Xinja receives full licence, launches bank accounts
The digital bank says it's time Australia's banking model is disrupted.
Xinja has today received its full banking licence from the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) and also announced it will be making its transaction account available to customers.
Then a startup, it launched its prepaid card and app to customers in March 2018 before receiving a restricted licence from APRA in December 2018 which allowed it to conduct limited banking activity for two years. Now fully licensed, Xinja Bank has announced it plans to "shake up" Australia's banking sector.
"It's enormously exciting that Australians have a new, independent bank," said Xinja chief
executive and founder Eric Wilson. "It's time Australia's very old banking model was
disrupted."
Xinja Bank joins other new digital banks that launched in the past two years. This includes Up Bank, which is a collaboration between Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (Bendigo) technology company Ferocia, Volt Bank and 86 400.
The Xinja transaction account will be accessed solely via a smartphone app and come with a Debit Mastercard. Existing prepaid customers and those on the waitlist for a transaction account will get first access. It also has plans to launch savings accounts, which it's calling "Stash" accounts, and plans to launch lending products in the first quarter of 2020.
While details of the transaction account are scarce, it will be technology-focused and likely have features that are at least similar or improved upon its prepaid card and app. The Xinja prepaid card offers a simple and quick sign-up, spending categorisation for your transactions, security features such as the ability to lock and unlock your card and an in-app payment feature called Xinja Me.
Xinja is built on a platform that allows for quick product changes in response to customer feedback and is "driven increasingly by the dynamic use of data".
"This is what banking should be," Wilson said. "Hyper-personalised services that leverage customers' data in their interests."
The Xinja Bank app is easy and intuitive to use, colourful and fun, according to Wilson.
"Banking has been boring for too long. We fundamentally believe that if you make managing your money engaging, people will get better at it."
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