CaixaBank is relaunching its mobile-only youth-oriented banking offshoot imagin as a lifestyle platform offering a range of banking and non-financial products.
Launched in 2016, the refresh will see imagin serve 2.6 million customers, including users of imaginBank, as well as customers of CaixaBank's children and young people segment.
The app-based bank breaks down its user base according to age, with 0-11 year olds tempted by gaming-based educational products, the 12-17 age group offered contents and services around personal spending and financial management, and 18+ customers wooed by a mix of financial and non-financial lifestyle services, including music, video games, trends and a tech shop.
The financial product offering focuses around social sharing and automated chat-based and messaging services, including group payments, mobile wallets and robo-advisory services.
Imagin's business will be conducted through imaginTech, a new digital business subsidiary wholly owned by CaixaBank that is led by its chairman Juan Antonio Alcaraz, CaixaBank's chief business officer, and chief executive officer Benjamí Puigdevall.
Puigdevall says of the new model: “Imagin is taking a step forward in its evolution towards something well beyond a financial app. We went from being the young sector's leading bank, to becoming a lifestyle-oriented user community. In doing so, our relationship with customers does not start with the registration of a bank account, as is the case with most banking institutions, but instead when the user decides to download the application and sign up to the platform using their email address. Customers will no longer come to imagin just in search of financial products, but instead through an interest in worthwhile content and unique experiences."