Resurs Bank’s new CEO prioritises open banking
Resurs Bank, a niche Swedish bank focusing on flexible payments and financing solutions, has partnered with Nordic API Gateway for open banking.
Earlier this month, Resurs welcomed its new CEO – Nils Carlsson
The bank has roughly 6.2 million customers – which are both consumers and retailers – across Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.
New “data-driven” approach
The partnership gives Resurs access to financial data and account-to-account (A2A) payments. The bank will use the connection to offer loan products to users which are more “data-driven”.
“The partnership is an important step for us to act even more data-driven and purposeful towards a better experience for the customers,” says Resurs Bank’s strategic office programme manager, Casper Wahlström.
Nordic API Gateway’s CEO and founder, Rune Mai, adds that the bank will use the account data to “simplify the process for a loan application”. Mai says it will also help the bank to develop a fairer credit assessment on customers.
Resurs gets new CEO
Earlier this month, Resurs welcomed its new CEO – Nils Carlsson, who takes on the role following his predecessor of eight years.
Carlsson was previously the CEO of Fortnox, a digital accounting service for small businesses.
He believes Resurs’ focus on retail is the bank’s sweet spot. “Today, many smaller retailers have no one to turn to when it comes to such things as payment solutions and attracting customers to the stores,” Carlsson told HD.
“Resurs can and is good at retail. Here we can have a role to play, I think.”
The bank initially focused on financing when it started up 40 years ago. It has grown its services to cover loans, savings and insurance.
At the end of 2019, the 700-person bank had around SEK 1.1 billion ($117.8 million) on its last line of income, according to HD.
Resurs’ new open banking partner
Nordic API Gateway’s CEO Mai
Nordic API Gateway was spun out of the Danish consumer-facing fintech Spiir.
It landed $5 million in April as part of an internal funding round with Danske Bank and DNB.
The start-up intends to raise more in the “coming months” to kick-start its European expansion plans.
“This initial investment is the first step in a larger strategy to become one of the leading European open banking players in 2020,” Mai said in April.
Prior to this investment, the fintech has been working with both Danske Bank and DNB. It is working to develop and expand its open banking offering, which is also used by OP Financial, Jyske Bank and Danish company card issuer Pleo.
