Financial wellness: Fintech spells the end for ‘monogamous banking’

A recent survey of 2,000 people by peer-to-peer consumer lender Zopa has prompted it declare that ‘monogamous banking is a thing of the past’, after it revealed that the average UK adult has a relationship with seven different financial providers.

The company, which is launching a digital bank, said that the fintech revolution has fundamentally changed financial services for consumers as 71% of UK adults said they do not need a relationship with their main bank.

Two-thirds use products such as insurance and investments from banks and financial providers other than their current account provider.

‘Technology is enabling consumers to take control of their own finances, resulting in traditional banking relationships becoming purely functional’

As reported on Muckle, open banking – the data-sharing initiative that mandates high street banks to share anonymised customer data with approved third parties – is driving fundamental change; Zopa believes that open banking will deliver a more holistic view of people’s financial wellness and drive them towards financial providers that can deliver transformative value.

In announcing its plans for its own savings and credit card products, as well as a money management app utilising open banking, Zopa’s CEO Jaidev Janardana told Peer2Peer Finance News:

‘The last decade of fintech revolution has fundamentally changed the way that people bank in the UK.

‘Technology is enabling consumers to take control of their own finances, resulting in traditional banking relationships becoming purely functional.  The apathy on which the traditional banking model has relied will soon be resigned to the past.

‘Consumers now have more choice and are actively choosing to shop around for products and providers outside of the main banking relationship. The key to Zopa building a successful next gen bank will be delivering transformative value. We’ve demonstrated this already with our loans business – which has lent over £4bn to UK consumers, proving that savvy customers will consider new alternatives.’