Online pension provider PensionBee is making it easier for the non-traditional workforce to save for their later years. That’s because the U.K.-based company is launching a new product designed for self-employed users.

The product will enable new users to set up a new pension in minutes. The new offering also provides a flexible contributions plan so that savers can adjust their pension contribution amounts as their income fluctuates, with no minimum contribution required.

The self-employed pension product is available to sole traders and directors of companies without an existing workplace or private pension. Users have nine investment options, including the PensionBee’s Fossil Fuel Free Plan which completely excludes fossil fuel producers and persistent violators of the UN Global Compact.

One of PensionBee’s differentiating factors is its fee structure. Instead of charging users a range of fees, the company has a more simplified fee structure that charges just one annual fee. This “all-in” fee ranges from 0.50% to 0.95%, depending on the plan. And, to encourage higher balances, PensionBee offers users 50% off their fee for any portion of their savings that exceeds £100,000.

Prompting the release of the self-employed product is the increase in self-employed workers combined with a decline in consumer savings. According to a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the number of self-employed workers has grown over the past two decades while the proportion saving into a private pension has fallen from 48% in 1998 to 16% in 2018. Another study from Nest found that only 24% of self-employed workers are saving into a pension.

“Without the benefits of auto-enrollment, the self-employed are at a significant disadvantage and need access to simple and flexible products urgently if they are to avoid a shortfall in later life,” said PensionBee CEO Romi Savova. “In the absence of old workplace pensions to provide a head start, we know that the thought of saving from nothing can be daunting for many self-employed consumers, which is why we’ve made it as easy as possible for them to open a pension and put money aside whenever their business allows.”

“The self-employed currently make up 20% of the PensionBee customer base, so we know their needs well and are committed to helping many more self-employed consumers plan for a happy retirement and achieve better financial outcomes.”

Savova founded PensionBee in 2014 along with his co-founder, Jonathan Lister. The company has closed three rounds of funding; the amounts of each round are undisclosed.

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Citizens Savings Bank and Trust, the oldest African-American-owned bank in the U.S., is the latest regional FI to partner with Computer Services Inc. (CSI) in order to offer its customers a range of digital banking services.

“We always want to honor and cherish the history and legacy we have, but we must also lead our team and our organization toward the future,” Citizens Bank president and CEO Sergio Ora said. “We can be very committed and passionate about our vision and mission, but in order for us to help people develop financial independence and wealth equality, we must have the resources and technology. CSI will play (an) integral role in giving us that.”

Founded in 1904 by a trio of African-Americans in Nashville, Tennessee, the originally-named One-Cent Savings Bank and Trust Company was dedicated to serving black Americans in the wake of the Civil War and, more directly, the collapse of Reconstruction. Still serving the community over 100 years later as the oldest, continuously operating African-American-owned bank in the U.S., the firm changed its name to Citizens Savings Bank & Trust in 1920. By 1946, the bank had reached $1 million in capital and deposits and, by 2014 arrived at its goal of $100 million in assets.

“For more than 100 years, Citizens Bank has never faltered in its mission to provide financial opportunity to individuals and communities who have been overlooked and underserved,” David Culbertson, president and COO of CSI, said. “We are honored that this important and vibrant institution chose CSI to deliver innovative solutions that will help its customers grow wealth, solidify their businesses and make their dreams come true.”

Citizens Bank will deploy Computer Services’ core banking platform NuPoint. The solution was cited last year in Aite Group’s core vendor report and praised for its “excellence in user experience” and ability to improve internal reporting. “CSI’s newly redesigned core banking platform … stands out from its competition as a result of its modern look and feel, graphics, and innovative way of displaying banking relationships,” Aite Group senior analyst David Albertazzi said last spring.

Headquartered in neighboring Kentucky and founded in 1965, Computer Services Inc. provides digital banking, cybersecurity and IT, and regulatory compliance solutions to financial institutions and corporations around the world. Last month, CSI teamed up with Finovate alum Featurespace to launch a new anti-money laundering solution, WatchDOG AML. Also in December, the company announced a partnership with Iowa-based Premier Bank – who will also deploy CSI’s NuPoint solution.

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U.K.-based crowdfunding platform Seedrs reached a major milestone in recent weeks. The company surpassed $1.4 billion (£1 billion) in investments made on its platform.

This comes almost 12 years after the company was founded in 2009 by Carlos Silva and Jeff Lynn as a way for all types of investors to contribute equity funding to startups in Europe.

“We passed many milestones in 2020; from having hit 17 company exits to delivering over 27,000 investor exits on our secondary market,” said CEO Jeff Kelisky. “However, on Christmas Day we passed the £1 billion mark in platform investments.”

Of those 17 exits, seven ocurred in 2020 alone. In total, Seedrs has delivered over $5.5 million (£4 million) in returns to investors, not including profits received by investors on the Seedrs Secondary Market.

Seedrs’ most recent development is its Secondaries Solution that allows founders, employees, and early investors to receive secondary liquidity without having to wait for an IPO or exit event. As Seedrs Manager Josh Davey explained, “Now, I’m excited by the launch of our liquidity solutions for later-stage companies, which will further open up access to investing in pre-IPO companies for retail investors, while providing financial liquidity to some of the founders and employees that have built some of the startups that have come to define how we live in the 21st century.”

In 2016, Seedrs was cited as the most active investor in private companies in the U.K. In October of last year, Seedrs merged with fellow equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.

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