Ninth Wave

In today’s data-driven world, banks, fintechs, and aggregators require access to quality consumer data to drive revenue and build new business models around them. However, as most data is locked up in silos, most financial institutions struggle to maintain a competitive edge. Imagine a credit card company that relies on the consumer data to market its product. If they can get a hold of interest rates that its competitors are charging and the current account balance of the consumer, it would become easier for them to market their products better than their rivals. New York-based Ninth Wave provides a pioneering platform that supports financial institutions in their digital transformation journey by democratizing access to consumer data. “We have created a data sharing ecosystem that harmonizes data access while protecting the interest of financial institutions,” says George Anderson, CEO and Founder, Ninth Wave.

Working with financial institutions and leading fintechs for 20 years, Ninth Wave understands the ecosystem and their culture. With this knowledge, and a platform built using open banking API’s, the company ensures the secure exchange of financial data among banks, aggregators, fintechs, and other third parties. Under Anderson’s thought leadership, team Ninth Wave is providing all the players in the financial services industry a level playing field to manage their data effectively, while innovating consistently.

“Our ability to serve the entire financial services marketplace with our knowledge and functionally-rich software is the biggest differentiator for us,” says Anderson. Ninth Wave helps banks establish stronger relationships with their technology partners to provide better services to their customers.

We have created a data sharing ecosystem that harmonizes data access while protecting the interest of financial institutions.

The company supports the new market entrants in the banking arena to adopt emerging technology confidently in a scalable, trusted environment. Besides, it addresses the compliance needs of its clients propelling them to launch new products quickly. While the firm offers an on-premise version to self-manage the solution, it also offers a SaaS platform that accelerates their time to market. Further, the company’s platform allows financial institutions to streamline transaction costs, backed by ease in tax reporting, planning, and filing.

Ninth Wave boasts of a unique onboarding process that involves open banking experts, who first walk the clients through an implementation and certification process to ensure they have the right infrastructure to monetize their data in a controlled manner and innovate faster. Anderson cites the case of a Silicon Valley-based financial institution which serves an entrepreneurial customer base and offers loans to technology companies including startups, supporting them to grow their business in the competitive market. It is commonly observed that technology companies have strong biases for the technology they prefer to use, especially when it comes to managing and connecting their accounting system with banks. For instance, finance management software vendors like Expensify or Xero™ who have their own application, may want banks to adopt the application and transact through their channel. However, banks are not easily convinced owing to the fear of data breaches and hacks. Being in a similar situation, the client needed a solution that could help them quickly support any fintech application or the channel that its customers wished. Having implemented Ninth Wave’s platform, the client served as a single point of entry for fintech applications and aggregators.

“The California Consumer Privacy Act is just the tip of the iceberg, and there will be more mandates around data privacy,” says Anderson. With a vision to be part of the data revolution in a highly regulated environment, Ninth Wave aims to tap the opportunities ahead.