FinTechs Take The Initiative In Bank Collaboration

Bank-FinTech collaboration continues to proliferate in markets around the world. This week’s look at the latest tie-ups show the U.K. and Europe embracing FinTechs in Open Banking efforts. Elsewhere, FinTechs are taking the initiative to work with financial institutions and offer their technologies in an effort to augment corporate services. Below, PYMNTS breaks down the latest in bank-FinTech partnerships.

TrueLayer To Enable UK Government Payments

API technology firm TrueLayer has been cleared by the U.K. government to work with public sector entities and provide them with payment initiation services, according to reports in SmartCitiesWorld. An agreement with the U.K. will see TrueLayer be appointed to the Crown Commercial Service’s Payment Acceptance Framework for three years, enabling the technology company to seamlessly set up payment initiation services with government entities. TrueLayer’s application programming interface (API) technology supports payment acceptance with a focus on speed and security of the transaction without requiring payers to provide credit or debit cards.

In a statement, TrueLayer CEO and Founder Francesco Simoneschi noted that this functionality is particularly important for payers with limited access to traditional financial services. “A significant number of individuals simply don’t have access to credit and debit cards,” he said. “This can essentially lock them out of a lot of public and business services.”

LiquidX Links Banks To Trade Finance Tech

Trade finance technology firm LiquidX recently announced an initiative to white label its technology for corporate banks to offer the platform to their own business customers. The portal links financial institutions to supply chain finance, accounts receivables financing and trade credit insurance, among other trade finance solutions, via a single application that can be offered to corporates.

LiquidX CEO Jim Toffey noted in a statement that corporate banks have been seeking such technology to offer to their corporates. Collaborating with FinTechs means banks can provide this technology to business customers while also obtaining benefits like risk mitigation functionality offered by the third-party FinTech.

“For years, we’ve heard from banks that they are looking to streamline their trade finance business, improve their client experience and better respond to their clients’ needs in the working capital space,” he said.

RevoluPAY Secures PSD2 License

Spain’s central bank recently granted a PSD2 license to payments technology firm RevoluPAY, which announced the news late last month. The Central Bank of Spain’s decision means RevoluPAY has become the first Canadian company to secure a pan-European PSD2 open banking license, with the company now able to initiate and process payments.  The company said it will now begin to focus on further expansion throughout North and South America, as well as Asia, while also participating in PSD2’s focus of promoting banking competition and opening up the payments market to non-traditional-bank players.

VCs Back RapidAPI

API startup RapidAPI announced a $25 million funding round for its technology that connects developers to an API marketplace. In an announcement, RapidAPI said the Series B round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, DNS Capital, Green Bay Ventures, M12 and Grove Ventures, and said it would use the investment to add more API providers onto its platform. RapidAPI also has plans to expand the functionality of its marketplace as it seeks to attract more developers, it noted.

Solution Finder Links Banks To Finserv

In an effort to connect more banks and businesses to financial technologies, Solution Finder, a platform operated by RemoteDepositCapture.com, has added new features that make it easier for these entities to discover tools without in-person meetings.

Citing the unavailability of trade shows and in-person meetings, Solution Finder said its matchmaking service aims to connect banks, businesses and government entities to payment solutions more efficiently and digitally. The solutions include ACH, accounts receivable, remote deposit capture, compliance, auditing and other tools, the company noted, adding that it plans to augment its offering by adding real-time payments, corporate treasury services, mobile banking and other finserv tools for users.