Orange Bank, the bank from French Telecom group Orange, was launched a few months ago to help shake up the banking world; with more banking being done on mobile devices and the advent of PSD2 the company thinks it is well positioned to go head to head with banks; they have seen companies like Alibaba and Tencent disrupt finance in Asia and there has been talk of big tech coming into banking too, as a telecom they feel like they were perfectly positioned to make the move; Orange has seen early success and they are looking to soon add consumer lending, mortgages and insurance. Source.
As banks look to update legacy technology or partner with fintechs they have turned to consultants for advice; consulting firms like BCG, Accenture and the big four accounting firms, KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and EY have all been called upon to help structure deals or provide banks with advice on regulatory updates; financial institutions are relying on these consultants to help banks implement the technology changes and to adapt quicker as they can help bring knowledge from data scientists or app designers. Source.
Zelle, the banking p2p payments app, saw an 84 percent jump in year over year growth with Bank of America; the app saw over 68 million transactions in 2017 through their Bank of America partnership; Zelle recently started a marketing campaign to provide more exposure to the brand as many users might not realize they are using Zelle since it is integrated with their banking app. Source.
JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo announced their earnings late last week and digital channels continue to be a growing force at the banks; JPMorgan Chase saw a 13 percent jump in active mobile customers to over 30 million; Wells Fargo’s growth was not as pronounced at 3 percent to over 21 million active mobile customers; this points to a broader industry trend where according to Business Insider’s Mobile Banking Competitive Edge study 83 percent of respondents use mobile banking; some recent trends the study has also seen include more attention to security, mobile transfers and users asking for more advanced features. Source.
UK based challenger bank Monzo announced what their plans are for 2018; three specific areas they wanted to highlight were launching a feature to help customers manage bills, ending their prepare program and helping customers to switch to their payments platform; as the company continues to build out new features they said they plan to keep updating clients on a month by month basis. Source.
Mission based digital banking startup Varo Money secured their second significant round of the last two years by raising $45mn; investors in the round include The Rise Fund, led by U2 ‘s lead singer Bono, and Warburg Pincus who also helped to lead their first round; Varo applied for a national bank charter in July and plans to use the money for hiring, product development and marketing. Source.
Citi has reduced their branch network by more than 16 percent in the last two years and has plans to continue this trend; the bank has seen their retail banking revenues grow despite less branches as their digital channels have picked up the slack; digital users grew 13 percent and mobile users grew 21 percent as the company looks to expand their digital footprint; “We’re making investments in digital, and growing our franchise through digital rather than the physical footprint,” said CFO John Gerspach on an earnings call; the company has also looked to retool branches by rolling out digital aspects in the branch using computers and iPads. Source.
Banking alternative Revolut is launching international medical and dental insurance for £1 a day; the company is using your phone’s location to automatically turn insurance on and off; there is a limit to the service if you are one to travel for months at a time but you can pay up front for the service annually; the company partners with Thomas Cook Money for their insurance product. Source.
Wells Fargo has seen customers become more adept at using digital and plans to accelerate their branch closure plans; the company is looking to close more than 800 branches by the end of 2020; “Our vision of satisfying our customers’ financial needs remains unchanged, but how we execute this vision has evolved; this evolution includes developing new ways to more efficiently serve our customers and create a better customer experience,” said CEO Tim Sloan on a conference call as reported by TearSheet; the closures are expected the save the bank about $4bn. Source.
Open Banking, seen as a potential game changing regulatory change, is set to launch in the next few days in the UK; Open Banking requires banks to allow fintechs and other third parties to have access to customer data if the consumer agrees to grant access; the new law will allow for a safer data exchange, in the past consumers shared their login details and third parties scraped the data, and standardize access across the UK and Europe; while banks have pushed back on the coming change this will allow customers to better control their information and tailor services to their lifestyles. Source.