British bank NatWest has announced it has begun trials of Mimo, a personal finance app that uses open banking APIs, artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics to provide customers financial insights.
Mimo, which stands for ‘money in, money out’, aims to help customers budget, send reminders of financial tasks they need to do and provide proactive and personal insights into their money
Chief Digital Officer for NatWest, Frans Woelders said: “We know that customers want to keep better track of their money, but find it hard to find the time or the motivation to manage the admin around that, so we’ve developed Mimo to make it easy, simple, and as straightforward as possible to keep on top of their finances.”
According to NatWest, research and customer feedback has shown that customers lack the time or motivation to manage their life admin, resulting in them forgetting important tasks such as paying their credit card bill, thus incurring unnecessary charges, or missing opportunities to save money.
Mimo Lead, Calvin O’Brien commented: “Our aim for Mimo is that it will help customers have a better overview of their financial life and help them achieve their financial goals from the ease of their own phone. It’s important that the app reflects customers’ needs to be as useful as possible.”
The app has been designed to help make customers financial lives easier by using open banking APIs, AI and data analytics to help customers manage their money, for example by looking at their bills or day-to-day spending, as well as insurance, subscriptions and utilities.
O’Brien continued: “We’ve already trialled Mimo with 50 colleagues, so I hope that by extending the trial our customers will tell us what they think of it, and where we can improve it.”
The latest version of the app is currently being trialled with a select number of customers and colleagues, who will then provide feedback to help optimise Mimo before it’s planned roll out later on this year.
