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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FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, FINTECH
PRnewswire | May 26, 2023
Alviere, the leading global embedded finance platform, is proud to announce that it is partnering with Array to offer Alviere's enterprise clients customizable digital credit and identity tools to increase digital engagement, generate revenue, and help end customers own their financial future.
Alviere enables enterprises worldwide to offer financial products to their customers, partners, and employees. With the Alviere HIVE technology platform, organizations can enable an extensive range of financial products including virtual bank accounts, branded cards, global money transfers, payments, and web3 services. By integrating new features from partners into its platform, Alviere HIVE provides a single, integrated platform experience under one Master Services Agreement. In addition to Array, the HIVE platform combines proprietary technology across a vast, integrated partner ecosystem that includes Atomic, Cognito, ComplyAdvantage, Mastercard, Melissa, Mitek, Moody's, Plaid, TabaPay, and Visa, among others.
Many consumers want to improve their financial wellness, but don't know where to start. Through the Alviere and Array integration, credit monitoring and identity protection tools are now seamlessly integrated in an enterprise's financial experience to help keep their customers in control of their credit. This partnership with Array ensures that Alviere continually delivers on a roadmap of compelling financial wellness features that increase consumer engagement in existing apps, websites, or experiences offered by enterprise clients.
"As financial technology innovators, we believe consumers should have access to their financial information when, how, and with the company they want," said Alviere co-founder and CEO, Yuval Brisker. "Alviere is excited to partner with Array to deliver on that promise with educational and revenue-driving tools to keep consumers in control of their credit and identity, whether they choose to bank with their employer or their favorite brand."
"At Array, our vision is to empower every individual to own their financial future through access to the right data and tools—at the right time," said Martin Toha, Founder and CEO of Array. "Unifying financial experiences in a single digital experience has a powerful impact on consumers' day-to-day lives. We are thrilled to help Alviere and its clients build enduring trust with customers by offering streamlined financial management on the HIVE platform."
About Alviere
Alviere's end-to-end financial technology platform allows any organization to seamlessly embed financial products and services into existing and new offerings. Alviere's platform offers an extensive range of configurable, branded financial products and services, including current accounts, savings, card issuance, the broadest array of payment options, global money transfers, and web3 services. As the first fully regulated financial institution in the embedded finance industry, Alviere prioritizes regulatory compliance, security, and fraud prevention. To find out how Alviere can enable your business to power the financial needs and aspirations of your customers, visit alviere.com.
About Array
Array fuels financial progress for many of the world's leading fintechs, financial institutions, and digital brands with a suite of private-label fintech solutions that can be easily embedded. Array drives engagement and revenue for our clients by helping them stand out in a crowded market and forge deeper relationships with their customers. More than a suite of products, we're building a platform to help consumers own their financial future.
Array was founded in 2020 by Martin Toha and Phillip Zedalis. Key investors include Battery Ventures, General Catalyst, and Nyca Partners. To learn more visit array.com.
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FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, FINTECH
Globenewswire | May 29, 2023
nCino, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCNO), a pioneer in cloud banking for the global financial services industry, today announced a strategic partnership with Zest AI, the leader in automating underwriting with more accurate and inclusive lending insights, to build an integration into nCino’s Consumer Banking Solution. The integration will enable lenders with streamlined access to cutting-edge consumer credit lending insights to help make efficient, accurate decisions about borrower risk.
Quickly evolving economic conditions require lenders to keep pace with new data, regulatory standards of reporting and underwriting workflows. Lenders have, on average, automated over 50 percent of their underwriting process with Zest AI’s technology, analyzing hundreds of data points in seconds to better determine lending decision outcomes. Through this partnership, lenders gain the ability to quickly respond to shifts in market conditions. This capability helps upkeep borrower risk accuracy and enables lenders to be agile and responsive during fluctuations in the economic cycle.
“The financial services industry is in a new phase of growth as modern technology becomes more accessible to lenders through partnerships like our own with nCino. The future of lending relies on optimizing how we determine an applicant’s credit risk so lenders can give them a faster decision and move them into the next stage of the banking process,” said Zest AI’s Head of Corporate Development, José Valentín.
“Artificial intelligence has the potential to help financial institutions cross the modernization divide by powering more efficient, automated and personalized experiences,” said Justin Norwood, Vice President – Data and AI at nCino. “We’re excited about this partnership with Zest AI and look forward to bolstering our already best-in-class underwriting technology with intelligence that helps financial institutions utilize data for faster and improved decisions.”
This partnership integration spans three consumer portfolios — auto loans, personal loans and credit cards. Zest AI’s connectivity within nCino’s Consumer Banking Solution allows lenders to choose AI-automated underwriting for their portfolios, enabling efficient lending decisions without needing massive IT modernization projects.
As part of the partnership, nCino previously participated in a funding round supporting Zest AI’s ability to expand access to AI-automated credit underwriting for all lenders as more financial institutions look to adopt AI tools to make better credit decisions.
About nCino
nCino (NASDAQ: NCNO) is the worldwide leader in cloud banking. Through its single software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, nCino helps financial institutions serving corporate and commercial, small business, consumer, and mortgage customers modernize and more effectively onboard clients, make loans, manage the loan lifecycle, and open accounts. Transforming how financial institutions operate through innovation, reputation and speed, nCino is partnered with more than 1,850 financial services providers globally. For more information, visit www.ncino.com.
About Zest AI
Zest AI is a tech company on a mission to make fair and transparent credit accessible for everyone. Since 2009, we've worked with financial institutions to provide AI-driven credit solutions to their borrowers. Today we work with all types of lenders — but especially credit unions — to democratize underwriting automation and equitable credit decisioning. Learn more at zest.ai and connect with us on LinkedIn.
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