MANAGING INNOVATION: PARTNERSHIPS
A friend in need Elena Lázaro Azpichueta, Partnerships Manager for InnoCells – Banco Sabadell’s corporate venture arm and innovation hub – discusses how traditional banks can be supportive partners to fintech collaborators “Our first strategy for keeping up with digitisation is to accelerate alliances with third parties,” says Elena Lázaro Azpichueta, partnerships manager for InnoCells, the bank’s corporate venture arm and digital innovation hub, which has struck up more than 20 such partnerships with startups – not all of them Spanish – since 2015. “It’s not efficient to do everything by yourself; it’s better to focus on what differentiates you and partner for the rest,” says Lázaro Azpichueta. “That’s why banks are building open and collaborative innovation. At Banco Sabadell, we are creating a standardised model so that we can collaborate with third parties on an even larger scale.” The goal is to help one of the largest banking groups in Spain address three key issues: accessibility of banking services, especially for the most vulnerable
Innovation wheel: Clearly-defined partnerships can generate huge success for banks and fintechs
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TheFintechMagazine | Issue 20
customers; the rise of ‘conversational banking’; and the rapid acceleration of digital services as a result of a massive, pandemicinduced migration to online everything in the previous 12 months. Sabadell’s own active digital clients grew markedly during the pandemic – to 70 per cent by summer 2020 with more than one million by then using the Sabadell Wallet. In mid-March, the bank launched its Partnership Portal, an open-API platform for developers, initially aimed at those looking to launch payment-related services under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). But the Portal also seeks to create a point of contact with partners that help to accelerate the digitisation of Banco Sabadell with ‘faster and simplified contracting processes, remote channels, capabilities for self-service, and greater personalisation’, says Lázaro Azpichueta. Essentially, the
delivery of banking solutions is where the innovation is urgently needed. Swedish fintech Minna Technologies is one of those third parties that’s helping to provide it. This year it worked with InnoCells to develop – in very short order – a subscription management service, making Banco Sabadell the first bank in Spain to offer such a tool within its app. The service provides a complete picture of all subscriptions and bills paid by direct debit and/or debit card by the bank’s customers, including to utility companies, entertainment services and insurance. It also alerts them when a subscription changes and gives them the option to cancel in a click, providing price comparisons with other offers, if needed. The first iteration took 12 weeks to develop and a follow-up, to allow customers control over all of their subscriptions and bills with Banco Sabadell accounts. The next goal is to further develop the service to give customers an overall view, regardless of which bank they set up the payments with. “Fintech companies not only provide us with learnings,
