Royalty Payments Platform Exactuals Purchased By City National Bank

City National Bank announced Monday (Aug. 13) that is has acquired Exactuals, the Los Angeles-based metadata company that provides solutions for complex payments across the entertainment industry.

Exactuals, which will remain under the leadership of CEO Mike Hurst, will continue to modernize the residuals and royalty payment process for the entertainment industry. City National also said that it expects Exactuals to increase deposits and enhance the services it can offer to the bank’s entertainment clients, as a now wholly owned subsidiary of the bank. 

"Exactuals has developed a groundbreaking and unique payments and reporting platform that enhances security and reliability. This acquisition builds on City National’s history of serving the entertainment industry, and it is the latest example of our commitment to provide clients with premier service and state-of-the-art payments systems. We look forward to helping Exactuals as the firm continues to grow," said City National Bank Chairman and CEO Russell Goldsmith.

Exactuals’ innovative payment system, PaymentHub, allows studios, unions, guilds, payroll companies, music publishers, record labels, distributors and marketplaces to provide direct deposit payments, tax document management and online reporting to rights holders, performers, managers, service providers and independent contractors across the globe.

The company also recently launched RAI, a sophisticated artificial intelligence tool used by record labels and publishers to optimize ownership metadata for the calculation and payment of royalties. Exactuals entered into a partnership with DotBlockchain Media last month (July 30), where it’s using the innovative technology to help verify the blockchain’s metadata that it intends to input onto its database.

"This acquisition builds upon a five-year investment relationship between our two companies. Since 2013, Exactuals and City National have worked together to build revolutionary tools and services for our shared customer base in the entertainment space, and this acquisition will accelerate our mission to transform and modernize the industry for the better," added Hurst.

In February 2017, City National participated in a $10 million round of funding for Exactuals. Exactuals then announced a long-term landmark contract with the entertainment industry’s largest union, SAG-AFTRA, and is working with them to offer direct deposit of residual payments to its 160,000 members.