Connect with us

Featured

The French company Lydia teams up with the Swedish open banking specialist Tink

The FinTech company Lydia has recently entered into a partnership with Tink, the Swedish open banking specialist. The aim of Lydia is to become a so-called “meta-banking” application that allows to access and manage from a single interface all its accounts and various banking services. To be remunerated, Lydia charges a commission of 1.9% of the amount collected on each transaction.

Published

on

The “open banking revolution” continues to whet the appetite of FinTech players. Among the latter, Sweden’s Tink and France’s Lydia have been particularly active since the beginning of the year. 

Tink, which allows banks and FinTech companies to enrich their financial services offer more quickly, has thus completed a $106.3 million (€90 million) financing round in January, which notably allowed it to acquire the Spanish company Eurobits Technologies, specialized in account aggregation. At the same time, Lydia raised $47.3 million (€40 million) in January as part of a financing round led by Chinese giant Tencent.

To accelerate its development on a European scale, Lydia has just entered into a partnership with Tink to benefit from its open banking platform and thus add new financial services for its users.

“Initially, Tink’s account aggregation and payment initiation services will be integrated into the application, with the following objectives: improve the way users connect their bank accounts to Lydia, manage transfer beneficiaries (retrieve beneficiaries from their banks, add new beneficiaries from Lydia), and initiate payments, all without leaving the application,” indicated Lydia.

Read more details about the agreement between the French fintech company Lydia and the company Tink from Sweden with the Born2Invest mobile app. Download our companion app for free, and find the latest business news in the world.

One more step to become a “meta-banking” application

Launched in 2013 by Antoine Porte and Cyril Chiche, the Lydia application has been popularized by its refund functionality between individuals. The Paris-based startup has since extended its scope by allowing users to group their bank accounts on a single application, make bank transfers, create online jackpot, schedule recurring payments or pay with their smartphone. 

To be remunerated, Lydia charges a commission of 1.9% of the amount collected on each transaction from merchants who accept payments via the application. At the beginning of 2018, the application also launched Lydia Premium, a paid offer (with no commission charged) that allows users to benefit from virtual cards for online payments and to have a Mastercard card that replaces all other bank cards.

To date, Lydia claims nearly 4 million users. And if the name of its application is now well anchored in current language, the company wants to go far beyond the simple exchange of money between friends to become a so-called “meta-banking” application that allows to access and manage from a single interface all its accounts and various banking services. An ambition made possible by the democratization of open banking, accelerated by the second European directive on payment services (DSP2).

The directive, which came into force in January 2018, aims to modernize payment services by obliging banks to make their customers’ data accessible via APIs, subject to their consent, to third-party companies such as Lydia. In addition to simplifying data sharing between the various players in the banking sector, open banking will enable consumers to build an ecosystem of à la carte services, perfectly adapted to their needs. And Lydia intends to become the platform centralizing all these services, with the help of Tink.

__

(Featured image by Andrea Piacquadio via Pixabay)

DISCLAIMER: This article was written by a third party contributor and does not reflect the opinion of Born2Invest, its management, staff or its associates. Please review our disclaimer for more information.

This article may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “estimate,” “become,” “plan,” “will,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks as well as uncertainties, including those discussed in the following cautionary statements and elsewhere in this article and on this site. Although the Company may believe that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, the actual results that the Company may achieve may differ materially from any forward-looking statements, which reflect the opinions of the management of the Company only as of the date hereof. Additionally, please make sure to read these important disclosures.

First published in FRENCHWEB.FR, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

Although we made reasonable efforts to provide accurate translations, some parts may be incorrect. Born2Invest assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions or ambiguities in the translations provided on this website. Any person or entity relying on translated content does so at their own risk. Born2Invest is not responsible for losses caused by such reliance on the accuracy or reliability of translated information. If you wish to report an error or inaccuracy in the translation, we encourage you to contact us.

Sharon Harris is a feminist and a part-time nomad. She reports about businesses primarily involved in tech, CBD, and crypto. She started her career as a product manager at a Silicon Valley startup but now enjoys a new life as a personal finance geek and writer. Her primary aim is to provide readers with a new perspective on the overlapping world of finance and technology.