Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions invested in payments fintech Icon Solutions last week to modernize its core payments capabilities and expand its payments offerings.  

Citi TTS, the transaction banking arm of the $1.6 trillion Citibank, plans to use Icon Solutions’ technology to modernize its core payments capabilities globally, including Automated Clearing House payments, wires and cross-border payments, a Citi spokesperson told Bank Automation News.

Citi TTS has been working with Icon Solutions since 2022. The partnership “will allow us to simplify and standardize Citi’s business capabilities, enabling us to deliver new solutions to our clients in a faster and more consistent way,” the spokesperson said. 

The framework of Icon Solutions provides cloud-ready microservices for payments making its services scalable, reducing turnaround time and providing real-time processing engines for payments along with embedding ISO 20022 guidelines into its payments messaging, they said. 

Citi TTS has increased investments in tech by 40% since 2021 and will continue to invest in its platform during the next three to four years, Shahmir Khaliq, head of services, said during Credit Suisse’s Financial Services Forum in Feburary. 

Melio looks to JPMorgan Payments for real-time payments  

B2B payments provider Melio tapped JPMorgan Payments today to provide real-time payments capabilities to its customers.  

The capability allows Melio to deliver funds faster to its vendors, according to a Melio release. 

Using JPMorgan’s platform, Melio’s clients can process payments within seconds, even on weekends, unlike ACH payments that can take days to process, the release stated. Melio will be able to provide real-time payments on both FedNow and The Clearing House’s RTP network, a Melio spokesperson told BAN. 

Evolve Bank and Trust, Intuit Quickbooks and Discover are among Melio’s clients, according to the company’s website. The company has raised $504 million since its inception in 2018 from investors including Accel, Coatue and Thrive Capital, according to Crunchbase. 

Google Pay, Affirm team up for BNPL 

Tech giant Google will offer buy now, pay later provider Affirm as a payment option for its Android users through apps and websites that offer Google Pay, according to today’s Affirm release.  

The solution, which will be available to customers in the U.S. for online checkouts in the first quarter of 2024, allows Google Pay users more options and flexibility at checkout, Google Pay Senior Director Drew Olson said in the release. 

The deal will allow Affirm to further expand its merchant volume, according to the release. In its fiscal first quarter, ended Sept. 30, Affirm reported a 28% year-over-year increase in gross merchant volume for BNPL payments to $5.6 billion. 

Jamie Cunningham, director of strategic partnerships at Affirm, called teaming with Google Pay a “step forward in our distribution strategy,” as digital wallets are being used more frequently by shoppers than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Affirm also provides BNPL services to Amazon Pay. 

Quontic Bank launches Alkami Digital Banking Platform  

$352 million Quontic Bank has launched the Alkami Digital Banking Platform to provide its customers with a platform for online and mobile banking, providing them with account opening capabilities, data analytics and payment fraud prevention. 

The digital solution will provide the Queens, New York-based Quontic the ability to increase customer interaction and drive customer acquisition, according to the Dec. 7 release. 

“We chose to work with Alkami because their fully open and integrated digital banking solution plays well with third parties and allows us to provide our customers with speed and control for all their financial transactions, Grace Pace, senior vice president at Quontic, said in the release. 

Banks including$1 billion Ideal Credit Union, $7 billion Liberty Bank and $2.9 billion Lone Star National Bank also use Alkami’s platform. 

Bank of Tampa selects KlariVis for data service management 

Bank of Tampa has selected KlariVis,a data management technology company, as its data solution provider. The $3.2 billion bank aims to make its data available and accessible to its employees to improve its services to its customers, according to a Nov. 30 release from the data management technology company.  

The Tampa, Fla.-based bank selected KlariVis due to “the variety of reports and dashboards KlariVis could immediately make available,” Bank of Tampa Chief Information Officer Mike Krieg said in the release. 

The data management provider provides more than 650 interactive and static dashboards including deposit composition, balance of new/closed accounts and loan summaries, and democratizes data access, giving a full picture of how the bank is performing, a KlariVis spokesperson told BAN. 

“Financial institutions are intensifying their focus not only on new deposits but also on customer retention and expanding wallet share,” the spokesperson said. “Given the pressure on margins, these financial institutions quickly recognize the cost-effectiveness of mining customer data for identifying opportunities within existing relationships.” 

KlariVis provides its services to $1.1 billion FNCB Bank, $790 million Rio Bank and $6 billion United Fidelity Bank, according to the company’s website. The Roanoke, Va.-based company has experienced 224% client growth within the last 12 months as banks face uncertainty in the economy and look to use data to improve their services, the spokesperson said. 

Visit Bank Automation News’ Transactions Database, which lists the technology selected or acquired by companies in the financial services industry, with a specific focus on technology that enhances automation.

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