Westpac adds marketplace lender SocietyOne to banking-as-a-service platform

Under the agreement, Westpac’s digital banking services will be available to SocietyOne's 75,000 customers in the second half of 2021.

Reinventure, Westpac’s venture capital partnership, has been an investor in SocietyOne since February 2014.

Westpac's BaaS platform uses cloud-native technology from 10x Future Technologies and allows the bank to deepen its relationship with fintech partners as they tap into traditional banking services for the roll out of new products for their users. SocietyOne says it will launch its first transaction account on the back of the arrangement later this year.

BNPL player Afterpay was the first fintech to connect to the Westpac platform in October last year.

Westpac’s general manager, corporate and business sevelopment, Macgregor Duncan, says the agreement with SocietyOne offers a long-term growth opportunity for Westpac, allowing it to reach new customers through a low-cost operating and distribution model, grow valuable deposit balances and, over time, expand its offer to lending and data services.

“We recognise that Australians are looking for new and different ways to do their banking and by partnering with established brands and leveraging our combined data resources, we can provide better, more personal experiences for customers,” he says. "SocietyOne is an established digital brand with a strong referral network which generates over 80,000 unique monthly website visits. We see an opportunity to work with SocietyOne to broaden its appeal to Australians through innovative and integrated banking and lending services."