Cross River, FinClusive partners to empower fintech, increase access to financial services for underserved communities

Cross River Bank, a Fort Lee-based provider of technology infrastructure that offers embedded financial solutions, said Thursday that it partnered with FinClusive, a global Compliance-as-a-Service infrastructure provider for financial services, to provide account and payment services to promote safe and compatible access to the economically underserved.

“Regulatory compliance, accountability and transparency are central to Cross River, and we continue to expand our partnerships with technology leaders focused on increasing financial access,” said Gilles Gade, Founder, CEO and President of Cross River. “Both Cross River and FinClusive share fundamental values ​​and a compliance-driven approach.”

Cross River is a strong advocate for regulatory modernization to create clear guidelines and standards in the fintech industry without compromising the availability of safe, sound, compliant and affordable financial services.

FinClusive’s CaaS technology enables fintechs to grow responsibly. Cross River remains focused on partners who share a forward-looking and streamlined compliance approach, which ultimately strengthens the broader fintech ecosystem. FinClusive and Cross River teamed up to bring expanded payment options to FinClusive’s platform earlier this year.

“In an uncertain industry environment – with ongoing challenges affecting both traditional and alternative providers of financial services – this partnership is yet another example of our unwavering commitment to accountability and responsible governance in the financial system. Our partnership provides communities with much-needed, reliable access to comprehensive compliance capabilities and demonstrates our shared commitment to innovation and compliance in tandem,” said Amit Sharma, CEO of FinClusive.

FinClusive’s unique CaaS application and digital gateway embeds compliance-backed identity credentials into network transactions and enables both secure onboarding of new clients as well as continuous downstream validation and verification. This creates both cost and process efficiencies while ensuring the application of global standards for financial crime compliance across all payment channels, traditional or alternative.

Together, Cross River will provide enhanced payment options and connectivity to the US banking system and community access, while FinClusive will ensure the necessary consumer and business protections inherent in preserving the integrity of the financial system.

The FinClusive leadership team consists of senior executives from global financial institutions, technology companies, federal government and financial regulatory agencies, and international law firms:

• Sharma previously served as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary and Senior Advisor, Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, at the US Treasury Department;
• The company’s compliance-enabled credentialing environment platform was designed and built by Dennis Paige, chief technology officer and co-founder of FinClusive. Previously, he served as Senior Examiner for Technology and Risk at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and prior to the New York Fed, he was a security architect and program manager for the Security & Fraud, Payments & Cash Management Unit at HSBC, and also ran security architecture at the New York Stock Exchange;
• Co-founder, board member and legal advisor John Squires established FinClusive’s engagement platform for financial partners. Squires was previously chief intellectual property advisor for Goldman, Sachs & Co. and co-founder of Regulatory DataCorp, now part of Moody’s. source set of technology standards and self-regulatory best practices to increase safe, secure and compliant access to the global financial system.