Growing demand for green, paperless banking and fears over post-Brexit rule changes have triggered a “monumental surge” in enquiries for money and challenger bank apps, reveals one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory and fintech organizations.
deVere Group reports that enquiries for Vault, its global money app and card service, has experienced a jump in enquiries of 67% in Q3 2020, according to the information shared with Finbold.
Nigel Green, CEO and founder of deVere Group, which launched Vault in 2017, underlined that the monumental quarter-on-quarter surge for banking-style apps is attributable to two main drivers:
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“First, individuals and companies are increasingly embracing and expecting green, paperless banking. This is partly fuelled by the pressing need for us all to drastically reduce waste and better protect the environment – something the pandemic and issues such as raging wildfires has collectively focused minds on – but also because a paperless system is, typically, a more convenient and efficient one.
Traditional banks have a long way to go to catch-up with tech-driven challenger banks and fintech [financial technology] firms, which are intrinsically much greener and are leading the charge to a paperless future.”
He continues: “The other major point driving engagement with e-money apps in Europe specifically is that many of the UK’s banks are set to abandon their customers, by closing their accounts and stopping use of their services across Europe within weeks unless they have a valid UK address.
“Under post-Brexit rules, it becomes illegal for UK banks to service customers living in the EU without applying for new banking licences.
“This will cause significant disruption for many individuals, families, businesses and other organisations.
“As such, people are flocking to firms that already operate under pan-European rules.”
The massive jump in enquiries, says Mr Green, underscores that “fintech is the future of finance” – not only for clients’ convenience and efficiency but also, in a large part, because it is more environmentally sustainable.
The deVere CEO concludes: “For Millennials and Gen Z clients especially there’s been a radical shift toward ‘less stuff, more impact’ in banking and financial services.
“And this is just the beginning of this global and far-reaching trend.”
