Fifth Third adds new fintech partner to enhance service for corporate clients

With the latest of a series of fintech partnerships, Fifth Third Bank aims to enhance capabilities for corporate clients.

Fifth Third has struck a strategic partnership with Intellect Global Transaction Banking, a unit of Intellect Design Arena that has its U.S. headquarters in New Jersey.

"We believe this collaboration with iGTB on future digital projects will help us deepen our relationship with existing customers and acquire new ones,” Jeff Siekman, director of payment products for Fifth Third, said in a press release Wednesday. “We are committed to embracing technology at Fifth Third and we look forward to bringing new capabilities for our clients."

Besides transaction banking, iGTB offers services that include contextual payments, cash management, trade finance, and collections and receivables, among other things. Its services incorporate the use of machine learning and predictive analytics.

As Fifth Third continues to make tech investments, it recently hired consultants to help it figure out how to control costs. Its tech expenses spiked by 17% in the first quarter, compared with a year earlier.

In 2015, Fifth Third CEO Greg Carmichael launched an aggressive campaign to invest in digital initiatives. In April, Carmichael told American Banker that its decision to bring on consultants was to promote more efficiency in its revenue generation. “There’s no concern here,” he said. “We just want to be smart about how we do it.”

iGTB's partnership with the $142 billion-asset Fifth Third expands the U.S. presence of its parent company. Intellect Design is a provider of banking and insurance technology that is based in India. It touts design expertise as a key differentiator in enabling digital transformation, and has more than 240 customers in 40 countries, including CIBC in Canada.

“We have invested many millions of dollars each quarter in R&D into the banking space," Manish Maakan, iGTB's chief executive, said in a press release. "We are now expanding our footprint and contextual banking into the U.S. with this partnership."