Begin with a purpose
Back in 2013, Steve Round was chairman of The Big Issue Foundation. The UK charity offers people facing exclusion and poverty an opportunity to earn their own money, particularly by being vendors for its weekly magazine.
As a result of his work with the foundation, Steve wanted to create a bank account for people on low incomes, who were typically not attractive to banks and excluded from the financial system.
Working with Nelson Wootton, the Change Account was born, an inclusive transactional account that offered secure wallets, advice and payment alerts.
Steve and Nelson believed that bringing the ethos of the Change Account to a new cloud-native core banking platform would enable organisations at any scale to offer financial solutions to their customers. From these beginnings, SaaScada was born.
Net Zero
Financial services providers can and should make a significant impact in the race to Net Zero, and should challenge not only themselves but their suppliers to have a Net Zero plan.
SaaScada is leading the way for cloud-native banking solutions by being the first to commit to achieving Net Zero. Net Zero differs from “carbon neutral”, which can be achieved simply by offsetting a business or home’s emissions. Net Zero means reducing emissions to their lowest amount through energy-efficient measures first, then using offsetting only to balance what cannot yet be removed.
Our platform feeds customers with real-time data, so they can use their preferred ESG reporting methods to measure their own carbon footprint, and that of their own customers.
Vision, a world without poverty
Poverty and the climate crisis are closely linked, and those who have contributed least to the crisis are often those most affected by its consequences: people living in poverty, and future generations.
Access to financial services has been highlighted by the World Bank and the UN as key to eradicating poverty and addressing the climate crisis, something our founders feel strongly about.
Financial services can help people pay for schooling, save for a home, or start a small business that provides jobs for others, helping people escape poverty that for generations was thought inescapable. We are passionate about financial inclusivity, and believe that if every person on this planet has access to a quality banking product, we could be the generation that ends poverty for good, one transaction at a time.
Mission, enabling financial inclusivity
Financial inclusion has been identified as an enabler for seven of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. According to the World Bank, financial inclusion is a key enabler of reduced poverty and boosted prosperity.
At SaaScada, we have always believed technology can be a force for good. We were founded on the desire to create first-class core banking technology, so financial institutions can offer the best financial services and products to their customers.
Infrastructure and technology improvements, even in the poorest regions of the world, have made it possible for almost everyone to access banking. Even where power grids do not exist, solar power and other technologies have made 4G and 5G access possible, opening mobile banking to people in the most remote regions.
Closer to home, we help financial institutions offer first-class products to those who traditionally had to settle for second-rate products, or no access at all. The power of financial inclusivity to change lives is significant, and we are proud to be part of that journey.