S&P Global Market Intelligence rounds up financial technology companies' recent product launches, partnership announcements and fundraising activity, as well as regulatory developments in the financial technology space. For more fintech news, click here.
Top news
ACI Worldwide Inc. unveiled a solution that allows merchants globally to give customers more than 70 buy-now-pay-later options via a single integration. ACI PayAfter provides consumers one BNPL option displayed at checkout, one application form, a single credit check and access to multiple financing options.
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U.S. Bank NA is allowing employees at organizations that use the prepaid U.S. Bank Focus Card for payroll disbursements to access a portion of their earned wages on-demand via an immediate direct deposit to their cards. The solution, Earned Wage Access created by PayActiv Inc., will also provide access to other financial wellness services.
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Dun & Bradstreet Holdings Inc. inked a 10-year strategic agreement to leverage Google Cloud from Google LLC to accelerate its infrastructure modernization. Dun & Bradstreet's business data and insights and Google Cloud's technology will power a joint innovation agenda, first focusing on developing solutions to manage supply chain risk challenges and also collaborating on go-to-market initiatives.
Banking and lending
Commerce Bank, a subsidiary of Kansas City, Mo.-based Commerce Bancshares Inc., went live with the core banking platform of banking software company Temenos AG. The move completes the bank's modernization project to shift to a modern and open platform made for the U.S. market from its legacy systems for deposits.
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McKinney, Texas-based Independent Financial, a trademark of Independent Bank Group Inc. unit Independent Bank, expanded its collaboration with Jack Henry & Associates Inc. to include its digital lending platform, LoanVantage, to automate commercial loans for small- and medium-sized businesses.
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Independence, Va.-based Skyline National Bank is leveraging the platform of portfolio management tools provider Teslar Software to boost commercial lending productivity and improve communication across departments.
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Galileo Financial Technologies LLC's application programming interface-enabled financial technology is powering Spruce, the mobile banking platform built by H&R Block Inc. The app, which launched Jan. 20, includes a spending account with a debit card, a connected savings account allowing for specific budgeting goals, early paycheck availability and overdraft protection that are all delivered through Galileo's platform.
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Texans CU is implementing Alkami Technology Inc.'s platform for the creation of a personalized digital banking experience for its members. The platform provides a software development kit with open application programming interfaces.
Payments
Through a partnership, modern card issuing platform Marqeta Inc. and data network Plaid Inc. simplified Automated Clearing House transfers, allowing customers to authenticate and fund bank accounts. The technology will let Marqeta customer cardholders initiate ACH transactions to send money between customer accounts and external accounts with ease.
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Mastercard Inc., through an expanded partnership with Fearless Fund, advanced its commitment to Black women-owned businesses through updated tools designed to digitally fortify operations of such businesses and a new digital marketplace where consumers can support them.
Additionally, Mastercard is expanding its preeminent payments-focused consulting service with new practices dedicated to open banking; open data; cryptocurrency and digital currencies; and environment, social and governance.
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Coinbase Global Inc. is enabling recipients in Mexico to cash out their cryptocurrency holdings in their local currency at over 37,000 locations across the country, according to a post by the company.
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Discover Financial Services is partnering with fintech company Buy It Mobility Networks Inc. to provide U.S. merchants the option to accept payments from shoppers' bank accounts without the need for cards, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Trading and investing
RightCapital Inc. revealed an application programming interface integration with AssetMark Financial Holdings Inc., providing single sign-on access from the latter's eWealthManager platform to RightCapital. The integration allows advisers to link and update AssetMark accounts from within RightCapital.
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Morningstar Inc. unit Morningstar Investment Management LLC and Hueler Income Solutions LLC will link services to let retirement savers incorporate guaranteed income products into their personalized advice plan through the Morningstar Retirement Manager. The platform offers personalized retirement advice throughout the entire retirement portfolio, including out-of-plan annuities.
Insurance
Institutes RiskStream Collaborative's new Ready for Guidewire validated accelerator for ClaimCenter is now available in Guidewire Software Inc.'s marketplace. With the integration, Guidewide users are able to use RiskStream's RAPID X blockchain application for improved exchange of loss information with other insurers.
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