Lloyds bank adds savings and credit card to open banking

Customers of Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland will be able to see their savings and credit card accounts at each bank alongside their current accounts, following the launch of new open banking functionality, by the banking group.

The bank launched its open banking service for current accounts in February, but the new announcement adds credit card and savings accounts.

At launch this only includes accounts at the three banks but as other finance firms join customers will be able to see their accounts in different providers’ mobile apps and savings accounts and credit cards held with other providers to their Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland apps.

Open banking, which was introduced by the government a year ago, enables third-party financial services suppliers access to customer data – if the customer agrees – through application programming interfaces (APIs).

Account aggregation is widely seen as the first stage of adoption at banks, and is when customers can see all their accounts in one place. HSBC was an early adopter in May 2018 when it launched Connected Money, an app that enables users to view all their bank accounts in one place.

Customers are already using Open Banking to get a fuller view of their finances at their fingertips,” said Stephen Noakes, transformation director at Lloyds Banking Group, “Adding savings accounts and credit cards to the mix will help provide an instant snapshot of their financial lives and make it easier to make decisions about spending and saving.”

He said later this year, the bank will add the ability to make payments and move money from other banks’ accounts via Open Banking.

“Behind the scenes in our digital labs, we’re testing new ways every day to innovate and improve the way we design our online banking and mobile app experience, and introducing a new secure messaging service gives customers more options to get in touch whenever and wherever works best for them.”

Customers using the apps now have access to a secure 24-hour messaging service.  If questions can’t be answered straight away customers are linked to a messaging adviser, without having to go through further authentication.

These services are available across iOS and Android in the group’s mobile apps.