Six fintechs were added to the Independent Community Bankers of America’s ThinkTech Accelerator program this year. The relationship helps these companies get in front of community banks, and they are selected because they aim to serve that market. Here’s a rundown of the most recent additions to the program.
FINBOA offers “banking-specific process automation solutions to improve regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and customer experience.” The company’s main focus is compliance, specifically with Regulation E, the set of rules that govern electronic fund transfers in the United States. It’s part of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, which was passed in 1978. FINBOA writes on its blog: “Reg E ensures that no matter which financial institution a consumer banks with, if they notice fraud on their card, they can expect a similar experience in terms of what is communicated, how it is investigated and how quickly, what they are held liable for, and when and how much provisional credit is issued.”
Prelim Technologies, Inc., aims to “revolutionize the way financial institutions onboard new customers.” Prelim believes digital banking is much more than millennials and cellphones. “Picture a world where a grandmother yearns for financial independence, yet the barriers of physical distance keep her from stepping into a bank,” writes Jamie Wong, a banking analyst at Prelim. “Similarly, envision an ambitious entrepreneur, their dreams restrained by the ticking clock of time. Failing to address the unique challenges faced by these individuals not only hampers their progress but also restricts the potential for banks to extend their services to a diverse audience.”
Rego Payment Architecture is creating a family wallet for financial institutions and their customers. Partly a financial literacy tool, Rego wants to give bank customers the ability to “let their children make purchases, save and donate in a secure, parent-first financial platform.” Their concept is simple but the problem is actually complex: How do parents introduce their children to financial decision-making in a digital world while also tracking those decisions? Rego is not a new company. They have been working at this since 2008. After years of development, Rego has received “independent certifications to be fully COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act) and General Data Protection Regulation compliant. Your customers can rest assured that the transactions made by their children using Rego’s platform are private and secure,” according to Rego’s website.
RiskScout offers cloud-based tools to help financial institutions manage compliance and regulatory challenges. The broad idea is to automate elements of compliance to free up bankers for other tasks, like meeting with new customers. “In the banking industry today, the relationship between regulatory compliance and risk management is interwoven more than ever,” RiskScout writes in its blog. “Regulators, armed with stricter guidelines and enhanced enforcement capabilities, are now demanding more rigorous oversight from financial institutions. This shift reflects the need to mitigate immediate risks and underlines a growing emphasis on ethical banking practices. Solutions need to balance regulatory compliance with operational efficiency, ensuring that they can both identify potential risks proactively and respond to them effectively.”
Savvi AI wants to help banks “build, launch, and manage AI apps in minutes with our patented practical AI platform — no data scientists, core integration, or custom infrastructure required.” Banks creating AI tools in house? The future is now! Use cases on the company website show some of the tools Savvi can help build to address specific problems at specific banks. “For instance, Savvi’s client had a manual process in place to suggest financial products for their clients,” reads one such case. “This process was often dictated by a set marketing calendar, required tedious segmentation to target, and wasn’t personalized per client. This led to a less than optimal engagement and application of new financial products.” The solution built with Savvi, in this case, was to introduce product offerings based on individual transactions.
ScribeUp is a subscription management solution “embedded directly into financial institutions’ digital banking experiences enabling users to track, cancel and lower their subscription bills all from one place.” Customers can use ScribeUp without a bank, but ScribeUp thinks banks should add their service to their retail banking apps directly. And why not? In an age of subscriptions run amok, we could all save some money by easily canceling subscriptions we don’t use.