Epiphany and Kaleyra launch the first Open Banking Hub
The partnership signed this past July, between Epiphany, a digital banking solutions start-up founded in Italy and operating globally and Kaleyra, an international group specialised in mobile messaging solutions for banks and other highly-transactional businesses, has resulted in Italy’s first Open Banking Hub which allows banks to quickly innovate and deploy open banking compliant apps.
This means that the many banks that already rely on Kaleyra’s messaging technology to have two-way communication with clients via SMS or WhatsApp, and now wish to lean into open banking, will have easy access to Epiphany’s readymade apps like Instapay, Account Aggregation and InstaCredit to deliver modernised, fully compliant, open banking experiences to their end clients. Quickly. In other words, this Open Banking Hub brings everything under one roof; communication services and apps, allowing banks to capitalise on the open banking phenomenon through direct engagement; remain competitive, win business and avoid disintermediation by third party processors (TPPs) all together.
Effective this week, Kaleyra’s clients in the retail banking sector will have instant access to 3 of Epiphany’s PSD2/GDPR compliant apps. This union of the two platforms, gives banks minimal technical-functional impacts, have lower costs and implementation times and overall reduce the time-to-market and time-to-value of new products.
In detail, the innovative Hub starts with the following Epiphany’s ready to use apps, with more to follow in the coming months:
- InstaPay: an instant payment service via mobile. In one click your smartphone becomes a digital wallet to pay in total security as well as having in real time the update of your banking statements. 95% of the large-scale distribution in Italy can now use InstaPay.
- Account Aggregation: the solution which allows banks to access in real time the information made available through other banking institutions with a single API and which simplifies the development of other solutions such as PFM, credit scoring and marketing. The solution has a 100% coverage of the Italian market.
- InstaCredit: a personalised microcredit solution in real time, providing a more advanced credit line opening service using machine learning to define credit score and credit worthiness.
“Following the implementation of PSD2, banks now need to ensure they are in position to offer competitive services to improve the consumers’ experience: from safe and quick transactions via mobile, to the access of small loans, to the transfer of p2p money whilst you chat. It will also help to integrate services such as the purchase of plane tickets and booking of car sharing. Open banking is an opportunity that on European scale is worth more than 60bn euros, having an impact on the level of investments in Italy that will exceed 3.5bn euros, with a focus on products in the lending area (55% of the value generated), digital payments (15%) and bank accounts (20%)”, clarify managing director of Kaleyra Alex Milani, and CEO and founder of Epiphany Paolo Spadafora.