Banks play catch-up with fintech with new apps

BRITISH retail banks are poised to introduce money management apps to compete with those already launched by financial technology start-ups, betting their trusted brands, broad client base and deep pockets will help them make up lost ground.

HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland are at various stages of producing cutting-edge apps that will allow customers to pull data from different accounts, even those at rival lenders, on their mobile devices and home computers.

They are playing a serious game of catch-up. Numerous fintech firms and digital banks like Monzo and Money Dashboard already offer the kinds of apps the banks are building, winning fans among the young and tech-savvy.

The user base for Monzo’s app, which analyses and categorises spending habits, sends budgeting nudges and allows users to freeze and unfreeze cards at the click of a button, soared by 300 per cent to 450,000 in nine months last year.

After years spent rebuilding balance sheets and managing regulatory change after the 2008 financial crisis, technology is now at the top of the banks’ agenda, said Edward Firth, managing director for UK banks at brokerage Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

“This is all they’re talking about,” he said.

The drive has been turbo-charged by new “open banking” regulations requiring Britain’s nine biggest banks to share data so that customers can access their financial information across providers in an aggregated format and make it easier to compare services as well as change banks.

The rules were supposed to be implemented on January 13 but six of the banks, including Barclays and HSBC, have asked for more time to ensure the data is secure.

The changes will now start for the majority of customers this month, although some banks have been allowed to delay until next year for certain segments of their customer bases.

Jeremy Light, managing director of Accenture Payment Services for Europe, Africa and Latin America, said the changes will spark a competitive technology race in which aggregator apps will be the “bare minimum”.

“You will have to have them, because if you don’t you’re out of the game,” Mr Light said. “It’s really all of the other services that you then start offering.”