By Daniel Lanyon on Monday 24 August 2020
The savings account is the first product availble from Zopa’s new bank, where it will aim to bring customers to its app as part of a long term strategy to pivot away from its peer-to-peer lending origins.
Zopa has launched its fixed-term savings account with rates of up to 1.3 per cent over one to five years.
There is a minimum deposit of £1,000 and savers can monitor their balance and interest in the Zopa app once their money is deposited.
The savings account is the first product available from Zopa’s new bank, where it will aim to bring customers to its app as part of a long term strategy to pivot away from its peer-to-peer lending origins and provide a number of lending and other banking services taking on the likes of Monzo and Starling Bank.
Zopa’s CEO Jaidev Janardana told AltFi last month that the firm could pivot entirely away from P2P lending and would be prioritising promoting its app as a hub for financial services.
This pivot to lending through its own balance sheet, using savers' deposits, could ultimately deliver ten times higher revenue for the firm over the medium term.
"More products allow us to reach out to more customers or do more with our existing customers. The bank allows us more revenue growth. It is our ambition to increase revenue another tenfold over the next five years or so,” he said last month.
“As people restart their lives and the economy kicks back, there will be more demand for credit, which we will be in a good place to give. We are freshly capitalised as a bank and almost uniquely well-positioned to actually serve a growing demand for responsible credit in the coming years,” he added.
Zopa's savings account rates
|
Option |
1 Yr |
2 Yr |
3 Yr |
4 Yr |
5 Yr |
|
AER |
1.05% |
1.15% |
1.26% |
1.26% |
1.3% |
|
Gross |
1.04% |
1.14% |
1.25% |
1.25% |
1.29% |
Source: Zopa
Zopa, founded in 2005, was the first peer-to-peer lender. Since then it has approved more than £5bn in consumer loans. It launched its digital bank in June after it was awarded its full banking licence after a lengthy four-year build.
Janardana, said in a press release today: “As a new digital bank, Zopa is using its innovative, agile approach to ensure we bring more choice and competition to people’s financial lives when they need it most. By leveraging our significant technological and financial services expertise we are able to offer good value, straightforward products and intuitive tools to help people manage their money.”
