Fintech News Roundup: Predicting Marketing & Payment Automation

Several conference-related financial technology announcements include leveraging predictive marketing to understand banking behaviors, automating bill payment tasks, subscription/money management help, a digital platform integration through merger, and a check capture alliance.

Schaumburg, Ill.-based Raddon, a Fiserv company and provider of research, analysis and strategic guidance to financial institutions, launched a new solution to help financial institutions better understand customers’ and members’ lifestyles and banking behaviors. Predictive Analytics from Raddon allows financial institutions to build deeper relationships with members and customers through sophisticated targeting and segmentation, which helps drive greater customer value, share of wallet and ROI.

The underlying premise of The Predictive Analytics system takes in up to two years of first-party data from the financial institution including the core system on deposits, loans, mortgages, bill pay, credit card and other transactional data; the data is analyzed, and indicators are then attached to each anonymized consumer; and the technology then generates recommendations based on customer behavior, moving groups and individuals in and out of campaign audiences based on their habits, in near real time.

“Institutions are challenged to bring in new deposits and achieve primary financial institution status across the board,” Edward Wipson, general manager, Raddon said. “Predictive Analytics can provide an edge that helps them be more relevant through timelier and better targeted marketing.”

In a separate announcement from Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv, two top 10 U.S. financial institutions have piloted Wis.-based Fiserv CheckFree Next, which automates basic tasks. The new Bill Discovery feature uses proprietary technology to automatically identify and connect consumers’ billers to their accounts and then establish the biller as a payee when there is a match. In addition, payment and data entry is automated, saving bill payers time and helping to prevent errors.

“Electronic bill payment has become an intrinsic part of many people’s daily lives, however, features that were once cutting edge are now status quo,” Tom Allanson, division president, enterprise payment solutions, Fiserv, said. “Knowing that people have higher expectations than ever before, we stepped back and challenged ourselves to make paying bills at a financial institution as easy and smart as the best digital experiences people have every day.”

CheckFree Next can empower financial institutions to act as advisors to accountholders with personalized and proactive experiences. Bill payers can sign up for bill pay reminders and alerts. Withdraw Now, another new CheckFree Next feature, allows bill payers to choose to have their bill payment debited right away or on a future date. The real-time capabilities of CheckFree Next include instant notifications and, later in 2020, will include real-time money movement.

Silicon Slopes, Utah-based MX, a data platform provider for credit unions, banks and fintechs, announced the launch of Subscription Tracker, the newest feature in MX’s suite of money management tools. According to the data optimization provider, Subscription Tracker offers consumers better insights into monthly spending habits by providing a detailed list of monthly subscriptions. The new feature automatically detects subscriptions, monthly costs and a yearly total for each subscription, while notifying customers if there has been an increase or decrease in the monthly subscription cost.

“The average consumer spends hundreds of dollars a month on subscriptions and it can be an enormous task to manage the constantly growing list of subscriptions,” Brett Allred, chief product officer, MX, said. “Subscription Tracker gives consumers the tools they need to better manage their subscriptions, keep unnecessary spending down and ultimately budget smarter.”

Jane Barratt, chief advocacy officer, MX, said, “Together with our banking and credit union partners, we’re making it easier for consumers to better manage their finances and take control of their financial future.”

Geneva, Switzerland-based Temenos, which has its U.S. headquarters in Malvern, Pa.,  announced just a month after its official acquisition of digital SaaS company Kony, Temenos has integrated Kony’s digital banking user experience into Temenos Infinity. Temenos Infinity — delivered as an omnichannel distribution service or via an on premise or SaaS offering in the cloud via Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud — utilizes deep analytics to drive customer acquisition and digital banking engagement. According to Temenos the product enables financial institutions to increase digital revenues and cut onboarding time.

Peachtree Corners, Ga.-based Alogent, which provides payment processing, content management, digital banking and loan origination technologies to financial institutions, announced a partnership with Turin, Italy-based Panini, a global provider in distributed check capture. According to the formal announcement, Alogent and Panini, which has a North America base in Dayton, Ohio, brings the first operating system agnostic, all-in-one check capture solution to market to address the branch capture needs of financial institutions, along with the remote capture requirements of small businesses and merchants. It is also a scalable omnichannel offering.

“The needs of distributed capture solutions utilized within the branch, as well as those through remote channels, continue to change, requiring scalable, simple and consistent capabilities regardless of the point of capture,” Jason Schwabline, Alogent’s chief strategy officer said. “Alogent’s enterprise capture software, paired with Panini’s intelligent scanners, removes silos of data that can result from these different systems and inconsistent user experiences, along with other barriers to entry such as time, cost, and IT requirements.”

“Alogent and Panini are delivering flexibility and choice – for the first time the branch and its retail customers can decide to use a PC or tablet, wired or wireless connection, and any operating system,” said Joe Sciulli, SVP, global channel sales, Panini. “This combined offering delivers consistency across all channels and all of the tools needed to build a scalable, API-free solution, supporting fraud detection, easier installation and lower support costs.”