One of the most popular sessions of the AXFI conference- the annual data analytics forum that wrapped up last week in Minneapolis- is the Killer FinTech Speed Rounds. In a single action-packed hour, six standout fintech companies with solutions designed to empower credit unions’ analytics journeys present their models to a packed room of financial leaders. Each firm has seven minutes to share its thoughts, followed by a brief Q&A exchange with a small panel of judges.
Although three separate awards are at stake, all six trailblazers have already been validated by a robust selection process merely to secure stage time. Here are this year’s highlights:
The Audience Award, earned based on the in-app vote of AXFI’s over 200 attendees, went to CU Rise Analytics for its suite of predictive models- each of which can be implemented within a week, whether on-premise or as a subscription based service. Today, CU Rise’s models apply machine learning to address member engagement scoring, attrition risk and product propensity. Credit union interest drives the development of additional models; modules calculating member lifetime value and delinquency risk are currently on the drawing board.
Prisma Campaigns took home the Innovation Club Award, the consensus choice of a select group of credit unions convened by Best Innovation Group to incubate breakthrough ideas. Prisma aims to deliver “personalization at scale” through a central launching pad and analytics dashboard for email, social media campaigns and other member communications. As a key part of the learning aspect, once a member clicks “no thanks” to an offer the engine incorporates this knowledge and highlights alternate products and services more attuned to that individual going forward.
The “JUDI” in JUDI.AI’s is designed to communicate the firm’s mission: auto-decisioning (or adjudication) of consumer and small business loan applications based on artificial intelligence. JUDI.AI’s solution is omni-channel and fully configurable- essential elements for a process that remains highly individualized and central to a credit union’s community standing. JUDI is a unit of Lendified, an AXFI veteran and one of Canada’s leading small business direct lenders. The Sponsors Award, conferred by Trellance, BIG and Pure IT Credit Union Services, went to JUDI.AI, which offers Lendified’s underlying decisioning engine to credit unions on a white-labeled basis.
Q-Cheque addresses a nagging issue affecting the still-common paper check. Every item clearly lists the payor’s account number- information deemed sensitive enough that it is masked on ATM receipts and online banking screens. Q-Cheque masks this information with a QR code as well as a tokenized number that is converted in the clearing process. The company also positions the product as a potential “positive pay” service for consumer checks, as the validity of the item can be confirmed online.
“Follow the money” is the guiding principle of FlowTracker Analytics, which points out that expired CD funds aren’t necessarily lost simply because the holder didn’t renew. The root cause may be a flight to liquidity, an extended rate shopping exercise, or a simple “sleeper” situation. Based on six data elements fed daily into its models, FlowTracker generates reports (uploadable into CRM systems, etc.) for appropriate follow-up.
Sherpa Technologies’ highlighted its ID-Pal digital identity verification and document storage solution. With more high-value business- including account opening and loan applications- moving online, it’s critical that credit unions are able to authenticate their customer. ID-Pal’s ability to validate a wide array of government issued IDs (from both the US and abroad) and perform facial recognition and “liveness checks” are an important step in this direction.
Congratulations to all six of these groundbreaking firms. And mark your calendars now for June 7-10, 2020, when Killer FinTech and the rest of the AXFI Conference will return to Minneapolis.
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