Finicity is part of the Mastercard family. Our open banking platform provides the financial data you need.

J.P. Morgan Payments’ Pay-by-bank solution, which provides billers with the ability to allow their customers to pay bills directly from their bank account, is now live. Leveraging Mastercard’s open banking technology to enhance J.P. Morgan Payments’ ACH capabilities, Pay-by-bank offers payment choice and provides a simple, secure and frictionless experience for billers to offer to their customers.

For consumers, Pay-by-bank elevates the checkout experience, allowing billers to provide their customers with the option for a new, secure way to pay. The solution uses the consumer’s existing authentication protocols with their bank, including technologies such as biometrics, to retrieve all necessary information to execute a payment. As a result, they can securely make payments like rent, utilities, tuition, insurance, and healthcare.

J.P. Morgan Payments is a global leader, processing more than $9 trillion in payments daily, operating in over 160 countries and over 120 currencies.

Read more about this innovative new solution here.

A rapidly changing digital landscape

While speed and convenience are crucial in today’s financial innovations, they have to be paired with security. As financial apps and services become more digital, so do the fraudsters who are hard at work trying to pose as legitimate consumers. The spike in identity fraud has become an expensive problem, costing consumers, merchants and financial institutions billions of dollars. In 2021, nearly 42 million Americans fell victim to identity fraud. In that one year, fraudsters made off with some $52 billion through identity scams.  

As the exponential growth of digital banking and services has moved more transactions online, fraudsters’ methods have evolved to take advantage. A recent report published by Aite Novarica, Key Trends Driving Fraud Transformation in 2021 and Beyond, showed that 64% of financial institutions were experiencing higher rates of account takeover (ATO) fraud since the onset of the COVID pandemic. According to a 2021 survey of 110 fraud and loss prevention decision makers at fintech firms, 46% of fintechs report that ATO is their most prevalent problem. 

Fraud risk can increase when consumers are opening accounts and documenting identities digitally. According to research from Aite-Novarica, almost a quarter of checking account applications filed online in the first three quarters of 2022 were fraudulent, as were nearly one in five online credit card applications.  

Open banking and identity networks work in unison to cut down on fraud 

In response, financial service innovators are loading up on new tools capable of spotting and preventing fraud in real time, like the integration of identity and open banking solutions. Mastercard Open Banking allows consumers to safely share their financial data to verify account ownership and facilitate transactions, and now we have integrated open banking with our identity network to make sure participants in transactions are who they say they are.  

Mastercard can deliver instant identity verification, spotting compromised identities that manual verification may miss. Mastercard’s Identity and Open Banking networks deliver deep insights into the customer’s identity by analyzing relationships between and among the individual pieces of account owner data. For instance, identity network analysis keeps track of how often a name is linked to a phone number or email address. 

Open banking also helps providers create low-friction customer experiences. The technology enables them to: 

Innovations to secure the future of financial services 

For all the promise that the emerging world of consumer-permissioned data holds, none of it will work without trust. Consumers must know that their money and data are safe. Consumers, banks and fintechs must trust that the system is secure and reliable enough to warrant continued investment and innovation.

Open Banking for Account Opening provides a solution from Mastercard to specifically create and protect the ecosystem and minimize identity fraud. By doing so, we’re setting the trusted foundation needed to help our partners create financial services that deliver speed, convenience and security for today’s digital commerce. 

Download our e-book Open Banking Data + Digital Identity: Stronger Together in the Fight Against Fraud to learn more about the trends and solutions in combating fraud. 

Digital payments are everywhere.

Whether we realize it or not, most of us have incorporated technology into our financial lives. According to the Mastercard New Payments Index, which surveyed 35,040 general consumers across 40 markets, 85% of people globally have used at least one emerging payment method in the last year.  

Part of the appeal is choice and simplicity. Consumers can buy a new refrigerator with a credit card, digital wallet or using an automatic buy-now-pay-later program. And they can perform most of their financial transactions from anywhere within a few minutes. 

Yet enabling consumers to bank and pay with ease is anything but simple. Banks and fintechs must carefully conceive and build payment technology stacks that are agile, user friendly and integrated with their organizations’ complex infrastructures. 

Platforms like i2c can help. A global banking and payment processing platform, i2c provides financial institutions and fintechs with “building block” technology to create their own unique consumer and commercial solutions. As a partner, the company relies on Mastercard Open Banking’s consumer-permissioned data to get the right information into the right hands, safely and quickly.  

In a recent conversation at the Tech Innovation Roundtable in New York, Jess Turner, EVP, Global Open Banking and API and i2c CEO Amir Wain sat down with moderator Sherri Haymond, Head of Global Digital Partnerships, to explain how their collaboration works and why it matters: 

What are the key market drivers that are leading to unprecedented demand for digital payments?

Jess Turner: The pandemic changed the way people interact with services and products, as well as the way they interact with each other. That change accelerated digitization faster than we expected, providing an opportunity for innovation. People expect more from their digital payment experience. And because of that, everything we do at Mastercard —whether it’s direct-to-consumer or business-to-business products—must have a best-in-class user experience. 

 Jess Turner and Amir Wain in conversation at the Tech Innovation Roundtable, Master Tech Center, New York

How does the partnership between i2c and Mastercard help deliver a best-in-class experience to fintech innovators? 

Amir Wain: A significant component to the digital payment experience rests in the hands of banks and fintechs. These financial institutions provide consumers with the ability to bank, borrow and buy what they need. To make those services work seamlessly, a lot of connectivity needs to happen between Mastercard and service providers like i2c. Through our platform, banks and fintechs can access Mastercard capabilities —such as digitization, open banking and APIs—to extend those services to their end users.  

How does open banking strengthen i2c’s platform offerings?

Amir: The basic tenets of payments—convenience, security and ubiquity—haven’t changed. Now open banking offers the right tools to keep us up to date with the new underlying digital technology, not to mention the consumer’s desire to interact with their finances differently. Through i2c, our clients can use open banking to help sign on new customers. Like mortgages, opening a bank account has largely been a manual process, one that required a lot of paperwork for banks and customers alike. But with open banking, customers can give permission to share their data digitally.  

Jess, can you share other use cases in which open banking creates opportunities? 

Jess: In addition to digital payments, another powerful example is that people can use open banking to get a loan for the first time in their lives. These are people who have been credit invisible or considered thin credit, perhaps because they have a low income, or they lack a credit history. Now they can share open banking data –such as bank transactions or rent payments— to prove they are creditworthy. And that could help a consumer qualify for a loan or empower a budding entrepreneur to kickstart their idea or a small business owner to invest in its growth. 

Open banking is also precise. At Mastercard Open Banking, we are working with permissioned data that we then must clean and categorize to verify things. So, if someone says they make $12.9 million dollars every year, we can check that quickly and accurately.  

What are you seeing in the landscape of digital payments that you are most excited about? 

Amir: I look forward to seeing consumers benefit from even more payment choice. Different people need different kinds of products that are relevant to them. Cookie cutter products are a thing of the past. Expanding what you know about the totality of a customer through tools like open banking and AI enables the development of more personalized products.  

At i2c, we work with partners like Mastercard to enhance our building block technology that helps banks and fintechs offer differentiated products and elevated customer experiences. 

Jess: I agree with Amir. Right now, these building blocks are critical for innovation because the world is becoming borderless. I am looking forward to seeing how our partnership with i2c will make real innovation happen at scale. 

Move money with confidence. Our instant account owner and balance verification enables accurate, confident payments. Learn more here.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–FundingShield, a market-leading, cloud-based firm providing fintech solutions to manage risk, compliance and fraud prevention, has entered a partnership with Mastercard to leverage its open banking platform delivered by Finicity, a Mastercard company. FundingShield provides live, source data-based technology products and SaaS solutions that have been used to secure the funds of over $2.5 trillion in mortgage closings.

FundingShield CEO Ike Suri shared, “FundingShield has over 95% coverage of licensed service providers in the real estate, mortgage, closing and settlement space in our live repository. This partnership with Mastercard allows us to leverage its open banking connectivity of over 95% of U.S. based deposit accounts for consumer-permissioned access to real-time, bank-sourced data to expand our B2B and B2B2C payment verification solutions for clients.“

This partnership expands FundingShield’s offering within the real estate, mortgage and title sector with solutions that protect buyers, sellers, brokers, bank and non-bank lenders, warehouse lenders, and title and settlement entities. More broadly, the firm’s solutions provide risk management surrounding payments to vendors, suppliers, and other outgoing fund recipients in markets where cybersecurity experts estimate cybercrime costs to reach over $10 trillion annually by 2025.

Learn more about this partnership here.

Jorn Lambert joins Fintech Insider host David M. Brear and guests to ask “How does Big Tech shake up the payments industry?” 

David, Jorn and guests discuss how partnerships, acquisitions, processes and public fallouts affect the relationship between financial services and Big Tech, how the relationship has developed, the challenges in that relationship and how the industries cross over and influence each other.

What does the future look like for Big Tech and the payments industry?

To learn more and listen to this podcast episode, click here.

Five open banking startups from around the world join new Start Path Open Banking program to access resources, expertise and tools to grow

Mastercard has launched the Start Path Open Banking global program to engage open banking startups on their path to scale, uncover unique opportunities to co-innovate and power experiences that enable consumer choice. The companies handpicked for this inaugural class – Dapi, Finantier, mmob, Mono and Paywallet – demonstrate strong synergies with Mastercard’s tech-driven approach and are committed to putting consumers and small businesses at the center of where and how their financial data is used to further access services they want and need.

During the three-month program, startups will have an opportunity to leverage Mastercard’s open banking expertise and market insights and learn more about the company’s open banking platforms through wholly-owned subsidiaries Finicity and Aiia.

“Open banking is a natural progression of how Mastercard has always embraced innovation and consumer trust with equal measure, and how we’ve remained a trusted partner for our customers. We are thrilled to launch the Start Path Open Banking program and welcome five high-growth startups from around the world to collaborate with us and accelerate open banking innovation.”

Blake Rosenthal, executive vice president, Fintech & Segment Solutions at Mastercard

Learn more about the inaugural Start Path class, and access a link to apply for future Start Path Open banking classes here.

Give consumers a priceless asset: more time. Endless errands, work tasks and countless obligations big and small chip away at their free time and fill their schedules. Applying for a loan shouldn’t add to that.   

To power a faster, better mortgage experience for consumers, Freddie Mac’s Loan Product Advisor asset and income modeler (AIM) continues to evolve, now including paystub data in addition to direct deposit data for income assessment. These cost-saving efficiencies provide increased rep and warrant coverage while continuing to meet Freddie Mac’s strong credit underwriting standards.

Open banking drives new mortgage capabilities

Using consumer-permissioned data from trusted third-party providers like Mastercard (with some services delivered through Finicity, a Mastercard company), direct deposit plus paystub increases the confidence in income calculations by matching digitized paystub data to borrower direct deposit history sourced from trusted providers. 

Mortgage Verification Service (MVS) supports this new AIM capability by providing direct deposit transaction data paired with digitized paystub data to fuel this innovative, data-driven approach. It identifies the income stream that matches the paystub, delivering accurate risk assessment results.  

Assets, income and employment verifications are vital to mortgage lenders looking to verify borrowers’ finances. However, between unreliable results, miscommunications and paperchases, verifying assets, employment and income can be cumbersome. MVS helps borrowers get faster approvals with fewer conditions up front, allowing them to close and move into their homes faster.  

“Partnering with Mastercard ensures we can deliver the best tools and insights the industry has to offer. This collaboration will assist lenders with quickly and easily obtaining income verification.”

Daniel Miller, Freddie Mac Single-Family Director of Strategic Technology Partnerships

MVS can help lenders: 

Efficient assessment 

AIM leverages consumer-permissioned data from open banking providers like Mastercard to better identify pay deposits using accurate and verifiable data that meets Freddie Mac’s underwriting standards. Lenders can automate the manual processes of assessing borrower assets, income and employment. This can improve the success rates for identifying income and employment by reading information provided on a paystub and verifying income transactions within a borrower’s bank account. 

“Partnering with Mastercard ensures we can deliver the best tools and insights the industry has to offer,” said Daniel Miller, Freddie Mac Single-Family Director of Strategic Technology Partnerships. “This collaboration will assist lenders with quickly and easily obtaining income verification.” 

How it works 

Previously, direct deposits to a consumer’s bank account would qualify for rep and warrant assessment. With enhanced direct deposit and paystub capabilities, a borrower or a loan officer can upload a paystub and the technology will match the data on that paystub with the deposits from the borrower’s asset report, boosting the rep and warranty success rates and income gross-up.

The asset report can include 24 months of direct deposit transactional history and also includes income streams identified by the open banking platform. Now, with the added paystub capability, Mastercard can add a paystub report that can provide greater success assessing income through direct deposits.  

The paystub report generated through MVS has two sections; the top section includes digitized paystub information. The bottom section is up to 24 months of income stream credit transactions only. These income streams are reconciled with the deposits shown on the asset report.  

As an added bonus, the reduced cost of implementing MVS is reflected directly in the balance sheet. On average, up to 7 days can be cut off the processing time for each loan. The hours formerly spent by loan officers chasing down borrower documents are invested in higher-return work activities such as marketing and sales to drive additional loans. The new AIM capability will be available to Freddie Mac-approved Sellers using Loan Product Advisor beginning June 7, 2023. MVS is available via direct integration and ecosystem integrations including SimpleNexus & ICE Technology and Order Reports Service in the Client Hub today. 

Want to elevate your efficiency while enhancing the customer lending journey?  Get started today.

Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today announced enhancements to its ground-breaking automated income assessment tool that allows lenders to assess a homebuyer’s income paid through direct deposit to also include the borrower’s digital paystub data. This detailed information can help lenders calculate income faster and more precisely to improve loan quality, simplify the mortgage process and, most importantly, expand access to credit.

“Over the last year, we’ve consistently rolled out innovations to ensure our digital tools are improving speed and efficiency, reducing risk and, ultimately, helping us serve our mission by reaching more qualified borrowers. Today’s innovation further automates income assessment by using historical direct deposit pay patterns and current gross income from recent paystubs, which can help more families achieve homeownership.”

Kevin Kauffman, Single-Family Vice President of Seller Engagement at Freddie Mac.

This new AIM capability will be available to Freddie Mac-approved Sellers using Loan Product Advisor beginning June 7, 2023. Finicity, a Mastercard Company, is the initial service provider supporting Freddie Mac’s AIM for income using direct deposits plus paystub.

Read more about this inclusive innovation here.

Loanspark partnered with world-leading tech brands Mastercard, Middesk, and LexisNexis to enhance, speed up, and secure service delivery for its co-branded partners and their business customers.

A partnership with Mastercard enables Loanspark to leverage Mastercard’s open banking platform, with some services delivered through its subsidiary, Finicity, allowing businesses to establish direct consumer-permissioned connections with their customers’ bank accounts. This enables SMB owners to submit financial information securely and easily while focusing on running their business, and in turn allowing Loanspark to make better credit decisions by quickly verifying the borrower’s financial details. Accurate borrower information minimizes the lending risks and increases accuracy and speed of funds for SMBs.

“Small businesses are increasingly looking for greater choice in how they borrow, pay and manage their finances. Partnering with organizations like Loanspark provides small businesses with a streamlined process to gain access to capital and putting their financial worries at ease.”

Andy Sheehan, EVP, US Open Banking, Mastercard. 

Read more about this partnership here.

Innovations in finance and payments are unlocking new experiences for consumers and fintechs alike. As of 2022, 78 percent of adults in the U.S. prefer to bank via a mobile app or website. As more people open accounts and manage their finances online, digital transaction volumes are projected to reach nearly $15 trillion by 2027. 

To further its vision of providing safe, simple, and smart choices in payments and financial services, Mastercard is launching an enhanced Open Banking for Account Opening solution. This innovation integrates account owner verification with identity insights into a single API (Application Programming Interface) to help businesses meet their customers’ needs for security and transparency.  

“Digital account opening is central to onboarding new customers and growing a business. Mastercard is uniquely positioned to help fintechs and banks onboard customers safely and seamlessly to accelerate growth while protecting themselves and consumers from the risks of fraud and false declines.”
 

Jess Turner, EVP, Global Open Banking and API 

Secure digital account opening helps fintechs and banks confidently know who their customers are and that they own their linked accounts. Read more about this new Mastercard solution here.