Accenture Acquires Select Zafin Assets and Forms Partnership

One of the largest professional services companies in the world has unveiled a new relationship with a Canadian fintech.

Accenture today announced a “strategic alliance” with the Toronto-based Zafin. Accenture will serve as a preferred integrator of Zafin’s platform to better help the company go to market. In addition, select employees from Zafin’s professional services department will join Accenture’s global financial services practice. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Zafin is a fintech that works with global financial institutions to build relationship pricing, bundling and rate management. They work to increase revenue for some of the biggest banks in the world (including the big five in Canada), and with this new acquisition of a portion of Zafin’s services department, it will allow Accenture to strengthen their relationships with the same large institutions both already work with. The overall goal will be to modernize the IT these large legacy organizations currently operate with.

“These agreements with Accenture will enable us to sharpen our focus squarely on product innovation and technology,” said Al Karim Somji, founder and group CEO of Zafin. “We are particularly proud of the work we’ve done with our clients globally and expect our expanded relationship with Accenture to enable us to accelerate our momentum in the market. This deal simplifies our operating model and provides Zafin with rapid scalability.”

Accenture recently announced a massive new innovation hub in Toronto where as many as 800 employees will work. This new centre will help Zafin and Accenture closely work together and see what kind of transformation they can enable with both Canadian banks as well as international ones.

“Many financial institutions are hindered in enhancing their customer experience by the limitations of legacy IT systems,” said Alan McIntyre, head of Accenture’s global banking practice. “Zafin’s software enables financial institutions to improve their pricing, personalization and product configuration without having to replace their legacy systems.”

Last month, Accenture and Zafin hosted a Future of Banking panel that focused on how open banking will change the face of the financial world.