"We are pleased to be among the first companies in Europe to adopt Apple Business Chat. We are thrilled to support Apple Business Chat, which gives us a powerful and engaging connection with our customers," said Angelo D'Alessandro, founder of buddybank. "We always want to exceed our customers' expectations when they experience buddybank. Apple Business Chat makes communicating with buddybank as easy as messaging a friend, so we expect it to quickly become one of our customers' preferred communications channels."

UniCredit is committed to developing innovative products and services for its customers and buddybank is part of these initiatives. "Today, 75 per cent of buddybank's new current accounts are opened by customers who are new to the Group", explained Andrea Casini, Co-Head of Italy at UniCredit. "In addition to the positive result of welcoming new customers, it has also allowed us to collect interesting overall feedback on our banking services and the needs of our customers which we can implement elsewhere in the Group."

buddybank customers can use Apple Business Chat to contact a live agent to ask a question, schedule an appointment or complete a lifestyle booking. With Business Chat, customers can always reach a live person and are always in control of whether they share any contact information with a business.

To start an Apple Business Chat, customers can click the 'Chat with Messages' button on buddybank's website and related app, available in the App Store. A conversation with buddybank's agents will open instantly in the Messages app, and users can take their time responding when it's convenient.

Apple Business Chat is now available to users and businesses in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and US, and is built into iOS 11.3 and higher. For more information visit: apple.com/ios/business-chat.