Profile

Method Financial’s authentication technology allows instant access to a consumer’s full liability portfolio using just personal information, eliminating the need for usernames and passwords. This provides financial service providers with access to real-time, high-fidelity data on consumer debts and credit lines. By empowering providers with this up-to-date liability information, Method enables more personalized and competitive financial products and services. Method’s innovations have tangible benefits — they have facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars in liability repayments and increased same-day payment execution rates for partners. Their credential-less account aggregation streamlines processes like debt consolidation, benefiting both financial institutions and consumers.

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Key Products

Method developed its suite of financial connectivity APIs to power better products and experiences that expand financial opportunities, helping more financial service providers win over and empower tech-savvy consumers. To achieve this, Method offers three products: Connect, Data and Pay.

Connect authenticates users with just their basic PII to identify all their outstanding trade lines. Data enables the exchange of real-time, high-fidelity data from financial institutions and Method’s Pay product facilitates payments to those liabilities.

Key Executives

Jose Bethancourt, Co-founder & CEO of Method

Jose Bethancourt, co-founder and CEO of Method, is redefining the future of financial services and expanding financial opportunities for consumers, including for those who are historically underserved or underbanked. Given his fintech and payment expertise, as well as his deep technical experience with mobile networks and core banking platforms, Method is perfectly positioned to continue its accelerated growth trajectory in 2024.

Mit Shah, Co-founder & COO of Method

As co-founder and COO of Method, Mit Shah has played a crucial role in launching, growing and scaling the company. He plays a vital role at Method, helping advise fintechs, financial institutions and other financial stakeholders as they look for ways to enable fresh use cases, and new products and services for today’s consumers with Method’s APIs. Mit is also a respected thought leader with regard to the CFPB’s 1033 Open Banking rule, advocating for inclusive authentication methods that will allow consumers without credentials, such as the un- and underbanked, as well as those who bank non-digitally, to reap the benefits of open banking.

Marco del Carmen, Co-founder & CTO of Method

Marco del Carmen is the co-founder and CTO of Method. Since Method’s launch in 2021, Marco has played a vital role in developing Method’s technical strategy to ensure efficiency and innovation. Along with co-founders Mit Shah and Jose Bethancourt, Marco built Method to address the inequality gap by providing customers with more competitive and affordable credit.

Customer Insights

“Method has improved our Direct Card Payoff™ offering by increasing our coverage for same day payment execution from ~50% to ~96%. Method allows for near real-time payment status, whereas alternatives provide balances that could be up to 30 days out of date. Implementing Method’s APIs enhanced the experience for our members and visibility for our agents.” – Nick Pesce, Head of Product & Design at Happy Money

“Another reason why we’re proud of Intellidebt [a Method-enabled product] is because it enables us to extend credit to borrowers we previously couldn’t have. That’s because we can now confirm payoff of the debt from within the application flow, give associated DTI credit and qualify borrowers for more offers. It’s gratifying to know that our work can directly benefit our consumers by bringing down their debt burdens and helping them get on a healthier financial path.” – Paco Litonjua, Senior Product Manager at Figure

“Through Method, Budge has been able to securely and seamlessly connect its users’ debt accounts into their personalized dashboard within the Budge app.‍ Other finance management applications have been able to consolidate users’ account information by collecting all their credentials. But with Method, Budge was able to onboard users’ real-time balance and APR data with only their consent. Method’s payment rails enables users to take action to pay down debt from within the app. This action-oriented debt ecosystem has never been possible before and distinguishes Budge from other personal finance management applications.” – Yan Avery, Co-founder & CTO of Budge

Investors

In January 2023, Method raised a $16 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, joined by Truist Ventures, SV Angel, Abstract Ventures, along with other fintech operators. With this funding, the company is well-equipped to further its mission of helping consumers better manage their liabilities and ultimately, achieve improved financial health.

Competitors

Among Method’s competitors include companies like Plaid, MX and Dwolla. However, Method is different in a few ways. Conventional approaches to accessing an individual’s financial liabilities, such as student loans, credit cards, mortgages and more, rely on screen scraping and credential-based logins. However, this approach add friction and impedes the truly embedded financial experiences enabled by Method, such as balance transfers, debt payoffs, bill payments, and more.

Method employs a unique approach to authentication, which powers a multitude of use cases. Financial institutions and fintechs can access a consumer’s full liability portfolio by using their personal identifiable information (PII), such as name and phone number, no screen scraping or user credentials required. With a one-time identity-based authentication, and—most importantly—consent, Method can instantly identify every single credit line in someone’s name. In the simplest terms, the company’s technology functions as a single sign on for all of a user’s liabilities.

Corporate Responsibility

Method is a mission-driven company at its core and its technology is making a positive societal impact by expanding financial opportunities for consumers, including the un- and underbanked, as well as those who bank non-digitally.

With household debt and interest rates hovering at historical highs, it is crucial that today’s consumers have a way to manage and make informed decisions about their debts. Method supports this with its unique technology suite and authentication process. Unlike others, Method’s approach to authentication does not rely on credentials. This allows those who are underbanked or do not bank digitally to benefit from financial advisory services and financing products that they may otherwise be excluded from.

This gives financial institutions, lenders and fintechs unmatched opportunities to financially empower consumers across demographics and in any channel, while deepening wallet share in an intensely competitive market. By making it easier to securely obtain and verify consumer liability data, financial service providers improve their ability to offer accurate, competitive products and services. And when all consumers can access affordable, competitive product offers, we create a more inclusive financial services ecosystem.