TSB Bank recently launched TSB Marketplace on their mobile app. The service will connect customers to fintechs to aid them in making informed financial decisions. Finextra spoke to head of open banking and partnerships at TSB, Aruna Bhalla, about the service and what opportunities it opens up for consumers.
TSB Marketplace hosts 11 fintechs across both retail and business banking with services that range from investing to saving and borrowing. The service supports customers in different attributes of the marketplace, focusing initially on saving money then moving on to growing their investments, thinking holistically of the customer lifecycle and competency of different partnerships.
“By offering TSB Marketplace, we're leveraging on the fact that we can give customers any competence through services they wouldn’t typically expect from their bank,” Bhalla states, “Customers now want choice, they want convenience, different offers and services. By being able to offer bespoke pricing we are trying to give customers more while also using our brand, our reputation, and our credibility to be able to allow customers access to a variety of innovative partnership offerings.”
The service is integrated into the TSB app, allowing their 5 million users to access the Marketplace as a standalone product that is segmented into different categories of partnerships. Bhalla explains that the app is “built on the key pillars of grow, save, invest, and protect. It all aligns with our Money Confidence strategy which is around meeting your customer needs and protecting things that matter the most.”
The Marketplace will develop further to offer a personalised experience by in loyalty rewards and cashback to users on products such as phone contracts and insurance policies.
Bhalla details that one of the more popular fintechs on the Marketplace is ApTap, which manages bills and savings and cancels subscriptions. Wealthify, a platform that manages investments, has also gained traffic and significant investments.
“Bearing in mind the cost of living crisis, customers are very interested in making the most out of their money, obviously driven by external factors happening in the market. From a business perspective, we offer the Revenu app for improved financial management for businesses to help them manage invoices and receive faster payments in a variety of digital ways.”
The platform utilises Google Salesforce and e-commerce cloud technologies to power the Marketplace. Bhalla continues that the Salesforce platform allows TSB to leverage the opportunity to conduct tests, provide bundles, and vary pricing, as there is no reliance on in-house technology.
“Open banking is facilitating some of our partnerships, so we're now looking at whether we can use open banking to help customers onboard to those third parties in a slicker, quicker way.”
Bhalla continues: “We are focusing on protecting the things that matter to our customers the most. We’re looking at pets, health, licenses - what they need in life at the moment and how we can provide that through the app.”
As banks and fintechs continue to team up, Bhalla conveys that working together allows fintechs opportunities to grow, learn, gain confidence, and put their services in front of consumers that are looking for financial guidance.
Bhalla underscores TSB’s dedication to fostering relationships with fintechs and opening up platforms for growth in TSB’s lab program. The program, in which ApTap was developed, guides startups and builds up their products to eventually partner with the bank.
“We need to look for more non-financial partnerships where we can bring our customers more choice to demonstrate how to become more confident about money, because we're giving them a discount to make offerings, products and services that will help meet their needs.”
TSB recently launched business payments app Revenu in collaboration with Manchester-based fintech, Bankifi earlier this year.