ING pushes for open banking with SME financing platform and Yolt expansion
Van den Boogert, CEO, ING bank
ING is keen to maximise the possibilities of open banking and is working with Yolt and Funding Options on bringing new features to customers across Europe.
Firstly, ING is launching a marketplace for SME financing in the Netherlands, which will open to other external financing providers, becoming the first Dutch bank in doing so.
ING is also expanding its money management capabilities offered to consumers with the launch of Yolt in France and Italy.
In the past few months, we have seen more and more major banks making their offer more attractive to consumers through partnerships with innovative fintechs, and ING is undoubtedly making sure that it doesn’t lag behind.
The Netherlands
In regards to the platform for SME financing, ING has collaborated with British fintech firm Funding Options in this project, a company that has already launched a similar platform in the UK.
“Thanks to Funding Options, business owners will now have access to a wide choice of financing options that they can easily compare and conclude on one platform – even if they aren’t an ING customer,” says Vincent van den Boogert, CEO of ING in the Netherlands.
The CEO has noted that SME owners struggle to keep up with the options available for financing, and that this platform attempts to solve that. The company’s boss also highlighted the ambition to create an open platform in financial services through this initiative.
According to the company, there is a great need among the SME business community for financing options. Funding Options’ algorithm selects the most relevant solutions for a wide variety of financing needs.
The platform will not charge SME business owners any commission. External providers will pay the platform a success fee.
France and Italy
The expansion of ING’s smart money app Yolt into France and Italy will help users to actively manage their personal finances with a one-stop overview of their accounts.
Yolt launched in the UK in 2017 and has attracted 300,000 registered users there so far. Yolt plans to further expand to European countries as part of its ambition to build a pan-European money platform.
Frank Jan Risseeuw, CEO of Yolt, believes that the fast growth of the number of users shows a digital platform such as Yolt can truly change the banking landscape.
Benoit Legrand, chief innovation officer of ING Group, says: “Yolt is truly creating a differentiating experience for its users and on top of that it’s a great example of how ING is executing on its strategy to transform the bank to become the go-to platform for financial needs.”
