Neo bank Up looks to the future as it nears one million customers

Up, the digital bank for millennials and Gen Z, aims to engage more customers as it reaches the one million customer milestone.

Anson Parker is the chief product officer of digital bank Up

Up, the Gen Z-focused digital bank, is poised to hit one million customers next month, as its laid-back authentic service continues to engage young customers.

The neo bank, owned by Bendigo Bank and Adelaide Bank, has continued to build on its strong growth trajectory after reaching 920,000 customers in June and reporting 29 per cent growth for the year ending June 2024.

The six-year-old bank attributes its growth to its entrepreneurial roots and lack of financial services background. “It’s our unfair advantage,” Up chief product officer Anson Parker said.

“We don’t have any bankers in our building, so we can’t help but be empathetic to the customer experience. We’re not a bunch of bankers trying to think like the customer and claim that the customer is at the centre of everything. We’re actually coming at it as customers that have been a bit frustrated by the banking app not being as good as the social media app and the other apps, and saying, how do we fix this?”

Mr Parker said the brand benefited from not having legacy systems that needed to be digitised and customers that needed to upskilled to use its systems.

“We had this incredible device in the smartphone that we could just start from,” he said. “We didn’t have to support legacy web browsers and phone banking, we could truly just leap straight into the future ... without having to drag millions of customers across.”

The neo bank has embedded this entrepreneurial approach within the brand’s DNA and it is evident across every brand touchpoint, from the name, logo and tone of voice to its suite of products and services, such as the home deposit saver, the slice feature for splitting bills and payments, and the timed locks on accounts, which customers can apply to stop them spending at certain times of day or night.

The brand’s customer base, which is 50 per cent Gen Z and 35 per cent millennials, is also significantly driven by word-of-mouth which accounts for 80 per cent of new customer sign-ups.

“We have a different kind of relationship with our customers, you join up and you become an Upsider and you have a relationship with us, you’re not a holder of products,” Mr Parker said. “And that sort of more banking sense, we have products and channels. And how do I sell this product over these channels and from the very beginning we’ve had this sort of authenticity and transparency with our customers.”

Mr Parker said Up’s biggest differentiator from the big four banks was its approach to its products, which it views as experiences.

“One of the key differences ... is that you log on to a bank and it’s about which products you want to use,” he said. “We have all sorts of different experiences that are powered by our products. Whether that is splitting bills in your share house or saving up to go travelling with friends, you’re not thinking about multi-signatory transaction accounts when you want to solve those problems.”

The brand wants to ensure it can maintain relevance to its target audience as it continues to grow, while also elevating its voice in the market. Up currently invests in sponsorships (including a host of music-related events), PR and social media, however it plans to also embrace more “traditional” channels such as TV, BVOD and out-of-home in “different and interesting ways” to help further accelerate its growth.