Up Bank sold for $116m: What this means for customers
Bendigo Bank has bought digital bank Up, but there's no immediate impact on Up's 400,000 customers at this stage.
Up Bank was one of the first digital banks to launch in Australia back in late 2018, and now has more than 400,000 customers. Fast forward almost 3 years and Up has just announced it's being bought by Bendigo Bank in a $116 million deal.
If you're one of Up's customers you're probably eager to know what impact this will have on you. The answer? Not much of an impact at all, at least initially.
What will happen to my Up account?
If you've got an Up Everyday Account with a linked Saver account, this will remain unchanged according to the statement from Up. "Up will continue to operate as the same brand, run by the same people, with the same customer proposition, and Up customers will continue to have the same access to their account as they do today."
Up initially launched as a partnership between technology company Ferocia and Bendigo Bank. Under the new sale, Bendigo says it intends to keep the Up brand in place under its suite of digital financial product offerings.
This arrangement is quite common. For example, UBank is the digital bank offering by NAB, and neobank 86 400 has also recently been bought by NAB.
Is my money with Up safe?
Your money in an Up account is safe, and there's no need to move your money into another account as the acquisition takes place.
Up has already been operating under Bendigo Bank's banking licence this whole time and has been supported by it's core infrastructure. This means that Up was able to launch to the market quickly, as it didn't need to apply for its own banking licence with regulators and instead focused its efforts on launching a unique digital banking app and product.
Because Up is operating under Bendigo Bank's licence, deposits in an Up account up to $250,000 are covered under the Australian government's bank deposit scheme. This means that if anything were to happen to Up (or Bendigo Bank, for that matter) your deposit up to this value would be guaranteed.
If you haven't looked at your savings account in a while, you might be missing out on a better rate. You can compare high interest savings accounts and bank accounts with Finder.