• BMO has launched a Real Financial Progress Hub.
• The bank uses the hub to guide customers through financial topics and recommend products.
• The launch comes after two standalone PFM tools have recently shut down.

BMO revealed this week it has launched personal financial management tools for its clients. The digital resource, called the Real Financial Progress Hub, will offer personal finance advice, tools, and resources to help customers reach their financial goals.

“For the first time, our customers can explore any financial goal and even multiple goals at once – whether it’s budgeting, saving, homebuying, retiring, building credit and more – from one easy-to-navigate digital platform. We have brought all of our personal finance resources into one convenient spot to make financial progress easier,” said BMO Head of U.S. Customer Strategy Paul Dilda. “As we welcome new customers across the Western United States to BMO, we are proud to bring them our innovative products and services that were built with customers’ progress in mind.”

Among the tools available are expense management education, monthly expense tracking, advice for planning larger purchases, and tools to help users understand credit. The Real Financial Progress Hub offers BMO a channel to promote its own accounts, products, and services to less financially savvy customers while acting as a financial guide.

The launch comes at an interesting time. Two independent PFM sites have shut down so far this month, indicating a lack of consumer interest for standalone budgeting tools.

However, just because consumers don’t want to think about budgeting, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. Consumers are digging into their savings are leveraging credit at higher rates than before, and according to CNBC, Gen Z consumers are less into retiring early and more into what they call “soft saving.”

BMO’s free tool is currently live and available to its digital banking users.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

• OakNorth announced the Beta launch of its business banking tools to serve medium-sized businesses.
• The neobank is taking a high-touch approach by assigning an OakNorth team member to understand each client’s business and bring them the specific set of tools they need.
• OakNorth calls itself, “the neobank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs.”

U.K.-based neobank OakNorth announced the Beta launch of its business banking offering this week. The tools are specifically aimed to serve mid-sized businesses in sectors that traditional lenders often overlook.

With its current offerings, OakNorth underwrites risk on these underserved businesses by leveraging commercial loan data that covers over 270 industries. This data-driven approach allows the company to serve a wider range of sectors and subsectors than traditional banks tend to serve.

OakNorth’s new business banking tools target the underserved group with a high-touch approach that will offer a simplified list of products and services suited to each business’ needs. To do this, the company will assign an OakNorth employee to engage with a business’ founders, CFOs, CEOs, and directors to understand their business and assess features that best suit the client. The aim of this approach is to eliminate noise caused by irrelevant products and features while offering the ability to scale as the business grows.

“OakNorth’s mission is to serve and empower businesses in the Missing Middle, ensuring each and every one of them has the right tools, insights, and support at every stage of their growth journey with us,” said OakNorth Co-founder and CEO Rishi Khosla. “We know from the last eight years of serving our customers that they don’t feel their banking needs are being met by incumbents or other neobanks. They continue to be overlooked and underserved, despite the significant contribution they make to the economy and local communities in terms of productivity, innovation, job creation, and GDP growth. Given ongoing economic challenges, it is essential that these businesses have the right banking partner to support them, and we are excited to step up to fill this need.”

OakNorth was launched in 2015 and calls itself, “the neobank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs.” The U.K.-based company has raised $1 billion across nine rounds of funding. OakNorth’s most recent equity round took place in 2019 when it received $440 million in a round led by Softbank Vision Fund.

Photo by Pixabay

• FreedomPay, a digital commerce platform, forged a strategic partnership with micro-donation charity Pennies this week.
• The partnership will integrate Pennies into FreedomPay’s technology stack.
• Based in London, Pennies has facilitated nearly 200 million micro-donations since inception.

Digital commerce platform FreedomPay announced a new strategic partnership with micro-donation charity Pennies this week. Via the partnership, FreedomPay will integrate Pennies into its technology stack in what FreedomPay SVP of Global Product Delivery Tony Hammond called “a significant milestone in the fusion of commerce and philanthropy, empowering businesses to create a meaningful impact while ensuring a smooth payment experience for their customers.”

FreedomPay offers a Next Level Commerce platform that gives merchants a cloud-based solution for fast, secure payments. FreedomPay helps ensure that merchants have access to the most modern payment types and technologies. The company also supports alternative payment methods such as mobile wallets. FreedomPay manages billions of payment transactions a year; has more than 1,000 POS, PMS, kiosk, web, and mobile integrations; and serves customers in more than 75 countries around the world.

Launched in 2010 and headquartered in London, Pennies has partnered with more than 120 brands and facilitated nearly 200 million micro-donations. The company’s technology enables consumers who are paying by card or digital wallet to add a small donation to their purchase when transacting with participating brands. All of the funds raised by Pennies go to charity, whether or not the transaction takes place in-store, online, or in-app. The company has helped raise millions of pounds to fund charities in the U.K., the Republic of Ireland, and elsewhere. This week’s announcement means that FreedomPay merchants will be able to enable the Pennies micro-donation option as part of their transaction process.

“FreedomPay’s values align with Pennies own commitment to making giving simple, every day, ensuring customers have affordable ways to donate and enabling brands to generate real social impact,” Pennies CEO Alison Hutchinson said.

Headquartered in Pennsylvania, FreedomPay was founded in 2000. The company has raised more than $23 million in funding, and includes Goldman Sachs, Core Capital Partners, and TPG among its investors. Last month, FreedomPay renewed and expanded its strategic partnership with Lloyds Bank. In September, the company announced the integration of Amazon’s ID service into FreedomPay’s platform.

“With FreedomPay’s commerce tech, consumers and merchants gain access to world-class technology, including our seamless tokenization capacity,” FreedomPay President Chris Kronenthal said when the Amazon integration was announced. “This feature enhances data security while delivering the seamless, personalized experiences consumers love.”

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• Better.com launched a new insurance shopping marketplace, Better Insurance.
• The new shopping tool is available through Better’s insurance arm, Better Cover, which was launched in 2019.
• Better is collaborating with insurance technology company Sure and Farmers Insurance-owned Toggle for the launch.

Homeownership platform Better.com unveiled a new insurance shopping marketplace. The new tool, Better Insurance, allows customers to purchase homeowners insurance completely online, with no brokers or in-person meetings.

Better Insurance is available through Better.com’s insurance arm, Better Cover, which the company launched in 2019 to offer a transparent insurance shopping experience.

“Insurance is a key component of the homebuying process that comes with its own unique set of risks and challenges. At Better, we are focused on leveraging technology to make products available that can reduce pain points across all facets of the homebuying experience, and insurance is no exception,” said Better CEO and Founder Vishal Garg. “As a public company, we are more motivated than ever to continue addressing timely issues for homeowners through our robust product offerings, and the Better Cover team is leading the charge with the launch of a more seamless, consumer-first insurance product.”

Better is leveraging two partnerships for the launch of Better Insurance. The New York-based company has white-labeled the tool in collaboration with insurance technology company Sure and Farmers Insurance-owned Toggle. Better is using Sure’s APIs to integrate embedded insurance infrastructure into Better Insurance, and has tapped Toggle for underwriting and help with designing and building the product.

At launch Better Insurance is available in three U.S. states: Arizona, Oregon, and Illinois. The company plans to roll out to more regions within the U.S. “in the coming months.”

Better.com was founded in 2016 to create a fully digital way for borrowers to shop for, apply for, and ultimately obtain a mortgage. Earlier this year, Better.com launched the One Day Mortgage, allowing borrowers to apply for and obtain a mortgage within 24-hours.

Photo by Klaus Nielsen