Finastra, which was formed from the union of Misys and D+H, and calls itself the world’s third largest fintech company in the world, has acquired American software company Malauzai in an attempt to strengthen its foothold in the American banking market.

The acquisition gives Finastra access to Malauzai‘s over community banks and FI clients and over one million users in the U.S. market. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Malauzai is based in Austin, Texas and has been a leader in digital banking for nearly a decade. Among other notable achievements, it was the first technology company to implement the payment of bills via the smartphone camera. The feature was called PicturePay, and was one of several innovations Malauzai introduced in the early days of mobile banking.

The company currently provides mobile and internet banking solutions for credit unions and small-to-mid-sized banks. Prior to this acquisition, Malauzai and Finastra had been working together since 2015. Malauzai even integrated its software into  Fusion Phoenix, Finastra’s core banking platform The two had worked together to serve over 130 banking and financial companies during this partnership, including Wisconsin-based Horicon Bank. 

Simon Paris, CEO at Finastra, said in a statement released to the media:

Credit unions and community banks are the fabric of American financial services. We strive to help them realize the benefits of digital transformation – including being able to deliver outstanding experiences right across their consumer and business customer lifecycles… Together, our two companies deliver a fully integrated open core platform for payments, lending and digital, across Finastra’s 4,500-strong US-based community market customers and Malauzai’s non-core US-based customers. We value Malauzai’s market leadership and its open approach, which is in perfect alignment with our open platform vision.

It remains unclear if Malauzai will be rebranded under Finastra’s name. Krall & Co. Inc.  served as financial advisers to Malauzai.

Bank Innovation has reached out to Finastra for more information.