For years, banks have been talking about more personalizing the relationships they have with their customers. They strive to focus on the needs, expectations and uses of the latter. Vain formulas? Although, more than concerns, real limitations in terms of purchasing power are beginning to appear, the current context will allow us to judge. What do financial institutions offer in this regard? Will the context precipitate changes in the relationship between banks and their customers?
At this stage, only a handful of establishments, both banks and fintechs, have addressed the issue. Like the Auvergne Limousin Savings Bank which, last April, offered a Purchasing Power Report to its private customers. An interesting initiative that we may be surprised that it has not been taken up again insofar as, for populations at economic risk, things will be much less difficult if they talk to their bank as soon as possible. However, they often do not dare to do so, for fear that it will only accelerate their difficulties. Therefore, it is important to position advisers in a preventive assistance role, which is ultimately quite new.
In the United States, faced with inflation, some banks seek to play in the refund of money, associated with the use of bank cards, so that they can be applied to current expenses whose prices are on the rise. Chase offers 5% (under fairly limited conditions, though) for gasoline. It is not just about increasing the number of products that benefit from refund of money but even to extend them to all expenses, like Capital One, aimed at students. The problem, however, is that the more refund of money cover many expenses, the less generous they are.
In Europe, the approach is significantly different. The first difficulty facing the increase in the cost of living is to know how, precisely, we are exposed to it. Based on this observation, the British start-up offers us to analyze all the recurring expenses of the users of its app, take into account foreseeable or announced price increases and, consequently, anticipate the impact on future expenses, with budget projections. The idea is very simple too: evaluate the impact of inflation on your purchasing power. And we intend then to be able to offer to choose, according to the needs, suppliers that offer better prices.
A step taken in France
This is already offered by other fintechs, such as Snoop in the UK or Papernest in France. And precisely, several large establishments such as Société Générale have begun to transmit the services of Papernest directly to their clients. BNP Paribas should even integrate them into its banking app soon, via a login button that will appear with account statements. In the current context and to facilitate the defense of purchasing power, a milestone has just been reached in France in terms ofopen banking.
What else to suggest? One solution to protect yourself from inflation is, of course, to buy what you need as quickly as possible. Or rather, since one doesn’t necessarily have the funds to do so, to buy now and pay later. This solution, which consists of making installment purchases possible or general for individuals, is now giving rise to a series of initiatives, such as the Adva project in France. There is also the American fintech solution Accrue Savings.
Do you want to buy a property whose price you fear will go up but you don’t have the necessary funds? Accrue Savings invites you to open a kitty, adding to it periodically until a fixed expiration date. Nothing more trivial. Yes, but the idea of Accumula Ahorro, very simple, is to have thought of notifying the seller of the property that interests you. The latter thus finds a new sales channel in which, to encourage its customers, it can offer promotions that will reduce the possible price increase during the purchase. Ultimately, Accure Savings aims to develop a market of a completely new kind.
Finally, if prices skyrocket, the use of some loans may be necessary. It is therefore about facilitating access to credit. And in Anglo-Saxon countries where the latter is conditioned by a credit scoredependent in turn on a credit history, the Monese neobank offers its credit builder, a solution as simple as it is intelligent, which consists of transforming savings into loans. We elect to periodically set aside a certain sum up to a certain amount for twelve months in a blocked account. Monese then makes a loan of the same amount without interest. Thus, at the same time that we save, we repay a loan, which will improve the credit score. It is true that such a solution seems quite limited, especially if it is ultimately about facilitating indebtedness, which is not the most prudent thing to do in a period of restricted purchasing power. But rarely have we seen a bank side with its customers in this way!
Source: BFM TV
