In design, it's crucial to iterate and try out new ideas and formats continually. Why should it be different for a newsletter? This week we're trying out a new format. Just give your feedback at the bottom with 👍 and 👎 to influence our newsletter moving on. If it helps, I'm not too sure myself 😅.

🧐 Open banking for SMBs

In the last few weeks, we've talked a lot about PSD2 and why the banks do not provide the data they are required to. This is not only a problem in the private market but also for B2B payments. Is it possible that the Financial Supervisory Authority doesn't have expertise regarding API's or insufficient capacity to follow up on this? It is quite worrisome that fintechs can't launch their products because they rely on banks following regulations they don't prioritize.

Ztl asks the Financial supervisory Authority to clean up — www.dn.no

ZTL is one of five companies in Norway with a PSD2 license, but the only one focusing solely on business payments: – We call for Financial Supervisory Authority to come on board with more substantial measures so that the banks comply with the regulations. It's going too slow, says Camilla Kamberg in ZTL Payment Solution.

Nordic API Gateway providing a shortcut to open banking — shifter.no

The Danish fintech company Nordic API Gateway is launching a new platform that will give startups and small businesses the chance to offer open banking services without first becoming a payment company. An interesting idea, and maybe the best way forward regarding compliance: - Do the Financial Supervisory Authority want 100s of applications from startups or is it perhaps better to have a few to be regulated who have a clear responsibility? Ironically Nordic API gateway is partly owned by Danske Bank, where ZTL last week couldn't test their API solution.

🔀 ERP and banks merging?

We've long talked about ERPs and corporate banks merging, and this week we saw the first massive step towards this in Norway:

DNB and Sparebank 1 buys a majority part of ERP-company Uni Micro — e24.no

With the acquisition, the banks will take more of what they believe is an integral part of the corporate market. Sparebank 1 director Øyvind Aass says the bank wants to offer corporate customers banking and accounting services in the same solution, developing Uni Micro further.

Sbanken is moving into the accounting systems — shifter.no

At the beginning of next year, Sbanken expects to be integrated into almost all major accounting systems with their API going beyond the PSD2 requirements.

🔁 Banks also merging?

Merger among savings banks? — kjerpeseth.no

CEO Jan Erik Kjerpeseth in Sparebanken Vest believes cost pressure will lead to more movement to ensure a competitive savings bank sector.

💰 Savings growing

One market that has grown massively over the last few years is savings. With fintech-initiatives like Kron, Dreams, and Spiff, crowdfunding solutions like Dealflow and Monner, as well as established banks initiatives like Spare and Min Sparing. Now the Sparebank 1 group are also going all in on savings:

The SpareBank 1-group is establishing a new company to invest in savings — finanswatch.no

Sparebank 1 is bringing together all of their asset management and savings companies and ODIN Forvaltning into one company. The ambition is to win the battle for the Norwegian savings and investment market.

New EU regulations will change Norwegian crowdfunding — shifter.no

The most critical points in the EU decision are; an entirely new form of licensing for crowdfunding platforms, significantly stronger investor protection, and better opportunities to compare different platforms.

Male dominance in crowdfunding — shifter.no

When Monner went through his investor portfolio, they found that among their 2956 investors, 85 percent are men and 15 percent women. We need to look at how we reach out better to women, Marius Dybdahl, commercial director of Monner, says.

Speaking of gender balance: The CEO in Sbanken strongly apologizes for his discriminatory statements a few weeks ago. He stated that "the talent base in Bergen is a bit limited" when he explained why the new management team in Sbanken consisted of only one woman and seven men. Sbanken has a goal that by the end of next year, the gender balance will be 40/60 on the management level and in other committees in the bank.

🧑‍💻 Fintech in Norway and the sky

Fintech in Norway anno 2020 — www.dn.no

Itera and DNX have created a trend report on the banking industry of the future. It's a quick read going into chapters on blurred industry borders, data analytics, security, and our favorite chapter on the importance of unique user experiences.

Stripes unusual plan to suck carbon out of the sky — www.theatlantic.com

Stripe is one of the most exciting fintech-companies in the world at the moment. (Have you btw seen their developer documentation? 👀 Go ahead even if you don't code, I'll wait). In the past year, Stripe has become one of the world's largest purchasers of carbon-removal credits. Last month, it began allowing its customers—the businesses that use its payment software—to buy carbon removal as well.

🤓 COBOL is never the problem

In April, we wrote about New Jersey having a problem with the state's unemployment system built on COBOL. This week's long read is a follow up on this case with an exciting twist.

Built to Last — logicmag.io

Although New Jersey's governor issued his desperate plea for COBOL programmers, later investigations revealed that it was the website through which people filed claims, written in the comparatively much newer programming language Java, that was responsible for the errors, breakdowns, and slowdowns. The backend system that processed those claims—the one written in COBOL—hadn't been to blame at all.

🙏 Please don't keep it a secret!

Like what you read? Please pass it on to your friends and colleagues! They can sign up here: nyhetsbrev.stacc.com

Marius Hauken, partner Stacc X 

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