Westpac signs SocietyOne as digital banking as a service partner

By Leandra Monteiro

Westpac announced that SocietyOne will be joining its digital banking-as-a-service platform. According to media reports, it has touted that SocietyOne has 75,000 customers and originates over AU$1 billion in loans.

According to media reports, Westpac’s GM of corporate and business development Macgregor Duncan said SocietyOne was an exciting long-term growth opportunity for Westpac. He said it would allow Westpac to reach new customers through a low-cost operating and distribution model, grow valuable deposit balances, and eventually expand its offer to lending and data services.  “We recognise that Australians are looking for new and different ways to do their banking and by partnering with established brands and leveraging our combined data resources, we can provide better, more personal experiences for customers,” he said.

With the use of cloud-native technology from 10x Future Technologies Westpac’s BaaS platform enables the bank to deepen its relationship with FinTech partners as they make use of traditional banking services in order to launch new products for their users. SocietyOne says it will launch its first transaction account on the back of the arrangement sometime in the second half of 2021

Founded in 2012 SocietyOne is the second Australian FinTech to join Westpac’s new digital banking-as-a-service platform. The first finTech to connect to the Westpac platform in October last year was BNPL player Afterpay. Westpac’s venture capital partnership Reinventure has been an investor in SocietyOne since 2014.

Westpac is Australia’s oldest bank and company, one of four major banking organisations in Australia and one of the largest banks in New Zealand. They also have offices in key financial centres around the world including London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.