Eric Wilson

Xinja Bank has been granted a full banking licence, and opened bank accounts to early customers: the first transaction accounts from an independent, 100% Australian neobank.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) said it has granted Xinja its full banking licence. Xinja Bank is 100% digital and designed for mobile. It plans to shake up Australia’s old-style bank sector.

“It’s enormously exciting that Australians have a new, independent bank,” said Chief Executive and Founder, Eric Wilson. “It’s time Australia’s very old banking model was disrupted.

“We are 100% digital, and we want people to have a real alternative to the incumbent banks. We want to give customers a real choice to be able to be with a bank that looks after them.

“From today, we’re rolling out bank accounts to customers.”

Xinja Bank has launched transaction accounts – which are accessed solely via the new Xinja app and come with a Xinja Debit Mastercard® – and will soon launch ‘Stash’, or savings accounts. It plans to add lending products in the first quarter of 2020, “as well as some other fun, ‘unbanky’ surprises,” Mr Wilson said.

It has had customers on board and products in the marketplace since 2018. It has distributed more than 12,000 prepaid cards, which are in use on average in 17 countries per day, and over 28,000 people have already signed up for Xinja. Existing prepaid card customers and those already on the waitlist will be the first to get access to Xinja’s new bank accounts.

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