Top FinTech Startups Offering Innovative Services for Unbanked & Underbanked
Ever since the emergence of FinTech startups institutions in the UK, there has been a notable transformation in financial services across people’s personal and professional lives. There’s little question that the FinTech industry has disrupted the existing financial system in the UK. The unbanked UK is genuine. So is cryptocurrency unbanked.
Born out of the great recession of 2008 that put hundreds of thousands of people out of work, the FinTech industry, a new breed of financial institutions, reimagined the financial sector as a whole. Unlike the traditional banking institutions, the FinTech companies focus on building a genuinely inclusive banking system.
What Do Unbanked and Underbanked Mean?
You may think most people in the UK use banking services offered by prominent banking institutions and benefit from using them. However, the reality is much different. Unbanked is an informal term used to refer to people who do not have a traditional bank account. While underbanked is when people use alternative banking for their daily banking needs.
Top 5 Fintech Startups That Are Meeting The Needs Of The Unbanked And Underbanked
It’s hard to pinpoint how many unbanked and underbanked citizens are there in the UK. However, several FinTech startups and established companies can be the silver bullet to banking the unbanked and underbanked in the UK. Below are the top five FinTech startups that meet the needs of the unbanked and underbanked now and in the future.
TrueLayer
Founded in 2016, TrueLayer is now one of the key players in the FinTech industry. By allowing smaller startups to leverage the banking data, TrueLayer points to solid market traction. As an emerging leader in open banking, Truelayer is one of the companies unbanked and underbanked prefer for their personal and professional transactions.
Not only does open banking make financial services easily accessible and cheaper, but it also democratises the banking industry for unbanked and underbanked consumers, who traditional banks mostly ignore for various reasons. TrueLayer builds the most intelligent infrastructure that enables the unbanked population to use its banking services through mobile applications, creating better banking experiences.
Starling Bank
Starling Bank is an award-winning FinTech company that offers its customers a fairer, more competent, and superior banking experience. Ranging from personal to business to teen to joint accounts, Starling bank takes diversity seriously and actively adds every type of customer. Underbanked consumers with a thin credit history greatly benefit from Starling’s financial services, as their services make banking accessible for everyone by demystifying money. With millions of accounts across the UK, Starling provides a wide range of B2B banking and payment services to its unbanked and underbanked people in the UK.
Starling Bank caters to its unbanked and underbanked consumers by leveraging the most disruptive technologies with simplified money management. From no monthly bill current account to split the bill with friends features, Starling Bank is one of the top FinTech startups building an alternative financial service for the unbanked in the UK.
Monzo
As the Proud winner of the best banking app award in the UK in 2019 and the nearest competitor of Starling Bank, Monzo is currently responsible for around $1.1 billion in deposits and is one of the most valuable startups in the UK. Though mobile-only banking is a new banking initiative in the UK, Monzo is transforming and revolutionising the UK’s financial services by addressing the inequalities in the banking industry.
Monzo is one of the most recently emerged and successful FinTech companies in the UK that is challenging traditional banking institutions to do better with just word-of-mouth and simple advertisement. Of all features offered by Monzo to the unbanked and underbanked population, send-easy-money-to-friends and fee-free spending abroad are the most celebrated.
TransferWise
Founded by two Estonian friends in 2011, TransferWise helps people manage their money internationally more cheaply and transparently. As international students and new immigrants in the UK are considered underbanked, TransferWise becomes their most trusted and reliable international money exchanging service.
By partnering with Monzo, Bolt, and GoCardless, TransferWise makes sending money stress-free for unbanked and underbanked in the UK.
Coconut
is a very young and revolutionary FinTech institution in the UK with its vision to make self-employment easier than being employed. When it comes to providing banking services, freelancers are the most overlooked group of people by traditional banks. Moreover, as one of the majorities of underbanked people, freelancers often face issues calculating their taxes. With easy-to-access figures at its customers’ fingertips, Coconut empowers freelancers and self-employed individuals to have more time to focus on their business.
Unbanked can leverage Coconut, a smart bookkeeping and tax app for freelancers, to avoid last-minute tax rush and smoothly run their business without having to go after traditional banks who provide limited financial services to unbanked and underbanked people.
To Sum Up
Many innovative FinTech startups offer solutions that make it easier for people to access the financial services they need. The fact that so many people remain unbanked or underbanked is due in large part to a lack of access to traditional brick-and-mortar banks, as well as high costs associated with other banking options. Fortunately, many innovative FinTech startups offer solutions that make it easier for people to access financial services.
If you are wondering more about Fintech companies, SOL gathered the top Fintech companies you should watch out for.
