Fiserv teams with Canadian company on open banking

Dive Brief:

Fiserv has entered a partnership with open banking and payments software company Zūm Rails to bring open banking and instant payments to Zūm Rails’ U.S. business customers, the fintech startup said in a release.
Zūm Rails, which was founded in Montreal and has a U.S. headquarters in Miami, will use the Milwaukee-based Fiserv's embedded finance systems to “facilitate accounts payable and receivable transactions, merchant onboarding, reporting, reconciliation and fraud management without relying on a bank or other third-party provider,” the Canadian company said in a news release posted on its website Thursday.
The partnership lets businesses use networks such as Visa, Mastercard and the Automated Clearing House, the news release said.

Dive Insight:

“Our platform enables businesses to power all of their accounts payable and accounts receivable activities directly on their own channels,” Zūm Rails CEO Miles Schwartz said in an email.

Zūm Rails offers open banking and instant payment services, and had raised $10.5 million as of February, said Schwartz, who is also a Zūm Rails co-founder.

Zūm Rails is not a bank, but offers banking-as-a-service and issues debit cards, Schwartz said.

The partnership lets Zūm Rails' clients integrate open banking and embedded payments directly into their existing payments platforms, to will help them analyze transaction data, the news release said.

Zum Rails’ customers include the San Francisco-based real estate platform Homebase, the release said.

The Canadian company aims to use the partnership to eventually offer more services. For example, Zūm Rails has plans to offer its own debit cards to facilitate direct spending.

The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance granted Fiserv a special purpose banking charter that lets the payments firm process credit card transactions without a banking partner, the agency announced on Friday. A Zūm Rails spokesperson said the partnership is not related to the charter.