Virgin Money, fintech join hands for neobank app

Frollo has announced that it is partnering with the Bank of Queensland (BOQ) subsidiary to deliver money management and financial wellbeing features for the brand's new digital bank.

Virgin Money announced in March that it entered into partnerships with Deloitte Digital and global banking software platform Temenos to build a new digital bank, which is scheduled for an initial soft launch at the end of 2020.

Virgin Money will use Frollo’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) integration platform, which utilises its artificial intelligence engine, application programming interface (API) and partner integrations, to promote financial wellness on the digital bank’s mobile app.

Users of Virgin Money’s digital bank will be able to access insights on their spending and transactions, as well as track bills, create a budget and set personal goals.

Commenting on the partnership, Virgin Money CEO Greg Boyle said: “Helping our customers prosper and achieve their financial goals is at the heart of the Virgin Money digital banking experience.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Frollo to provide our customers with actionable insights on their spending and savings habits, to help them take control of their financial wellbeing in an engaging and rewarding way.”

Frollo founder and CEO Gareth Gumbley said: “Financial wellbeing is an important topic, now more than ever.

“Virgin Money is passionate about helping customers be financially better off, now and in the future, and we’re proud they’ve chosen Frollo’s SaaS integration platform to power categorisation, insights and financial wellbeing for their neobank.”

Frollo’s SaaS integration, which includes open banking solutions, includes features such as money insights, transaction categorisation, goal setting, bill tracking, budgeting and financial wellbeing tools, as well as product comparisons through open banking.

It was the first fintech to be an accredited data recipient under Consumer Data Right (CDR) rules, after it participated in the open banking trial and helped build and test the infrastructure along with the big four banks. Frollo enables customers to access data from consumer accounts held with the major banks and give them a real-time view of their money.

However, Frollo’s partnership with Virgin Money does not involve CDR. The financial wellness features provided by Frollo would use Virgin Money’s own banking data from their products that are used by their customers, the fintech told Mortgage Business.

Technology solutions provider NextGen.Net, which is the company behind mortgage lodgement platform ApplyOnline, recently acquired Frollo in a bid to combine the two companies’ propositions and improve the lending process.

Under the acquisition, the Frollo brand and business has continued to operate independently.

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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.