Ninth Wave, a provider of open finance connectivity and services, has launched Compass, an AI-driven onboarding assistant designed to simplify and accelerate bank integration into the open finance ecosystem.
Compass aims to improve the accuracy, predictability, and overall time-to-market for financial institutions engaging in open finance. The platform utilizes AI-powered automation to analyze and test a bank’s APIs, identifying any gaps, inconsistencies, or mismatches that require resolution to comply with open finance standards.
Historically, onboarding has been a complex and time-intensive aspect of open finance integration. Financial institutions have faced challenges in aligning APIs with open finance standards, reconciling data format differences, validating consent and authentication workflows, and navigating extensive technical documentation, often through manual processes. Compass seeks to transform this model by guiding institutions through the integration process with clear direction and automation.
The AI-powered automation within Compass evaluates aspects such as the formatting of account and transaction data, the capture and management of customer consent, and the operation of authentication processes. Rather than relying on iterative communication, Compass proactively identifies issues and provides actionable guidance. It also generates a detailed, AI-driven API mapping guide that illustrates how each field in a bank’s API should be connected to the Ninth Wave platform, aiming to reduce uncertainty and enhance accuracy.
Through the replacement of manual procedures with AI-driven automation, Compass is intended to facilitate faster, more predictable, and manageable onboarding, providing banks with increased confidence in timelines and outcomes. Additionally, Compass integrates AI-powered technical support tailored for teams involved in implementing and operating integrations. This feature utilizes generative AI to deliver immediate, context-aware answers to complex onboarding questions, aiming to reduce the time and effort required by bank and engineering teams.
Compass includes intelligent documentation agents that allow users to submit natural-language questions about APIs and receive context-aware responses in real time. This functionality is designed to minimize research time and assist teams in resolving issues efficiently, thereby supporting the progression of onboarding processes without undue delays.
George Anderson, Ninth Wave’s Founder and CEO, stated, “Compass applies AI where it matters most—removing friction from the most complex parts of onboarding. By accelerating integration timelines and improving clarity and predictability into the process, Compass helps banks go live faster and focus on delivering value to their customers.”
Compass is integrated into Ninth Wave’s Customer Resource Center, which also features the Ninth Wave Portal. The Portal monitors and measures open finance data, offering financial institutions control over data sharing and insights into security and usage patterns.
Ninth Wave, founded in 2018 and based in New York City, specializes in secure data connectivity between financial institutions and third-party applications, including aggregators, fintechs, accounting solutions, and ERP systems. The company aims to provide comprehensive open finance connectivity through a unified platform.
