HSBC to turn off mobile app after it finds life in open banking features

After a pilot of a money management app Artha, which helps customers understand their spending from different providers through a single login, First Direct will turn it off and integrate the most favoured features into its mobile app.

First Direct, the online and telephone bank of HSBC, worked with fintech company Bud on Artha as part on an open banking initiative.

The app was like the Mars Rover – sent out to customers to find evidence of life in open banking features.

It will turn off Artha on 15 March. “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,” said HSBC.

Bud will now work with First Direct’s tech team to integrate popular features identified through Artha.  These include tools to help customers reducing fixed monthly costs, aiding first-time buyers and increasing financial wellbeing.

Bud recently successfully raised over $20m funding from investors including HSBC, Goldman Sachs, ANZ and Investec. Ed Maslaveckas, co-founder and CEO at the fintech, 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.”

Diana Biggs, head of digital innovation, at HSBC UK & Europe, 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.”