Openbank becomes first fully digital Spanish bank
Written by Chris Lemmon
19/06/2017
Openbank, a subsidiary of Grupo Santander, has become the first full-service digital bank in Spain, offering customers a full suite of products and services through a new mobile app and website.
Developed over the past 15 months using some of the latest technologies, the Openbank platform is one of the first banks worldwide to use a cloud-based IT infrastructure – enabling the bank to offer a 100 per cent digital proposition with ‘the most advanced security’.
It will make extensive use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, allowing Openbank to tailor product offerings to individual customers, increase security and fraud protection, as well as improving the speed and quality of credit decisions, such as mortgage approval.
The bank’s mobile app underwent a complete overhaul in order to improve the customer experience, and now features: Completely digital customer onboarding process with video conference identification; Customers can see their account status at-a-glance and personalise and configure according to their needs; Access to a 24/7 virtual branch where each customer has his own, dedicated team of account managers; Cards can be blocked or unblocked from a smartphone if lost.
Openbank, which serves over a million customers and has deposits of over six billion euros, has also extended its banking offering, to now include loans and mortgages and an entire range of investment products.
Ana Botin, executive chairman of Banco Santander, said: “We want to offer personalised financial services, accessible from anywhere, at anytime. For people who prefer an exclusively digital service that is simple, agile and available via smartphone, with the guarantee of the Santander Group, Openbank is the answer.”
Ezequiel Szafir, CEO of Openbank, added: “Openbank offers one of the best digital banking platforms in the world. We have built the bank from scratch using some of the most advanced technologies available, allowing us to provide customised products and services for customers who want a digital only banking proposition.”
