Up tackles split bill stigma to lift growth

Digital bank Up is on a mission to make banking more social for Gen Z and help the 60 per cent of young people who find it more awkward to talk about money than politics or sex.

Neo bank Up has rolled out new functions to engage its audience

Neo bank Up is hoping to engage new customers and drive growth by removing the stigma and awkwardness of splitting bills and owing friends money.

The digital bank has launched an in-app feature Groups, which it hopes will assist the 60 per cent of young Australians who find it more awkward to talk about money than to do so about politics or sex.

The new Groups feature will enable Up’s predominantly Gen Z and millennial customers to split bills and divide shared costs within their banking app, complete with chat, notifications, emojis and gifs.

The move is the result of brand research that had revealed some 86 per cent of young Aussies had had fallouts with friends over money.

Another 87 per cent said they wanted a simpler, more social way to manage shared costs.

The feature is part of a broader strategy by the brand to transform banking into a more social activity and encourage consumers to spend more time within its app, according to Up head of growth Sebastian Neylan.

“We’re trying to meet our consumers where they are and provide authentic and natural utilities to make life easier,” he said.

The feature aims to bring together the “banter and chat and the real-life interaction that happens in WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, with your bank where your money actually lives.

“We wanted to bring that all together in a really seamless way through Groups.”

To promote the new feature, Up is partnering with Broadsheet to bring the feature to life around social activity such as travel, entertainment and dining content.

The brand will also run paid advertising and marketing activity across traditional media channels.

Up has also created a bespoke vending machine, which will be located in Melbourne’s Emporium shopping centre and will dispense branded T-shirts designed by creators and artists in collaboration with the brand.

Mr Neylan said the move aimed to provide a natural way to drive new customer sign-up by ­referrals from friends, while also adhering to the brand’s focus on redefining the banking experience for young people by breaking down traditional banking attitudes and further pushing of boundaries.

“We’re continuing to lean into and shake up the sector, by being interesting, and really meeting young Aussies where they are and on their phones,” Mr Neylan said.

“We hit that milestone of a million customers in November last year and we have shown that we have the scale now to be a challenger to the big four.

“So we want to build on that and to continue to shake up the sector, continue to explore the new and innovative ways that we can add value to our customers’ lives.”

Up is one of several digital banks that are benefiting from a change in consumer attitudes towards banking.

Research from Roy Morgan revealed digital banks increased their share of the main financial institution market from 0.3 per cent in 2023 to 2 per cent in 2024, driven by consumers aged under 40.

Earlier this year, former Western Australia-focused bank BankWest relaunched as a digital bank, rolling out a national campaign in a bid to attract one million customers to its services.