There’s moving money and then there’s money mobility. One represents the current state of how money moves in and out of accounts. The latter is the cornerstone of today’s announcement that money mobility platform Ingo Payments has acquired cloud-based banking platform Deposits Inc.
By integrating Deposits, Ingo Payments is enhancing its platform into a cutting-edge, bank-grade system. This integration introduces a proprietary ‘money stack’—a suite of features that seamlessly connects ‘money in’ and ‘money out’ processes. With these new plug-and-play tools, both banks and non-bank issuers can effortlessly transform payments into dynamic, feature-rich accounts, unlocking new opportunities for customer engagement and revenue generation.
“This was literally a missing piece in our [platform] that powers the money in and money out [of an existing account],” Ingo Payments CEO Drew Edwards told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an exclusive interview. “I’ve talked many times about how an account, a bank or a wallet is a place to store money, but in today’s world it must be easily created and funded digitally. It’s also a place to spend money from and there’s risk associated with it. You have to be really good at risk management. With this combination, we get the part in the middle. That’s what Deposits has built: a modern money stack for ledgering and issuing accounts, now in the middle of the Ingo Payments money mobility platform.”
For banks and corporates, the ‘money stack’ offers a powerful tool to transform simple transactions into long-term customer relationships. The Deposits software, with its low-code and no-code capabilities, cloud-based ledgering, and streamlined APIs, makes it easier than ever to manage and track transactions. This simplifies the process, allowing institutions to focus on growth and customer satisfaction without being bogged down by technical complexities.
“Our platform offers a comprehensive suite of APIs and tools that make it easy to deploy powerful financial solutions,” said Joseph Akintolayo, CEO of Deposits. “When we talk about the ‘money stack,’ we’re referring to the full spectrum of capabilities—everything from account creation to compliance—that businesses need to bring their products to market quickly and effectively. Partnering with Ingo Payments, we’re paving the way for a future where financial innovation is seamless and accessible.”
Edwards said the acquisition will amplify the capabilities Ingo Payments already provides to a diverse set of industries, including banking, fintech, lending, hospitality, insurance, gaming and trucking.
From Great Idea to Go Live
Edwards used the example of a restaurant to describe the new Ingo Payments platform capabilities.
More than 90% of restaurants still pay out cash tips at the end of a worker’s shift. Consider a restaurant that would like to eliminate the friction associated with cash payouts and pay directly and instantly into a worker’s bank account. Edwards said that with the Deposits acquisition, Ingo Payments will expand the available options to include new instant-issue accounts for workers that open up new revenue streams and opportunities to make it more cost effective for the restaurant and the worker. And, with Ingo powering some of the top restaurant operating systems in market today, the cloud ledgering that will now be integrated with inbound and outbound payments, as well as new accounts and complex money flows within this multi-layer ecosystem, can be tracked seamlessly.
In this use case, digital tipping becomes the baseline for a new branded account that simplifies payouts for the restaurant operator, enabling a true cashless experience that is portable as the worker changes jobs. Edwards emphasized, it also turns what was formerly cash in an envelope into a new relationship with that worker and an ecosystem among the restaurants that becomes the basis for monetizing payments in new ways.
Future-Proofing Money Movement and Money Stacks
The Ingo Payments/Deposits integration creates a proprietary and modern money stack that brings together core and non-core capabilities such as digital experiences for embedded account creation, ledgering, funding accounts, accessing accounts, risk management and compliance — as part of a money stack that exists inside of the Ingo Payments money mobility platform. The platform is “processor-agnostic, core-agnostic and open-banking-agnostic”, helping banks and corporates leverage the power of creating new feature-rich account-based relationships that meet modern consumer expectations. These include receiving money from relevant form factors, including checks, and sending money to relevant destinations including P2P, Me2Me and bill payments.
Edwards and Akintolayo use the term “proprietary” to mean, “ownership,” and with that the reduction in the number of third- and fourth-party integration and partners that banks and corporates have to manage from a risk perspective .
“You can’t outsource the core responsibilities of banking,” said Drew Edwards. “Banks are ultimately accountable for compliance, whether they use third parties or not. Our approach minimizes reliance on external partners, reducing the complexity and risks associated with compliance, and allowing banks to maintain tighter control over their operations. Ingo has been helping banks successfully do this for over 20 years and this expands on that capability.”
Reducing the number of “layers and players,” and especially those that Edwards and Akintolayo consider core, makes the money movement and the money storage components easier for regulators, easier for banks, easier for even FinTechs to manage and to do it right, he emphasized.
The Modern ‘Core’
Edwards also noted the potential for Ingo to now solve a big problem for banks, which is modernizing legacy infrastructure.
“It’s our point of view that the bank is at the center of the banking side of this,” he told Webster. “One of the things that we see changing is more and more financial institutions adopting a platform like ours for their own use, for their own direct customers, not just their fintech partnerships. Everything from account creation to managing incoming and outgoing funds can be upgraded.”
Ingo Payments’ new Deposits capabilities reduce the barriers to entry for banks and corporates handling the heavy lifting of compliance, regulatory requirements, and technical aspects. The platform offers ready-to-use, customizable components that require minimal to no coding skills, tailored for financial technology applications such as receiving payments, storing money and managing disbursements.
Banks and corporates can quickly launch financial services that are specific to their needs without forcing a one-size-fits-all solution. It focuses on compliance and customization, Akintolayo said, allowing businesses to translate their brand and values into the digital financial world.
“This is a game-changer for traditional financial institutions,” Akintolayo emphasized. “It empowers them to leap into the digital age, meeting the modern expectations of consumers and small businesses alike. With our integrated platform, they can quickly adapt to and thrive in today’s fast-paced, digital-first economy.”
