Much is now being written and spoken about marketplace banking but what does it mean in practice? In essence, it means having the flexible technology and business models to be able to rapidly bring to market products and services that ensure that you remain relevant to your customers.

The technology and those business models need to be dynamic, creative and shareable to keep pace with competitors, new and old. In addition, the organisation needs the right people, with the mind-sets to embrace the radical changes.

  A Marketplace Bank Powered By Matrix

First, there is Matrix Accounts, our lean, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) back-end for banks and service providers. This is not essential, as Matrix can also be connected to legacy back-ends, but Matrix Accounts is next-generation, which means it has the necessary flexibility and real-time capabilities, plus low maintenance and low cost of ownership that are lacking in most equivalent engines.

(Marketing Manager Ernst Roelofs & Director of Product Development Fridrik Reynisson at Finnovate 2016)

Second, there is Matrix for the mid-office, an orchestrating hub that allows any product to be offered via any channel. As well as giving users a full picture of all customer interaction, the automated workflow engine allows users to dynamically model new processes or remodel existing ones, to ensure they remain in control and compliant.

API Connectors aid the links to the outside world that are so important for marketplace banking. Through drag and drop, they can be incorporated into the dynamic workflows to allow the user to incorporate third-party products within that workflow and launch them on the market within minutes.

Why is this so important? Well, Gartner has predicted that marketplace banking saves up to 90  per cent of the time and cost to market of conventional models, with the ability to unlock up to 30 per cent additional revenue per year.