Desjardins Group, the largest federation of credit unions in North America, has furthered its partnership with Montreal-based behavioral banking start-up Exagens by signing a “multi-year” contract to use its technology for its banking assistant.
The multi-year contract will see the 25-person fintech continue to power the major bank’s ‘Assistant AccèsD’, instilling a “vote of confidence” in the fintech and the future of behavioral banking.
Already having reached out to more than three million of Desjardins’ members with Exagens’ technology, the group’s digital assistant provides tips, offers advice, and assists in transactions. The fintech says it managed to reduce abandonment by 69% on the group’s digital platform, and secured the group a 98% customer satisfaction rating for digital engagement.
Exagens demoing at Finovate Europe in 2018
The Assistant AccèsD is completely autonomous according to Exagens, and can engage members 24/7 by either proactively guiding or reactively assisting them.
“This multi-year commitment is our vote of confidence in Exagens, its technology, and its vision to humanise the digital banking environment,” says senior director at Desjardins Eboni Boicel. “We believe Exagens will play a key role in building stronger, long-term relationships with our customers.”
The Canadian banking group says its has seven million members and clients and currently holds $295.5 billion in total assets. The deal is a huge opportunity for Exagens to develop its product offering in the wider financial space.
Founded in 2014, Exagens specialises in behavioral analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning with a specific focus on serving financial institutions. Co-founder Frederic Ah-Yave previously worked for Gemalto – a digital security software provider owned by Thales Group – as a software architect for six years.
Exagens’ CEO and president Michael Stojda spent seven years at Avid Technologies, a music and video production software company, and also spent a time at Microsoft as a group product manager.
“We’re excited to continue putting our social and data science expertise to work for Desjardins and its ever-increasing digital customer base,” says Stojda.