Fintech Archives | 51��News Center

How Vast Bank Is Redefining the Banking Industry with SAP

Lindsey Staskus — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 12:15:28 +0000

As the first nationally chartered U.S. bank to offer cryptocurrency approved in partnership with the OCCER, Vast Bank continues to push the envelope and redefine the U.S. banking standard.

Founded in 1982 and based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Vast Bank originally offered its services to the surrounding community and later expanded its customer base to a regional level. In addition to having customers across all 50 states, it is also the first U.S. bank to implement the solution.

Vast Bank is independent and wholly owned by the Biolchini family out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. This style of ownership not only cultivated a sense of community within Vast Bank, but also reinforced its guiding principles for high performance. In a recent 51��customer interview series, Stephen Taylor, chief innovation officer for Vast Bank, shared that alignment among the executive leadership team was imperative when it came to launching its digital transformation with SAP.

“The support and definition Vast Bank received from 51��when it came to aligning the technical solution approach to all the guiding principles was a core aspect for implementation,” Taylor said.

In the interview, Taylor spoke with Matthew Donovan, global director for Business and Marketing Development at SAP, on leading the company’s digital transformation.

Responding to New Trends

Until recently, the banking industry remained relatively unaffected by greater technological advancements and consumer demands. However, Taylor noted two trends that have caused shake-ups. First, the arrival of financial technology companies (fintechs), including Venmo, PayPal, and Chime, has disrupted the traditional delivery of financial services from established financial institutions. In addition to this, younger generations of consumers now view technology as a necessity when it comes to anything involving money. For long-standing institutions like Vast Bank, a shift toward prioritizing digital consumer trends ultimately changes the expectations of what it means to do banking.

Instead of resisting change, Vast Bank decided to respond. It recognized emerging fintech companies as partners, not as existential threats to its business model. Taylor said working with fintech companies was necessary to cultivate the best experience for customers. This decision coincided with Vast Bank’s aspiration to provide a technologically rich banking experience as it expanded its regional and national customer base. So, when consumer demands pointed toward cryptocurrency, Vast Bank secured a strong partnership with regulatory bodies to responsibly lead in the crypto space.

Implementing Digital Transformation

Vast Bank encountered limitations as it transitioned to offering real-time cryptocurrency services for its customer base. First, it was essential Vast Bank protected customers and their assets in the cryptocurrency space. “It is important that a bank does that in a safe and sound way,” Taylor said. Besides safeguarding its own customers, the company needed to ensure customers could also participate and interact within the greater banking ecosystem. At the end of the day, Taylor said it became a balancing act. “We still have to integrate processes that are both modern and current for customers, but also help them participate in the financial ecosystem that is not real time,” he said.

With a project that required a large investment and extensive core processing changes, executive alignment was a critical component of Vast Bank’s digital transformation. “You are going to run into challenges, especially when you are doing something new that no one has ever done before,” he explained. As the planning for digital transformation was underway, Vast Bank made certain of collaborative alignment across all executive leaders and their designated teams.

Working with 51��helped enable the core transformation at Vast Bank. “In order to provide real-time event application and structure to our customers, our system needed to be a core that we can manage and control while also supporting the real-time ecosystem,” Taylor said. Coming together with 51��allowed Vast Bank to bring on supplementary partners, solution implementers, and software developers to fill in the overall solution.

Deliver Early and Deliver Often

Despite the obstacles Vast Bank experienced, there are still net benefits of becoming the “first” implementer of 51��S/4HANA Banking. “It is challenging, but the ability to overcome adversity is the best opportunity for growth,” Taylor said. It is now able to tackle markets that were not accessible before, which is a key component to driving industry change. Furthermore, Vast Bank will be able to grow faster in experience and change, as it is now able to process and access data at a deeper level provided by the 51��for Banking solution portfolio. Taylor pointed out quantifiable benefits the business experienced post-implementation. More specifically, Vast Bank was able to decrease its customer onboarding time from 45 minutes to as little as 90 seconds.

Looking forward, Taylor established three core objectives for the near future. First, Vast Bank aims to continue building out solutions and further expand its partnerships with fintech companies. Also, it is on target to complete the delivery and conversions of its migration to SAP. Lastly, Vast Bank strives to offer additional services and emerge as a leader in the cryptocurrency space.

“We are really excited about the next couple of years, especially when we get on our new platform, apply different levels of automation, and have access to new data,” Taylor noted. “We are pretty excited about the future at Vast.”

Lindsey Staskus is an 51��iXp intern for North America Integrated Communications.

SAP.iO Foundry Singapore Launches FinTech and COVID-19 Recovery Acceleration Program

51��News — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 01:00:10 +0000

SINGAPORE — (NYSE: SAP) today kicked off the Fall 2020 acceleration program focused on COVID-19 recovery, FinTech and spend management. The selected business-to-business startups will help SAP’s customers extend the value of their investments in 51��Concur solutions for travel and expense management.

“By helping these enterprising startups in the SAP.iO program scale, we enable our customers to benefit from the value of some of these unique solutions and emerging technologies when they become available in 51��Concur App Center,” said Andy Watson, 51��Concur senior vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific Japan and Greater China.

The selected startups will have access to curated mentorship from 51��executives, exposure to 51��technology and application programming interfaces (APIs) and opportunities to collaborate with 51��customers. The program will culminate at the SAP.iO Cohort Demo Day in December 2020.

“COVID-19 is pushing many businesses to go digital in search of growth,” Singapore Economic Development Board Vice President Ang Chin Tah said. “The Singapore Economic Development Board is glad to support the SAP.iO Foundry Singapore Fall 2020 acceleration program, which will bring startups from all around the world to Singapore to develop products that meet the needs of the new operating environment. Singapore’s established base of industry leaders in finance and digital, as well as connectedness to regional markets, make us a great testing ground for their ideas. It is a wonderful new addition to our thriving ecosystem.”

In line with the initiative, the cohort includes several startups founded or led by female entrepreneurs, a testament to SAP’s belief that a healthy ecosystem includes entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds.

The following startups are part of the Fall 2020 program:

offers a credit card enablement platform, enabling the payment or collection of big expenses using credit cards, where cards are not accepted today.
creates a standardized international luggage delivery and tracking platform by widely applying radio frequency identification (RFID) while working with logistics services providers in varying countries.
makes it easy for users to move digital cash securely, allowing easy spending, sending and lending.
’s open banking platform and APIs empower financial innovators to create financial services products and experiences for their customers.
offers cognitive technology that can read, interpret and extract data from business documents faster, more affordably and more precisely than humans, at scale and in any language.
is the world’s first platform for circadian (body rhythm) shifting and helps businesses empower their traveling employees to create their own jet lag plans.

To learn more about SAP.iO and how 51��is helping innovators inside and outside of 51��build products, find customers and change industries, visit .

Visit the . Follow 51��on Twitter at and .

Media Contacts:
Anke Otto-Jungkind, +1 (650) 796-6478, anke.otto-jungkind@sap.com, PT
Lesa Beber, +1 (650) 390-1629, lesa.beber@sap.com, PT
; press@sap.com

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51��and Swiss Re Continue to Co-Innovate Finance Transformation to Meet New Accounting Standards

51��News — Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:00:57 +0000

�´��ٰ�� — (NYSE: SAP) today announced that its co-innovation project with leading reinsurance company Swiss Re has added new features providing new reporting capabilities to its solution to help financial companies meet upcoming accounting standards, streamline accounting flows and increase transparency and control.

The latest features will deliver a to the insurance and financial industries and expands financial reporting options to bank, insurance companies and financial technology (fintech) companies to drive finance transformation with a comprehensive subledger solution. The combined financial accounting and planning solution allows companies to easily produce multiple reconciled valuations for financial products.

“Since announcing our partnership in 2017, 51��and Swiss Re set out to develop a solution that addresses the increasingly complex demands related to financial steering and reporting of insurance companies from regulators across the globe,” CFO Gerhard Lohmann said. “The successful completion of the subledger co-innovation marks an important milestone in our long-term digital transformation strategy. With regulations constantly evolving, these innovations are important to help companies easily adapt to new regulatory and accounting standards.”

This iteration of the product offers additional functionality and reporting content for accountants and actuaries following the 1909 release of 51��S/4HANA, which has improved the continuous closing process. The solution drives increased efficiency through enhanced functionality by putting equal emphasis on insurance contracts and financial instruments as they are accounted for by the financial products subledger solution.

“We are bringing our subledger solution to a broader user group, and more projects are on the way,” said Luka Mucic, 51��CFO and member of the Executive Board of 51��SE. “We have seen enormous interest in the solution. Our customer base has rapidly expanded to 39 in the first year, and hundreds of entities signed up for it. The solution is designed for the complex regulatory and reporting requirements that insurance firms, banks, fintech companies and financial corporations are facing today. The combination of financial accounting and planning functionality helps the industry prepare for the upcoming accounting standards, such as IFRS 17 and long duration targeted improvements (LDTI).”

Visit the . Follow 51��on Twitter at .

Media Contact:
Stacy Ries, SAP, +1 (484) 619-0411, stacy.ries@sap.com, ET
51��Press Room; press@sap.com
Media Relations, Swiss Re, +41 (43) 285-7171, Media_Relations@swissre.com, CET

51��Achieves First-Place Rankings in Internationally Recognized CeFPro Fintech Leaders 2020 Report

51��News — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 13:00:53 +0000

WALLDORF — (NYSE: SAP) today announced that it took first place in core banking, accounting and treasury management in the FinTech Leaders 2020 Report released by the Center for Financial Professionals (CeFPro), an international research organization. CeFPro also named among the top 20 in the overall fintech ecosystem.

The is the most far-reaching and rigorous program ranking fintech industry leaders. The rankings categorize and evaluate leading fintech companies, vendors and solution providers based on data gathered from surveys of practitioners, end users and subject matter experts. The report also makes use of original research and market analysis conducted by CeFPro and backed by an advisory board of 60 international industry professionals.

“CeFPro’s Fintech Leaders is unlike any industry report, as it is endorsed by 60 Advisory Board members and is the ‘voice of the industry’ through the votes cast by industry professionals,” CeFPro Managing Director Andreas Simou said. “In essence, this is an endorsement by the industry of SAP’s position within the fintech space.”

CeFPro also includes research on industry trends, priorities and challenges. Key findings highlight advanced analytics and AI as leading opportunities. These takeaways underscore the importance of making technology the backbone of fintech strategies for a state-of-the-art ��Ի��.

Visit the . Follow 51��on Twitter at .

Media Contacts:
Stacy Ries, SAP, +1 (484) 619-0411, stacy.ries@sap.com, ET
51��Press Room; press@sap.com
Shannon Mason, CeFPro, +1 (888) 677-7007, shannon.mason@cefpro.com, , GMT

The Rise of Customer Experience in Fintech and GRC

Ann Weiss — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 14:15:40 +0000

Debt collection and a great customer experience are two concepts not typically combined. The image of an intimidating, baseball bat-carrying debt collector is too ingrained in our cultural consciousness.

So being the “friendliest debt collectors in Europe” is quite a bold goal for troy, one of six startups invited to a dedicated financial technology (fintech) program focused on finance and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) in Berlin by the SAP.iO Foundries.

What is Fintech?

Financial technology (fintech) describes technology that is designed to improve and automate the use of financial services.

While the term originally referred to technology applied at banks or trading firms, fintech has grown explosively since the Internet cloud computing, and mobile revolution. There has been a shift to more consumer-oriented services in recent years. It now describes a broad range of technologies for personal and commercial finance, such as money transfers, the use of cryptocurrencies, smartphone payments, bypassing a bank to apply for credit, and more.

According to , three out of four consumers have used money transfers or payments with fintech services. As fintech makes financial services more accessible to consumers, its consumer experience expectations will certainly going to increase.

troy: The Friendliest Debt Collectors in Europe

Philip Rürup, CEO of , makes clear that creating a friendly customer experience in debt collection is more than a marketing slogan; it is a mindset backed up by technology and proven key performance indicators (KPIs). By treating people as customers and not debtors, troy has found unique solutions to incorporate customer experience into the debt collection process. According to Rürup, this induces people to pay their debts faster, pay more, and even pay “happily.”

“We found that 50 percent of people simply forgot to pay, or just faced a short-term bottleneck,” explained Rürup. “So, it doesn’t make sense to use heavy-handed approaches here.”

A broken car, a long trip, or turbulent times: It is all too easy to lose track of payments.

“Across all industries, improvements in customer experience have focused on marketing, sales, and CRM,” said Rürup. “But as soon you get into the financial processes around invoices, payment, and debt, the positivity stops! We wanted to make debt collection feel different. Using 51��S/4HANA as the seamless integration point between our solution and the companies wanting to collect on debts is an important part of the equation.”

Philip Rürup, CEO of troy.

Competing in an Exploding Market

That is just one of the approaches by startups that has captured the attention of the 51��S/4HANA Product Management and Development Teams. According to Jochen Thierer, head of Engineering for GRC at SAP, startups are crucial to SAP’s ability to address new markets.

“Given SAP’s focus on customer-centricity and success, our objective is to provide holistic GRC and fintech solutions to our global customers across all segments,” said Thierer. “We are constantly evaluating new, exciting startup ideas that could bridge the gap for our customers while ensuring impactful innovations in our core, especially in the fast-moving fintech space.”

Thierer also points out that partnering with the 51��ecosystem is critical, and customers are happy about that: “This strategy is helping our customers in their journey to become intelligent enterprises while helping us compete better and gain market share in the GRC and finance space.”

However, the relationships need to be effectively managed. It is not easy for startups to work with corporations and vice versa.

“Innovation between startups and corporates need to be orchestrated and SAP.iO together with the 51��Startup Engagement team are vital to that,” remarked Thierer. “They made it easy for us to find and engage with the right startups and allowed us to engage with the ecosystem in a professional way.“

In addition to obvious market-based benefits, they also provide more intangible cultural benefits according to Oliver Kroneisen, head of Financials Operations Development at SAP.

“Working with startups is inspirational,” said Kroneisen. “51��employees get a huge motivational boost when they see how positively the startups view 51��and how eager they are to get the chance to tap into the immense opportunities that the 51��infrastructure and ecosystem provides. Also, as a manager, it’s eye-opening to see how these entrepreneurs can instill a sense of meaning and purpose into the work employees do and the impact that has on the outcomes – especially in the case of troy. Their ‘just-built-it’ mentality shows us how easy it can be to build beautiful solutions when you are not hindered by real or imagined silos. Those are important lessons for 51��leaders.”

“The startup founders’ spirit and passion for what they do is infectious,” said Jan Gilg, senior vice president and head of 51��S/4HANA. “I really get a sense of their drive and excitement for what they are working on. I was inspired by the fresh perspectives that I saw on standard topics like governance, and I came away with a lot of new insights. One of our big topics at the moment is how we can turn commodity processes into differentiation opportunities and I really felt that the out-of-the box thinking among the GRC and fintech startups is taking this in the right direction. I can’t wait to see what the next cohort of startups will come up with.”

Working With Startups Challenges Us to Improve – Fast

51��would not be where it is if it was not also self-critical. “We are always looking for ways to improve our internal processes, organizational structures, and software architecture so that startup collaboration gets easier,” explained Kroneisen. “Working with startups helps us uncover areas we need to improve in our cloud business operations.”

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