Bud has become one of the first providers to obtain regulatory authorisation to aggregate accounts, AISP licence, and initiate payments, PISP licence.
These new licences are issued under new FCA regulations brought about by open banking & Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2). They give Bud and its banking partners API access to customer data from the nine biggest banks in the UK, on the request of users.
On a customer’s request, Bud can also initiate a bank to bank transfer, allowing users to spend money in new ways and move money around their accounts via the Bud platform.
“Getting both these licences is another step towards building a better banking experience for customers,” Bud said in a blog post. “We will work with our marketplace partners to facilitate deeper integrations for the benefit of everyone.
“Bud’s regulatory experience has been pretty unique up until this point. We’ve participated in two regulatory sandbox cohorts, we’ve become one of the first dual open banking licence holders which adds to Bud’s other regulatory permissions: facilitating introductions for credit, investment, mortgages and non-investment insurance products.”
Based in London, Bud is a technology platform that links financial services together. The company’s aim is to bring the whole financial services market ‘under one roof’, offering customers ‘seamless ways’ to interact with any financial product according to its website.
The web and mobile app, which aims to make a variety of different financial services accessible from a single interface, is used by banks in the UK and Europe and has over 10,000 beta users currently on the platform.
Its platform is extending to include small and medium business solutions. The ‘Bud for Business’ platform is in development and will include unique insights, business benchmarking, a concierge, and a new marketplace tailored to the needs of business owners according to the company. To date, Bud has partnered with a number of fintech startups, such as savings startup Nutmeg, currency exchange Azimo and pensions company PensionBee, in addition to some of the larger players including Western Union.
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
