FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, DIGITAL BANKING
PRnewswire | May 17, 2023
Abrigo, a leading provider of growth and risk management software for U.S. banks and credit unions, recently announced significant improvements to Abrigo Connect, the company's banking intelligence solution. Abrigo Connect now includes new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for ease of use and new role-based products to help leaders make strategic and operational decisions.
The functionality was revealed at Abrigo's ThinkBIG conference in Miami last week, where 600 attendees convened for thought leadership and Abrigo product innovation.
Introduced in 2020, the Abrigo Connect platform curates relevant information to quickly deliver intuitive and actionable dashboards across lending, credit risk, financial crime management, enterprise risk, and banking operations. These dashboards give financial leaders insights into institutional performance, opportunities for growth, and employee efficiency.
"Banking leaders have to do more with less given the economy, and they need real-time information to optimize decisions around resources, loan growth, and risks. Abrigo Connect can close that information gap quickly, without months' long implementations or complex data stacks," explained Ravi Nemalikanti, Abrigo Chief Technology Officer.
Abrigo Connect features a new user interface powered by ThoughtSpot Everywhere. It uses AI, GPT-3.5, and natural language search capabilities so bankers can find their data using the words they speak everyday – improving the speed and quality of results.
"Companies that are building their businesses on data, both internally and in their offerings for customers, will realize unprecedented competitive advantages. It makes us immensely proud to be empowering a global community of data-driven companies, like Abrigo, that are using ThoughtSpot to build sticky products that deliver business impact and extend analytics to their customers that deliver a modern data experience," said Sumeet Arora, Chief Development Officer at ThoughtSpot. "Abrigo is driving innovation in the banking sector with AI-Powered analytics, and we're thrilled to be an innovation partner in differentiating their platform with a bespoke analytics experience and in delighting their end users."
Abrigo supports 2,400 financial institutions through lending, portfolio risk, and financial crime management automation. Leveraging its customer network, the company has built a proprietary database of banking data for exclusive benchmarking within Abrigo Connect.
While many financial institutions grapple with a talent shortage, they may also struggle to source or fund an in-house data science team. Similarly, many community institutions lack resources dedicated to data warehousing to power general business intelligence systems. Abrigo Connect uses information already flowing through the Abrigo Platform to sidestep lengthy, expensive data integration projects and yield immediate access to curated data. Later this year, Abrigo will also integrate additional data sources for richer analysis.
The Abrigo Platform, including Connect, provides unlimited user access, allowing financial institutions to add users as their usage of data analytics expands. Bankers can have confidence in the security and expediency of data flows through Abrigo, knowing the company has integrated to more than 50 unique core systems across thousands of successful technology implementations.
About Abrigo
Abrigo is a leading provider of compliance, credit risk, lending, and asset/liability management solutions and services that help financial institutions thrive. Abrigo accelerates growth, increases client efficiency, and improves customer experience with an easy-to-use and expansive platform. We ensure customer success with our award-winning client service team, advisory expertise, and innovative technology. With a network of 2,400+ FIs, Abrigo offers unique opportunities for insightful peer benchmarks and best practices. Visit abrigo.com to learn more.
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PAYMENTS, FINTECH
PRnewswire | May 15, 2023
Today, Pinwheel, the market-leading provider of income and employment data engineered for next-generation fintech innovation, achieved Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Level 2 compliance.
The PCI DSS is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. To achieve PCI DSS Level 2 compliance, Pinwheel underwent a rigorous assessment carried out by A-LIGN, an independent Qualified Security Assessor (QSA). The review evaluated the company's infrastructure, policies, and procedures against the PCI DSS requirements, which include maintaining a secure network, implementing strong access control measures, and regularly monitoring and testing networks.
This milestone demonstrates Pinwheel's unwavering commitment to maintaining the highest security standards and protecting sensitive customer data. As a result, customers can feel confident that their data – ultimately, the consumers' critical income and employment data – is well protected when using Pinwheel's payroll connectivity solutions.
Pinwheel's growing list of compliance certifications and achievements includes the following:
SOC 2 Type II Certification: A third-party audit evaluating Pinwheel's security, availability, confidentiality, processing integrity, and privacy.
Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA): Pinwheel was the first income and connectivity provider to provide consumer-permissioned income and employment data to clients while ensuring consumers have full protections available under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), unlocking new FCRA-permissible use cases like credit evaluation.
ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Certification: The highest security certification in the industry.
Visa-Ready Certification: Meeting Visa's global standards around security and functionality, Pinwheel recently joined the Visa Fintech Partner Connect Program, allowing Pinwheel to work more seamlessly with merchants, financial institutions, and fintech companies to launch new use cases.
The Income and Employment Connectivity Industry's First and Only CISO: Last year, Pinwheel appointed Jeff Hudesman as its CISO.
"Reaching PCI DSS Level 2 compliance is a testament to our dedication to providing secure and reliable solutions for fintechs, financial institutions, and their customers," said Jeff Hudesman, CISO at Pinwheel. "Pinwheel's ability to streamline innovation and power use cases is meaningless if the information is not impeccably safeguarded. Security has always been, and will remain, a guiding principle for Pinwheel, as we remain committed to the ongoing journey of exceeding and creating new security standards for the industry."
About Pinwheel
Pinwheel is the market-leading income and employment API. With Pinwheel, fintechs, and financial institutions are empowered to build the next generation of financial products that will help create a fairer financial system. Pinwheel provides access to consumer-permissioned income & employment accounts and actionable insights that help them make sense of the data they need to tailor their tools and services for consumers. Pinwheel's platform has enterprise-grade security protocols to power connections to over 1,600 platforms (covering up to 100% of US workers who are paid via direct deposit), and over 1.5 million employers. From that point of connectivity, leading fintechs and financial institutions (such as Block, formerly Square) leverage us to power direct deposit switching, earned wage access, income & employment verification, and build innovative new products. Pinwheel is also a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA), making the company the first provider in the space offering Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)-compliant income and employment data that lenders can use actively in decisioning. Pinwheel is trusted and funded with $77M by top-tier investors such as GGV, Coatue, First Round Capital, and more.
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FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, PAYMENTS
PRnewswire | May 08, 2023
Mama Money, a rapidly growing fintech offering cross-border money transfers and banking services, and Incode, the global leader in revolutionary identity solutions, today announced their partnership to bring advanced identity verification systems to strengthen the fight against fraud and financial crime in the fintech industry.
Mama Money has introduced the solution, which leverages Incode's omnichannel identity verification and authentication platform to automatically verify the customer's identity upon registration, making it easier for the customer's account to be instantly activated.
The partnership is the first of its kind for an African-based cross-border payment service, setting a new standard in Know Your Customer (KYC) processes that enable financial institutions to confirm a person is the genuine owner of the real-world identity they are claiming and assess their potential risk.
This is a significant milestone for international money transfer operators. While traditional verification methods are time-consuming and can be prone to human error, with Incode's cutting-edge technology, a customer's identity is now automatically verified in seconds, providing a better customer experience while enhancing security and compliance. As Mama Money expands into new regions, Incode's verification technology will allow the fintech platform to scale at a faster rate by reducing the customer registration time from hours to mere seconds.
In 2022, nearly $630 billion was sent home by workers living abroad to low and middle-income countries according to the World Bank. Over 20% of international migrants and refugees come from fragile and conflict-affected areas. Remittance providers are challenged to ensure their critical services are used for essential needs ranging from healthcare to education and housing.
Another difficulty facing money transfer services is that identity documentation formats differ per country, which can make it more complex to verify using traditional methods.
The partnership between Mama Money and Incode aims to address these challenges by integrating Incode's verification technology into Mama Money's digital platform. As customers register for Mama Money through its mobile application, the customer's identity documentation will be verified using facial recognition technology to ensure it matches the uploaded image of the customer. The system will also screen the customer against multiple international sanction lists at the point of registration to ensure the platform is not being used by individuals flagged as high-risk.
"Partnering with Incode is another step we are taking to ensure our service is not only easier for customers to use but that our compliance and security systems are of the highest global standard," said the CEO of Mama Money, Nicolas Vonthron. "Our mission has always been to make financial services more accessible and affordable to underserved communities, and we're also taking proactive steps to combat financial crime, this partnership helps us achieve this."
"Individuals living and working abroad have long experienced the challenges of traditional, human-in-the-loop money transfers," said Ricardo Amper, CEO and Founder of Incode. "Advanced biometric authentication, powered by AI and machine learning, can revolutionize cross-border transactions. By seamlessly integrating Passive Liveness Detection, Incode ensures that customers' identities are verified with utmost security and convenience, fostering social and economic mobility worldwide. In partnership with Mama Money, Incode is proud to support the mission of promoting universal accessibility and financial empowerment for all. Together, we are envisioning a world where trust and innovation are the driving forces of financial inclusivity."
About Mama Money
Mama Money is a social impact fintech company that offers international money transfers and mobile banking services through a free mobile application. Based in South Africa, Mama Money's purpose is to provide critical financial services at an affordable price with improved accessibility through digital platforms. Mama Money's footprint now reaches over 50 countries across Africa, Asia and Europe with plans for rapid expansion into new territories and services.
About Incode
Incode Technologies is revolutionizing the trust industry by transforming Identity Verification and Authentication across every major vertical. Incode serves the Financial Services, Gaming, Hospitality, Government and Entertainment sectors with the most accurate, flexible, and easy-to-integrate proprietary technology. Incode's fully automated AI-powered platform solves Onboarding (KYC, KYB, Age Verification), Passwordless Authentication, and Payment Verification (AML) to reduce fraud and increase conversion rates with the highest privacy and safety standards. With over $220 million raised from investors such as General Atlantic, Softbank, and JP Morgan, Incode's "One Identity Everywhere" mission is rapidly gaining global adoption. Based in San Francisco, with offices and operations worldwide, Incode is partnering with the most innovative brands to reimagine trust.
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