rewrite this title Backbase and Ninth Wave Team Up to Bring Open Finance to Commercial Banking – Finovate

Backbase and Ninth Wave have announced a strategic partnership to enable banks to connect their business clients ERP and accounting systems to their banking data.

The partnership follows research from Ninth Wave that indicated that an overwhelming number of Chief Financial Officers and their teams would consider switching banks in order to access open finance capabilities.

Amsterdam-based Backbase was founded in 2003 and is a four-time Finovate Best of Show winner. Ninth Wave, headquartered in New York and launched in 2018, most recently demoed its technology at FinovateWest 2020.

Banking technology provider Backbase has announced a strategic partnership with open finance connectivity specialist Ninth Wave. The two companies will work together to enable banks to offer a seamless connection between their business customers’ ERP and accounting systems and their banking data. This will enhance the customer experience by providing better cash flow visibility, improved reconciliation, faster payment execution, and more efficient banking operations.

Courtesy of the partnership, Backbase’s bank customers can offer their corporate clients direct, permissioned access to banking data used by their financial systems, while Ninth Wave’s connectivity layer serves as a bridge between the bank and the corporate client’s ERP or accounting software. Managing consent, activity logs, and API governance within a single platform, the solution provides accurate, real-time data transfer with comprehensive audit trails and integrated compliance controls. The technology also eliminates the need for manual workarounds, batch uploads, and unreliable data scraping.

“Commercial clients prefer not to log into a portal and re-enter data that their ERP system already has,” Backbase Global VP for Marketplace Mayank Somaiya said. “By partnering with Ninth Wave, we give banks a direct integration path into how their corporate clients actually operate. That’s what keeps relationships sticky and opens the door to real value-added services.”

The partnership between Backbase and Ninth Wave comes in the wake of research conducted by Ninth Wave that pointed to growing interest in Open Finance functionality among Chief Financial Officers and their finance teams. In 2025, Ninth Wave research noted that 86% of those surveyed would consider changing banks in order to access open finance features. Those surveyed who were connected reported saving more than five hours a week due to the greater efficiency of direct bank access.

Going forward, Backbase and Ninth Wave will expand ERP connectivity features, support multi-country corporate payments, and develop real-time cash management dashboards for international businesses.

“Backbase offers a robust, modern foundation for commercial banking, and Ninth Wave simplifies connectivity by managing API connections, ensuring strong security, and providing a management hub to oversee their open finance operations,” Ninth Wave VP of Strategic Partnerships Joe Fiorillo said. “Together, we are delivering the modern banking services that business clients require.”

A Finovate alum since 2009, Backbase is a four-time Finovate Best of Show winner. Headquartered in Amsterdam and founded in 2003, the company offers an AI-native banking operating system that transforms fragmented banking operations into a unified front line. This enables customers, employees, and AI agents to work as one across digital channels, front office, and operations. More than 120 banks around the world use Backbase’s technology across retail, small business, commercial, and private banking, as well as wealth management.

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, Ninth Wave most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage at our all-digital event, FinovateWest 2020. The company provides secure data connectivity between financial institutions and third-party applications such as aggregators, fintechs, accounting and ERP systems, and other business tools. Ninth Wave works with financial institutions throughout North America, offering an open finance Hub that links more than 120 bank accounts via secure, reliable, and scalable connections to the open finance ecosystem.

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

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