PAYMENTS, FINTECH
Businesswire | May 29, 2023
UniCredit and Mastercard today announce a global expansion of their payment partnership.
The agreement sets the stage for the start of a strong partnership consistent with the UniCredit Unlocked strategy. This is the first time any large commercial bank has put in place a single card multi market strategy of this scale in Europe. It brings together in one agreement UniCredit’s ability to harness the collective weight of 13 banks as one institution with Mastercard’s expertise in the card payment space. The significant broadening of the parties’ relationship will deliver payment innovation and enhanced digital experiences to customers.
This enhanced multi-year partnership provides the necessary resources to achieve a shared ambition to increase the speed of innovation in the payments space and put customers at the center. It enables UniCredit to provide a best in class offering for all its cardholders, delivering a simplified core product proposition, optimized digital experience with a full suite of in-app solutions and the development of a dedicated approach for innovation, increasing payment choice to customers, across multiple payments rails.
Both parties’ commitment to increase their tangible actions across environmental and social sustainability will also be enhanced through this partnership. Insight and resources will be combined with a particular focus on the implementation of new projects on common ESG goals, developing solutions to support empowering communities to progress, fighting climate change with mindful spending choices and the ability to contribute tangibly to environmental goals, integrating donations in the everyday spend.
This agreement is a clear example of the execution of the UniCredit Unlocked plan, uniting 13 banks to deliver value for UniCredit stakeholders in a capital-light manner, taking opportunities from European DNA but working as a unified group. It is the most immediate manifestation of the potential within payments, which UniCredit is focused on to further extract value in terms of product simplification, cost synergies and digital transformation.
The partnership will focus on supporting the delivery of the UniCredit’s strategic priorities. This includes digitalization of payments solutions, offering multi functioning solutions with a fully equipped card. It aligns with UniCredit’s brand attributes to build increased preference and loyalty across the consumer lifecycle, enriching bank wide opportunities thanks to Mastercard’s strong award-winning Priceless brand platform and sponsorship marketing assets.
“This partnership epitomizes the essence of UniCredit Unlocked and our commitment to leverage the full impact of our multi market footprint as one complete offering for the benefit of our clients," said Andrea Orcel, CEO, UniCredit. "Our geographical reach and Mastercard’s expertise in this space enables us to not only streamline our partnerships and contracts, but enhance our digital, security and product offering for all our current and future cardholders. This is a perfect example of the new way of managing projects in UniCredit, bringing benefits to all legal entities in a disciplined way and acting as a single company.”
“UniCredit has been an important partner for many years. Together we have created real solutions that help people and businesses across Europe. This expanded relationship will build on that experience to bring new innovations to UniCredit cardholders,” said Michael Miebach, CEO, Mastercard.
UniCredit Note for Editors
UniCredit is a pan-European Commercial Bank with a unique service offering in Italy, Germany, Central and Eastern Europe. Our purpose is to empower communities to progress, delivering the best-in-class for all stakeholders, unlocking the potential of our clients and our people across Europe. We serve over 15 million customers worldwide. They are at the heart of what we do in all our markets. UniCredit is organized in four core regions and two product factories, Corporate and Individual Solutions. This allows us to be close to our clients and use the scale of the entire Group for developing and offering the best products across all our markets. Digitalisation and our commitment to ESG principles are key enablers for our service. They help us deliver excellence to our stakeholders and creating a sustainable future for our clients, communities and people.
Mastercard Note for Editors
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.
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CORE BANKING, DIGITAL BANKING
PRnewswire | May 30, 2023
Jack Henry™ (Nasdaq: JKHY) announced it continues to replace inbound screen scraping on its Banno Digital Banking Platform with API connections to all five major data exchange platforms, Finicity, Akoya, Plaid, Envestnet | Yodlee, and Intuit, giving accountholders more control of their financial data and protecting financial institutions from a wide range of fraud and security risks that arise from passwords shared with third parties. Screen scraping, while a common practice throughout the industry, presents multiple challenges in both security and customer experience; Jack Henry is on track to eliminate all inbound screen scraping on its Banno Digital Banking Platform by the end of summer this year.
Screen scraping is an automated process that uses bots, web crawlers, and other proprietary tools to log into websites on behalf of accountholders using their passwords and credentials. In addition to being a slow and unreliable means of data extraction, screen scraping makes it difficult for financial institutions to distinguish legitimate login attempts from fraudulent ones, leaving systems vulnerable to credential-stuffing attacks and other cyber threats that continue to plague the industry at large.
Replacing inbound screen scraping for the more than 700 banks and credit unions on Jack Henry's Banno Digital Banking Platform inaugurates a new and more secure era of financial data exchange. Unlike the indiscriminate data extraction performed by screen scraping, open-API aggregation allows accountholders to specify, minimize, and fully control their data and how it's shared with third-party providers—including the ability to grant or revoke data permissions within their bank or credit union's digital banking experience.
"This is an important milestone for the industry, and I am in full support of modernizing the exchange of financial data with Jack Henry's direct APIs to the five major data exchanges," said Phil Suckow, vice president of innovation at $1.9 billion IncredibleBank. "Ending screen scraping for the more than 9 million end-users on Jack Henry's Banno Digital Banking Platform will reset consumer expectations, create a new data security standard, and empower community and regional financial institutions to strengthen and differentiate their service on security and reliability. Leveraging the new API connections to the data exchanges through Jack Henry enables us to continue to be at the forefront in providing open financial data access to our customers."
Ted Anastasi, growth team lead at Akoya, added, "The collective goal here is to make financial data access easy and secure so that consumers feel confident using fintech applications. Using APIs as a means of data transfer is a model the industry can use to create more reliable and more secure data sharing. This is a big win for both consumers and open finance."
"Screen scraping is an outdated, broken process," said Ben Metz, chief digital and technology officer at Jack Henry. "Sharing passwords is both problematic and prevalent, and this is why the CFPB is scrutinizing screen scraping and proposing new open banking rules later this year. Changing consumer behaviors and expectations is best done at scale. Requiring the use of API-driven, consumer-permissioned data access across our platform will make it easier to recognize and neutralize malicious activity and enable banks and credit unions to minimize fraud and improve their accountholders' financial health and security. It's the right thing to do."
Jack Henry is working with the banks and credit unions on its Banno Digital Banking Platform to make a smooth transition from screen scraping to secure, API-based financial data exchange. Visit jackhenry.dev to learn how to integrate solutions with Jack Henry's digital banking platform.
About Akoya
The Akoya Data Access Network is simplifying data access for open finance. Through a single integration with Akoya, financial institutions, fintechs, and data aggregators can enable multiple API connections and avoid continued maintenance and development efforts. Akoya handles all data-sharing relationships on behalf of network participants and removes the myriad of internal and external costs required to develop and manage multiple third-party agreements. Akoya optimizes for security, transparency, and scalability, and offers a passthrough model that does not copy, store, or hold any financial data or personal information. The network is an interoperable solution available to the entire financial services industry. The independent company is co-owned by 12 of the largest North American financial institutions. To learn more, please visit www.akoya.com.
About IncredibleBank℠
IncredibleBank, headquartered in Wausau, Wisconsin, was awarded as one of America's Most Innovative Banks by the Independent Community Bankers of America in 2019. With deposit and lending customers in all 50 states, plus their status as one of the nation's top motorcoach and SBA lenders, they are America's First Online National Community Bank (and who doesn't love the idea of a national community?). They are dedicated to their promise of an Incredible Customer ExperienceTM with every interaction. Learn more about IncredibleBank at www.incrediblebank.com.
About Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.®
Jack HenryTM (Nasdaq: JKHY) is a well-rounded financial technology company that strengthens connections between financial institutions and the people and businesses they serve. We are an S&P 500 company that prioritizes openness, collaboration, and user centricity – offering banks and credit unions a vibrant ecosystem of internally developed modern capabilities as well as the ability to integrate with leading fintechs. For more than 46 years, Jack Henry has provided technology solutions to enable clients to innovate faster, strategically differentiate, and successfully compete while serving the evolving needs of their accountholders. We empower approximately 8,000 clients with people-inspired innovation, personal service, and insight-driven solutions that help reduce the barriers to financial health. Additional information is available at www.jackhenry.com.
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CORE BANKING, DIGITAL BANKING
PRweb | June 02, 2023
Credit Union of America and Narmi, a leading provider of digital banking solutions, are pleased to announce the successful launch of Narmi’s Digital Account Opening product at Credit Union of America. This implementation will revolutionize the credit union’s member onboarding experience, enabling applicants to open an account entirely digitally in under three minutes.
In this time of unprecedented deposit competition, Credit Union of America recognized the need to open its digital channels to meet its members’ evolving needs. The implementation of Narmi’s Account Opening solution marks a significant milestone in the Wichita-based credit union’s commitment to delivering exceptional member service. By leveraging Narmi’s technology, Credit Union of America can now offer its members a modern and efficient onboarding experience that allows applicants to open an account online, from anywhere.
“Partnering with Narmi has been a game-changer,” said Frank Shoffner, CEO and President of Credit Union of America. “The launch of Narmi’s Digital Account Opening product empowers us to deliver a truly modern banking experience, where prospective applicants can open an account quickly and conveniently from anywhere. This strengthens our commitment to making a true difference in our members’ lives.”
Narmi’s Digital Account Opening solution arms Credit Union of America with instant identity verification, flexible account funding options, and a robust back-end system for applicant tracking, enhancing the member onboarding and admin experience. The seamless integration between Narmi and Credit Union of America’s core banking system, Jack Henry Symitar, allowed for a swift implementation that took less than 90 days.
In addition to the end-to-end application flow, Narmi has collaborated with Clutch, a provider of loan services, to integrate their services seamlessly into the account opening process. This integration will allow Credit Union of America’s members to apply for both loan services and deposit accounts in one unified digital experience.
“We are proud to support Credit Union of America in its digital transformation journey,” said Nikhil Lakhanpal, Co-Founder of Narmi. “Our goal is to help financial institutions, like Credit Union of America, completely transform their onboarding process and capture market share. We’re excited to watch the growth that Credit Union of America will experience through this digital channel.”
About Credit Union of America
Established in 1935, Credit Union of America is a $1.4 billion member-owned financial institution dedicated to serving the needs of its members in the Wichita-metro area as well as other markets across Kansas. With a strong commitment to delivering personalized financial solutions, CUA offers a wide range of services, including savings and checking accounts, loans, mortgages, small-business services, and investment options. Credit Union of America strives to provide exceptional member service and build lasting relationships with its members. Learn more here:https://www.cuofamerica.com/
About Narmi
New York City-based Narmi's digital platform empowers financial institutions to unlock the very latest capabilities in digital banking and account opening, enabling them to move faster, tap new growth opportunities, and achieve true digital transformation. The Narmi platform was built with the customer experience in mind, empowering financial institutions with an experience that is always effortless, current, and dependable. As a result, Narmi's customers are seeing as much as 3x account growth in less than 30 days and 4x deposit growth in as little as 90 days. Additionally, Narmi's financial institution clients are winning awards like Bankrate's 2020 Best Online Bank and Nerdwallet's Best Bank of 2021 for Online Experience. For more information, please visit http://www.narmi.com.
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