We recently sat down with Monica Eaton from Chargebacks911 to gain more insights regarding the partnership between Finastra and Microsoft and how it addresses the requirements of corporate clients.
Eaton, founder and CEO at Chargebacks911, also commented on how the collaboration addresses the challenges banks face in transitioning from manual and paper-based trade finance operations to more automated processes.
Chargebacks911 is a global firm focused on chargeback prevention and remediation technology. As a provider or supplier to financial technology companies, Chargebacks911 reportedly helps safeguard more than 2.4 billion transactions per year on behalf of clients in 87 countries worldwide.
Our conversation with Monica is shared below.
Crowdfund Insider: How does the partnership between Finastra and Microsoft address the evolving expectations of corporate customers in the financial industry?
Monica Eaton: The recent multi-year partnership announcement between Finastra and Microsoft gives corporate customers modernized, tailored, and scalable trade and supply chain finance solutions through banks using their services. In short, Finastra and Microsoft have teamed up to give banks a tech makeover. They’re using Microsoft Azure to make Finastra’s Trade Innovation platform super modern and flexible. This means banks can quickly adapt to changing customer needs and regulations. Plus, they’re all about open finance, making it easier for businesses to go digital and offering a seamless experience.
The key benefit resulting from this partnership is modernizing current trade platforms. With Microsoft Azure providing the bedrock, Finastra’s Trade Innovation will become cloud-based, allowing both entities to keep pace with technological advancements and provide banks with increased agility and flexibility, which is key when adapting to changing market conditions and regulatory requirements.
But this partnership between Finastra and Microsoft is not just about making banking systems modern and flexible; it’s also about embracing the idea of open finance, making financial services more accessible, transparent, and interconnected.
It means that banks open up their systems through APIs (like digital connectors) to allow businesses and other financial apps to easily connect and use their services. Think of it as a big digital playground where different financial tools and services can work together seamlessly.
For corporate customers, this is fantastic news because it means they can easily integrate their financial operations with various apps and services. It streamlines their processes, makes transactions smoother, and ultimately helps businesses operate more efficiently in the digital age.
So, in a nutshell, this partnership is not only modernizing banking but also creating an open and collaborative financial ecosystem that benefits everyone involved.
Crowdfund Insider: Can you elaborate on how Finastra’s Trade Innovation platform running on Microsoft Azure may enhance agility, flexibility, and scalability for banks?
Monica Eaton: Finastra and Microsoft are two titans within the finance industry, and together, they are on a mission to make banks more agile, flexible, and scalable than ever before.
With Finastra’s Trade Innovation platform, banks can be more agile thanks to Microsoft Azure’s integrated cloud capabilities. Now, FIs can adapt at the drop of a dime to market changes, new regulations, and other changes within the payments landscape. For banks, this means delivering the latest and greatest financial services when their corporate customers need them.
Corporate account holders want tailored solutions, and that’s exactly what this partnership provides. With microservice capabilities, banks can now customize their services to fit their customer’s needs, making Finastra and Microsoft’s solutions as flexible as possible.
In terms of scalability, banks will now have the strength and resources that only powerhouses like Finastra and Microsoft can provide, allowing them to handle more transactions and process more data than ever before.
Crowdfund Insider: How does this collaboration address the challenges faced by banks in transitioning from manual and paper-based trade finance operations to more automated processes?
Monica Eaton: For FIs who see manual and paper-based operations as standard practice, this partnership between Finastra and Microsoft is a digital revolution. Banks who are dependent upon antiquated techniques can harness the power of super-efficient, automated processes.
With Microsoft Azure’s power of the cloud and Finastra Trade Innovation’s cutting-edge technology, bank’s services and data processing will become digital and streamlined, eliminating the traditional paper trail that is known for being slow and prone to errors.
With fewer errors, faster transactions and smoother experiences for banks and their corporate customers, banks can add tech-savvy, automated solutions to their repertoire.
Crowdfund Insider: What are the key drivers pushing banks to embrace API-based open banking, artificial intelligence, and data analytics in their trade finance operations?
Monica Eaton: Banks are all in on API-powered open banking, AI, and data analytics in trade finance because of the countless capabilities it provides to their operations. In practically every industry, it’s all about speed, fewer mistakes, and a stellar customer experience—and banks are no exception. APIs make everything lightning-fast, AI helps with smart decisions, and data analytics give banks quantitative insights that drive best practices and industry standards.
Additionally, more automation means less manual work, and less manual work means lower costs.
But with AI and big data, it’s not just about saving money; it’s about being ahead of the game when it comes to risks and threats. Banks want to stay ahead of fraudulent trends, and these tech tools make it possible. With AI and data analytics, banks can gather an accurate picture of current fraudulent activity so they can deploy the right countermeasures. Without insights from data compilation, banks will be behind the game when it comes to protecting their corporate account holders.
Crowdfund Insider: What specific customer pain points does this collaboration aim to address within the trade finance operations?
Monica Eaton: The collaboration between Finastra and Microsoft addresses many customer pain points within trade finance operations, including:
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- Streamlining time-consuming manual processes, making transactions faster while reducing errors
- Making banks more adaptable to changes in regulation and market trends to meet customer needs
- Addressing operational inefficiencies by reducing delays and streamlining processes
- Achieve scalability, allowing banks to handle more transactions as they and their customers grow
- Improvements to compliance and risk management processes, ensuring security, safety and peace of mind
- Providing corporate customers with a smoother and more modern banking experience
Crowdfund Insider: In what ways can financial institutions benefit from this digital transformation?
Monica Eaton: FIs can benefit from operational efficiencies with reduced manual processes and increased automation; enhanced customer experience and retention through a user-friendly, streamlined experience; data aggregation that provides valuable insights into consumer behavior, market trends, and fraud tactics; simplified compliance processes through automation and digitalization, ensuring adherence to regulations; cloud-based solutions and APIs enable scalability; cost savings through automation, reduced labor and streamlined operations; open finance fosters collaboration with external partners, creating new revenue streams and expanding services.