseed, the combined firm also plans to launch a new asset management division to focus on:
- proprietary public ESG (environmental, social, governance) investment strategies developed by Collaboration Capital
and - city-focused private investment funds concentrating in community-driven real estate, startups
and growth-oriented small businesses in select US metro areas.
While NextSeed has always catered to both accredited and non-accredited investors, the addition of the broker-dealer license has helped the platform to expand in other areas of the private markets.
See: What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts?
Lee commented on the merger news stating he has spent the last few years tirelessly building the technology and infrastructure to empower small, local investments at scale while navigating the complex regulatory requirements to ensure compliance.
“Our mission at NextSeed has been to connect businesses and individuals to build vibrant communities,” said Lee. “Now, by combining with a respected investment adviser such as Collaboration Capital that also believes in the power of the capital markets to affect positive change, we are beyond excited to create an entirely new type of investment firm that is strategically positioned to serve the investors and entrepreneurs of the future.”
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts?
Raconteur | Francesca Cassidy | May 1, 2019
New trends in finance, from open banking to the rise of fintech startups, are shaking the industry and putting customers at the heart of the future of banking,
What can traditional banks learn from fintechs?
What Bank Leumi and Pepper teach us is that both traditional banks and fintech companies have their strong suits, although
Mr Paris believes the relationship has gone through three phases:
- The first saw traditional banks detect fintech as a threat and attempt to squash them through regulation.
- The second came as the banking industry recognised the true value of fintech and set out to partner with or acquire them.
- We are now in the third phase. “Banks realise that simply acquiring a fintech company does not solve the problem, as the relationship is still one-to-one. What is needed is for a fintech to have access to thousands of banks and vice versa.”
See: Where Top US Banks Are Betting On Fintech
The question is, will traditional banks consent to?
Matthias Kröner, founder and former chief executive officer of the Fidor Group, one of Europe’s first digital banks, thinks not. “I don’t think a big bank corporation is culturally able to deal with innovation”, he says. “It’s a question of compliance. In order to embrace the innovation of fintechs, you need a special governance structure that allows for a fail-fast, laboratory approach. Traditional banks are too afraid of risk.”
One challenge for fintechs is keeping the innovation level high. The bigger an organisation gets, the more you have the tendency for everyone to lean back - Matthias Kröner, the Fidor Group
So what is the future of banking? It is certainly digital and, as a result, more open, more transparent, more ambitious. Most importantly, it lies in the hands of the customer. Any financial services provider looking to make it to 2030 must embrace this truth, and use all the digital and technological tools at their disposal to make their offering as customer-centric as possible.
What does the future of banking look like, according to the experts?
Ian Bradbury, chief technology officer for financial services, Fujitsu
“The next wave of digital banking solutions, enabled by advanced data analytics, APIs and Open Banking legislation, will go much further. We will see a seamless incorporation of financial and pseudo-financial services into daily activities, both digitally and in the physical world.”
See: Open banking has a big branding problem, government’s public opinion research suggests
Simon Paris, chief executive officer, Finastra
“My vision is that banking will go back to what it was born for. To provide a financial service. To help people and businesses unlock their potential. Instead of being about how many products per customer you have, it will be about customer’s exchanging their personal data for better service. You tell me how much you drive, and I’ll decrease your car insurance. You share your smart watch data and I’ll decrease your life insurance.”
Matthias Kröner, founder and former chief executive officer, the Fidor Group
“Customer demands for innovation never changed a market as much as changes in regulation, like we’ve had with open banking. PSD2 is finally forcing the banks to be customer-centric. It will mean an easier and better life for customers. I'm absolutely convinced of this. If we combine the success of data with AI and machine-learning - the sky is the limit.”
Flavia Alzetta, chief executive officer, Contis
“In terms of payments, I think the shift from physical assets to virtual or no assets will be very visible over the coming years. I spent 14 years at Amex, and I think the physical card will disappear. The more innovative payment options coming up - such as
biometrics - will simplify payments immeasurably.”
Rakefet Russak Aminoach, chief executive officer, Bank Leumi
“10 years from now the retail banks which take the right steps will be much more significant than they are today, and some will have ceased to exist. I don't think we will have one bank like one Amazon or one Google, I believe that we will have local winners. Regulators are a local thing, as are currencies, so I don't think we'll have one bank for the whole world, but I believe that, in each market, we will have a huge winner who will do the right thing and take a large part of the market.”
See: One size doesn’t fit all: Strict regulations meant for big banks holding back fintech in Canada
Michal Kissos Hertzog, chief executive officer, Pepper
“The CEO of AirBnB was asked a similar question. He said it doesn't really matter what AirBnb offers in 100 years - whether it is still a question of booking rooms online or not - if their DNA and culture stays the same, then AirBnb will stay relevant. Banking changes all the time, the value proposition and user experience will change.
Banks which will can change and stay relevant will survive, and the others will not.”
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Fintech is Driving Financial Inclusion
Crowdfund Insider | JD Alois | Sep 8, 2019
While much of the discourse revolving around innovation in financial services address specific sectors of the industry, such as lending, payments, or online capital formation, the reality is that the biggest beneficiaries of Fintech may be the underbanked: the millions of people who have never had access to sophisticated financial services.
Regardless of where you are standing today, there are segments within your community that have little or no access to financial services such as a basic savings account. The disparity becomes even more obvious when you compare high-income demographics against individuals with lesser means.
Geography obviously plays a role as rich countries, such as the US or European nations, have far higher percentages of individuals having access to basic financial services. But the advent of Fintech, and perhaps more importantly, the ubiquity of smartphones and internet access is fueling a significant change.
See: The Rise of Vietnam – the new Asian Innovation hub
During the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance’s annual conference, which took place in the UK this past summer, Alfonso Garcia Mora, Global Director Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation GP The World Bank Group, tackled this very topic: Fintech is driving financial inclusion.
Mora shared some interesting statistics. While financial inclusion has improved globally, 1.7 billion adults (31%) remain unbanked. As of 2017, 69% of adults around the world have a financial account with 92% of “high income” individuals holding an account as of 2017. Excluding the high-income group, Mora reported the following percentage of adults with an account as of 2017:
- East Asia & Pacific – 53%
- Europea & Central Asia – 58%
- Latin America & Caribbean – 49%
- Middle East & North Africa – 44%
- South Asia – 48%
- Sub Sahara Africa – 41%
Worldwide, most unbanked adults are women at 56%.
Cash Still King
Additionally, 235 million unbanked individuals earn money from agricultural employment; 100 million receive government payments in cash and 260 million of unbanked use cash for remittances.
Mora said that traditional methods such as ATMs/Debit Cards, Bank Deposits, Credit providers are slow, expensive and lack transparency. This is where Fintech can step in and improve the situation with digitally native services unburdened by legacy shortcomings.
Virtual currencies, DLT based settlements, mobile payments, and more can improve transfers and savings.
See: News on China cryptocurrency and more reforms
Robo-advisors and automated wealth management can provide access to sophisticated services to the masses.
As of 2017, it is estimated that two-thirds of underbanked adults have a mobile phone – key to financial service availability. This access can be the catalyst for financial inclusion as has been experienced in Sub Saharan Africa where mobile money accounts have grown dramatically in recent years.
Of course, these opportunities bring new challenges such as regulatory issues and compliance which frequently ignores national borders. But policymakers must be cautious not to let perfect get in the way of the common good. And established finance must be partners in innovation not create unnecessary barriers to innovation.
Mora said that Fintech is making inroads globally but has not yet reached the disruptive critical mass.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Stripe, the world’s most valuable private fintech company, is getting into lending
CNBC | Kate Rooney | Sep 5, 2019
Key Points- The $22.5 billion payments company announced the launch Stripe Capital, which will offer loans to online companies in an effort to help grow their businesses.
- Stripe, whose rivals including Jack Dorsey’s Square and Netherlands-based Adyen, makes software that allows businesses to accept payments over the internet. Growth in companies using their platform could eventually help Stripe’s bottom line.
- The start-up has benefited from growth in online payments, attracting investments from Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Google’s late-stage venture arm Capital G, among others.
The world’s most valuable private fintech company is moving into a new area of banking: loans.
Stripe, valued at $22.5 billion after its last funding round, announced the launch of a lending arm called Stripe Capital on Thursday. The new venture is meant to help online companies borrow money to grow their businesses — which in turn, helps Stripe’s business.
“Stripe Capital makes it easy for internet businesses to get the funds they need, when they need them,” Stripe’s Chief Product Officer Will Gaybrick said in a statement. Gaybrick said small businesses are the “engines for job creation in our economy” and it should be “trivially simple and lightning fast” for them to access the capital and invest in their own growth.
Stripe, whose rivals including Jack Dorsey’s Square and Netherlands-based Adyen, makes software that allows businesses to accept payments over the internet. Growth in companies using their platform could eventually help Stripe’s bottom line.
See: The Solution To The Fintech IPO Shortage
The San Francisco-based company joins a list of other technology companies competing with banks to offer loans to small businesses. PayPal and Square, fintech rivals in the payments business, both reported significant growth in their loan portfolios in the second quarter. E-commerce giant Amazon offers similar products to merchants on its payments network through “Amazon Lending,” an invitation-only program with loans as low as $1,000.
In many cases, those loans are well below the average amount a bank would facilitate. In the case of Square, the average loan is between $6,000 and $7,000 and could be as low as $500.
Saying goodbye to the FICO score
One advantage over banks, if you ask the tech companies, is data. Stripe and others are shunning a FICO score, the traditional way of assessing credit-worthiness. Instead, they use payment history from their own platforms. Stripe, for example, will draw data from “advanced algorithms” to trends like payment volume, percentage of repeat customers, and payment frequency.
Stripe said the reliance on tech allows them to issue loans quickly. According to the company, there’s no “lengthy application, eligibility is determined quickly, funds hit a user’s Stripe account the next day, and businesses can repay as they earn.”
These tech companies collect the loan repayments as sales come through, instead of setting payment dates on the 15th of the month or another arbitrary day, which they say alleviates a burden for companies.
Still, some have flagged inherent risks in lending to small start-ups. Karen Mills, a senior fellow at Harvard Business School and former head of the U.S. Small Business Administration during the Obama years, told CNBC earlier this year that an inevitable downturn in the economy could hit these companies the hardest.
See: Peer to Peer Lending: The Future of Fintech is Now
“Having run small businesses through three different economic cycles, I would say we should expect another cycle and one has to factor that in,” Mills said. “Small businesses get hurt very hard in cycles particularly those who are dependent on Main Street sales.”
Stripe, which ranked No. 13 on the 2019 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, was founded in 2010 by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison. CEO Patrick Collison announced on Twitter earlier this year that former Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene was being added to the board.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Open banking has a big branding problem, government’s public opinion research suggests
Financial Post | Geoff Zochodne | Sep 3, 2019
None of the respondents had heard of or knew anything about open banking. And, they didn't like the terminology of it
The data-driven concept of “open banking” is being hailed by some as a way to enhance competition in the financial-services industry, but public opinion research conducted for the federal government earlier this year suggests the idea may have a long way to go before it catches on with the population at large.
“None of the respondents have heard of or know anything about Open Banking,” said a report prepared by Pollara Strategic Insights for the Department of Finance, and recently released on a government website.
The report added that along with the lack of awareness, the term was “not met positively” by respondents.
“In fact, a majority do not like the phrase, with some actually having a visceral reaction to it,” the report said. “To these participants, Open Banking means it would be out in the open; their information, their data would be out for all to see and therefore access. Some specifically say they wanted their banking to be ‘closed’ (meaning private and protected).”
In reality, open banking is a framework that could allow consumers to share their financial data with third parties, which advocates say would allow for greater competition in the financial-services sector.
The research was conducted between Feb. 16 and Mar. 4, 2019, meaning it preceded some media coverage and a June report from a Senate of Canada committee that called on Ottawa to move ahead with adopting a framework.
There has also been low consumer awareness of open banking in the United Kingdom, a leader in the field.
While the Canadian study says its “qualitative nature” means results cannot be extended to a “broader audience,” the audience surveyed did not sound as if it were clamouring for open banking.
That lack of enthusiasm likely means the issue will not feature prominently in this fall’s election, something that could push back any potential implementation.
See: Open Banking: What’s Really at Stake
A Finance department official had already told a Senate committee in May that any necessary changes to legislation or regulations would likely fall to a new government.
The goal of the research, another finance official said Tuesday, was to give the government and its advisory committee a better understanding of the public’s expectations. More than 100 submissions were also received earlier this year for an open-banking consultation, “which were overwhelmingly in favour of open banking,” the official said in an email.
“The public opinion research and stakeholder submissions are now being examined in the context of the Advisory Committee’s study into the merits of open banking,” they added.
Pollara recruited 114 volunteers from across the country and income levels for 14 focus-group discussions that were either conducted online or in-person. According to the report, which was published on the Library and Archives Canada website, the value of the contract was $78,095.60.
Open banking was defined as something that generally “empowers consumers (including small businesses) to share their financial data with a broader range of financial service providers through secure online channels, in order to access new, innovative, consumer-centric financial services.”
See: Canada’s financial upstarts are lining up behind open banking, but bigger players may need convincing
When given a definition of open banking before being provided any potential scenarios for its use, participants were confused.
“They cannot, from this definition, understand either why this system would be warranted or how it would be different from what is already available,” the report states.
Terms such as “Data Right” or “Financial Data Right” tested more positively, the study found, but two scenarios of how open banking could be used got mixed responses.
The reaction to the government adopting an open-banking system generally ranged from positive to neutral, with younger people tending to be more excited.
Other findings in the report included that many participants were dealing with multiple financial institutions, although most had one, or one they considered a “primary bank.” Few participants felt “unwavering loyalty to their bank,” and many said they shop around.
There were concerns about privacy and security of “non-financial” websites, the report noted, and about third-party providers. The research also found many participants unsure about who actually owned their financial information.
“While their bank holds this information, most assume if they asked for their information, it would be given to them, although it may take time and cost money in terms of fees.”
The results were to help with the decision of whether to adopt open banking in Canada, the report said. Ottawa announced in 2018 it would begin a review into the merits of the concept, which has moved to a second, implementation-focused phase that’s supposed to wrap up this year.
But whether anything is actually implemented remains to be seen.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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PNC Launches A Fintech Startup Inside The Bank
Forbes | Tom Groenfeldt | Sep 3, 2019
Banking incubators come in all sorts of flavors — often a program to attract outside companies and offer them mentors and perhaps some financial sponsorship for a set period working at the bank or virtually.
PNC has created a startup program, numo, that functions as an internal startup, complete with a pre-negotiated equity split between PNC and numo employees, said David Passavant, numo CEO.
The first development has been indi, a mobile phone-based bank account for gig workers. It offers tax calculations, tax savings goals and dynamic adjustments when users save ahead or fall behind. It also reminds them when quarterly taxes are due. The account has no minimum balance and no monthly service fee. It is in testing with numo staff and has a waiting list. The indi account is an FDIC-insured account held at PNC Bank with a Visa prepaid debit card and is available for both iOS and Android.
No major US bank had built an account for gig workers, said Passavant, although Mastercard recently introduced real-time payments for gig workers.
“How do you estimate your tax liability when you don’t have an employer doing it for you? We built a system with intelligence to estimate what you should set aside for taxes.”
While this sounds pretty basic, and begs the question of why banks have been so slow to innovate in areas as obvious as early access to paychecks and financial health coaching, Passavant said banks are cautious because the stakes are so high.
See: From Innovation Hub to Innovation Culture
“When you have millions of customers and then want to move into something like that, you have to be careful you are not offering tax advice or getting into predatory lending.”
Operating on new technology numo uses Visa DPS for its debit card transactions and built the front end within the group. Now it is looking to partner with employers who use a lot of gig workers to help distribute the platform.
A second app under development is a world away from the gig economy. — a service for companies which run portfolios of retail properties.
“Our team saw an opportunity to create an analytics platform to help them.”
Although a lot has been written about the death of bricks and mortar retail, PNC knows, as the fourth largest commercial lender in the country, that physical retail is very much alive. Passavant hastened to add that the analytical platform doesn’t use any PNC data but purchases anonymized financial and social data for its analytics.
“We can use it to find interesting patterns, like a group who might shop at a mall 15 miles away. “
One location analytical firm found that shoppers at a pet supply store often followed up going to an electronics store, not as obvious as finding Panera and Trader Joe’s locations in the same area.
See: Passion For Banking Innovation Fueled By Fintech, Big Tech Disruptors
“With this, a real estate firm would be able to tell companies that own property portfolios that here is a brand you might want to target because they are expanding and their customers shop at places like this.”
A third area of focus for numo is regulatory technology.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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