Taking advantage of the UK's new Open Banking environment, Barclays has introduced a feature that lets customers view current accounts from several other banks within its mobile app.
Customers who have a personal or business current account with Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, RBS, NatWest, Nationwide or Santander can now choose to view their balances and transactions when they log into the Barclays app. More banks will soon be added.
Barclays claims that it is the first to let Brits see their accounts from other providers from within its main app. HSBC rolled out a similar feature earlier this year, but its effort is via a standalone app.
The Barclays service uses the industry-approved Open Banking API to ensure that customers’ accounts are linked into the app securely, without them ever needing to give out their other banks’ usernames or passwords. Customers will also be able to view all their data permission history.
To set up the feature, customers select their other bank from within the Barclays app, at which point they will be securely redirected to their other bank’s app or online banking page to choose which accounts they would like to connect. They can choose to switch off access instantly within the Barclays app.
Catherine McGrath, MD, retail banking, Barclays, says: "Today, lots of people have current accounts with more than one bank, so keeping track of your finances can be tricky as well as time-consuming. Our new feature is designed to solve this problem, offering a simple and secure way to get a clearer picture of your finances, all in the place six million of our customers already go to do their banking."