US businesses will now be able to embed payments and banking capabilities following a partnership between Zūm Rails, the company merging open banking and instant payments so businesses can use any payment rails they want from a single platform, and paytech Fiserv.
Through this new partnership, US firms and merchants will have everything they need to make an all-inclusive solution. They will be able to facilitate accounts payable and receivable transactions, merchant onboarding, reporting, reconciliation and fraud management all in one place. This is due to Zūm Rails‘ payments gateway demystifying and accelerating the integration of new capabilities. For example, open banking and instant payments can be directly integrated into companies’ platforms.
As a result of this, they will be able to power payments securely, in seconds or less. By bringing these capabilities together in one place, companies can also take control of their user experiences. Additionally, they will gain better insights into their transaction data as well.
Combining Zum Rails’ payments gateway with the Fiserv payment facilitator model additionally gives businesses the ability to move funds through every US rail including credit cards, Visa and Mastercard Debit, the Automated Clearing House (ACH), FedNow, WEB Debit, Venmo and PayPal.
Understanding the benefits of embedded finance
Payments and banking services were once the sole domain of traditional banks and financial institutions. Now, companies across industries are eager to offer customers bank-like capabilities of their own by embedding financial and payment options directly into their platforms.
The high barrier to entry, however, has kept many from trying, especially considering that every new capability has historically required working with multiple providers to build entirely new integrations from scratch. For companies that transcend these barriers, embedded finance not only lets them tap into what is currently a $84billion market opportunity, but offers a competitive advantage over traditional methods with less-desirable and inflexible user experiences.
Scaling for the future
As Zūm Rails continues to scale its work with Fiserv across the US, it will bring further embedded finance capabilities to the businesses using its platform. This includes the addition of Zūm Rails’ forthcoming Banking-as-a-Service offering. This will enable companies to issue their own debit cards for direct spending — without going through a separate bank account.
Sunil Sachdev, head of fintech and growth at Fiserv
“As companies look for new ways to own and strengthen their relationships with customers, there’s growing energy around the idea of embedding financial services directly within a software platform,” said Sunil Sachdev, head of embedded finance, Fiserv.
“By making capabilities from our merchant acceptance, banking, and card issuing businesses available to clients and partners through a curated set of APIs, we are helping these clients expand their service models, build deeper relationships with merchants, and significantly expanding the revenue potential associated with each relationship.”
Miles Schwartz, co-founder, Zūm Rails
“We launched Zūm Rails with the goal of providing open banking and instant payments services at a time when it was difficult for businesses to do both. As businesses’ needs have evolved, so has our work to enable them to execute on any digital payments, banking or financing capabilities that they need to deliver on their customers’ expectations,” said Miles Schwartz, co-founder, Zūm Rails.
“Our growing partnership with Fiserv is critical to expanding these capabilities—especially as we continue scaling our work in the U.S.”
In addition to the U.S., Zūm Rails will expand their offerings throughout North America. This includes leveraging Zūm Rails’ Canadian roots to bring its existing integration with Fiserv to Canada, as well as developing entirely new joint offerings specifically for the Canadian market.
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