(25 March 2010 – USA) banksimple has announced plans to launch later this year, using existing financial providers’ processes as its platform.The US bank startup, who is currently raising funds, has said on its website that the original plan to start a new bank from scratch will be a lengthy process and too expensive, therefore impossible to innovate with an imposed three year launch delay.
Instead the project, led by the New York-based founder of i2pi and data specialist Josh Reich, will launch later this year using processes from existing financial providers and white labelled technology. The existing financial providers will hold the deposits for banksimple customers in insured accounts.
The project is said to include a team of ‘technologists, former banking consultants and user experience people’.
The technology is nearly ready, the partners are lined up and banksimple is now in the process of raising funds to get everything in place for a launch later this year, the bank said.
The best way to serve customers needs is to launch quickly and to adapt the offerings to meet clients individual needs. Modern technology lets banksimple do that. To achieve this, the bank is planning to launch with a special corporate structure, the website stated.
By taking this structure, it enables banksimple to get to market faster and to benefit from some fantastic technology. banksimple has been working with its partners, who have not been named, to bring the speed of technology innovation to the staid world of banking, said banksimple.