In a rapidly changing business environment, standing still can be fatal.
Digital transformation sharpens the knife of inertiaand Collaboration between traditional banks and fintech companies is becoming an important competitive differentiation.
Partnerships between banks and fintechs allow both parties to focus on their strengths: banks can continue to offer the right products and services, while ERP (enterprise resource planning) and TMS (treasury management system) providers can optimize their own operations. Own Software solutions.
“Businesses can focus on running and growing their business instead of spending countless hours on technical integrations with banks.” Meg GarlandHead of CashPro Payments and CashPro API Bank of Americasaid PYMNTS.
Business needs for data reporting and payments have never been greater, and simplifying the integration of solutions that can support these needs is critical to growth.
“Think about cash flow, payment information and other information that clients can get based on transactional data through the API, and then that same data is integrated into the client’s ERP or TMS.so We can get insights within their ecosystem as well,” Garland said.
The evolution of bank-fintech partnerships
Bank of America’s CashPro team has evolved its approach to partnering with FinTechs over the past three years, and Garand says a key driver of this evolution has been a customer-centric strategy focused on understanding and responding to customer needs.
“Customer experience is at the core of our strategy,” she said. “We want to give our customers easy access to meet their working capital needs. Faster integration with Cashflow really enables those capabilities, Right there It’s at your fingertips.”
Garland said Bank of America’s CashPro team serves more than 40,000 business clients, from small businesses to large corporations. Enterprise We serve global multinational corporations. As part of the CashPro network, we partner with large ERP and TMS providers around the world. This network simplifies integration for our clients and streamlines data reporting and payment Meet your needs efficiently.
Despite the benefits, establishing and maintaining such partnerships between banks and FinTechs comes with challenges. Given the abundance of choice, it becomes a matter of prioritization, as the right provider to partner with needs to be selected based on the greatest potential benefit to the end customer.
“We rely on our clients to advise us on where to prioritise resources and what they want to bring to market. To best meet their needs“Our goal is to serve our joint customers and provide a path to integration that will ultimately enable them to adopt and realize the benefits,” Garland said.
“We also Match “It has to be aligned with the strategic roadmap of your ERP and TMS provider,” she added. “There’s a lot of discussion going on to ensure that alignment and to make sure you’re focusing on the right things.”
The future of banking and fintech collaboration
One of the most compelling benefits of a successful financial institution-FinTech partnership is the accelerated implementation timeline and roadmap.
As Galland puts it, “Shorten the time limit for ‘good for use'” ( Consent to implement) is at the top of many end customers’ wish lists when it comes to digital transformation.
“A typical client it is “We’re focused on automatically pulling data reports into your ERP or TMS,” she said, noting that while the process previously took four to six weeks, “we have many clients who have same-day and day-ahead reporting up and running across all their accounts within a week.”
“The time savings absolutely “It’s huge,” Garland added.
The ease of integration that comes with banking and FinTech collaboration also reduces manual work, allowing staff to focus on strategic initiatives. Garand gives the example of an entertainment company that previously spent 10 days completing monthly reconciliations, but can now complete the process in two and a half days after integrating CashPro API into their ERP system. This automation not only saves time, but also frees up staff to focus on higher value-add activities.
Ultimately, collaboration between traditional banks and fintechs is a step towards greater digital innovation in the financial industry. By leveraging each other’s strengths, banks and fintechs can offer better solutions and streamline processes. and Provide more value to your customers.
Looking to the future, Galland stressed the importance of banks not just as providers of products and services, but also as advisors and consultants helping clients improve automation and adopt the right payments technologies.
