Back in the day, incumbent banks didn’t have much competition when it came to providing financial counseling and mortgages. But times have changed, and now banks are required to open their API doors to third-party providers and welcome these new players into their coveted world of financial data.
One of these players is Pengeprofilen: A digital dashboard that provides customers with a personal financial overview in order to offer loans and other monetary deals that can help improve their overall financial situation.
We recently sat down with Michael Bak, CEO of Pengeprofilen, to discuss how the post-PSD2 era is going to change the way we do banking and how Pengeprofilen is adapting to these new changes.
Automation is the answer, no matter the question
When Pengeprofilen was founded back in 2016, the goal was to provide their customers with the best offers on loans, insurances and other fixed expenses, regardless of their bank. All they needed from their customers was their financial information, such as income and fixed expenses.
Up until this point, the process has been conducted the old-fashioned, manual way. But with access to real-time bank data from all Nordic banks, Pengeprofilen is now automatically able to provide its customers with a full financial overview, if they give their explicit consent:
“Until now, our customers have been asked to type in all of their financial information manually in order for us to present a budget and provide offers that will improve their financial situation,” Bak explains. He continues:
“Luckily, that’s finally over. With Nordic API Gateway, we’re automatically able to retrieve bank data and give our customers an accurate financial overview in a matter of just 30 seconds. That has definitely changed our product from good to great.”
Now, Pengeprofilen has also developed its own mortgage loan calculator that enables them to convert mortgage loans.
Owning the customer relationship
There’s no doubt that the future of banking will focus much more on building products with the customer’s needs and wants in mind. But how is that going to happen? 
According to Bak, it’s all about owning the customer relationship:
“Face-to-face banking interactions are plummeting and digital services are taking their place. If we think about it, we only need personal financial advice every seven or eight years, when we’re buying a house, for instance. Otherwise, we can manage our finances digitally,” he explains, concluding:
“Because your financial data is no longer tied to your bank, you can choose from any financial service available out here. That’s why it’s all about owning the customer relationship - by offering convenient, personalised and user-friendly products that are more appealing than the other fintech players out there”.
Are you ready to take advantage of the new PSD2 opportunities? Get started with Nordic API Gateway today.