In a gamechanger of sorts, LuLu Financial Group – one of UAE’s leading financial services company, has joined hands with Wio Bank – the region’s first platform bank, to allow Wio Business customers to make account deposits through its network of LuLu Exchange branches.
The partnership is a first of its kind in the UAE, and significantly diversifies the scope of financial services provided by LuLu Exchange, allowing it to embed banking services with its existing fintech capabilities.
Talking about the partnership, Mr. Adeeb Ahamed, MD, LuLu Financial Group, said, “We are excited to partner with Wio to introduce a “phygital” experience for customers in the UAE. As early adopters of open banking, our enablement platform now equips us to partner seamlessly with financial institutions that want to design hyper-local customer experiences. Our partnership with Wio is a real-world use case of how our fintech capabilities combined with our network can BETTER serve customers across the financial ecosystem.”
Mr. Prateek Vahie, Chief Commercial Officer, Wio Bank, said: “At Wio, we seek to simplify banking so customers can focus on managing their business instead. We are pleased to partner with Lulu Exchange and leverage their vast network in the UAE to help Wio Business customers deposit and withdraw funds conveniently. With this new provision, we expect to further improve access for customers and in turn, transform the banking sector in the country.”
In the first phase, LuLu Exchange has activated only cash deposit service, with cash withdrawal set to be launched soon. Wio Business is the bank’s first digital banking application that enables freelancers and SMEs seamless access to business banking services.
With its open banking service platform now live, LuLu Exchange aims to onboard more financial institutions who can pass on the benefit of the phygital experience to their retail as well as corporate customers. The company already caters to a substantial MSME customer base who can benefit from such partnerships, being as it is among the leading facilitators of UAE’s Wage Protection System (WPS).