New analysis from leading online pension provider, PensionBee, reveals that over a third (35%) of new customers made in-app pension contributions via ‘easy bank transfer’, between 1 February and 30 April 2022.
Utilising Open Banking technology, which allows customers to share their data securely between financial institutions, PensionBee’s ‘easy bank transfer’ facilitates a quicker, easier, safer, and more convenient way to make pension contributions. Instead of having to manually type in bank details directly, customers are redirected to their chosen bank account to confirm or reject a payment request, eliminating the likelihood of human error.
In the three months since the feature’s launch in PensionBee’s app, ‘easy bank transfer’ is now almost as popular as Direct Debit, which was used by 39% of new customers when making pension contributions over the same period. In comparison, standing orders or bank transfer methods lagged behind, with just over a quarter (26%) of new customers opting for this method of contribution during the same period.
PensionBee became the first pension provider to utilise Open Banking back in 2018, enabling customers to see their complete financial position, with their live pension balance displayed alongside their live current account balance in some of the UK’s most popular money management apps, such as Starling Bank and Snoop.
Jonathan Lister Parsons, Chief Technology Officer of PensionBee, commented: “Open Banking is changing the way we manage our finances, making it easier to transact personal finances and build products that are much more accessible to many more people. For too long consumers have put up with contributing into a pension being much more difficult than it should be, due to slow and outdated payment methods.
At PensionBee, we’re proud to have been early adopters of Open Banking and by utilising technological advances such as these, we hope to make saving for the future as simple as possible, helping our customers achieve full financial freedom so they can enjoy a happy retirement.”
Appendix
Table 1: Proportion of customers using various payment methods to contribute to their pension
| Standing Order or Bank Transfer | Easy bank transfer | Direct Debit |
|---|---|---|
| 26% | 35% | 39% |
Source: PensionBee, 2,392 payments made by new customers from 1 February 2022 to 30 April 2022.
