Ubank continues to innovate for the digital generation

 

Announces new, upcoming app and service features to help the digital generation reach their financial goals sooner.

Ubank, Australia’s multi award-winning digital bank, is continuing to serve Australia’s tech-savvy demographic. With strong customer growth figures and new features and functionality set to launch in the New Year, ubank is focused on becoming the bank of choice for the digital generation.

In an update coinciding with National Australia Bank’s full year 2023 results, ubank CEO, Philippa Watson, highlighted ubank’s milestones over the past 12 months, including successfully upgrading all original ubank customers to the new platform which marked the completion of customer migration.

“We’ve continued to see strong volume growth and customer advocacy with 175,000 new customers joining us on the new platform,” Ms Watson said.

Ubank provides a completely digital experience and particularly appeals to 18-35-year-olds, with approximately 55 per cent of new customers within this age bracket.

Delivering new app experiences

During the past six months, ubank has introduced new app features and functionality giving customers better control of their day-to-day finances, so they can build momentum with money.

Customers can now automate savings targets and reminders to help them to reach their financial goals; better manage their expenses with the launch of PayTo; and connect other financial institutions’ accounts to the ubank app to see all their money in the one place.

In the first half of 2024, ubank will progressively roll out new app features and functionality to help customers manage their bills. Customers will soon be able to see their money in the context of their pay-cycle; know that they’ve set money aside for committed bills and expenses each pay; and know what they can spend to make informed decisions and trade-offs.

This comes as ubank research found the main pain points for Aussies when it comes to money management are; saving money (77 per cent), knowing if bills and expenses are covered (44 per cent) and knowing how much is left to spend after bills and savings (40 per cent).

“Our customers are frequently using buy-now-pay-later and subscription services, making split payments and micro transactions, and paying with their digital wallets and wearables. This can lead to incremental and sometimes unintended spending, and often we don’t realise the impact this has on achieving that bigger goal such as saving for a car, holiday or a first home.

“Once you know how much you’ve committed to your bills and expenses, you know what you can safely spend and also what’s left over for that bigger savings goal. We want to help our customers make thoughtful spending decisions more often,” Ms Watson said.

Prioritising Time to Yes for mortgage customers

Ubank has its sights set on becoming the leading digital lender in the Australian market for simple loans. In the last six months, ubank’s ‘Time to Yes’ for home loan applications has dropped from over 10 days to less than four days.

Ubank’s Chief Lending Officer, Kanishka Raja, said ubank has been working hard to build automation and smarts into the home loan origination process.

“Today a customer’s new home loan application is picked up, and its supporting documents actioned all within a few hours, regardless of which channel the application originated from. In the past year, we’ve helped over 10,000 customers get a home loan faster than the average industry turnaround times and go about their home-buying journey with confidence,” he said.

Ubank has also leveraged artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to prompt home loan health checks, having contacted over 4,000 existing customers to support them in the rising interest rate environment.

“In financial year 2024 we have plans to overhaul the application lodgment process. We will introduce further automation that will deliver straight through processing, making it even faster and simpler for brokers or direct lending customers to lodge an application with us,” he said.

Last month, ubank was voted the Australian Mortgage Awards ‘Fintech Lender of the Year’ for the fourth year in a row.

“We’re incredibly proud and even more driven to innovate for our customers through investment in technology. In home lending we want to be known for the easiest application process, ultra-fast turnarounds, and personalised data-driven insights.

“It also means our dedicated lending team and broker network can focus on providing excellent service, speed, and competitive rates to our customers,” Mr Raja said.

Proximity to customers

Ms Watson said that ubank is focused on the young adult segment and being close to their customers.

“We believe in a competitive market and as a digital-only bank you must differentiate yourself on customer experience. We listen to feedback from our broker network, our employees, our partners and of course our customers to deliver great experiences and service to a generation who want to manage their money in the palm of their hands,” she said.

More ubank milestones in FY23:

• Won the Australian Mortgage Awards Fintech Lender of the Year – fourth year in a row.
• Won the MFAA National Fintech Lender of the Year award in 2023 as well as all state based MFAA Fintech Lender awards in 2023. This follows achieving the same feat in 2022.
• Grew its accredited Broker book by approximately 40 per cent in FY23 to over 12,000.
• Ranked number one amongst small ADIs for BDM experience as well as credit assessment experience in the January 2023 BrokerPulse survey.