Among the many services they offer, banks are first and foremost money depositories — convenient places to stash and retrieve cash. These days, with all sorts of ways to navigate the digital space, banks and financial institutions are making wealth access easier than ever with financial technology, or fintech.
Fintech in Banking
From entirely mobile banks and payments between friends to AI-enhanced chatbots and anti-money laundering software, check out how these fintech banks and services are bringing the banking industry into the digital age.
Fintech Neobanks
Neobanks operate digitally, providing basic banking services without any physical branches. These digital financial companies are taking cues from traditional big banks in terms of “what not to do” while offering financial services that cost consumers less. That means, for example, fewer fees and more transparency. These fintech companies are changing the way people save, bank, budget and spend their money.
Location: New York, New York
Current provides consumers with digital banking services, allowing them to access tools for crypto trading, saving and building their credit from their mobile device. Users can get their paycheck up to days early by setting up direct deposit with their Current account, and they can take advantage of more than 40,000 ATMs they can take money out of without fees.
Location: New York, New York
Cash App does many of the things a bank does: holds money in savings accounts, processes payments via debit cards and facilitates transfers between users. It is not, however, a bank, but rather a broker-dealer as registered with the SEC. Users can invest in stocks and even file taxes via the Cash App platform, which is largely fee-free and makes it possible to nearly divest from the traditional banking system altogether.
Location: San Francisco, California
Chime is a completely digital bank that forgoes the fees most traditional banks charge. The neobank offers simple spending and savings accounts with Visa debit cards that are managed through its mobile app. The app also provides early paycheck access, daily notifications on balance and real-time transaction alerts.
Location: Marina Del Rey, California
Aspiration is a financial services company providing banking, investment and retirement products and services with minimal to no extra fees. Its banking services offer access to no-fee ATMs, fraud reimbursement and a low one percent annual interest on a user’s entire balance.
Aspiration allows users to “Pay What Is Fair,” meaning the customer chooses the exact amount they pay, even if that amount is zero. Aspiration also donates 10 percent of these chosen fees to vetted non-profit charities.
Location: Fully Remote
With Dave Spending, users can budget, track finance goals and oversee their Dave debit card with no overdraft or minimum balance fees. Users may choose to hold a physical or digital Dave card, which offers rewards and is Apple Pay and G Pay-compatible. Along with banking management, the platform also offers perks like in-app instant cash and a connected side-hustle network for job seekers.
Location: San Francisco, California
Following the goal to “get your money right,” SoFi is a neobank that incentivizes money management through offered financial planning and career services. As a no-cost member, SoFi users can access loan refinancing and discounts, financial advising, insurance quoting and more for instances ranging from student loans to home mortgages.
Location: San Francisco, California
Upgrade hosts a rewards checking bank system for users to also manage personal loans, credit and refinancing. The company offers four different cards to choose from, whether to help build credit or to earn cash or Bitcoin rewards. Under its personal loan services, Upgrade provides debt consolidation, home improvement fund and fixed-rate loan assistance.
Location: San Francisco, California
Varo is an all-in-one mobile neobanking platform that offers services ranging from deposits and savings accounts to cash flow projections and in-app budgeting tools. Varo prides itself on transparent banking with no fees for monthly service, foreign transactions or using one of its 55,000 ATM locations.
Artificial Intelligence Fintech
Mobile banking is flexible, easy and a time-saver. Some fintech banks go above and beyond, offering virtual assistants to make the mobile experience even simpler. From text- and voice-enabled payments to fraudulent alerts and credit score notifications, virtual assistants are already enhancing the relatively new world of mobile banking.
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Ally Assist is the virtual assistant in Ally Financial’s mobile banking application. Ally Assist is both text and voice-enabled, meaning users can simply speak or text with the assistant to take care of their banking needs. Some of the tasks Ally Assist handles include payments, deposits, transfers and detailed information requests. The assistant learns from users, anticipating needs and recommending solutions.
Location: McLean, Virginia
Eno, Capital One’s intelligent assistant, is a virtual helper that lets users text questions, receive fraud alerts and take care of banking tasks. Users can pay credit cards, track account balances and view available credit and checking transactions all within their smart phone’s message application.
Eno communicates like human users do (emojis and all) while keeping information safe and easily accessible. It also allows users to ask basic questions and find quick information on the fly without having to log into their mobile app.
Security and Fraud Detection Fintech
In an online-centric age rife with innovations, hackers and identity thieves are constantly at work scamming and phishing their way into bank accounts and compromising personal information. Some anti-fraud efforts, like the EMV chip on credit cards, have cut down on card cloning, but there’s still a long way to go.
These companies, among many others, are striving to make mobile and online banking safer.
Location: New York, New York
Accertify’s Device Intelligence, powered by InAuth technology, is a security platform that provides mobile risk and fraud solutions for industries like banking, insurance and e-commerce. For banks specifically, InAuth helps secure mobile applications so customers are less susceptible to fraud. The platform provides tools like two-step authentication, device integrity screening, geo-location lookups and transaction monitoring to enhance mobile banking, increase security and reduce fraud losses.
Location: San Mateo, California
Feedzai is a software company that offers end-to-end fraud-fighting and anti-money laundering solutions to retail banks. Using machine learning and risk management tools, Feedzai provides banks and their customers with multi-channel fraud protection for issues like account takeover, transaction fraud and new account verification.
Location: Palo Alto, California
Simility is a big data company that combines machine learning and manpower to detect and curb fraud in digital banking. With the use of machine learning, the company’s Adaptive Decisioning Platform detects both payment and new account fraud while providing custom fraud solutions. Simility’s technology includes automated data analysis, link visualization and curated decision orchestration to monitor fraudulent activity.
With the help of Amount, financial institutions can discover digitalized banking solutions. Amount provides three product solutions: consumer, buy now pay later and small business. These products work individually to tackle a company’s specific needs and establish features that benefit their customers.
Traditional Banks With a Digital Presence
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The PNC Financial Services Group provides banking services for individuals, small businesses and corporations and other institutions. The company has a substantial network of retail branches, as well as a mobile app for online banking. Mobile users can manage their accounts, deposit checks, pay bills and send and receive money. Other digital banking services include text and email alerts and voice banking to access information and services over the phone.
Location: New York, New York
Big banks have apps, online banking and digital features like mobile deposits and transfers, but many regional banks and community financial centers aren’t able to offer those perks to their clients. Narmi is a fintech company that brings digital banking features and elevated user experience to smaller local financial institutions by layering their service options on top of existing banks.
Location: Chicago, Illinois
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is one of the 12 Regional Reserve Banks in the United States. The bank offers central bank services, community education, national and regional economic research, district bank supervision and customer support. More specifically, consumers can report complaints, learn financial terms and review federal policies.
Location: Arlington, Massachusetts
Leader Bank provides personal and business banking solutions across its bank branches, mortgage offices and ATM locations — and on the web. It offers businesses digital escrow accounts, cash management services (such as night deposit drops) and commercial lending. Its personal services include safe deposit boxes, traditional checking and saving accounts and more.
Location: Lakewood, Colorado
FirstBank is a financial institution located in the states of Colorado, Arizona and California. The company offers traditional financial services, like checking and savings accounts, mobile banking, and loan and financing services. Consumers have the option to open a personal or business account with FirstBank. In addition, the institution provides business credit and internet cash management systems for consumers with a business account.
