Financial data standardization solution provider Ntropy has formed a partnership with open banking API infrastructure firm Yapily to enhance financial data standardization in the U.K. and across Europe.
Through this partnership, Yapily’s customers will gain access to Ntropy’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered financial data and enrichment API, enabling them to fully leverage the power of open banking data, the companies said in a Tuesday (Sept. 5) press release.
Stefano Vaccino, founder and CEO at Yapily, said collaborating with Ntropy to provide high-quality, enriched transaction data will bring “more valuable insights and streamlined financial operations to our open banking customers.”
Nare Vardanyan, co-founder and CEO at Ntropy added: “Ntropy was built on the premise that access to data is going to be resolved and what you do with the data is the next big step. Partnering with Yapily we are making this a reality across EMEA unlocking business and consumer data and insights for our mutual customers.”
By utilizing this improved data, the firms said, customers can make more informed decisions using enriched bank transactions to verify self-reported financial data, reduce manual data entry, improve fraud detection and enhance credit risk assessment. The solution will also help identify merchants and recognize income and revenues, leading to more accurate credit assessments.
In March this year, Yapily announced another partnership with Zilch to offer affordable credit solutions to consumers in the U.K. at a time when many British consumers were facing financial challenges due to rising food prices and monthly bills.
“Over 5 million people in the U.K. have little to no credit history, greatly reducing their access to mainstream financial services,” Vaccino said in a blog post at the time. “In times like these, it’s important that everyone has access to the credit they need, when they need it most.”
Through Yapily’s open banking platform, the deal will enable Zilch to access consumers’ risk and affordability profiles more accurately than traditional assessments and in turn offer credit options that are tailored to each customer’s financial situation, per the post.
Corporate delinquencies are reportedly at the highest rate they’ve reached in eight years.
The delinquency rate for loans from U.S. banks to both U.S. and foreign companies rose to 1.3% at the end of 2024, a figure that was the highest since the first quarter of 2017 but well below the 5% seen during the 2008 financial crisis, the Financial Times (FT) reported Monday (Feb. 17), citing data from BankRegData.
The total amount of bank debt on which U.S. business borrowers were at least one month late reached $28 billion, up $2.2 billion from three months earlier and up $5.4 billion from a year earlier, according to the report.
The report attributed the rise to interest rates that remain high, surprising some observers who expected them to fall this year. A pickup in inflation in January and concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs have delayed further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, the report said.
Corporate bank loans tend to be variable rate, so the expected decline in interest rates would have given some relief to borrowers, the report said.
The data from BankRegData does not include loans from direct lenders and private credit funds, per the report.
It was reported in January that the growth in commercial bank loans was at the slowest it’s been since the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Commercial bank loans grew by around 2.7% in 2024, which was only somewhat faster than the 2.3% rise seen in 2023.
A number of bankers said they hoped to see loan growth later this year, citing optimism among clients and other indicators.
Bank of America said during a January earnings call that commercial loans were up 5% year over year in the fourth quarter and that loan and deposit growth in the current year should outpace last year’s.
J.P. Morgan Chase said during a January earnings call that there has been improvement in business sentiment and that balance sheets at small businesses are healthy.
Citi CEO Jane Fraser said during a January earnings call that in the United States, “growth is not only being driven by the higher-end consumer but also by a strong and innovative corporate sector.”