Westpac flags more fintech deals after SocietyOne tie-up

A senior Westpac executive says the big four bank wants to partner with more fintechs to grow its customer base and fortify its balance sheet, after announcing its second deal in five months with the start-up sector.

Westpac announced on Tuesday it would partner with low-cost lender SocietyOne by sharing its banking licence in exchange for access to the eight-year-old fintech’s 75,000 customers and $1 billion loan book. The two parties plan to develop a mortgage product in the future, as Westpac works to claw back profits by reducing its home loan approval times.

SocietyOne is partly owned by Westpac through its venture capital fund Reinventure and other major backers include News Corp, Seven West Media, Australian Capital Equity and Consolidated Press Holdings.

Westpac has developed a new platform that enables fintechs to white-label its banking services and secured its first partnership in October with buy now, pay later giant Afterpay. The platform enables fintechs to offer banking services through their apps by piggy-backing off Westpac’s licence and technology infrastructure.

Westpac’s head of business development Macgregor Duncan said fintechs would also benefit from access to the bank’s regulatory and compliance resources, adding investors should brace for more deals to be revealed this year.

“Since the Afterpay announcement last October, we’ve certainly fielded many interested inquiries about partnering with us,” said Mr Duncan, who runs Westpac’s mergers and acquisitions team.

“We absolutely envisage further partnership announcements.”

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Source: Westpac flags more fintech deals after SocietyOne tie-up