How Bank-FinTech Pairings Benefit FIs, Not Just SMBs

When it comes to collaboration between banks and FinTechs, the value proposition is often just as important for the bank as it is for the small business end-user. This week’s look at the latest tie-ups reveals new efforts in small to medium-sized business (SMB) accounting, invoice financing and more to bolster the business experience while mitigating risk and enhancing digitization for financial institutions (FIs).

Tide Taps Sage For SMB Accounting

Tide, a U.K.-based challenger bank targeting small businesses, announced a partnership with Sage to enhance its offering for SMB clients with a focus on taxes and accounting. In a recent press release, the companies said their tie-up is targeting self-employed professionals and business owners with a digital solution that consolidates banking and accounting in a single portal, with support for compliance and tax processes.

The firms highlighted the upcoming Making Tax Digital legislation in the U.K., which has added pressure on small businesses to ensure they remain compliant with the new rules.

Tide and Sage said they will begin beta testing of their joint banking and accounting solution later this year.

Recognise Embraces Mambu’s Platform Ahead Of Launch

U.K.-based small business bank Recognise Bank is now operating on Mambu’s platform as part of its modernization efforts. A recent announcement said Mambu’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform will support Recognise as it gears up for the rollout of new services and products for SMBs, including asset finance and savings solutions. The bank, which is not yet officially live, already has features built out, including working capital loans for small businesses. In a statement, Recognise CEO Jason Oakley said working with Mambu was the result of understanding “an urgent need to serve a market where speed and flexibility are critical.” Taking a cloud-based approach to small business banking infrastructure, plus partnering with third-party FinTechs, supports the bank’s ability “to quickly scale and deliver speedy and expert services to [SMBs],” he added.

Jack Henry Enhances Factoring Offering For FIs

Financial services solution provider Jack Henry is building out its invoice factoring solution for lenders to offer their own business clients. Last week, Jack Henry Lending announced the launch of its FactorSoft Web Portal, a digital platform to provide borrowers an online platform through which to manage their loans and other financing products. For lenders and other financial institutions, this offering strengthens their ability to provide a digital-first user experience to clients with robust security capabilities, while for those business borrowers, the technology delivers real-time visibility.

“The many lenders providing these services now have a modern, convenient and always accessible way to manage their client relationships and portfolios, enabling them to grow with ease,” stated Terry Renoux, head of Jack Henry Lending. “Strengthening the flow of data and communications with this Web Portal results in both a better user experience and improved portfolio management capabilities.”

OpenPayd’s Banking-as-a-Service Tool Gains Traction

While banking Software-as-a-Service (BaaS) has become an important part of financial institutions’ efforts to modernize internal infrastructure, BaaS has also emerged as a way for nonbank entities to embrace FinTech collaboration and offer banking services to their users, too.

The latest to embrace BaaS is cryptocurrency wealth management platform SwissBorg, which recently announced the adoption of OpenPayd’s BaaS platform. According to a press release, SwissBorg faced the need to suddenly replace its banking provider, and via OpenPayd’s application programming interface (API), the company can now support the evolving banking needs of its users, including gaining access to the SEPA Instant payment scheme so users can top up their fiat wallets instantly.

“As crypto players begin to compete with traditional financial services, maintaining a keen focus on customer-centricity and exploring the full potential of embedded finance is imperative,” said Cyrus Fazel, CEO at SwissBorg.