Transferwise integrated by API into Number26 - example of bank as a marketplace

Just saw this in FS news today - good example of ‘bank as a marketplace’ as discussed in Tom’s recent blog post.

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Interesting! Both TransferWise and Number26 are backed by Peter Thield (sic :wink:).

I love this quote from Jony Ive: “So much of what we try to do is get to a point where the solution seems inevitable: you know, you think “of course it’s that way, why would it be any other way?” It looks so obvious, but that sense of inevitability in the solution is really hard to achieve.”

That, of course, moment for a ‘bank as a marketplace’ doesn’t seem very far away!

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I agree Saveen - once you have a bank that makes it easy to get the best money transfer service(s), the best savings, the best credit card etc etc then traditional banks which offer only their own non-market leading products will seem crazy!

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James, you’re spot on, it seems inevitable that products will need to be commoditised.

An open API standard might be a step in the right direction for major incumbent banks but their siloed databases and legacy IT systems are their Achilles ​heel.