The fintech ‘Billy’ is the first digital accounting platform in the Nordic countries to be certified by the authorities to get access to customers' banking data.
As Billy now has a significant competitive edge, they are doubling their development capacity to go to market with new solutions faster.
Following Ageras' million dollar acquisition of Copenhagen-based Billy in August, Billy is moving ahead of their competitors after the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority has approved them as the first accounting platform in the Nordic region to get access to customers' banking data.
- It is the culmination of half a year's work giving us a significant competitive advantage in automating our customers' work processes even further, says Jonas Midtgaard, Billy's CEO.
- The banks have to give our company access to their infrastructure and data so that our customers can get automated bookkeeping, more accurate liquidity budgets and management. The amount of new opportunities are many, which is why we are doubling our development capacity to launch new solutions faster, says Jonas Midtgaard.
The EU directive PSD2 came into fruition last September. It states that banks - with their customer acceptance - must open up their data to other companies. It gives the fintech industry opportunity to innovate new user-friendly and efficient products and services that interact with banks' data.
- It is developing and owning the user interfaces that are being used which generates growth. Previously, our users had to go through the online or mobile bank because they owned customers' financial data, but that is about to change, says Jonas Midtgaard.
In order for fintechs to be allowed to access bank data, they are required to get a so-called Account Information Service Provider license (AISP) with the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority. This includes a number of security requirements, like a specific procedure for how they will use bank data.
- We thank the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority for their cooperation on something that is still relatively new for all parties involved. Accounting is characterized by a lot of manual work and there is room for lots of efficiency. This license makes it possible to automate more processes for the benefit of the customers, says Jonas Midtgaard.
In 2019, Billy was bought by the IT company Ageras for a double-digit million figure to boost the growth and international expansion. 18,000 companies are using Billy.