An Post Retail’s managing director, Debbie Byrne. Image: An Post
An Post is looking to emulate the success of Revolut with its own current account app, backed by an €18m investment.
An Post is hoping to rival Revolut with a new digital banking app. Speaking with the Sunday Independent, An Post Retail’s managing director, Debbie Byrne, confirmed plans to launch a new banking app next month that will be backed by an €18m investment.
Byrne confirmed the app will be similar to the Revolut app concept, but with added features currently unavailable to the 1m-plus Irish Revolut users. An Post Money currently has 250,000 customers across its product range including current accounts, loans and foreign exchange, and by 2025 it aims to have 1m customers.
“A lot of people use Revolut as a second account,” she told the publication. “We want to be the primary account you’re paying your salary in and then you’re getting all the bells and whistles with it. You’ll have the trust of the An Post brand, the user experience of Revolut. And we have the retail network of 950 post offices.”
The new banking app will facilitate Apple Pay, Google Pay and Fitbit Pay and will have the option of creating ‘jars’ for users to store and save money in. While this will be a manual process at first, An Post said automation and more intelligent in-app budgeting will arrive next year.
“We will have smart, intelligent functionality that will do an analysis of your spend, give it back to you and create the budget for you,” Byrne said. “It will also be able to flag upcoming expenses such as insurance premiums, etc.”
An international trend
Byrne also confirmed that peer-to-peer payments will be introduced in the first quarter of 2021. In a move also very similar to Revolut, a new account for children and young adults aged between 10 and 16 will be launched called Money Mate, providing a debit card overseen with parental control.
The app follows similar efforts seen among traditional banking institutions in Europe, with Credit Suisse recently announcing plans to launch a Revolut-like app in Switzerland. According to Reuters, from October, the app will offer free online banking, free foreign transactions and digital wealth management.
“We want to grow with our clients,” said Credit Suisse’s Andre Helfenstein at a press conference. “We thought we needed to do more for young people.”
Elsewhere in Ireland, Belfast-based Wellington IT announced last month that it is launching a new app for credit unions across the country, allowing members to complete fund transfers, statement downloads and loan applications from their phones.
