Fintech
Leading KeyBank’s integrated banking and fintech strategies: Jon Briggs
Embedded banking, or the possibility for companies outside the financial sector to offer financial products or services within their software, websites or apps, is experiencing a moment of great relevance. Jon Briggs saw this trend coming and formed an integrated banking division within Cleveland-based KeyBank’s payments business.
Its embedded banking team built an API developer portal from scratch and launched 10 product API groups that process two million transactions per year, enabling transaction processing for merchant customers representing more than $50 million in revenue .
An example of a corporate customer using KeyBank’s embedded banking is Rectangle Health, which handles payments for dentists. KeyBank’s payment channels are now incorporated into Rectangle’s platform.
Briggs also leads KeyBank’s $188 billion fintech strategy. Its team of 120 people manages more than 40 partnerships with fintechs and technology providers. He is also responsible for the strategy, development and management of KeyBank’s core treasury, commercial liquidity, merchant services, integrated payments and commercial lending products.
In an effort to innovate, Briggs led the shift from waterfall development to agile development for product management to accelerate time to market for new products.
KeyBank’s payment products facilitate more than 700 million transactions annually, resulting in core treasury volume of $7 trillion and commercial card volume of $4.5 billion in 2023.
In April 2023, Jon and his team chose Qolo, an omnichannel card and payments platform, to power KeyBank’s integrated API-based virtual account management product, called KeyVAM. It allows customers to create virtual accounts and use real-time payments, ACH and bank transfers.
KeyVAM is designed to help treasury clients with complex demand deposit account structures simplify their cash flow and account structure. It allows users to manage multiple customers or cost centers and open and close sub-accounts via a connection to KeyNavigator, the bank’s online commercial banking system.