Cloud accounting platform Xero added top U.S. bank Capital One to its roster.
Ryan Himmel, financial partnerships lead for Xero told Bank Innovation this partnership is a big win for the company “not only on the account that Capital One is a huge bank, but also because we were able to deliver the finished product so quickly.”
Xero, signed the deal with Capital One in May of this year, and went live with the product on Wednesday, July 26, only two months later.
“From Capital One’s point of view this is also important because we have a lot of mutual customers,” said Himmel.
Other major U.S. banks that Xero integrates with include Wells Fargo, Silicon Valley Bank and City National Bank. In the U.K, it collaborates with Barclays and in Australia it’s integrated with Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank.
In the U.S., Xero’s largest markets are New York, Texas, California, Florida and Colorado.
“The goal is expand our presence with smaller banks and penetrate the smaller local markets,” Himmel said.
In regards, to Capital One going live with Xero’s credit card feed, Himmel explained that by using a direct secure integration with Capital One’s new API, small businesses will be able to connect their Capital One card data with Xero, thus giving users an on-demand view of their financial profile.
The Capital One product allows customers to streamline their accounting functions of bank reconciliation, boost productivity and thus reduce administrative costs and improve productivity.
The company, which provides accounting services to small businesses, is now focused on creating a product that will drastically simplify the reconciliation process for small businesses by using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“We are looking at ways of incorporating AI and ML in a way where the reconciliation process, which is a real pain-point for our customers, will be fully automated,” said Himmel.
In fact, the application of AI and ML to create new products and improve existing ones is a concerted effort for the company overall, Himmel said. The company is in the process of announcing a line of new developments in this space later this year. As to what those products are, Himmel declined to specify.
Founded in 2006 in New Zealand, Xero entered the U.S. about 5 years ago. It currently has over 20 offices across the globe and over a million subscribers. It is listed on both the Australian Stock Exchange and New Zealand Exchange.