Leveraging technology for quick business wins and great customer outcomes.

Interest rates have been at a historic low for the last decade and unsurprisingly consumers and businesses have taken the opportunity to leverage this cheap credit to buy property, travel like never before (notwithstanding the 2 lost years of the pandemic) and generally focus on the opportunities that cheap credit affords. 

For those with savings it was a darker time, with very little chance of achieving a decent return without investing in higher-risk investment vehicles. Retirees who had modelled their projected retirement returns back in the 1990s were finding that reality in the 2010s was far more austere.

So it is hardly surprising that most financial institutions, whether they be incumbents or challengers, focused their innovation efforts on the lending side of the balance sheet. But here we are in 2023 and the world is looking very different. With rising interest rates and the rapidly rising cost of living, people need to make their money work for them. This is as true for businesses as it is for retirees. In the current challenging economic climate SMEs need to seek income wherever they can, so for those fortunate enough to have cash reserves the ability to earn a good rate of interest without the hassle of shopping around or opening new bank accounts will always be appealing.

It was against this backdrop that our customer, the award-winning Allica Bank, launched their business current account – called the Business Rewards Account – which, in addition to no monthly fees, UK customer support and a dedicated relationship manager, also features cashback on eligible card spend.  Finally, a business current account that rewards the client for using it!  But with rising interest rates there was another feature that was also proving to be very much in demand with SMEs – the ability to earn a good rate of interest on cash without the need to open a new account.  Using SaaScada’s wallet functionality the product team at Allica were able to set up the integrated instant access Savings Pot quickly and easily within the Business Rewards Account. Better yet, with interest rates moving fast they can implement interest rate changes in double quick time.

The wallet functionality provided by SaaScada enabled Allica to quickly add on an innovative Savings Pot feature, integrated within our business current account. This allows our customers, in real-time, to open a savings wallet and start earning a market-leading 3.5%* AER interest rate – enabling us to reward our customers for using the account at a time when they may struggle to get a decent rate elsewhere. 

Nida Sattar, Head of Product – Payments. Allica Bank.

For financial institutions using legacy tech, this simply would not have been possible. The ability to pivot to address rapidly changing economic circumstances is key to delivering great outcomes for your customers. Indeed, some financial institutions with legacy systems have struggled to even implement rate increases (quite often because people and processes have moved on since it last happened!) let alone launch a savings wallet within a product in mere days.  SaaScada’s intuitive Unified Product Hub makes it possible for the business unit both to implement change within products and trigger new releases without tying up technical resources. By simplifying the process of building and managing the core product, valuable resources and budget can be freed up to build the wider customer experience. 

*at time of publication