First direct announces new open banking features coming to its mobile app in 2019

first direct is deepening its partnership with fintech Bud to deliver a new range of third party services and products through its mobile app in 2019, following the successful completion of its 12-month artha mobile banking app pilot.1

first direct’s development team will work with Bud to integrate some of the services that artha app users find most useful, such as reducing fixed monthly costs, aiding first-time buyers and increasing financial wellbeing.2

Joe Gordon, Head of first direct, said: “Being personal and relevant for our customers has always been a way we have pioneered service in first direct and with Open Banking Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) we are now able to take it to the next level.

“By integrating some of the best features identified by customers during the artha trial into the first direct app, we’ll be able to help customers to solve common and complex financial challenges in smart, practical ways. By using data to understand their financial position and decide where they want to be, customers will be able to find the right mix of products and services to help them get there.”

The first phase of new features to first direct’s mobile banking app are due for release towards the end of the year. The artha app itself will be discontinued from 15 March 2019.

Launched last year, the artha pilot formed a key part of HSBC UK’s Open Banking strategy. It’s also the first time a large financial institution in the UK has made third party products available for the benefit of customers.

The aim of the artha app trial was to explore how open API technology could help customers in new ways by connecting their different financial products and service providers in one place.

The news comes shortly after Bud’s successful Series A fundraise, which saw the business secure over $20 million from various established industry players to fuel its expansion. Investors include banks, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, ANZ and Investec, as well as a series of high profile private figures.

Ed Maslaveckas, Co-founder and CEO of Bud, said: “Our goal is to make money simpler for people and, in doing so, give them more control over their lives. We now have the tech to enable this and, by collaborating with people like first direct where the same vision is shared across both teams, we can do it at institutional scale immediately.”

Commenting, Diana Biggs Head of Digital Innovation, UK & Europe at HSBC, said: “We have been working with Bud on HSBC’s wider Open Banking strategy since 2017. Together we have been able to rapidly develop customer centric platforms like artha, testing and evolving new services in a live pilot with real customers, and then taking these learnings to roll-out new and innovative offerings at scale.”