Digital-only MemoryBank launches in US
MemoryBank is unveiled
US-based MemoryBank, a national branchless banking platform, has opened its “digital doors”.
Founded this month, it is digital only and targets “generation-X customers” – born between 1965 and 1982 – described as “an often-ignored group, pushed aside by millennials”.
The bank is a subsidiary of Kentucky-based Republic Bank & Trust Company. For its tech, Republic is a long-standing user of FIS’s Horizon core banking system and IST/Switch solution for ATM and EFT transactions.
Andrew Varga, chief strategy and innovation officer, at Republic, says it didn’t want a platform offering the “same benefits as a traditional brick and mortar bank or the handful of existing digital banks. That’s out there already. MemoryBank will do better.”
We won’t forget the last sentence.
MemoryBank’s first product, the “EarnMore” account, offers a 1% annual percentage yield (APY) plus an additional 0.5% on all deposits for the first year to qualifying customers, with no minimum balance to begin earning. Varga says that rate is “30 times higher than the national average interest checking rate”.
Additional EarnMore account features include biometric security, personalised notifications, smart phone deposit, online bill pay and Popmoney (Fiserv’s P2P payments service), which allows customers to send and receive money without cash or cheques.
The bank says opening an EarnMore account is “hassle-free” – as it “can take as little as ten minutes to apply using a smart phone or computer”.
MemoryBank should not be confused with two firms called Memory Bank. One is an Ireland-based distributor of IT infrastructure products. Another one offers DVD resource packs using archive films to “bring past events and experiences to life, prompting stories and memories to share and enjoy”.
