Desjardins signs multi-year contract with AI fintech Exagens

Written by Ruby Hinchliffe
30th January 2020

Desjardins teams with tech provider Exagens

Desjardins Group, the largest federation of credit unions in North America, has furthered its partnership with Montreal-based behavioural banking start-up Exagens by signing a “multi-year” contract to use its technology for its banking assistant.

The multi-year contract will see the fintech continue to power the major bank’s Assistant AccèsD, instilling a “vote of confidence” in the fintech and the future of behavioral banking.

Already having reached out to more than three million of Desjardins’ members with Exagens’ technology, the group’s digital assistant provides tips, offers advice, and assists in transactions. The fintech says it managed to reduce abandonment by 69% on the group’s digital platform, and secured the group a 98% customer satisfaction rating for digital engagement.

The Assistant AccèsD is completely autonomous according to Exagens, and can engage members 24/7 by either proactively guiding or reactively assisting them.

“This multi-year commitment is our vote of confidence in Exagens, its technology, and its vision to humanise the digital banking environment,” says senior director at Desjardins Eboni Boicel. “We believe Exagens will play a key role in building stronger, long-term relationships with our customers.”

The Canadian banking group says its has seven million members and clients and currently holds $295.5 billion in total assets. The deal is a huge opportunity for Exagens to continue to develop its product offering in the wider financial space.

Founded in Montreal, Exagens specialises in behavioural science, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) with a specific focus on serving financial institutions. Co-founders Frederic Ah-Yave and Jorge Campos previously worked for Gemalto – a digital security software provider owned by Thales Group – running the mobile banking division.

Exagens’ CEO and president Michael Stojda previously managed a number of high-tech software companies including Splinex (which he took public) and Softimage. He says Exagens is “excited to continue putting its behavioural and data science expertise and technology platform to work with Desjardins”.