Neat, a mobile banking startup in Hong Kong that blends machine intelligence with biometric security, has opened its waiting list to university students and young professionals with a view to a Q2 2016 launch.
The new bank, co-founded by former Citibank veteran David Rosa, is currently testing its technology and receiving guidance and mentorship as part of the territory's SuperCharger fintech accelerator, which is backed by Standard Chartered and Baidu.
Much like the UK's Mondo, Neat operates from a smart budgeting and savings app with a companion card and uses facial recognition technology to authenticate customers at log-in.
The company plans to apply AI technology to user payment data, creating distinct behavioural clusters combined with geo-location to offer personalised and local offers to users.
David Rosa, CEO, says that by not operating any physical branches , Neat’s customer acquisition costs are 16 times lower than those of a traditional bank.
“Neat is an Artificial Intelligence company doing banking, not the other way around," he says. "If Google or Facebook were to build a banking solution; this is how they would build their business model."