Top 5 FinTech deals of October 2020 (UK & Europe version)

By Megha Bhattacharya

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the process of digitalisation for the financial services industry. Amidst the unprecedented market volatility, the industry’s appetite for digital technology has been on the rise. This is continuously being illustrated by some significant deals undertaken by FinTech companies.

Check out the top FinTech deals that took place in October 2020 (UK & Europe) :

1. Neonomics and Bankify

Nordic FinTech Bankify recently entered into a partnership with Neonomics in a bid to offer enhanced personal financial management services to clients with the help of open banking. The collaboration is expected to enable Bankify to comply with PSD2 regulations and offer instant access to banks and other TPPs via one unified API. Neonomics’ customers will also gain access to the FinTech’s PFM microservices comprising of features such as gamified savings, secure group payments, and personalised content.

Oslo headquartered Neonomics offers global banking coverage of over 2000 banks to financial institutions and Third-Party Providers (TPPs) through one unified API. It is authorized by the Norwegian FSA as a licensed payment institution.

2. Temenos and FlowBank

Switzerland-based FlowBank, last month, selected Temenos Transact in a bid to power its new Swiss digital bank. Temenos’ Transact is expected to enable the Bank to accelerate launch and boost investing experience for private and institutional investors in Switzerland and internationally. Temenos’ Transact pre-configured banking functionality will enable FlowBank to deploy the technology without customization. FlowBank will offer online banking, trading services and credit cards, an investment experience open to everyone, thanks to a mobile app and an optimized trading platform to deal with all asset classes.

FlowBank will launch its operations by the end of 2020. It aims to meet the needs of both sophisticated and new investors, who wish to manage their banking and investments on their own. The Bank secured its banking license in July 2020 and is FINMA-regulated, with deposits are guaranteed up to CHF 100,000.

According to Temenos, FlowBank’s customers will be able to trade from a single multi-currency bank account and access more than 50 financial markets. The bank will also be allowed to launch personalized products at a fraction of the time and differentiate the customer experience.

3. Tink and Lydia

French mobile payment app Lydia has selected open banking tech provider Tink with an aim to utilise access to PSD2 APIs across Europe. The companies have joined forces to work on boosting bank account connectivity for improving the app’s user experience. The new open banking connectivity will be released in the coming weeks.

Tink’s account aggregation and payment initiation solutions will be integrated into Lydia’s mobile payment app, in a bid to improve the way users connect their accounts across multiple banks, manage payment beneficiaries and initiate bank transfers without leaving the app.

Lydia, established in 2013, allows users to receive, send and manage all of their money. It processes around €250 million transactions per month.

4. NatWest and Featurespace

Featurespace today announced that NatWest has been utilising its ARIC Risk Hub through enterprise-wide transaction monitoring and payments fraud detection, including threats posed by Authorised Push Payments (APP) and scams.

NatWest selected Featurespace in late 2019 and completed deployment of ARIC Risk Hub earlier this year for detecting anomalies and protecting customers in real-time.

ARIC Risk Hub is a financial crime prevention platform and is powered by Adaptive Behavioural Analytics. The platform monitors individual behavioural activity in real-time, and allows financial institutions to catch more fraud and prioritise alerts of suspicious activity with greater accuracy while reducing the number of genuine transactions declined.

5. Avaloq and Banque Degroof Petercam

Avaloq announced today that it has signed an agreement with Belgium-based Banque Degroof Petercam. Under the new partnership, Avaloq will implement its Software as a Service (SaaS) as Degroof Petercam’s new core banking system with an aim to strengthen its IT platform as well as opportunities for growth.

Avaloq stated that its SaaS solution would reduce the complexity of the legacy infrastructure and deliver integrated regulatory compliance. The SaaS platform will allow Degroof Petercam to focus resources on growth opportunities such as product innovation, new business models and channel development.

Recently, Avaloq announced a new partnership with AI startup Enterprise Bot. The collaboration will see Avaloq offering Enterprise Bot’s conversational customer service software to its banking and wealth management clients.