Here’s why Icelandic neobank indó partnered with Enfuce to develop country’s first challenger bank

indó, Iceland’s first-ever challenger bank, recently selected Enfuce – Finland’s biggest fintech startup – as its partner for payments, open banking and sustainability services. The collaboration assists indó in its announced plans to introduce the first new bank in Iceland in decades, by leveraging Enfuce’s leading industry and compliance expertise. 

Founded in 2018, indó aims to reinvent banking with a simple and transparent neobanking service. Once its pending banking license is approved, indó will launch a card-linked app and current account with market-beating interest rates. In its mission to become the ”world’s least powerful bank”, indó never directly manages user funds. Instead, it operates a ‘narrow banking’ model whereby deposits are safely deposited with the local central bank, ensuring a 100% safe and transparent banking service. 

To realise its ambitions, indó was seeking a full-service partner with a focus on speed and compliance. Joining forces with Enfuce, indó is equipped with the know-how necessary to operate compliant banking services at scale. Enfuce’s turnkey service contains the capabilities for implementing data-driven features in the indó app, set for launch later in 2020. 

“We at indó are thrilled to partner up with Enfuce on our journey. The core value for which indó stands, and our desire to affect a real change in the banking industry, is matched by Enfuce’s drive and vision. Enfuce is not only a partner in our venture, they are a crucial element in our above-and-beyond value proposition to our customers,” said Haukur Skúlason, CEO at indó. 

The key pillars of Enfuce’s offering – Payments Services, Open Banking and My Carbon Action – will underpin various elements of the indó user experience. Using Enfuce’s payments platform, indó can monitor card payments and seamlessly control in-app features. The open banking solution allows indó to build smarter money management services using a single, PSD2- compliant access point to Europe’s financial data. 

The Reykjavik-based startup leverages Enfuce’s offering in order to efficiently develop secure, socially conscious banking services. The latter is manifested through My Carbon Action – Enfuce’s plug-and-play carbon footprint tracker – which will show indó users the CO2 emissions of their individual spending in categories like food and transportation, and provide actionable insights on sustainable lifestyles. “We’re convinced that indó is going to shake up the status quo in Icelandic banking. That indó chose to subscribe to our full offering – from payment processing to open banking – is humbling, and speaks to the huge long-term potential of this partnership. Together, we are greater than the sum of our parts,” said Monika Liikamaa, Co-Founder and Chair at Enfuce.

Main image credits: Enfuce