The U Account offers its users improved current account functionality but without the hassle and cost of using a bank. Its focus on personalisation, easy digital access and transparent pricing for bolt-on account services are unique in the UK market.

With this, Wirecard Card Solutions (WDCS), the leading prepaid card provider in Europe, is introducing agency-banking services in the UK via existing banking relationships. The U account is WDCS’s and GPS’s first foray into agency banking whereby cardholders can make use of additional payment functionality including Direct Debit, Faster Payments and Bacs Credits along with standard prepaid account features.

The U Account targets people, who feel underserved and overcharged by the banks with a new type of highly personalisable prepaid current account that lets people budget better, pay their bills on time and avoid unnecessary bank charges. This includes an integrated solution to the Faster Payments Service and Direct Debits.

Tom Jennings, Managing Director at Wirecard Card Solutions, said: “The FinTech sector in UK is evolving rapidly as new products and services are being unveiled and the number of start ups entering the payments industry grows. This type of innovative and market-leading collaboration not only develops the products and services that Wirecard can offer but also supports FinTechs in disrupting the financial services sector.”

Alex Letts, Founder of U, adds “A scientific segmentation strategy underpins the U Account, driven by a model that aims to be 100% transparent. Bundled pricing options and a single user interface to extra accounts, combined with an easy money manager to help budgeting, make the U Account and its programme unique.”

“We are extremely pleased with the partnership we have built with Wirecard and Bottomline to introduce such an innovative product to the market“, said Suresh Vaghjiani, Managing Director (EMEA) at GPS. “The U Account demonstrates our platform’s capabilities allowing account holders to manage multiple Bacs enabled accounts each with their own unique account number, unlike other solutions in the market that use virtual accounts or virtual IBANS.“

WDCS, a UK-based company is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and operates under its Electronic Money license with permissions to issue cards throughout the SEPA region. As network owner of ICA and BIN range and principle member of MasterCard and Visa, WDCS has passporting permissions into all 27 European countries.

Built from the ground up, the GPS processing platform offers reliability and flexibility to support the Agency Banking solution. GPS integrated with market-leading payments provider Bottomline Technologies to incorporate a new set of payment rails and enhance the prepaid card proposition.