Q2 Introduces Helix: Banking as a Service to Make Finance Human

February 02, 2022 at 08:00 AM EST

Q2 Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: QTWO), a leading provider of digital transformation solutions for banking and lending, today announced the introduction of Helix, the evolution of Q2’s Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform. As a cloud-native core purpose built for embedded finance, Helix enables any innovative company to offer differentiated banking products that are personalized to serve the unique needs of their users. While Q2’s digital banking platform is focused on serving the needs of banks and credit unions, Helix empowers fintechs, technology companies and consumer brands with the platform and financial institution partners needed to embed banking into their ecosystems.

Helix serves more than 11 million users nationwide and processes over $20 billion in transactions per year. Helix offers the building blocks of banking – accounts, cards, payments, data and controls, administrative tools and monetization solutions – all in one place to make it easier to embed personalized financial experiences in context.

“We have entered a new frontier in financial services: the convergence of financial institutions, fintechs and consumer brands,” said Jonathan Price, EVP of Emerging Business, Corporate & Business Development, Q2. “Successful technology companies historically have gained traction in the market by building their products around each specific user’s needs and context. We have taken that same design philosophy and applied it to banking.”

“With Helix, we are building on Q2’s expertise in digital banking and partnering with innovative companies to make finance human,” said Helix General Manager Ahon Sarkar. “For us, making finance human means three things: first, creating a world where the financial products that serve us are as unique as the people that use them; second, enabling companies to design their products around each person instead of forcing people to conform their needs to existing products; and third, creating a world where human-centric financial services are available for every person.”

With Helix, companies can create unique banking solutions that are designed around their users to drive adoption, engagement, retention and ultimately, profitability.

“The thing that stands out about Helix is the simplicity: in the technology and integration and then in the pricing model,” said Acorns Chief Business Officer, Manning Field. “There’s so much inherent complexity in this landscape and Helix makes it easy to develop something great for our customers.”

With a modern, proprietary cloud-based core, native REST APIs, a unified back-office console for easier fintech-bank collaboration, and a network of sponsor bank partners, Helix is designed to work together seamlessly, eliminating the need to combine and manage disparate systems.

“In any innovation, it takes a team to move forward,” said Todd Brockman, general manager of Visa DPS. “Visa is excited to partner with Helix as a preferred card processor to bring new innovation to the financial industry.”

For companies that want to offer banking solutions to their users to drive retention and engagement, Helix provides the following key benefits:

Personalization – Historically, many of the banking products offered to consumers have been cookie-cutter solutions that are inadequate in meeting the growing needs of companies and serving the unique needs of users. Helix helps companies leverage the context they have about users to define protocols such as limits, features, and controls at a per-customer level. This level of personalization drives engagement for the client programs while helping to more granularly manage the risk of fraud.

Impact at Scale – To “make finance human,” Helix has to operate at the largest scale. Taking these personalized banking products and scaling them up to multi-million user bases come with a set of unique challenges, distinct from those of a program starting with its first user. With a technology foundation capable of supporting multi-million user programs, a user-centric API architecture, and a unique back-office console, Helix is making it easier than ever for companies to build profitable and sustainable banking products and businesses.

Flexibility and Control – Helix offers a fully equipped, comprehensive back-office console and fraud management tools to simplify operations and streamline dispute and fraud resolution. By making operations easier and customer support experiences more seamless, Helix allows organizations to respond faster and gives our customers more flexibility and control. By giving companies fraud controls at the user level, Helix enables organizations to leverage their existing understanding of their customers to make better risk decisions, minimizing fraud and maximizing user engagement.

Lower cost of service - Helix’s cloud architecture allows it to operate at a much lower cost-basis than traditional cores, lowering the cost of serving user accounts and enabling companies to design products around customers’ unique needs. By enabling innovative companies to embed financial solutions into their products, Helix allows organizations to make it easier for any anyone to participate in the U.S. economy.

For more information about Helix visit helix.q2.com.

About Q2 Holdings, Inc.

Q2 is a financial experience company dedicated to providing digital banking and lending solutions to banks, credit unions, alternative finance, and fintech companies in the U.S. and internationally. With comprehensive end-to-end solution sets, Q2 enables its partners to provide cohesive, secure, data-driven experiences to every account holder – from consumer to small business and corporate. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 has offices throughout the world and is publicly traded on the NYSE under the stock symbol QTWO. To learn more, please visit Q2.com.

About Helix

Helix gives innovative fintechs and brands the building blocks of banking — accounts, cards, payments, data and controls, admin tools, and monetization solutions — to make it easy to embed personalized financial experiences that easily integrate and scale. For more information on Helix, visit helix.q2.com.