Fintech Raisin to offer U.S. banks and credit unions unique new deposit products 

With acquisition of software innovator, European deposits platform moves into American market

San Francisco / Berlin, 15. January, 2020. Leading European wealth management fintech Raisin (www.raisin.com) is acquiring software company Choice Financial Solutions (www.choicefs.com). The acquisition will make the first real innovation to the U.S. deposits market in generations broadly accessible to banks across the country. Raisin will license Choice Financial Solutions’s original software to American banks, enabling the banks to create uniquely flexible deposits and offer those products directly to their own customers, or via the Raisin U.S. platform to all U.S. retail consumers. The acquisition is Raisin’s fourth major strategic investment in another company within the last year.

Raisin tailors its banking-as-a-service model for U.S., starting with bank partnerships

Building on the fintech’s European success, Raisin is adapting its concept to the demands of the American banking environment. As the first step to providing savers convenient access to higher interest rates, Raisin’s banking partners will be able to reach existing and new customers with original new products, starting with the unique range of deposits enabled by Choice FS software.

 

Raisin U.S. CEO Paul Knodel: “Joining forces with Choice Financial Solutions lets Raisin begin offering cutting-edge services to banks and customers before we even launch our U.S. platform. Retail consumers increasingly expect convenience in every area of life, and banks today want to meet that demand, not just in terms of online and mobile banking, but also their banks’ available range of products. As a leading innovator in the deposits space, Raisin sees Choice FS as a perfect fit for our mission in the U.S. deposits market. The enthusiastic market feedback we have already received affirms how ripe the savings space is for just this type of personalization.”

 

Raisin COO and co-founder Michael Stephan: “An essential part of Raisin’s strategy in delivering value to our customers and our partner banks is identifying the needs of each market we enter. This new technological solution means helping U.S. financial institutions reach the customers they need with the products those savers want. In the U.S., we know that both personalization and flexibility are key – which is why Raisin is investing in Choice’s original software and bringing the first customizable deposits to the American savings market.”

 

A single deposit account to reach multiple savings goals – and still maximize returns

First launched in 2010, Choice FS has developed a software solution that allows banks and credit unions to meet customers where they are: savers can use it to create customized deposit accounts, dynamically and automatically based on their personalized short- and long-term needs. A financial institution using the Choice FS software to build non-brokered core deposits can customize term deposit accounts to provide for known cash distributions at set periods over the term of the product. The bank can also provide for ad-hoc withdrawal schedules and amounts with a single customized deposit, optimizing for flexibility and return.

The solution includes a complete range of deposits from traditional to flexible to market-linked. While clients can personalize their deposit accounts in real time through an intuitive interface, banks are able to define and launch new product offerings with the software in a matter of hours. This degree of personalization, along with the ease banks can bring the new products to market with, will be unique in the American deposits market.

 

“Over the last decade we’ve been able to develop and perfect the “missing piece” for both banks and depositors: customizable deposits for each individual’s needs and aspirations with no incremental operational overhead for the financial institution. Our software supports banks and credit unions, often with legacy systems that make true innovation extremely challenging, in bringing brand new products to market at an unprecedented speed,” explained Choice FS founder and CEO Daniel Smith. “Joining the Raisin family for us means greatly strengthening our ability to scale and connect our software to the sector that needs it most.”

 

About Raisin

A trailblazer for open banking and the leading pan-European one-stop shop for online savings and investments, Berlin-based fintech Raisin was founded in 2012 by Dr. Tamaz Georgadze (CEO), Dr. Frank Freund (CFO) and Michael Stephan (COO). Raisin’s platforms — under the brand WeltSparen in the German-speaking world — are breaking down barriers to better savings for European consumers and SMEs: Raisin’s marketplace offers simple access at no charge to attractive and guaranteed deposit products from all over Europe, as well as globally diversified, cost-effective ETF portfolios and pension products (currently available in Germany). With one online registration, customers can choose from all available investments and subsequently manage their accounts. Since launch in 2013, Raisin has brokered 18.5 billion EUR for 200,000 customers in 28+ European countries and 90 partner banks. Raisin was named to Europe’s top 5 fintechs by the renowned FinTech50 awards and is backed by prestigious European and American investors such as btov Ventures, Goldman Sachs, PayPal Ventures, Thrive Capital, Index Ventures, Orange Digital Ventures and Ribbit Capital. Raisin UK in Manchester, banking-as-a-service provider Raisin Bank in Frankfurt and pensions specialist fairr all belong to Raisin.

About Choice Financial Solutions 

Choice Financial Solutions was founded in 2011 and has offices in New York and Madrid, Spain. Choice identified that the majority of consumers were being offered commoditized off-the-shelf deposit products, thus almost never the solutions that they actually desired and needed. Its mission, from the outset, has been to enable financial institutions to efficiently and economically offer savings solutions to the mass market in a way that was traditionally reserved for only the Private Banking segment. The Choice solution is designed to allow financial institutions to break away from the restrictions of traditional systems by redefining the concept of a product. With Choice, banks can define any offering that can be expressed as a cash flow and series of events – without programming any new code. The Choice team comprises experienced professionals from technology, capital markets, retail banking and wealth management. A wide array of Spanish banks have worked with Choice FS software, as well as BBVA U.S.

 

Press Contact Raisin
Maggie Bell, Corporate Communications International
Roland Panter, Raisin / WeltSparen Corporate Communications
+49 160 218 65 24
press@raisin.com

Press Contact Choice FS
Daniel Smith, Choice Financial Solutions CEO
info@choicefs.com