UMB contracts with Fraedom for full suite of card services
Fintech provider Fraedom, acquired by Visa earlier this year, and US-based financial services company UMB Financial Corporation have announced a partnership that will enable UMB to develop a full suite of card services, including expense and card management, reporting and a mobile app, to support its business customers.
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In the first phase of the partnership, the two companies will work together to migrate UMB’s existing commercial card customers from two separate legacy systems onto Fraedom’s own advanced card technology platform, which will be ‘white-labelled’, enabling UMB to deliver an improved experience and enhanced product offering to its customers.
Uma Wilson, executive vice-president and director of product management at UMB, said: “Partnering with Fraedom will enable us to bring significant benefits to our business customers across the US. Our new suite of commercial card services will enable them to achieve enhanced operational efficiencies and help ease customers’ day-to-day needs.
“They will also benefit from a significantly enhanced user experience,” she continued, “including the ability to quickly access advanced and innovative features and functions, gain greater program oversight and efficiently resolve any problems that arise.”
Highlighting the broader implications of the partnership and the benefits banks can achieve from adopting a fintech-focused approach, Kyle Ferguson, Fraedom CEO, said: “This partnership is a great example of the way banks can differentiate their services and stay competitive in the face of ever evolving market demands.
“For banks, partnerships are a great way to accelerate the development and introduction of services to bring solutions to the market the industry expects. It’s a win-win situation which puts the customer at the heart of the equation.”
Subsequent phases of the partnership will focus on continuing to focus on elevating user experience and delivering upon use. The two companies already have plans to develop and launch a new mobile app, targeting a launch among UMB’s existing customers in the first half of 2019 to create a mobile first user experience that will complement the existing browser-based platform.
“We see mobile as a key element of the partnership moving forwards,” said Ferguson. “Market demand is clear to see, but user experience is critical. We have that at the front of our minds as we work to establish the key deliverables.”
Uma Wilson added: “This solution allows us to evolve the platform to support the growth we are experiencing with our card portfolio. By partnering with Fraedom, we aim to alleviate the complexity associated with managing a card program for our end customers and at the same time drive adoption and automation of processes and payments.”