Thinking Pensions Dashboard? Think Open Banking payments too!

What is a Pensions Dashboard and why do consumers need them?

Typically, workers will have an average of 12 roles throughout their career, and that’s expected to continue to increase. Research has shown that people under 24 have approximately 3.8 more job changes than people who are over 45. That means the workforce of today already has  multiple pensions – both workplace and private – plus their state pension. But it also means they’re quite likely to have lost track of them. And with the introduction of auto enrolment some people may not even realise they have a pension through their employer!

That’s where the Moneyhub Pensions Dashboard comes in! The aim of this unique Open Finance tool is to help people feel more in control of their pension pots by understanding how much they’re saving for retirement. As Alastair Reed, Principal Policy Adviser, Money at Which? explained during a Moneyhub webinar: “While consumers may not need to check their pension dashboard daily, it is essential to review it at crucial life moments and when approaching retirement. Pensions Dashboards can encourage better decision-making, such as when to access pension funds and whether to seek advice or guidance. By providing a clearer picture of their pension assets, consumers can make more informed choices and better prepare for their retirement years.”

On top of that, there’s a commercial opportunity for pension providers, banks and building societies to make it more straightforward for consumers to make additional payments when their funds allow. How? Outside of, but potentially alongside, the FCA-regulated Dashboards environment, Open Banking payments provide a friction-free, more secure money transfer option.

What do consumers want from a Pensions Dashboard?

There has been lots of research into what consumers are looking for when it comes to a Pensions Dashboard. Broadly, they’re excited about the potential of  this new financial tool:

“I’d be really excited about a tool like this where you can see all your pensions together. It would make my life easier. So many people are just in denial about their pensions – they don’t even think about, let alone look at, their pensions.”
Female, 50 years old, Moneyhub research May 2023

"I know I've got 2-3 pensions that I paid into when I was self employed, that I don't know how much I've got in there. And I've got one with work. So, I don't know what my total thing is, I really don't. I don't know where to go for everything together."
Male, 55 years old, Moneyhub research May 2023

Specifically, they want:

• To be able to see all their pensions in one place.

• Access to key information such as total monthly income (TMI)  that they might receive in retirement across different pensions.

• Security, simplicity, and support.

Read our blog posts to learn more: 

What do consumers want and expect from Pensions Dashboards? Part 1
What do consumers want and expect from Pensions Dashboards? Part 2

Moneyhub can help you create your white-labelled Pensions Dashboard and more

Developing a Pensions Dashboard requires access to multiple data points and compliance with several complex regulations from different Government and Regulatory bodies. In many cases, companies seeking to launch a Pensions Dashboard are turning to Moneyhub to help them build a robust, compliant yet user-friendly option, both quickly and efficiently. Outsourcing the design and development process to a Technical Services Provider like Moneyhub can be a smart move. Here are some key reasons why:

• Tried and tested: We’ve already done extensive usability research with real people, looking at how they interact with and understand the dashboard interface. This ensures our dashboard provides a consistent and seamless experience for users. 

• Expert team: We are an Alpha Partner to the Pensions Dashboards Programme, and members of our team are members of the PDP Steering Group and have even contributed towards the development of the standards.

• Efficiency: By outsourcing the design and development process to Moneyhub we can get you to market quicker. We offer a more streamlined, efficient, and cost-effective approach, as we already have the infrastructure, knowledge, and resources in place to ensure compliance with the PDP Data and Design Standards.

• Security and compliance: The protection of users' personal and pension data is imperative. We’re one step ahead, with our experience in the financial services industry enabling us to implement robust security measures and adhere to privacy regulations.

If you’re currently weighing up whether to develop your own dashboard or partner with a provider like Moneyhub, take a look at our blog outlining the factors you’ll need to consider: Pensions dashboards: Build or Buy?

You get access to our Open Banking payments expertise

By working with Moneyhub on your dashboard, you’ll also gain access to our expert Payments Team. Outside of, but potentially alongside your dashboard, Open Banking payments capabilities could allow you to stand out from the crowd in what is expected to be a big set of commercial Pensions Dashboard providers. One of the key goals of Pensions Dashboards is to improve consumers’ financial wellbeing. Outside of the regulated Pensions Dashboard environment, this could be further boosted by making it easier for customers to make additional contributions through Open Banking payments.

If consumers find themselves able to pay more into a personal pension than they had expected, whether as a one-off payment or by regular payments into their pension pot as they approach retirement, Open Banking technology can allow them to make those payments seamlessly and securely.

Get in touch to find out how we can help you build a white-labelled Pensions Dashboard and associated Open Banking payments to meet all of your customers’ needs. Contact Moneyhub

The Future Payments Landscape - Variable Recurring Payments

The UK’s roughly 90 trillion-pound payments industry is on the cusp of a dramatic makeover:  The pandemic has accelerated a broad digitisation that had been gathering pace since the creation of the iPhone, while three years after the launch of Open Banking, a range of new possibilities have been unleashed, including Variable Recurring Payments.

We asked two industry experts to help guide us through the evolving payments landscape: Mike Chambers, Chairman of AnswerPay, who served for over a decade as Chief Executive Officer of the UK’s biggest retail payment system, and Dan Scholey, our very own Chief Operating Officer at Moneyhub, who facilitated the first ever Open Banking payment by a member of the public.

What follows is a synthesis of their thoughts on the future of payments:

Where are we today?

Even with the vast technological advances of the past decade, we still rely on too many legacy cumbersome payments systems that are increasingly not fit for purpose and make it very difficult to move our money in a way that suits our modern lifestyles.

Payments between individuals can be time-consuming and laborious, while, for businesses, receiving payments can be expensive and inefficient.

“The development of Variable Recurring Payments, which are enabled by Open Banking, is a big step forward for the industry. VRPs are an emerging and novel way of making payments where customers set up mandates via regulated third parties known as Payment Initiation Service Providers, such as Moneyhub, to execute payments automatically based on set and personalised rules.”

Open Banking can help remedy a lot of these pain points, but for most of the three years since its 2018 introduction, much of the industry’s focus has been on access to and aggregation of data.

Away from the public eye, organisations including Moneyhub have been collaborating to commercialise the Open Banking payments infrastructure. And today we are at an inflection point where a slew of large enterprises, as well as government agencies, are starting to take advantage of the massive payments opportunities afforded by Open Banking.

Where will we be tomorrow?

The development of Variable Recurring Payments, which are enabled by Open Banking, is a big step forward for the industry. VRPs are an emerging and novel way of making payments where customers set up mandates via regulated third parties known as Payment Initiation Service Providers, such as Moneyhub, to execute payments automatically based on set and personalised rules.

VRPs can strip out layers of complexity and cost, while also providing greater flexibility and control for customers and facilitating the creation of new types of financial services.

Sweeping, automated payments where funds are moved between two accounts in the same name allowing, for example, customers to avoid unnecessary fees by moving money between accounts so as not to go overdrawn, are enabled by VRPs.

“Existing electronic payments methods, such as Direct Debits, are not going anywhere just yet, and new services will develop gradually. And challenges of identification, fraud and financial inclusion when using digital services could serve to slow the move to a world of ubiquitous Open Banking payments.”

How will we get there?

Taken together, VRPs and sweeping allow individuals to act like corporate treasurers: managing their cash flow and seeing their financial position in real time.

“We will have a bank in our phone and we will be our own bank,’’ says Scholey. “So we will be in control of our money: we will be choosing who we pay, how we pay and when we want to pay them.’’

Even with all this innovation and the rapid Covid-inspired digital transformation the long-standing rule of the payments industry, that evolution takes time, still holds true. To take just one historic example: it took over 15 years from the first use case for contactless payments to widespread adoption.

Existing electronic payments methods, such as Direct Debits, are not going anywhere just yet, and new services will develop gradually. And challenges of identification, fraud and financial inclusion when using digital services could serve to slow the move to a world of ubiquitous Open Banking payments.

Still, fortune favours the brave and early-adopters will be best placed to benefit in the long term.

“Some of the established payments providers stand to lose out here and they won't go down without a fight,’’ says Scholey. “Even so, I think as an industry we need to take each of the objections raised and really think about how we tackle them. The end result being better for consumers and merchants."

To read the full article, please click here. 

Find out more about VRPs or get in touch to find out how we can help your business innovate.

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Standing Orders - one of the many API features available with Moneyhub

Standing orders have many use cases for your customers. They are the cheaper, faster and more secure way to make a Fixed Recurring Payment - and are just one of many features available through our Payment API.

What is a Standing Order?

Standing Orders are recurring scheduled payments for the same amount, with a frequency you choose, which are often used to pay for things such as rent, mortgage or any other fixed regular payment into savings, pensions or investment accounts. They can be executed to make automated payments either daily, weekly, monthly, or on another fixed schedule of your choice. 

“Standing Orders are set up and controlled by the end user, giving consumers more visibility, and more control over making changes. ”

Using Open Banking payments, which allow a customer to transfer money from one bank account to another, Standing Orders are usually processed and received on the same day they are sent. As they are based on the same Faster Payments infrastructure used in current bank transfers, most Standing Order payments should be made almost immediately, if both accounts are part of the Faster Payments Scheme.

Benefits to customers

Standing Orders are set up and controlled by the end user, giving consumers more visibility, and more control over making changes. 

Standing Orders are also a cheaper, faster and more secure way to make a Fixed Recurring Payment. There is no mandate to sign, no complicated guarantee to understand, and no card number to give away and be stored. Due to this, Standing Orders make a great alternative to ‘card on file’ or paying via Direct Debit. Direct Debits are set up by the end merchant, whereas Customers are also able to set a unique reference for each Standing Order to make it easy to reconcile the incoming payment when viewing their transactions.

“Standing orders can be set up to donate regularly to your chosen charity and these can be amended over time to change the amount of the donation and frequency at no cost to you or the charity. ”

Some Standing Order use cases

Topping up savings and investments

A Standing Order is ideal for recurring account top-ups. The customer can ensure they are regularly added to a savings, investment or pension account that aligns to when they receive their salary each week or month. If a customer’s circumstances change - such as changing jobs or receiving a pay rise/cut - they can change the standing order instantly, without the fear of incurring any fees for cancelling or amending.

Paying personal bills of a fixed amount

Standing Orders can be used to pay recurring household bills that are unlikely to change in cost each month - such as water, phone and broadband, or even rent or mortgage. For tenants living in a shared house, if one person pays a bill directly, Standing Orders from all tenants into the payer’s account for their portion of the payment can be a helpful way for customers to keep on top of who owes what.

Business expenses, overheads and customer payments

The cost of setting up and using Standing Orders for regular payments is low, meaning a business can efficiently stay on top of their costs. Some small businesses also collect regular payments from customers by Standing Order knowing that payments will be collected automatically and on time.

Paying for subscriptions

Many people have subscriptions for magazines, food boxes, software or streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime, which charge a fixed fee on a monthly basis. A Standing Order can be the perfect option to pay these, as the Standing Order can be cancelled or modified by the user, rather than having to contact their bank to cancel a Direct Debit, for example.

Charitable organisations

Standing orders can be set up to donate regularly to a chosen charity and these can be amended over time to change the amount of the donation and frequency at no cost to the customer, or the charity. This is especially important in the post-Covid world, where 53% of charities reported a drop in donations since the start of the crisis (source: CAF UK Giving Three Month Coronavirus briefing).

How can I get started with Standing Orders using Moneyhub’s Payment API?

Standing Orders are just one of many features you’ll receive as standard with our Payment API. Visit our Standing Order documentation to start building, or get in touch to find out more.

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Author

David Turner

David is Moneyhub’s API, Payments and Connections Product Manager and is responsible for delivering new features for our API platform to enable fintechs and larger firms to build amazing customer experiences.  He works with our existing clients to understand their needs so they can deliver more for their clients, and aims to continually improve our market fit to grow our customer base. David has over 10 years’ experience in Financial Services in project delivery, IT Operations and product ownership roles.In all his roles, David’s key focus has always been ensuring the technology solutions deliver fantastic and resilient outcomes.

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Variable Recurring Payments and Sweeping: What are they, and why do you need to know about them?

Variable Recurring Payments (or VRPs for short), are a hot topic in Financial Services right now, as the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) launches its consultation into their effectiveness, alongside Sweeping. If you work outside of the sector, chances are you haven’t heard of them, however, with the obvious benefit to consumers and businesses alike, it’s worth familiarising yourself now.

What is a Variable Recurring Payment (VRP)?

In a nutshell, Variable Recurring Payments allow customers to safely connect authorised payments providers (PISPs) to their bank account so they can make payments on the customer’s behalf, offering more control and transparency than existing alternatives such as direct debits and card payments.

What is Sweeping?

Sweeping (which is enabled by VRPs), is the automated movement of funds for a customer between two accounts in their name. There are many examples of where this could be used, such as Sweeping funds from a current account to a savings account, or a current account to a loan account - the possibilities are endless, and more examples are covered below.

“VRPs and Sweeping form an exciting relationship to make personal finances run more effectively, encourage easier saving and ultimately make money work harder for the individual.”

What are the benefits of VRPs and Sweeping? 

This is where it gets genuinely exciting: VRPs not only provide a more secure and cost effective replacement for Direct Debits and card payments, but they are also faster and less prone to error. Gone will be the days of mistakes due to manual form entry, delays with BACS payments (which take up to 3 days) and worry about data breaches (as cardholder data will not be collected or stored).

Minimise error

Mistakes made due to manual form entry can and unfortunately do happen, with cards often used as a back-up. But even then, credit cards can increase customer churn when they expire, are lost or stolen.

Increased security

With VRP, no credit or debit cards are required to make a payment, nor is there a need for businesses to collect or store confidential cardholder data on file. This makes VRP more secure for the customer, as no data can be intercepted by fraudsters. Also,  it’s very easy to cancel mandates from either the bank or the PISP, meaning the consumer doesn't have to worry about leaving a credit card on file and forget about it. Businesses in turn don’t have to worry about data breaches, high card related fees, and the associated burden of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance. Instead, customers’ are securely connected to their bank’s website or app to pay by bank transfer.

EXAMPLE: Instead of a card on file, with VRP, a customer can connect their bank account to their Amazon account, only with rules to limit their spending based on their own preferences. The customer will be more secure and have a better experience, and businesses can receive funds faster and without concerns around cardholder data - win win.

With VRP, no credit or debit cards are required to make a payment, nor is there a need for businesses to collect or store confidential cardholder data on file.

Speed

Outdated systems such as the BACS system used for Direct Debits could really impact the potential of Sweeping. Often operating on a three working day cycle, a payment request is made on day one, with the funds debited and credited on day three. This means that any Sweeping instruction would have to be made three days in advance of when the funds are transferred (and even longer if the working days straddle a weekend or a Bank Holiday). We believe that this delay significantly undermines the ability to create valuable Sweeping propositions for the end customer.

Repayments

When it comes to repayments, there are some staggering benefits to using VRPs. At the moment, repayment plans rely on expensive Direct Debit payments. Direct Debits were never designed to allow money to move between people’s bank accounts - they were meant as a way for a merchant to take money from people with no restrictions. For Direct Debits to work for Sweeping, an Intermediary Account would be needed, which carries prohibitive costs - which are often passed onto the debtor as an additional charge. It’s made worse, because if the debtor has insufficient funds for the payment rather than being notified, the bank charges another fee. VRP stops this because the balance can be checked before the payment is triggered. 

EXAMPLE: A repayment is due at the end of the month, but the customer is paid a day late, meaning there are insufficient funds and they will therefore incur a charge or go overdrawn. With Open Banking, there can be a balance check first to ensure funds are available. Moreover, the missing income can be flagged and everyone involved alerted (with consent from the consumer) to wait an additional day and try again.

When combined with Account Information Services, we see even more innovation, as repayments can dynamically increase when spare cash is available and the consumer has consented to pay off their debts as quickly as possible, even building up credit should they need to take a payment holiday.

EXAMPLE: Any unused money at the end of the month, can be spotted automatically and the customer offered the option to automatically sweep the extra money to pay off any outstanding debt. Most lenders are comfortable with overpayment, and some even allow a payment holiday based on any previous overpayment made. Sweeping left over money can help repay debts quicker or build a safety net for months with unexpected bills or outgoings.

Savings

Sweeping has the potential to revolutionise the savings world. Through VRPs, you can sweep spare cash into savings, pensions or investments, and interest rates on savings can be maximised to reach saving goals sooner. Loans can also be repaid quicker, reducing the cost of debt, while funds can be swept into different pots to enable consumers to budget more effectively. The individual can set up rules with interventions, for example, when a pending recurring payment is due that might mean Sweeping is not the right thing to do. In the future, we believe it should be possible for money to be swept to a charity, house mate or family member - something that banks should already be championing, but aren't.

EXAMPLE: A customer who lives in shared accommodation is asked by their flatmate for their share towards the payment of a gas bill. With VRP, it is easy to trigger a payment that automatically sweeps the money from all involved parties, into the account of the person who paid - all on the same day the money came out. This means that nobody is out of pocket, and the house remains harmonious.

“It’s important to understand that it’s all about the rules which can be wrapped around VRP that trigger the innovation. To date, consumers rely on banks to do what is right. In the future, automated money management will be determined by the consumer or business who the money belongs to.”

VRPs and Sweeping form an exciting relationship to make personal finances run more effectively, encourage easier saving and ultimately make money work harder for the individual.

What’s next? 

The team at Moneyhub passionately believe in innovating for the benefit of the end customer, and helped develop the Open Banking Standards we use today. But we don’t want to stop there. VRP paves the way for the development of payment innovation and the creation of new financial services propositions that truly put customers first - we will be championing their use, and encourage you to do the same and join the consultation process.

We’ve made our response public in advance of the deadline to encourage the wider community to utilise the response and add their own voice to the consultation. All consultation responses are due by 12pm GMT on 4th December and must be submitted by the online Consultation Survey only.

To find out more about how we can help your business innovate with VRPs, please get in touch.

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Open Finance - The journey from insight to value

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This article was originally published in The Paypers Open Banking report 2020. To read the full report, please download it from The Paypers website. 

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Moneyhub was born out of frustration. Frustration at not being able to see accounts in one place; repetitive data entry; obstacles to financial planning and, above all, financial institutions withholding data as if it was theirs and not the customer’s. This was in 2014 – before Open Banking, but in the thick of the hype around Big Data.

Data is the new oil

Data is called the fuel of the Fourth industrial Revolution. Like oil, data needs to be extracted and reservoirs tapped, but concerns have grown that this can be at the expense of consumer privacy. It was soon clear that the data also needed refining if insight was the goal, but the processing was still exploitative. In financial services, it seemed that the asymmetry of information between provider and consumer was ever-widening.

Key to your data processing strategy, and your customer experience design, is how you get to know the people you’re interacting with quickly, effectively, and in context. This isn’t about extracting data upfront, it’s about progressively sharing, reciprocating and proving your trustworthiness.

Trust: the sum of transparency and consistent value delivery¹

But the value was still elusive and Moneyhub could see why. The industry needed to focus on the value it creates, rather than the value it takes. By focusing on doing this consistently, people will trust you to deliver - and trust also compounds over time.²

“The industry needed to focus on the value it creates, rather than the value it takes. ”

It means focusing on the value, meaning, and engagement you create for the people you serve. When utilising people’s data to create value for them, it means making sure they understand how their data is being used to create that value - and that goes beyond consent-based data sharing.

The role of financial services in building trust

But an industry obsessed with pushing products still has lessons to learn when it comes to the difference between leveraging insight and selling it.

We need to accept that people should control who accesses their data and for what purpose. We need to think of organisations as data custodians or information fiduciaries. That means that providers need to be relevant and useful and Moneyhub provides that missing link.

It aggregates, organises, and enriches data and then monitors it on behalf of the customer. Then, with an understanding of the customer context, actionable insights (or ‘nudges’) can be introduced to coach the user towards better outcomes. This might be through prompts, alerts, or new options being surfaced - it’s about helping people and for what exchange of value.

Harnessing insights to enable Open Banking payments

Insight is not an end in itself and the consumer needs the means to put in action decisions, simply and cheaply. Moneyhub uses money to savings, investments, and pensions, or to pay bills and reduce debts.

By being a trusted partner of the customer, the insight from income and expenditure analysis combines with navigation towards improved financial wellbeing. Helping customers by being the everyday financial coach, means that wellbeing is not a goal but a by-product of improved customer outcomes. Here are some of our practical examples of that in practice:

• Expenditure analysis shows that the customer is paying rent. There is no sign of contents insurance - so is there an awareness of the risk associated with that? Or could that rental payment history be used to support a mortgage application?

• An employer provides a range of employee discounts from retailers – as one of our clients has shown, by personalising offers based on past expenditure, the average Moneyhub user can save over GBP 70 per month, with no change in spending habits.

• Consumers are keen to invest ethically and sustainably but, in addition to aggregating and scoring their investment portfolio, expenditure analysis could be used to create nudges towards greener lifestyle options or a carbon footprint offset savings plan or donation.

• Impulse spending can be converted to impulse saving with an unplanned treat being accompanied by a self-imposed rule to sweep the same amount into an ISA or a pension.

• Variable recurring payments can be set up when goals are met or a budget is tracked.

• By adding a house price feed combined with mortgage repayments, customers can be alerted to new financing deals becoming available as the loan-to-value ratio comes down.

• With 80% of employees not sure if they are saving enough and the self-employed still outside of auto-enrolment, the adequacy of pension saving can be forecasted and nudges made to help towards a better outcome, referencing current expenditure and in-retirement lifestyle.

• Despite companies often having substantial customer data available, they continue to require customers to go through time-consuming and inaccurate fact-finding processes. With consent, the consumer can share their data, containing verified assets, income, and expenditure information.

• Consumers can self-police by using ‘appropriate friction’ such as alerts around budget overshoots or comparing the effect of saving an amount rather than spending it.

Privacy & personalisation: a mutually inclusive relationship

By never selling customer data or taking a third-party commission on product sales, Moneyhub and its enterprise clients have always respected customer interests and balanced privacy against personalisation. The value exchange is always fair and controlled by the consumer.

Open Banking is useful but ancillary to the benefits derived from holistic Open Finance.

Critically, value creation from insight is organic and relationship- based, a far cry from crass product pushing. If a product solution is involved, it is more likely to be bought than sold and more likely to be retained as it is suitable and affordable. From here, customer centricity becomes a reality rather than a slogan - and the path from insight to value is lit by Open Finance adoption.

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References

1 and 2: Greater Than X's work on Data Trust: www.greaterthanexperience.design and video.

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Author

Vaughan Jenkins

Vaughan is an experienced Sales Director with senior industry experience in financial services, especially the life and pensions, asset management and wealth sectors. He co-authored ‘The Insurtech Book’ and has worked as an associate and consultant to a number of businesses.  

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Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement prompts a rise in charitable giving

The unprecedented events of the last few months has prompted huge changes in how we spend both our time, and our money. New data from our Open Finance platform reveals significant increases in one particular area of spending - charitable donations.

Data from our Open Finance platform shows consumers are spending more time at home and less time and money on trips out, clothing and shoes. Spending on clothing and shoes in particular dropped significantly, by 22% in April, 41% in May and 23% in June, compared to the same months in 2019. As Barclaycard’s research shows, consumers have instead turned to spending their money on purchases like home entertainment, ‘insperiences’ (in-home experiences), and donating to charitable causes. Our user data confirmed this, showing that donations shot up in April - June 2020, compared to the same months in 2019, as the Covid-19 pandemic and causes like the Black Lives Matter movement prompted an outpouring of support.

The stats in a nutshell:

• Spending peaked in April, with 88% more going to charitable causes than in April 2019. May 2020 was up by 74%.

• Total spending on charitable giving in June 2020 was 25% more than in June 2019.

• This compares to February 2020, pre-lockdown, when the average spend per donation was significantly lower, only 4% up from the previous year.

Samantha Seaton, CEO of Moneyhub commented: “The coronavirus pandemic has caused us all to consider our own fortunes and has prompted a surge in support for good causes. Whether it’s giving to the NHS or those on the frontline of the crisis, or more recently rallying behind the global Black Lives Matter movement, Britons have been more inclined to do their bit and donate their extra cash. Increased charitable donations are a good sign that consumers are saving more and spending less, and therefore have more disposable income to give away.

“While this is a positive trend, we may see these transactions begin to drop as life returns to normal and people are encouraged to spend on businesses that will get the economy moving again. It’s important that people find a balance in their spending and maintain positive saving habits as we move out of the lockdown and potentially into a recession. Money management platforms that are powered by Open Finance data and intelligence can give users insight of all their finances in one place. This can help them understand the state of their finances, make more informed decisions, and ultimately build up more savings. This can help give people more financial security and allow us to carry on spending on the things that are important to us.”

Head over to our Covid-19 spending tracker to get the latest insights on spending across all areas, or find out more about our Open Finance platform by getting in touch with our team today.

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Could micro payments be the solution to the pensions crisis?

With auto-enrolment rates rising this April from 2 per cent to 3 per cent, and the government announcing their intention to provide a top up to savings in the form of tax relief, it’s optimistic to assume everything will all work out in the end because, in theory, it should.

However, despite the increase in auto-enrolment rates and employer contributions rising to 5 per cent, there remains a significant gulf between what people are putting into their pension pots and the amount they will actually need to retire comfortably. A pensions crisis grips the nation; Britain’s ageing population and the rising costs of long-term elderly care is fast-creating a funding shortfall for sufficient support and the confusing pension tax relief system certainly hasn’t helped in incentivising Britons to save for the future.

If that wasn’t bad enough, new analysis of official data on UK household incomes indicates the gap between men and women’s pension income is more than twice that of the gender pay gap at 40%. According to a paper from the Centre for Policy Studies, 2018 was the year that saving in Britain dropped to a record low with households investing just 4.9% of their income for the future.

Experts suggest the reason behind the pensions gap (the difference between the current rate at which we are saving and the amount we will need for the future) stems predominantly from the complex nature of the pensions system. This is supported by findings from a study of UK workers conducted by PwC in which six in ten (59%) respondents said their lack of understanding puts them off saving more.

Unfortunately, solving the pensions crisis isn’t a simple case of increasing auto-enrolment rates. If workers today are to retire comfortably, government and industry must find a way to inspire people to take a proactive approach to their pensions. Fortunately, the introduction of PSD2 and the momentum towards open banking offers promise in the form of cutting-edge financial technology.

With seamless data sharing made possible through smart APIs, there is huge potential for banks to facilitate the act of future-proofing our finances through intuitive apps that make money management as quick and easy. Through open banking, there exists a real opportunity to provide customers with a holistic view of their finances across all accounts. With this in mind, pensions have the potential to become less of a dusty piggy bank on a bookshelf that no one wants to think about, to just another component of our unique financial profile that we top up every day.

Having recently been accepted into the Open Banking Implementation Entity regulatory sandbox, Moneyhub has an exciting opportunity to test innovative financial tech products, services and features that could be transformational for the consumer payment experience. Being able to do this within the sandbox, allows us to deploy to customer quickly, without the usual compliance hurdles that can stand in the way. We truly feel that tech has the potential to solve a whole raft of consumer finance problems, not least helping with our current pensions funding crisis. As such, a key part of  what we will be trialling in the sandbox, is making managing finances easier with micro-payment using PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider), with Starling Bank.

The idea is to create a system in which frictionless micro-payments are made to your pension pot with your consent, and integrated as part of your daily financial activity. Some of you may already be familiar with micropayments, but this is the first solution of its kind that automates micro-payments in real time to promote a proactive approach to saving.

Until now, any micro-payments a user intended to make would be tracked and compiled into one high transaction at the end of the month – a helpful feature, but it certainly doesn’t encourage better savings behaviour.  Through our work with Starling Bank on micro-payments, Moneyhub will up your spare change in real-time - whether that’s 80p that you saved on your daily food budget or the £4 you saved on bus travel last Wednesday.

On the surface, it may not seem like much. However, a few pounds every day really adds up for retirement. Soon, the spare change that was swept up begins to make for a sizeable pile. As the interest accumulates, what started as a few pennies in a jar can quietly become a comfortable retirement income. Even just £2.50 a day for a 30 year old can grow to be worth £85k in retirement – a figure which seems daunting and out of reach today, but is perfectly achievable through daily micro-payments.

What’s more, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s better to skim off a little extra from your daily spending and have it automatically sent to your savings than see a large lump sum leave your account at the same time your bills and rent are due.  By taking advantage of the possibilities born from open banking, our goal is to encourage a shift in attitude. We want to help people to view forward-planning for their long-term finances not as an intimidating mountain to climb in the future but an achievable target that can be easily tackled through minimal daily contributions.

Already, our involvement with the sandbox has provided invaluable insight into consumer behaviour and revealed the positive impact that nudges can have on our saving and spending habits. We’ve found that it really doesn’t take much for people to start changing their financial behaviours – just a push in the right direction like a health tracking app encourages us to take more steps or drink more water.

Thanks to our integration of Starling Bank’s API into our payment gateway, users can already initiate a payment straight from one account to the other in real-time, whether it’s an ISA, a savings account or a pension pot. Our upcoming trial of micro-payments using PISP offers a new solution to tackling the pensions crisis. By embracing an open, API-led approach, banks can play a leading role in transforming the way people view their pensions.

Rather than a looming concern that becomes scarier the longer you put it off, planning for retirement can become a proactive measure that people find satisfying – and you would be surprised how much you could save. In the long-run, it’s the 20p spare you had on an idle Tuesday that could just make all the difference.

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Moneyhub integrates Starling Bank to its Payment Gateway

Moneyhub has integrated Starling Bank into its Payment Gateway, the first challenger bank to support PSD2 PISP legislation and joining the growing list of payment providers on the Moneyhub platform.  

Moneyhub’s integration with Starling Bank’s API allows users to initiate a payment straight from one account to the other quickly, easily, and at a fraction of the cost to organisations of traditional payments. The move follows the implementation of Open Banking in January last year, and comes ahead of the new requirement that all banks must support PSD2 legislation by September this year.

Starling Bank’s half a million-plus users can also now act on the already established Smart Nudges within the Moneyhub app. For example, if a user spends less on entertainment than budgeted, they will receive a ‘Micro Saving’ nudge’ prompting them to save the money left over into their choice of savings accounts or investment accounts they hold. With Moneyhub’s Payment Gateway, they can initiate the payment to their ISA, savings account, Pension or pay off any debts straight away making Smart Nudges actionable with immediate effect.

The technology developed by Moneyhub features almost 600 data links, the largest of any aggregation provider in the UK. Users can link up current and savings accounts alongside any credit cards, pensions, loans, mortgages, SIPPs, ISAs or investments.

Moneyhub has been instrumental in the Open Banking revolution, helping to define global standards for financial APIs. The Payment Gateway is another step in this revolution helping businesses and individuals transfer and receive money without the traditional associated high costs or frictions.

Samantha Seaton, CEO of Moneyhub, commented: “Technology is rapidly transforming not only the way that the banking sector is operating but the way that individuals and businesses can interact with each other.  Being able to pay directly from one account to the other can mean faster and easier transactions for both customers and businesses. Whilst, businesses can also benefit from lower costs as well as the ability to see the full, end to end customer journey.  

“The introduction of Open Banking has been transformative for people’s relationships with their finances but its potential is only just being realised. Starling remains at the forefront of putting users in control of their finances and is exciting for us to be working closely with them to deliver excellence and innovation for their customers. A new era for people’s finances starts here.”

Ben Chisell, Product Director at Starling Bank commented: “We want to create a great banking experience for Starling customers, whether they are using our own app or using money management tools like Moneyhub. We are really pleased to see that Moneyhub have been able to use our APIs to improve their experience for Starling customers, and at the same time it is a great example as to the types of new experiences that can be created when banks like us embrace an open, API-led approach.”

As a Third-Party Provider (TPP), Moneyhub uses Open Banking to aggregate bank account information and initiate payments. It holds licenses for both an Account Information Services Provider (AISP) and Payment Initiation Services Provider (PISP).

To find out how we can help your business evolve, get in touch on 0117 280 5155 or email enterprise@moneyhub.com

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