Caring about the Toolkit? - Fintechs and FIs

Background

The value of the Digital Toolkit (and thus why 3rd party developers would care about it) differs depending upon whether the 3rd party is a Fintech or an FI.

This page focuses on describing the aspects of the Toolkit which resonate with a Fintech compared with the aspects which resonate with an FI.

Both Fintechs and FIs participate in the same two-sided market have to make their own determination if adopting the Toolkit is worth the effort.

Fintech perspective

Why do Fintechs care about the Digital Toolkit?

This is probably the most succinct way of describing the value to a Fintech:

Our Toolkit grants you access to hundreds of banks and credit unions; you can build an integration once, and resell it multiple times - all while using industry standard technology and development practices.

List of things which Fintechs care about:

• Jack Henry has hundreds of FIs, so if a Fintech can ‘build it once’ then they can resell it multiple times.
• Jack Henry doesn’t charge a Fintech to gain developer access nor does Jack Henry take a cut of the Fintech’s revenue¹.
• Fintechs don’t need Jack Henry’s permission to partner with FIs to define, build, and deploy solutions.
• The Toolkit uses tech industry standards so Fintechs don’t have to invest time learning a ‘bespoke, special snowflake’ tech stack.
  • The skills learned elsewhere are transferrable to using the Toolkit.
  • The skills learned with the Toolkit are transferrable to other modern tech stacks.
• The APIs offered by the Digital Toolkit are the same APIs that Jack Henry itself uses for Banno.
  • This addresses some common concerns which are, to paraphrase, ‘how often does the API go down, what is the resolution time to bring it back up?’
  • With other API providers, that API was some sort of ‘side gig’ or similar, i.e. a different ‘thing’ than the product itself.
  • That’s not the case with the Digital Toolkit. The APIs are the same API that powers Banno. If Banno is up and running, then so is the API since that’s at the very core foundation of how Banno works.
  • (We are understandably highly motivated to keep Banno up and running.)

FI perspective

Why do FIs care about the Digital Toolkit?

This is probably the most succinct way of describing the value to an FI:

Philosophically, the Toolkit is about empowering you, the financial institution, to work with the best of the fintech world for the benefit of your customers. This is the same API that Jack Henry itself uses for Banno.

List of things which FIs care about:

• FIs don’t need Jack Henry’s permission to partner with Fintechs to define, build, and deploy solutions.
  • There was a prospect FI which was apparently not happy with a competitor platform provider’s SDK because (to paraphrase) the FI must:
    • Invest in writing code,
    • Submit the code for review by the platform provider,
    • Wait up to 6 weeks so that hopefully the platform provider approves and incorporates the FI’s changes.
• FIs are constantly concerned about vendor lock-in, and avoid it as much as possible². The Toolkit uses tech industry standards so they don’t have to invest time learning (or acquiring) a ‘bespoke, special snowflake’ tech stack.
  • The skills learned elsewhere are transferrable to using the Toolkit.
  • The skills learned with the Toolkit are transferrable to other modern tech stacks.
• The APIs offered by the Digital Toolkit are the same APIs that Jack Henry itself uses for Banno.
  • This addresses some common concerns which are, to paraphrase, ‘how often does the API go down, what is the resolution time to bring it back up?’
  • With other API providers, that API was some sort of ‘side gig’ or similar, i.e. a different ‘thing’ than the product itself.
  • That’s not the case with the Digital Toolkit. The APIs are the same API that powers Banno. If Banno is up and running, then so is the API since that’s at the very core foundation of how Banno works.
  • (We are understandably highly motivated to keep Banno up and running.)
• FIs are concerned about competing with the the MegaBanks and BigTechs without losing the ability to innovate faster, deliver top-notch customer experiences, and maintain a deep relationship with the customer.
  • The Toolkit offers FIs a way to compete in the world of open banking at ‘zero cost, zero lift’³.
• Jack Henry doesn’t charge an FI to gain developer access nor does Jack Henry take a cut of the FI’s revenue when they integrate with a Fintech.