Volt partners with retailer for savings challenge

Volt Bank has announced a partnership with Australian retailer Cotton On Group, which will introduce team members and, eventually, the retailer’s customers to a savings challenge.

This is reportedly the first partnership of this type between a neobank and a major retailer in Australia and serves to support financial literacy and prudent spending and saving habits among Millennials.

The Volt Savings Challenge encourages Cotton On team members to set targets and sends gentle reminders for weekly savings, tracking their progress over a six-week period. By the end of this period, the savings habit should be embedded behaviour, according to Volt.

Following on from the initial testing by team members, the savings challenge will be extended to customers that are Cotton On Perks members.

Volt CEO and co-founder Steve Weston said that the partnership recognises the two companies’ “deep philosophical and values alignment”.

He added: “The partnership will help us continue to show millions of Australians how to quickly develop and improve their savings and spending habits with Volt.”

The partnership is being rolled out in stages, with further announcements on integrations expected in the future.

Cotton On’s general manager for e-commerce, Brendan Sweeney, said the retailer is partnering with Volt to introduce banking services tailored to Millennials that provide an environment for healthy savings habits.

“We really like the Volt approach of simplicity, trust and great value coupled with a digital customer experience designed to help customers understand their finances and achieve their goals. We look forward to making the Volt experience available to our team members and customers over the coming months,” he said.

Volt’s partnership with Cotton On follows other partnerships it has signed, including PayPal.

The neobank last month announced it had closed a $70 million Series C equity funding round, which was oversubscribed by $10 million beyond the original target of $60 million.

It also recently launched its first deposit product and aims to have a full range of consumer product and loan products in the market by the end of 2020, before entering the small and medium-sized enterprise lending space in 2021.

[Related: Volt Bank welcomes international adviser]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.