• Open banking company MX and real-time payments player Orum have formed a partnership.
• The agreement integrates Orum’s money movement API with MX’s instant account verification and balance check capabilities.
• Combining these technologies will enable fintechs to embed real-time payment capabilities into their own offerings.

Open banking company MX announced a partnership with real-time payments player Orum this week that will enable it to provide real-time payments and money movement capabilities for fintechs.

The agreement integrates Momentum, Orum’s money movement API, with MX’s instant account verification (IAV) and balance check capabilities. This combination will enable fintechs to embed instant payments capabilities for transactions in any direction, at any time.

“More than ever, fintechs and verticalized payments companies are looking for innovative solutions that automate and simplify money movement, from unlocking instant and risk-mitigated on and off ramps, to optimizing the customer experience through instant availability of funds and payouts,” said Orum Chief Revenue Officer Rouzbeh Rotabi. “By partnering with MX, Orum is further enhancing the ability to offer the best experience for developers who value simplicity and security, and end-customers who want instant funds availability.”

Orum offers a unified money movement API that uses in-house payments intelligence to manage risk and orchestrate complex, multi-rail transfers. The company offers settlement in as little as 60 seconds. This is the first partnership announcement I’ve seen from Orum, which offers use cases for crypto exchanges, brokerage firms, gig platforms, insurance companies, consumer lenders, and banks. Founded by Stephany Kirkpatrick, the company entered the market with its flagship product, Foresight, in 2020. To date, Orum has raised $82.2 million in funding from the likes of Inspired Capital, Bain Capital, Accel, Canapi Ventures, and others.

Founded in 2010, MX has positioned itself in the open finance space, offering account aggregation and data access products alongside its mobile banking and money management tools. When used in conjunction with Orum’s instant payment technology, MX’s IAV and balance check capabilities will help fintechs verify and aggregate consumers’ financial information quickly and securely.

“Orum offers fintech and financial institutions access to smarter, simpler, and faster payments,” said MX Executive Vice President, Channel Partnerships Raymond den Hond. “MX and Orum’s shared commitment to enabling best-in-class financial experiences and outcomes through cutting-edge platforms makes this a natural partnership. We are excited to grow and expand our capabilities together to meet the most pressing needs of fintechs and payments companies.”

Photo by Pixabay

• MX has appointed Jim Magats as CEO, replacing Interim CEO Shane Evans.
• Magats comes to MX after spending 18 years as a senior executive at PayPal, where he specialized in open finance.
• Evans will continue to serve as a senior advisor.

Open finance fintech MX named Jim Magats CEO this week.

The news comes after company Founder and former CEO Ryan Caldwell stepped down at the beginning of the year, appointing Shane Evans as Interim CEO. After the transition, Caldwell stepped into a new role as Executive Chair to spend more time with family and focus on his daughter’s health recovery.

“Jim Magats brings a wealth of experience and knowledge about how to deliver high-impact financial solutions and products for consumers, merchants, and financial organizations, along with a vast network of partners and customers at the world’s leading financial institutions and fintechs,” said Caldwell. “We have tremendous confidence in Jim’s ability to lead the organization through the next phase of our growth in establishing our leadership in the open finance economy, helping organizations of all sizes access and act on financial data to improve customer outcomes and grow their businesses.”

Magats comes to MX after spending 18 years as a senior executive at PayPal. Most recently, he served as the company’s Senior Vice President for Omni Payments Solutions where he was charged with overseeing the company’s open banking strategy and partnership network of more than 150 financial institutions and networks.

The appointment is strategic for MX, which has spent the past few years positioning itself as a leader in the open finance space, because of Magats’ experience in open finance. While at PayPal, he worked with regulators in Europe helping to create PSD2 banking standards. He also spent time building PayPal’s open, secure API capabilities to facilitate digital payments.

“Financial data is the lifeblood of a connected economy, and nobody helps organizations access and act on financial data better than MX. Our opportunity to make financial data accessible and actionable is global, extends across verticals, and has the potential to make a positive difference in the lives of billions of people,” said Magats. “After 18 amazing years at PayPal, I’m incredibly excited to join MX, a company on a mission to build the open finance economy and empower the world to be financially strong. We are going to deepen and extend our partnerships with financial institutions and fintechs to fuel the next wave of innovation while fostering greater participation in the global economy through new products, use cases, and services.”

During his seven-month tenure as Interim CEO, Evans saw the company through the tragic passing of company Cofounder Brandon Dewitt. Evans, who joined MX in 2019 as Chief Revenue Officer, will continue to serve as a senior advisor.

Photo by Pixabay

• Multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner MX announced a partnership with embedded banking platform Rize.
• Together the two fintechs will make it easier for developers to build and launch new financial services and products through a single API.
• Virginia-based fintech-as-a-service innovator Rize was founded in 2015 and has recently partnered with Walnut Insurance and TrueNorth.

A partnership between financial data and modern connectivity company MX and embedded banking platform Rize will enable fintech and other developers to build, launch, and scale new financial solutions via a single API.

The collaboration, announced late last month, will provide access to Rize’s banking infrastructure and compliance program. Both current and new clients also will be able to securely link bank accounts from 16,000+ financial institutions and fintechs by way of MX’s data connectivity network, which leverages machine learning to clean and enrich transaction data.

“Our partnership with Rize is all about developing new financial products and services through one API,” MX EVP of Partnerships Don Parker said. “By cutting the associated time and costs of development, we’ll open up MX functionality to a wider range of fintech companies and organizations already working to improve financial strength and access to quality financial tools.”

Powering 85% of digital banking providers and thousands of banks, credit unions, and fintechs, MX most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage last fall in New York for FinovateFall. At the conference, the multiple-time Best of Show winner showed its Open Finance portal that improves the data sharing experience between providers and recipients for the benefit of the customer. The technology relies on modern, token-based connectivity to give financial institutions the ability to monitor and manage how customer data is shared.

In the months since its appearance at FinovateFall, MX has forged partnerships with Deposits.com to promote financial inclusion in underbanked communities, and with H&R Block, where the Lehi, Utah-based fintech will help the tax preparer provide customers of its Spruce mobile banking platform with greater transparency. In February, MX teamed up with Cadence Bank, a regional financial institution based in Tupelo, Mississippi with more than $50 billion in assets and 400+ branches in the American South, Midwest and in Texas. MX began the year with the appointment of Shane Evans as Interim Chief Executive Officer. Evans took over the top spot from MX founder Ryan Caldwell, who transitioned to the role of Executive Chair.

When it comes to Florida’s credit unions, in terms of both assets and membership, it doesn’t get any bigger than Suncoast CU. Founded in 1934 as Hillsborough County Teachers Credit Union, the institution converted to a federal charter as Suncoast Schools FCU in 1978. The company has since become the largest credit union in the state of Florida, as well as the 10th largest credit union in the U.S. based on membership and assets, which total more than $14 billion. The credit union has 75 full-service branches and serves more than 991,000 members in 40 counties in Florida.

The credit union also has become the latest institution to team up with financial data platform and modern connectivity leader MX. Suncoast will leverage MX’s data enhancement platform, its PFM, and MXinsights technology to enable its members to proactively manage and take action to improve their finances. The partnership is designed to improve processing efficiencies for Suncoast, as well as fuel more customer-engaging experiences and accelerate growth, by putting the institution’s data more accessible and more actionable.

“By providing our members with a better experience, powered by accessible and relevant information about their financial lives – what they need and when they need it – we’re helping them solve real issues on their terms,” Suncoast Credit Union President and CEO Kevin Johnson said. “We believe this will lead to even more connected Suncoast members and provide more availability for our employees to provide personalized assistance.”

As part of the collaboration, Suncoast’s members will gain access to budgeting, auto-categorization, and debt management tools, as well as the ability to view all of their data in a single platform. The credit union will be able to leverage MXinsights to play a proactive role in their member’s financial health, communicating with them about their account activity and empowering them to develop and maintain healthier financial practices.

“The combination of cleansed, intelligent data powering personal financial insights that MX is providing Suncoast makes for a delightful money experience from a credit union that truly cares about the financial health of its members in Florida and beyond,” MX Chief Customer Officer Nate Gardner said.

A multiple time Finovate Best of Show winner, MX has teamed up with a number of customer-centric financial institutions in recent months. This includes a partnership with Massachusetts-based Cambridge Savings Bank to help the $5 billion asset institution launch its Money Management personal finance visualization solution. MX has also partnered with fintechs such SUMA Wealth, which is dedicated to serving the Latin/Hispanic community, as well as with payroll connectivity API company Pinwheel and credit union mobile banking solution provider Mahalo Technologies. Headquartered in Lehi, Utah, MX was founded in 2010. Ryan Caldwell is co-founder and CEO.

Financial data platform MX announced a collaboration with 1.2 million-member BECU (Boeing Employees Credit Union) to build a new mobile app feature called Quick Save that will help members boost their savings. Piloted last year with BECU members that had low savings account balances, Quick Save helps increase savings via an easy-to-use “slide to save” module that enables frequent, small dollar amount transfers.

“BECU is continually innovating and leveraging technology to improve our members’ experience and empower them financially,” BECU Director of Digital Strategy Liz Wagner explained. “It’s been inspiring to see Quick Save go from a concept to a fully functioning tool that members in this pilot are using to build their savings.”

The pilot project was conducted – and evaluated – in coordination with the Financial Health Network (FHN). Over the course of five months, FHN determined that BECU members using the new solution had transferred more than $2 million into savings accounts, representing an 18% increase in savings balance for the credit union’s low-balance savers, and a 26% increase in money movement via mobile transfers. Wagner credited the “combined power” of all three parties involved for both helping build and measure the effectiveness of the Quick Save offering, adding that the solution would “meaningfully improve our members’ financial health.”

Quick Save is only the latest example of the relationship that the Utah-based fintech and BECU have cultivated. More than five years ago, BECU went live with Helios by MX, a cross-platform framework that enables device- and platform-agnostic, full-featured digital banking.

“When it comes to mobile banking, every option we looked at functioned about the same,” BECU VP of Digital Banking Howie Wu said after the technology had been implemented. “We saw Helios as a chance to stand out and provide a very different experience.” Wu highlighted digital money management, aggregation, budgeting, and alert notifications among the offerings available via the framework – “all features that would enable our members to be financially strong,” Wu explained. Within 18 months of its deployment, BECU reported a 170% increase in billpay, a 56% increase in money transfers, and a 22% increase in check deposits.

Headquartered in Tukwila, Washington (a suburb of Seattle) and founded in 1935, BECU has assets of more than $26 billion. The institution is the largest credit union in Washington State and the fourth largest credit union in the U.S.

“BECU and MX have been aligned partners for years, both resolute in our determination to help strengthen the financial well-being of BECU members and their community,” MX Chief Customer Officer Nate Gardner said. He called Quick Save “yet another example of BECU’s wholehearted commitment to financial strength” as well as delivering “intelligent and personalized money experiences for the hundreds of thousands of members they serve.”

A multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner, MX returns to the Finovate stage next month in September for FinovateFall in New York.