Why Partnerships Are The Right Path for Banks and FinTech

Max members can now use our streamlined account-opening process to open a UFB Direct account in less than two minutes without trial deposits.

This will be the year that banks and fintech companies work together to solve customers’ problems in new ways, industry-watchers predict.

“In 2017, there will be a widening of the gulf between banks that are building meaningful partnerships with FinTech firms and those that think that they are because they have a couple of tech vendors and a procurement department,” JP Nicols, managing director of Fintech Forge and chairman of Next Money U.S, told bank innovation consultant Jim Marous. Financial-industry conferences, including the recent LendIt conference in New York City, have echoed with the same sentiment over the past few months: the banks that successfully tie up with fintech companies will pull ahead of those who don’t.

At Max, we’re proud to be part of this trend. Today, we announced a partnership with BofI Federal Bank, one of the pioneers of online banking, to add their UFB Direct brand to the Max platform.

Through a direct API integration and our patent-pending approach to account opening and linking, we’ve made it possible for clients to open new online savings accounts in less than two minutes, without the need for clients to leave the Max website or complete a cumbersome trial-deposit verification process. UFB Direct is also offering a preferred rate to Max members, who tend to hold balances that are many times larger than typical online bank customers.

Why would a bank partner with Max? Because this integration allows BofI to streamline customer acquisition without the need to spend money on advertising or referral fees, which in turn means they can operate more efficiently than their peers while delivering even higher yields to depositors. UFB Direct will get new customers — Max members — who are savvy about maintaining full FDIC insurance coverage and earning more interest on their cash, and who understand the benefits of online banking.

With the UFB partnership, all Max members will have the ability to link an additional online bank to their Max accounts, increasing the amount of FDIC coverage they can receive.

We believe this partnership represents a true win-win-win opportunity for BofI, for Max, and for our members — and is illustrative of the type of bank-FinTech partnership of which we expect to see more in 2017.

Learn more about Max and how it helps individuals earn more on their cash, FDIC-insured at MaxMyInterest.com.

Or find out how Max helps financial advisors and their clients to optimize cash by visiting MaxForAdvisors.com.

Banks seeking more information about the potential to partner with Max can contact us at info@maxmyinterest.com.