FI.SPAN Featured in Electronic Payments International.

What the FI.SPAN? A new Canadian connector platform is enabling banks to integrate open APIs from B2B banking and payment fintechs to serve their corporate clients. Robin Arnfield talks to Lisa Shields, CEO of the Vancouver-based firm, about its origins, plans and strategy. Lisa Shields has an impressive track record in payments, having founded Vancouver-based global mass payments service provider Hyperwallet Systems. “I ran Hyperwallet for 15 years, and it saw a lot of growth,” she says.

In June 2014, private equity firm Primus Capital became Hyperwallet’s majority shareholder, and Shields exited the firm. She founded FI.SPAN to target the business-to-business (B2B) banking and payments space in August 2016.

“The genesis of FI.SPAN was visits to Hyperwallet clients six to eight months after they had started working with us,” explains Shields.“These large corporations would ask if we could provide services such as cash management, foreign exchange or vendor payments. Clearly, they had unmet needs that their banks weren’t fulfilling, and were willing to work with third-party fintechs to meet these needs.”