Open Banking specialist fintech, Frollo, has unveiled a new one-stop-shop portal offering dedicated content and guidance for mutual banks in adopting Open Banking protocols and innovations.

The portal, Building the Bank of the Future, offers a range of content options, including case studies, video interviews with select senior leaders from the mutual banking and tier-two banking sectors (including with representatives from AMP, P&N Bank, and Beyond Bank), details on an upcoming Frollo-hosted webinar series, and consumer research into mutual customer behaviours.

It also includes easy access to existing tools and checklists for Accredited Data Recipients (ADRs), as well as Frollo’s recently launched Financial Passport service, a single customer view of an individual’s finances.

The portal complements Frollo’s recently released The State of Open Banking 2023 report, which provides research, interviews and case studies on the current state of the Consumer Data Right (CDR) scheme in Australia.

Frollo’s chief customer officer Simon Docherty acknowledged the unique opportunities available to mutuals that pursue early adoption of CDR scheme innovations.

“Mutuals are by their design customer-first, and by their nature innovators. That’s why open data can be a game-changer for mutual banks looking to leverage technology, improve the digital customer journey, deliver efficiencies, and create more engaging products and services.”

He added: “Open Banking brings for the first time the opportunity for mutuals to see their members’ full financial life. That’s an opportunity for them to engage in a very different way with members.”

For instance, he said, being able to have a full view of competitors’ product offerings – like a HISA or home loans – allows mutual banks to customise their own product offerings to meet customers’ needs at any moment in time.

“It’s being able to be with the customer and where they are in their financial journey and offer them the right product at the right time for where they are across their whole financial life. It also has the benefit for mutuals and the opportunity to create products that speak directly to members for financial needs.”

“All of a sudden you have visibility over that and as a mutual bank you’re able to craft products that are going to be important to your members and deliver them for them and hopefully get them to use more of your product set.”

Docherty also flagged two major pain points for mutuals: the high bar for meeting data holder obligations, and, secondly, the ability to deliver solutions with core banking partners.

“Most mutuals have had a fair intensive time, both financially and resource-wise, to get their data holder obligations out into market and to continue to meet those [CDR obligations]. For want of a better term, there’s some PTSD with mutuals in having got to that point.”

He added that mutuals also often struggle to find the “flexibility… to deliver solutions that are able to work with some of the restrictions [of]… their core bank partner”.

Frollo chief executive Tony Thrassis stressed, with the current state of play in CDR, mutuals “can start building the bank of the future centred around data and customer experience”.

“We are committed to helping mutuals continue to make a positive impact on the industry. We hope this content series will continue to assist mutual banks grow as an essential customer-focused part of the banking sector.”

Frollo has worked closely with the mutual sector since the launch of the CDR in mid-2020, developing use cases with P&N Bank, BCU Bank and Beyond Bank.