New app will allow UK banking customers to see all of their accounts in one place

BANKING customers will soon be able to see their accounts from different providers in one place, making it easier for them to manage their money.

HSBC is trialling a new app with 10,000 customers from the end of October, ahead of a general UK release to its customers in early 2018.

It said the move, which will give people a “joined-up view of their financial life”, is a first for a major UK bank.

Customers will be able to see all of their accounts on one screen, no matter who they bank with, HSBC said.

People will be able to add accounts from up to 21 different banks including Santander, Lloyds and Barclays.

This will allow users to see not only their current account but loans, mortgages and savings, too, if they are visible via online banking services.

HSBC said the new app builds on a previous trial of an app, which saw customers save £126 on average over two months.

New features will be added over the next few months to help people take more control over their spending, borrowing and saving.

The features will allow people to see how much disposable money – or “safe balance” they have before the next payday, as well as analysing spending patterns and helping people to become more savvy about spending and saving.

The features will also include savings goals and allow people to save bit by bit as they spend, by rounding up amounts when they spend and sending the extra amounts into a savings account.

The initiative is part of wider industry moves towards “open banking”.

In 2016, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) put forward a package of measures with the aim of putting more power in the hands of banking customers, including open banking, which uses advances in technology to enable customers to manage money with multiple providers in one place.

The CMA previously said app developers would come up with different ways in which customers will be able to make the most of this technology.

Becky Moffat, HSBC’s head of personal banking and advance said the beta app will give customers “a complete and joined-up view of their financial life”.

She said: “As one of the UK’s biggest retail banks, it’s our job to understand our customers’ ever-changing relationship with their money and their financial needs.

“Customers now bank at home, on the bus, at work and even in bed, but managing money is still too often a complex and complicated task.

“We want to provide customers with greater control and make their lives easier.”