How fintech innovation is driving digital transformation in communities around the world

To meet the needs of today’s consumers, companies must continually innovate. But innovation doesn’t happen in silos. For example, fintech has transformed the financial services industry, from democratizing finance to establishing digital currencies that have revolutionized the way we think about money.

As fintech companies compete to meet customer needs and co-develop with large financial institutions, they can leverage AI and hybrid cloud solutions to drive true digital transformation and meet evolving needs.

How Dollarito connects large financial institutions with financially underserved communities

A study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that about 45 million people are limited in eligibility due to a lack of credit scores because they lack certain data points on which credit scores are based. Traditional credit report models use parameters such as active loan status or credit card payment history to assign a credit score to an individual. If someone doesn’t meet these criteria, it can be difficult to get a loan, get a mortgage, or even buy a car. However, using more accurate models, such as AI-based models, financial institutions can better identify credit-worthy applicants. This can increase acceptance rates for populations that may typically be overlooked.

Dollarito, a digital lending platform, is focused on helping the Hispanic population with no credit history or low FICO scores obtain fair credit. The platform offers a unique solution to measure repayment capacity using novel methodologies based on AI, behavioral economics, cloud technologies and real-time data. Dollarito’s model leverages AI to leverage an extensive data repository of banking transactions, behavioral data, and economic variables related to credit applicants’ sources of income.

As an IBM Business Partner, Dollarito can use IBM Cloud for Financial Services® to continuously scale its model and quickly deploy the services its customers need while ensuring the services meet industry standards and regulations.

“Dollarito uses IBM Cloud for Financial Services technology to optimize its infrastructure and demonstrate compliance, allowing it to focus on its mission of providing financial services to underserved communities. We are committed to building bridges of trust between these populations and traditional financial institutions and capital markets. With IBM’s AI and hybrid cloud technologies, we are developing solutions that can serve these groups in a cost-effective manner while addressing risk.” – Carmen Roman, CEO and Founder of Dollarito

Dollarito is also integrating the IBM watsonx™ assistant to embrace generative AI to help users easily interact and gain financial insights to increase credit accessibility. Like IBM®, Dollarito recognizes the huge opportunity that AI presents to the financial services industry, enabling companies to take advantage of rich new market opportunities.

How Ionburst helps protect sensitive data in a hybrid world?

Data security is at the core of almost everything we do. This is especially true in the financial services sector, where banks and other institutions are trusted to protect the most sensitive consumer data. Now that data lives everywhere—in multiple clouds, on premises, and at the edge—it’s more important than ever for banks to centrally manage security. This is where Ionburst comes into play.

With a platform that runs on IBM Cloud, Ionburst provides data protection across hybrid cloud environments and prioritizes compliance, security, and data recovery. Ionburst’s platform provides a seamless, integrated interface that enables central management of data and is designed to help customers address regulatory requirements, including data sovereignty, ultimately reducing compliance costs.

Ionburst is actively bridging the security gap between on-premises data and the cloud by providing strong security guardrails and integrated data management. With Ionburst’s solutions available on IBM Cloud for Financial Services, we are working together to reduce data security risks across the financial services industry.

“It is important for financial institutions to consider how they can most effectively mitigate risk. Through Ionburst’s platform, we strive to give organizations control and visibility over their data, wherever it is. IBM Cloud’s focus on compliance and security makes this possible and helps give customers confidence that their data is protected. This is very important in the financial services sector.” – David Lanc and Anne Lanc, co-founders and inventors Ionburst

Harnessing the value of the ecosystem

Harnessing the innovations of fintech has had a huge impact on the financial services industry. As Ionburst and Dollarito have shown, having an innovative ecosystem that supports our mission as a large financial institution is critical to our success, and accelerating the adoption of AI and hybrid cloud technologies can help drive innovation across the industry.

With IBM Cloud for Financial Services, IBM can help fintech companies ensure that their products and services comply with the same stringent regulations that banks must meet. With security and controls built into our cloud platform and designed by the industry, we aim to help fintechs and large financial institutions mitigate risk, address evolving regulations, and accelerate cloud and AI adoption.

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