Open Finance pioneer LUXHUB today announces the launch of the new version of its finance-oriented Marketplace. Initially released as an API-centric platform, the Marketplace now welcomes all players active in the transformation of financial services and favors the exchange, joint innovation, and co- creation of unique and out-of-the-box products. No matter the tech behind the solutions, all participants, be they fintechs, financial institutions, or data-focused companies, can easily leverage this user-friendly, intuitive, and trusted platform to promote their innovation(s). Enabling the creation of additional value and new business models, with one common mission: shaping the financial services of the future.

In the digital world we live in, all industries and sectors are transforming: on the one hand, new clients’ habits and demands are being addressed with traditional players adapting their services. On the other hand, innovation-driven companies are entering the market, providing unique and unprecedented services to users. Lately, the collaborative model has proved to be remarkably successful, with more and more players getting together to work on the creation of accurate products to meet customers’ needs. Collaboration has become the norm in the financial services industry.

The concept of the marketplace – a common place to request, consume, purchase, promote and sell – applies remarkably well to the financial services industry. Moreover, the notions of community and secure environment are being translated into the financial sector, with one key element: TRUST. In the LUXHUB Marketplace, it is leveraged via a series of badges awarded to new providers, representing the level of trust awarded to each

service provider, following a well-defined due diligence process. As such, consumers of a service or product can make sure it is indeed satisfying the standards setup for marketplace operation.

“We want to foster innovation in the financial services industry. The platform has been fully redesigned to answer the growing financial business needs: it enables efficient and rapid additional value creation, in a trusted environment, benefitting internal users as much as end customers of the services. Moreover, it allows the overall transformation of the sector. Business and IT people can find themselves at home on the new platform – their needs, and the specificities of their journeys are addressed in full detail,” explains Radu Popa, Chief Technology Officer at LUXHUB.

One common place for innovation

“We can see that the omnipresent sharing economy and the Open-X business innovation model merge through platforms that enable easy data exchange and efficient and innovative product development. This is exactly what we have built: a framework that allows new digital challenges, faced by everyone in the financial industry, to be accurately addressed by experts that thrive at solving exactly such specific issues,” underlines the CTO.

The Marketplace leverages the Fintech-as-a-Service concept: in a digital and fast innovation environment, financial institutions outsource IT services, systems provisioning, and operations to product experts, resulting in increased efficiency and reduced time-to- market. In other words, Fintech-as-a-Service offer reduces the gap between the needs of traditional financial institutions and the products offered by fintechs, thus allowing the development of products in the BaaP (Banking-as-a-Platform) paradigm.

Tech integration, addressing among others the BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) part of the equation, is also available through the fully customizable Professional Services offer, which results in developers enjoying a stable and secure journey, as well as a rich experience. Technical experts can experiment, build, and make buying recommendations to businesses, while mature enterprise developers working in a regulated environment can make sure their apps are running securely in challenging production environments. As explained by Radu Popa, “providing developers with well-designed, self-service and easy-

to-navigate tools will enable a faster development of the whole Open Finance ecosystem, while the added value offered by our ’à la carte’ Professional Services – sandbox environment, CRM, invoicing, monitoring, tokenization, tech integration, etc., as well as the premium support that comes with them – will increase the business proposition of each Marketplace provider, while still allowing them to concentrate on their core business” .

Embracing collaboration at all levels

As highlighted by Jacques Pütz, CEO, “Built with the same philosophy that has always been driving LUXHUB, the Marketplace strives to connect all different types of stakeholders, from innovative startups to legacy players, and create a collaborative trusted ecosystem where everyone can contribute and share in the success of a new financial era. This new version of the Marketplace reflects our commitment to this mission. We are confident that it will be all of us, together, who will define the financial services of the future.”

As the Marketplace keeps on welcoming a diversity of players addressing specific challenges related to the transforming financial services industry, it has become a recognized and trusted platform for exchanging innovative services, as well as building the future of finance.

Its main goal is to enable the development of Open Finance, filled with innovative digital solutions that are shaping, along with the traditional players that are adapting to this new environment, the future of financial services. The Marketplace enables all players, irrespective of the industry they evolve in, to take full advantage of this growing open innovation and collaborative era.

10+ providers have already started their Open Finance journey in the Marketplace

As the new version of the Marketplace is officially being launched this week, at the international tech summit ICT Spring, more than 10 fintechs, coming from all over Europe, have already confirmed their participation in this trusted ecosystem. From KYC and due diligence to access management and electronic signature, these disruptive, proven and secure solutions are already available in the Marketplace.

As expressed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Juraj Somorovsky, CTO of Hackmanit, “joining the LUXHUB Marketplace enables Hackmanit to support many API providers on their path to highly secure API solutions. We are looking forward to exciting new projects and partnerships to improve the security within this trusted ecosystem”.

“We think the LUXHUB Marketplace is a necessary space where actors of a nascent ecosystem can find partners to build together both technically and commercially scalable end-to-end integrated solutions,” highlights Jean-Pierre Schmit, Founder & CEO of jemmic.

These innovative companies are joining existing partners and are now offering their disruptive services to all players active in the financial services, via a fully remodeled Marketplace. “From its very inception, LUXHUB has advocated collaboration at all levels: our brand-new trusted platform goes even further, enabling fast innovation and effective value creation. Together, we are shaping the future of finance,” concludes Pierre-Olivier Bernes, IT Project Manager.