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The year of digital banking pioneers

29 December 2016 ... min read

29 December 2016

Improving the customer experience is always a top priority for ING. Here are five innovations that hit the market this year. And one that we stopped.

1. Yolt from the blue!

Yolt

Launched in the UK, Yolt is a free mobile app to help people keep track of their finances. The Financial Times wrote that Yolt is one of the first examples of a bank in the UK providing a platform for customers to manage money held by competitors.

“We built the aggregator in the way that people think about money,” said Ignacio Julia Vilar, chief innovation officer ING at the app’s launch in October.

2. It is a game changer

How VCM works

Launched in August, Virtual Cash Management (VCM) helps company treasurers to make better financial decisions as they gain insight, access and control of their company’s cash position. With VCM, treasurers can manage their company’s cash across borders, using only a single bank account. To make it even easier to use, the self-service platform can seamlessly integrate into any treasury department’s existing IT infrastructure.

3. Banking via ‘social’

The peer-to-peer payment via social media was part of a campaign to show ING as the most mobile bank in the Netherlands.

Owe a friend money after a night out? Customers of ING in the Netherlands can now pay each other back via social media, without leaving ING’s mobile banking app. First step is creating a ‘payment request’. The app then generates a link that can be shared via WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, or even SMS and e-mail. The person that needs to pay the money then opens the link and pays via iDeal. Easy.

4. Getting started

Feel the vibe at the official launch of Startarium, the big pitching event this past November.

Launched in Romania, Startarium is an online platform for starting entrepreneurs. It helps start-ups get their business off the ground, paving the way with tips, connections and business resources. Only 24 hours after its launch in October, the platform had already reached 2,000 people with dreams of starting a business. Startarium was one of the finalists of ING’s first Innovation Bootcamp in 2014. Innovation Bootcamp is an internal initiative where employees come up with innovations to help empower customers.

5. Smart notes

Using Twyp Cash is easy. Watch the video to see how it works.

Even in these times of virtual money, you sometimes need a bit of cash. Since September, Twyp Cash customers in Spain can withdraw money with their smartphone when paying for other purchases. ING partnered with Grupo DIA, one of the world’s leading food retailers to introduce a service at more than 3,500 supermarkets and petrol stations.

Fail fast

Let’s face it. Some experiments fail – and not every digital innovation has been a success. Twyp the peer-to-peer payment app (not to be confused with Spain’s Twyp Cash), was launched in the Netherlands in January. In November, Twyp in the Netherlands was stopped after critical customer feedback. In Spain, Twyp is still a big hit with more than 300,000 users.

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