Financial Data and Technology Association

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Member Spotlight: Marble

To win a game of marbles, a player must hit a series of targets. That same goal can be applied to improving a person’s financial standing — which is how FDATA member company Marble got its name. Marbles’ proprietary MyMarble platform utilizes the power of machine learning, data science, and artificial intelligence, in leveraging its proven data-driven strategies through technology solutions Inverite, Point Deduction Technology®, Fast-Track and Learn. MyMarble utilizes scientific, algorithmic, and mathematical software that is based on rigorous banking and credit weighted algorithms, that analyzes data to identify where the impacts are placed on a credit files and banking history. This helps consumer engage in and navigate a clear path towards financial wellbeing and a meaningful credit score.

The core success to the MyMarble platform derives from its open banking and data collection strategy through the utilization of Inverite and Score Navigator’s Point Deduction Technology®. Inverite boasts connectivity to 288 Financial Institutions’ access points which is 15X greater than its closest competitor in Canada. Inverite also has the highest (99% vs 93%) implied consumer coverage and the fastest processing time by a factor of two over its competition. Its leading AI-based model Risk Score is trained from millions of banking verification requests and loan outcomes. Inverite has an international presence with coverage of FI’s in the South American market and will continue to expand its AI offering as Marble expands into other global markets.

How does Marble work in practice?

As Marble member Rich explained, the first step is expanding access to vital financial services platforms. Rich was looking for a program to help manage his debts, but most he found had a minimum credit score requirement to even apply. Rich joined Marble’s Premium program on May 30, 2020. He closely followed Marble’s monthly recommendations on when he should pay off certain debts and how much he should be put towards those debts. He also used the company’s simulators to determine what targets he needed to hit to reach his goal credit score. Within nine months, Ryan’s score increased from 480 to 663, a gain of 183 points.

In 2021, Marble launched two new initiatives that will help it serve even more Canadians.

In May, Marble launched GIC Savings Loans with Jenson Graf Risk Management Inc. The partnership will give Jenson Graf a progressive software solution that will automate its GIC Savings Loan application and approval process.

In June, Marble announced it’s new API solution Marble Connect. This revolutionary B2B product utilizes detailed risk assessment, consumer financial data, and a fully functional business & consumer portal. Marble Connect offers Canadian businesses a new turnkey marketing, education, and products solution for the broader audience of consumers looking to execute on more future business to connect through Marble’s financial fitness platform, MyMarble.

What sort of promise does open banking and customer-directed finance hold for Canadians? As Marble Financial CEO Karim Nanji has said, “The amalgamation of customer data provides an opportunity for Marble to offer and deliver more efficient processing and approvals of credit solutions. Ultimately, we collect the customers goals which along with the consolidation of financial data creates an opportunity for us and our partners to access this information to provide new services and more robust solutions in the areas of personal finance, money management including savings, investment, tax and insurance.”

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Member Spotlight: Interac

In 1984, Canada’s top financial institutions came together to create Interac Association, a cooperative venture dedicated to giving Canadians broader access to their money through a single shared network. Twelve years later, eight of the founding institutions created Acxsys Corporation, a new entity that would develop new business partnerships and services for financial transfer, online payments, and international services.

To better fund innovation and reduce certain business, operating and legal complexities, the two entities reorganized in 2018 to form Interac Corp. Today, Interac is one of the most trusted financial service brands in Canada, operating an economical, world-class debit payments system with broad-based acceptance, reliability, security, and efficiency, helping more than 30 million Canadians families and businesses feel more in control of their money.

The Interac team are natural collaborators. They know that the benefits of co-operation outweigh the risks of fragmentation. The diversity of thought that exists when companies (and even competitors) come together produces better outcomes and solutions. Interac is a proud member of FDATA North America and is actively working with industry and government colleagues across the ecosystem to explore open banking solutions for Canadians.

The financial services company’s Innovation Lab and New Ventures team has a mandate to look ahead at the company’s three plus year horizon for new innovations. They research, develop strategies and pilot new solutions before taking them to market.

A foundational requirement of emerging solutions is to build consumer trust. Canadians need to trust that new technology is not only secure, but that it will provide meaningful benefits in their lives. A recent Interac survey found being in control of their financial data is important to 90 per cent of respondents, and more than half said a new financial data sharing option will “greatly benefit” Canadian consumers.

At Interac, leaders share in this optimism for open banking to support consumer needs and they are committed to collaborating with financial institutions and fintech companies and serving as a bridge for the ecosystem. The team sees great promise for Canada’s future open banking framework to enable the development of data-driven products and services that will increase access to affordable solutions tackling pressing personal and business needs such as debt reduction, benefits processing, financial planning, and the provision of faster loans.

Oscar Roque, VP, Strategy and Emerging Solutions at Interac, sees an opportunity to form a minimum viable ecosystem (MVE) for open banking, grounded in a clear, easy, and transparent consent experience. “Our collective participation in building an MVE will set the stage for data portability and empower Canadians to take control of their data – all for the betterment of our society.”

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Member Spotlight: M Science

M Science is a groundbreaking analytics firm that provides research, data, and pioneering methodologies to financial institutions and corporations. Their experts take unstructured data in near real-time and discern critical insights that help clients make smarter, more informed business decisions. Specifically, the firm provides:

  • Data-driven research that leverages data and domain expertise to provide in-depth analysis and insights on public and private companies.
  • Direct access to experts for more in-depth research and insights.
  • Data analytics that enable investment management and corporate clients to integrate curated data into their own workflow and process.
  • Data dashboards, in a web-based, on-demand platform hosting multi-sourced data feeds that are curated and customizable to clients’ needs.

Founded in 2002, the company serves clients around the world from offices in New York, Portland, London and Hong Kong.

A cornerstone of M Science’s offering is its compliance first approach to partnerships though its comprehensive due diligence program and commitment to consumer privacy.

At the core of M Science’s mission is the belief that data can revolutionize the way the world does business. In a June 2020 Forbes column, M Science’s Michael Marrale explained, “By creating insights derived from disparate datasets and expertly synthesized by alternative data analysts, operators and investors have granular visibility into company business operations.”

The alternative data M Science provides also has revolutionized the marketplace for institutional investors. In an April 2019 Marketwatch column, Marrale said, “Alternative data provides investors with a greater degree of transparency into how companies are performing. From purchase data that tracks retail sales, to social analytics that measure online brand popularity, to geo data that measures locations and traffic, investors can now take a much deeper look into business operating fundamentals in a way our research landscape didn’t previously allow.”

M Science continues to use their insights to help businesses navigate shifts caused by COVID-19, most recently by launching a new Retail and Consumer Brands Intelligence Platform. Leveraging tested analytic models and a myriad of data inputs, the solution delivers insights to more than a dozen industries including Animals and Pet Supplies, Apparel, Garden and Home, Sporting Goods, and Toys and Games. The platform’s focus on ecommerce makes it a valuable tool for traditional retailers and brands, as well as DTC and online-only players. As noted by Head of Product Elizabeth Coleman, this information will prove “more valuable than ever” as players in the space try to address shopping behaviors changed by the pandemic.

In addition to providing a revolutionary approach to data and research, M Science is an industry leader in its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Indeed, this commitment fuels an innovative mindset within the company. M Power, M Science’s diversity taskforce steers recruiting and educational initiatives to foster diverse perspectives and an environment that drives better results. M Science also is proud to collaborate with American Corporate Partners (ACP), a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping military veterans transition to the private sector through one-on-one mentoring relationships with corporate professionals.

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Member Spotlight: Intuit

Intuit is a global technology platform that helps customers and communities overcome their most important financial challenges. Serving approximately 100 million customers worldwide with TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma and Mint, Intuit believes that everyone should have the opportunity to prosper and works tirelessly to find new, innovative ways to deliver on this belief.

Founded 38 years ago, the work Intuit does starts with a mission of powering prosperity around the world. Prosperity means something different for each person, but finances often sit at the core of living the life you want. Intuit believes that everyone should have access to the expertise, tools, and resources they need to take control of their financial life and pursue their dreams.

Across its platform, Intuit puts the power of technology and data on the side of customers by delivering simple, delightful solutions through their products:

  • QuickBooks is the world’s largest small business platform, serving as the center for small business growth. QuickBooks has helped customers simplify the financial complexities of managing their business and achieve success for more than 25 years. QuickBooks began by helping small businesses manage their books and grew into a platform that helps them get paid fast, manage capital, and pay employees with confidence.
  • TurboTax takes the complexity out of the tax code, helping people get the maximum refund they deserve.
  • Mint is a free personal finance app that helps users to get a holistic view of their financial picture and make smart money decisions.
  • Credit Karma is a data platform that helps people find the right financial products, putting more money in their pockets and providing insights and advice.

Intuit’s mission of powering prosperity also goes beyond its products. Intuit leverages its products, unique expertise, and scale to have a positive impact on communities around the world by investing in people and helping them meet the challenges they face. For example, to help struggling Canadian families and small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, Intuit launched its Prosperity Accelerator. The 5-month program encourages startups to leverage the power of AI to advance the financial prosperity of consumers and businesses in North America. Selected startups have access to a corporate and investor mentorship network, dedicated coaching, and the opportunity for follow-on investment from Highline Beta.

Additionally, Intuit QuickBooks leveraged its fintech experience to help customers access more than $1.2 billion in SBA-approved Paycheck Protection Program loans and keep thousands of employees on payroll in the United during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. QuickBooks also launched a new platform for product-based businesses, offers on-demand accounting experts, and has helped to democratize machine learning by adding it to the company’s offerings for the benefit of small businesses.

Building on its commitment to help small businesses save time by simplifying complex business operations and taking the guesswork out of complicated compliance matters, Intuit QuickBooks Australia became the first accounting software firm in Australia to be accredited by the Data Recipient Accreditor at the unrestricted level and the third data recipient to be accredited overall in October 2020. The landmark accreditation gives Australians greater control over how their financial and banking data is accessed and used and allows them to securely share it with accredited third parties. In addition to saving users additional time – estimated at around eight to ten hours per week – as well as money and resources that are currently spent on financial management, the move allowed real time and simple cash flow management, with highly accurate future forecasting through richer insights.

Intuit is proud to join FDATA North America’s efforts to bring the benefits of opening banking to businesses in other geographies so that individuals and business owners can easily and securely access their banking data allowing them to spend their time focusing on what matters most to them.

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Member Spotlight: Kabbage

In the wake of the Great Recession, Kathryn Petralia and Rob Frohwein launched Kabbage, a startup whose mission would be to use data-driven solutions to empower small businesses to grow with flexibility, efficiency, and prudence. Since then, Kabbage, which is now an American Express company, transformed itself from a funding startup for eBay sellers into a leading cash-flow management platform for all small businesses. Over half a million small businesses accessed more than $16 billion through Kabbage and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the second largest Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lender in the United States during the first round of PPP, approving nearly 300,000 applications.

By connecting real-time, existing third-party business data to Kabbage, small businesses can be approved for a line of credit between $1,000 to $150,000 in minutes. (Kabbage charges no origination fees, annual fees, monthly maintenance fees, or documentation fees for its small business loans.) It’s new online Kabbage Checking™ account comes with no monthly maintenance fees and small business customers receive a 1.10 annual percentage yield (APY) on balances up to $100,000. Kabbage Payments helps businesses send, process, and settle invoices quickly.

The company’s offerings have been particularly helpful for underserved entrepreneurs. As Kabbage noted in a February 2020 news release, a joint report penned by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found credit-worthy Black-owned small businesses are about 20 percent less likely than credit-worthy white-owned small businesses to receive approval for financing at both large and community banks. Even when approved for credit, minority-owned businesses are less likely to be approved for the amount they need. Kabbage and its automated underwriting platform improves financing experiences for underserved small businesses by only measuring their true business performance to make credit decisions, creating a blind application process.

With Kabbage, small businesses are approved by analyzing their real-time, and objective, business performance data, eliminating hurdles that may contribute to the struggles minority-owned firms face in traditional loan-application processes. Kabbage also offers data insights to arm entrepreneurs with knowledge to grow their companies. The firm’s Small Business Resource Center includes information on topics ranging from invoicing to competitor analysis to switching checking accounts.

Kabbage was acquired by American Express in 2020 to continue to expand American Express’s B2B offerings beyond their Card business with Kabbage’s broader set of cash flow management tools.

Kabbage co-founder Kathryn Petralia discussed the future of financial technology with Forbes in February 2021. Her comments sum up the benefits of a customer-directed finance system. Petralia said, “It all boils down to the user experience and consumers’ on-demand expectations. Banks are increasingly being commoditized. Fintechs will become the de facto face of money management, as they provide exceptional user experiences that remove friction points common with traditional banking. It shouldn’t take days or weeks to open a bank account, multiple days to settle funds, or months to be approved for a loan. Fintechs will make financial services more seamless and accessible for everyone.”

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Member Spotlight: SaltEdge

Founded in 2013 , Salt Edge Inc., a leader in creating and providing open banking solutions, takes intercommunications and interoperability between banks, third-party service providers, and their end-users to a whole new level. The company achieves this goal by creating stable, secure connectivity channels between financial institutions and their consumers.

For consumers, Salt Edge’s solutions help create tools that give them a wider view of their finances. With Oval Money Ltd., for example, Salt Edge provided an API to track users’ expenses and earnings automatically from any account. Open banking is integral to this product. As Salt Edge explained, “This wide functionality is only possible if all the users’ transactions are consolidated automatically from various sources and they do not have to input data manually.”

For lenders, Salt Edge helps users access a new channel of real-time financial data that automatically verifies applicant’s identity, account number, income sources, and balance in real time. Lenders can evaluate a potential borrower’s financial behavior more accurately, which helps them keep risk under control.

Today, Salt Edge is connected to more than 5000 financial institutions across the world. By joining FDATA North America, Salt Edge plans to bring the same cohesive, secure, consumer-friendly system to individuals, families, and small businesses in Canada and the United States. “We’re all into proactive engagement, pursuing an appropriate legal framework, which will support the development of open-banking-based financial services. Open banking in North America is quite different from the European practice, so getting a mandated and regulated state of certainty will definitely catalyze things to move forward,” Salt Edge CEO Dmitrii Barbasura said.

In a February 2021 blog post, Barbasura outlined the six elements necessary to make open banking work in any country. These include:

  • Control – any market participant that seeks to get access to the open banking ecosystem should be verified and licensed.
  • Providing third parties with access to financial data or payment initiation capabilities should apply the most secure, but at the same time, convenient means of authorization and user authentication.
  • Uniformity of conditions.
  • Insuring every involved party against fraudulent acts, data breaches, operational disruption, and other risks.
  • Ensuring monetization of APIs.
  • Access to all consumer accounts, if a consumer allows it. Accounts will determine the next step in open banking evolution – open finance.

Barbasura concluded, “Combined with mobile platforms, open banking provides secure and fast access to financial services anywhere and in the most comfortable format for the user.”

Salt Edge joined FDATA North America in April 2021.

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Member Spotlight: BillGO

Founded in 2015, BillGO is driven by the core belief that everyone deserves access to a healthy financial future. BillGO helps facilitate this access by providing consumers, billers, fintechs and financial institutions with a faster, smarter, more secure way to pay and manage bills and subscriptions.

So how can bill payment technology improve financial wellbeing?

Consider this: even though most consumers trust financial institutions (FIs) to manage their money, only 22 percent of them use the bill pay technology their FIs provide. Seventy-six percent, meanwhile, pay their online bills directly to biller websites, which is both a cumbersome and risky method of managing bills.

When asked why they reject FI-offered bill pay technology, many consumers say their FI bill pay technology is outmoded. It is difficult to use, offers little visibility and fails to provide real-world bill payment confirmation. This lack of confirmations has real-world results – namely late fees. A 2019 study revealed late credit card payments alone cost consumers up to $3 billion a year.

By offering a modernized, real-time bill pay solution, BillGO not only helps consumers avoid late payments and fees by sending due date reminders but also provides consumers with a single, consolidated tool to manage bills and payments, eliminating the need to log into multiple biller sites each month to manage their financial obligations.

BillGO’s mission doesn’t stop there. In 2020, BillGO launched its Bill Pay Relief Hub, a resource originally conceived to help consumers impacted by bills brought on by COVID-19. Since then, the Hub’s mission has expanded, providing help to consumers facing an array of economic setbacks. The Hub now connects consumers to more than 300 businesses and FIs offering payment relief. In 2020, Banking Tech Awards named the Hub one of 2020’s Best COVID Responses by a Fintech.

Speaking of awards, Fortune recently named BillGO one of the “Best Places To Work” in the financial services industry. And last March, Forbes named BillGO one of “America’s Best Startup Employers” because of its reputation as an employer, its high levels of employee satisfaction, and its potential for growth.

BillGO’s award-winning real-time bill management and payments platform transforms the dreaded necessity of managing and paying bills into an opportunity for financial well-being. The company currently serves more than 32 million consumers, 8,000 FIs and nurtures relationships with more than 170,000 billers and suppliers nationwide and is headquartered in Colorado, with offices in Ohio and Washington state, employing more than 250 people.

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Member Spotlight: Codat

Codat works with small businesses across the globe to help them harness their data in a way that allows firms to grow. Founded in the United Kingdom in 2017, Codat recently expanded its operations into North America.

How will businesses in the United States and Canada benefit from this move?

During the COVID-19 crisis, Codat’s products have been a lifeline for small firms. Tens of thousands of small businesses have used apps, services, and financial products powered by Codat to allow them to harness company data. With Codat, these businesses no longer have to spend hours collecting the data required to submit a loan application, for example.

Via its single API, Codat’s Core product enables real-time data access and visibility, offering deep insight into the business’s financial picture. This unlocks scores of opportunities for small businesses, and allows them to more quickly streamline application processes. Thanks to Codat, which integrates everything from accounting to commerce data, and paired with Open Banking, lenders can easily corroborate the actual financials of a business.

Combining and cross-referencing multiple data sources allows lenders to form a complete and verifiable understanding of a business customer, far beyond what is available from credit bureaus. Moreover, Codat can also use data to help identify and stop potential fraud, a key barrier to lending. According to a 2019 LexisNexis study, fraud losses as a percentage of revenues amount to 5.8 percent for digital lenders, 4.5 percent for small banks and credit unions, and 2.9 percent for larger banks.

PayPal and American Express recently announced they made strategic investments in Codat. Zettle, a PayPal payments company, uses Codat’s technology to transfer point of sale transaction data into their merchants’ accounting software. “The data connectivity Codat enables is a game changer for small-to-medium businesses who want the flexibility to use their preferred tools to run and grow their business,” said Peter Sanborn of PayPal Ventures.

Codat joined FDATA North America in March 2021. Gabriel MacSweeney, who is in charge of strategic partnerships and commercial strategy for the company, said, “At Codat, we are delighted to lend our voice to discussion on the future of open finance in North America. Joining FDATA North America aligns with our mission to enable all the systems and services that a small business uses to work together seamlessly, and underscores our strategic focus and growth plans in the region.”

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FDATA Successful in Collaborative Bid for £23m GOFCoE Funding

FDATA Successful in Collaborative Bid for £23m GOFCoE Funding

June 26, 2020, Edinburgh, Scotland: Today, FDATA Global Executive Chairman Gavin Littlejohn announced in a letter to FDATA membership the association’s success in acquiring £23m in funding for the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence (GOFCoE) to advance Open Finance across the United Kingdom, Europe, and around the world.

Following recent notification by the UK Government, I am delighted to announce that the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence (GOFCoE) has been successful in acquiring a seed fund of £23m by way of grant, to cornerstone its investment strategy.

This major award is part of a much larger funding strategy to build a world-class global utility for Research and Development in this domain; GOFCoE will be seeking to quickly build on this cornerstone investor with private sector involvement from both within the UK and international markets. The initial goal is to double the funding. The long term aim is to make GOFCoE self-sustaining as an industry utility.

As Open Finance initiatives proliferate throughout the world, FDATA has developed considerable capability and influence to shape the fundamental policy, governance and technology elements that are vital to successful delivery and for a healthy, competitive ‘Open’ market.

As PSD2 came into force in Europe in early 2018, it became apparent that there were various things which the market place desperately needed but for which there was no obvious focal point or leadership to make these assets available. To respond to these gaps in market fulfilment, FDATA prepared a paper and developed a strategy for solving some of these issues: GOFCoE, originally announced to the market at the FDATA Global Summit in December 2018. Since then, FDATA has developed relationships with key partners, including the University of Edinburgh (UoE), to build out its capability, resourcing a small team to develop the business plan, funding requirements, governance arrangements and strategic vision to make it a reality.

The UoE, chosen for its internationally recognised strengths in supercomputing and data science, has proven to be an outstanding partner, fully committing to the vision of problem-solving through international collaboration and, making its resources and funding available to kick-start the programme.

About GOFCoE

GOFCoE aims to provide leadership, coordination, research, and capability to develop the benefits of Open Finance and to help safely unlock the potential of customer data as a force to improve lives. GOFCoE is set up to be an industry, regulatory and academic collaboration, and focusing on areas of the market that can only be really solved through collaboration. Some examples include:

  1. A Financial Data Sandpit of pseudonymised financial data contributed from multiple market verticals to help banks, fund managers, insurers and fintechs to more rapidly develop hypothesise, prototype algorithms, test business models and work with regulatory sandboxes to develop proof points.
  2. A Global Economic Observatory – a longitudinal study of how human kind earns, spends and saves through the lens of both consumers and businesses. This observatory will source a wide variety of private sector and public sector data sets to provide an unprecedented research and policy capability including looking at things like how people manage unfair credit or prepare for a long life.
  3. An Algorithmic Bias Test Laboratory – a new capability to assist financial services practitioners reduce discrimination, providing assurance of compliance and ethical standards in their algorithmic distribution of products and services.
  4. A Global Open Finance Technical Standards Working Group – creating a digital library of the output of national and international agencies developing API standards, coupled to a working group of those agencies seeking to develop harmonisation of security standards for data sharing, digital identity, conformance testing and interoperability across markets. The OpenID Foundation will be a key partner in this initiative.
  5. An Economic Crime Unit – providing an international collaboration environment to enable enhanced pattern recognition research and development to reduce money laundering and fraud.
  6. An Education and Training Programme – running courses in machine learning in financial services, data ethics and data governance.
    In the coming months, GOFCoE will be spun out of FDATA and the UoE into an independent entity, while continuing to be hosted on campus at the university. The intention behind this evolution is to put it into an internationally diverse governance framework. Although it is very much intended to support firms (including FDATA members), regulators, policy makers and academic research, it is critical to its success that it remains independent of these actors, not perceived to be controlled by one nation state, and is positioned always on the side of the end customer. To that end, trust, market neutrality and ethics have a special meaning for the GOFCoE ethos. I will join the initial board of directors and work with them to ensure that this market positioning goal is achieved.

Since its earliest origins in 2013, FDATA has lobbied for the rights of consumers and businesses to share their financial data with regulated actors of their choosing and to represent the interests of members in the delivery of Open Finance. GOFCoE is a major new international collaboration, a research and development facility through which Open Finance objectives will be supported, with a suite of practical capabilities for you to work with.

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