🤩 Design in Fintech

Revolut is launching version 7 of their app, proving that neobanks are delivering faster than traditional banks. The goal is to manage all things money. The most exciting part, however, is what's to come. They are teasing subscription control, better stock information, and an all-over more social app where you can share trading, money and expenses with friends and family.

Another fintech targeting the social space is B-social. The bank enables users to make purchases, share and keep track of expenses with friends and family, and negate the headache of “who owes who.”  They just rebranded to Kroo, and got a more youthful tone to attract a new demographic to the product. Nice seeing something bolder color-wise in the fintech-space!

When we’re talking about design: the former head of design in Sparebank1 talks about how they innovated in a larger bank(🇳🇴). The main keyword is not surprisingly avoiding bureaucracy.

⏲ Do we have to wait for PSD3?

This week PSD2 has been in the spotlight. We can all agree on PSD2 not living up to it's promised potential. So far, what we’ve got is the possibility to see an aggregation of (some) accounts in some banks. Not very disruptive! The Fintech startup Horde is reporting that the slow deployment of psd2 is holding them back (🇳🇴). Payr founder Espen Einn is convinced that the main problem is the banks' lawyers that justify their existence and salary by problematizing the law more than they need. The large banks are responding that they are not deliberately delaying the process - they are as much consumers of the APIs as they are suppliers (🇳🇴). As someone who has worked in multiple banks, I can surely say that there is no deliberate holdup from the banks. A significant problem is dogfooding: the banks need to use their APIs internally for them to be good enough. And that takes time both organizationally and technically. 

Christoffer Hernæs, CDO in Sbanken, is asking a timely question: Where are the potential business models for the banks implementing open banking? Until banks see this (like Aprila we talked about last week), PSD2 is just going to be a significant expense for the banks. If this is exciting material Finance Innovation is holding a live stream about PSD2 the 18th of June.

🧐 What is the future of banking?

A month ago we talked about Samsung which were following in Apples footsteps to launch a physical card. The first news of the card has appeared (🇳🇴), and removing the card-number and cvc-code is apparently the new trend. We're just eagerly waiting for the cards to disappear as well. The most fascinating news however is that the card will reward savings by having high interest rates. In other words: a card that rewards not using it... Hit reply if you see the logic in this strategy! 🤔

A more exciting strategy, though, is how Zelf operates: Zelf has no app and no physical card. Instead, they are available in the messenger-apps people already use (Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram ++). It literally takes seconds to open an account – you don't even need to prove your identity before you've spent or received over £150. I wonder if people over time will trust this faceless bank, and if the users eventually will get bored of the constant chatbot-menus.

Speaking of the future of banking: Easybank and BRAbank (🇳🇴) is merging. The news broke almost a year after BRAbank merged with Monobank. This joins a trend where the smaller banks join forces to be stronger together. They are probably not going to be the last based on the current economy in Norway. (Disclaimer: Both Easybank and BRAbank are Stacc customers)

🤯 Counting money in AR

This video got our attention earlier last week. It seems like the demo is a few years old, but the concept is non the less intriguing. Imagine using AR to count your money like this, or to live see the exchange rate on foreign currencies.

😅 Troubling fees

Well. The title says it all: Someone mysteriously paid $2.5M to send $133 in cryptocurrency.

🙏 Don’t keep it a secret!

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Marius Hauken, Partner Stacc X