Treezor is the behind-the-scenes innovator that makes European fintech possible
An interview with Eric Lassus, CEO of Treezor, the market-leading banking-as-a-service platform
Treezor is revolutionising how financial services companies connect and engage customers with its market-leading banking-as-a-service platform. We caught up with Treezor CEO Eric Lassus to find out what makes Treezor different and how the company plans to change the industry.
What is Treezor’s business model?
Our business model provides a 100% API-based platform, allowing fintechs and other financial-services companies to access market-leading bank services and innovate. We take care of the banking side of their business, so that they can concentrate on their services, products or use cases.
Many fintech models require banking services. If you’re a fintech start-up, or even an established player, you don’t have the resources to duplicate what a bank can do. In any case, doing so would simply be a distraction from their core mission.
By working with Treezor, they don’t have to do any of this. We take care of the banking, so they can concentrate on building their product and their audience.
Where did the idea for Treezor come from?
The leadership team of Treezor launched a first fintech as far back as about 2005. I think it was one of the first fintechs in France. However very quickly we ran into a problem with access to banking services and licenses that we did not have time or capital to acquire.
So, we decided to build a new platform – Treezor – that would solve these problems for the fintechs that came after us. Treezor has become a project enabler for fintechs. So far, we have helped around seventy fintechs to acquire access to the banking services via Treezor’s API model. That includes some of the strongest fintechs in France today.
How do fintechs work with Treezor?
It’s really very simple. We have a platform that provides a range of services, from processing SEPA payments right up to KYC and compliance. We can even help with crowdfunding.
The fintech has a choice, they can either plug into the whole range of services from the start. Or they can choose the à la carte approach and only connect to the services they need right away. However, even if they choose the second route, they can still access the other services at any time. Integration via API is quick and easy, and the new services can be added to the existing contract.
Nor are fintechs the only audience. A local bank, for instance, might need to offer digital services to remain competitive. However, the cost of developing such services may be prohibitive for a regional bank. That a bank can work with Treezor to rapidly develop and offer new innovative services to its customers and also accelerate its digital transformation.
What is Treezor’s relationship with Societe Generale?
Societe Generale integrated Treezor in the Group in 2019. However, we have retained our own DNA. Our strategy is to become Europe’s leading banking-as-a-service platform. Societe Generale is working closely with us to make this happen. For example, as we closely work with Societe Generale on managing IBAN-related services, Treezor is able to support regulated as well as unregulated fintechs. Societe Generale has also been key in helping us to navigate areas such as global compliance, which would have been much more difficult without access to the expertise of a global bank.
Our relationship with the bank goes beyond just what Societe Generale can do for us. We also ask ourselves what we can do for Societe Generale. The answer is that we can participate with and support the bank’s rapid innovation and digital transformation. Today, the bank is already building services and products based on the Treezor technology.
How does Treezor contribute to the Societe Generale goal of making finance sustainable?
Treezor works with Societe Generale to measure our impact on the climate and our carbon emissions. Our goal is to reduce this impact every year. Using the Treezor technology platform, we can also help our customers to understand the CO2 impact of the technology choices they make. Once they understand the impact of those choices on future emissions, we can give them advice on how to make the best possible decisions, for themselves, their customers and the environment.
Beyond that, adopting advanced technologies, such as those developed by Treezor, is in itself an important step toward a more sustainable and responsible future. To take one example, Treezor technologies allow fintechs to achieve a complete overview of all their transaction data.
This radical transparency makes it possible to predict future transaction trends and volumes with far greater accuracy than ever before. And that allows our partners to plan for the future, with sustainability in mind and to minimise their impact, with the highest possible degree of confidence and detail.