ANZ-backed Bud launches Down Under

The open banking fintech has received accreditation from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to provide services in Australia.

Open banking provider Bud has launched its services in Australia following its new accreditation as an ‘unrestricted accredited data recipient’ by the ACCC under the country’s Consumer Data Right (CDR) legislation.

Bud received funding from ANZ (among other investors) in a $20m series A funding round in 2019, and the bank went on to partner with the fintech in early 2021 to secure open banking technology for its loan approvals. 

Today, the bank processes most of its consumer lending in New Zealand using Bud's tools. The fintech is also active in the UK and Europe.

“Affordability checks are cumbersome for borrowers and inefficient for lenders,” said Bud CEO, Ed Maslaveckas.

“The CDR brings with it a huge opportunity to address that using intelligent financial data. We’ve already worked with tier one banks here in the UK, in Europe and in New Zealand on solutions in this space and it will be a big focus for us in Australia.”

Open banking was launched in Australia around two years ago and is enabled by the CDR that allows API-first consumer data sharing between banks and accredited fintechs, with permission from consumers. Since its launch, uptake among banks and customers has been impressive.

“Open Banking data has the potential to revolutionize the way that lending works,” continued Maslaveckas. “In every case where we’ve deployed an affordability solution, we’ve seen clients able to accept more lending applications without increasing risk appetite, and we’ve done this whilst saving the client an average of around an hour of processing time per application. […] The result is fairer access to credit and less hassle on both sides.”

Founded in 2015, Bud provides institutional clients – across fintech, retail banking, wealth management, and buy-now-pay-later—with opening banking access, and data and analytics intelligence using its proprietary AI platform. The firm also uses its platform to help distribute third party products and host payments capabilities, as well as devising solutions to help clients bring their services to market at speed.

The company says it can help clients tackle problems from building auto-switching services for individuals over-paying on utility bills, to helping facilitate credit access for people with thin credit files.