A current account that auto-invests your cash? 🤔

Fintech ideation time

Thoughts on this would be epic :pray:
If you like it, I’ll build it.

A current account that automatically invests 100% of your balance in a low risk fund (~5%pa) and automatically & instantly disinvests whenever you spend via your account’s debit card :credit_card:.
So basically, your cash is always invested/growing :crossed_fingers:

I have cash sitting in my current account that should be getting invested, and growing :chart_with_upwards_trend:. It’s 2021 ffs.

Before you say, ‘use Freetrade!’… I love and use Freetrade, but I cba to workout how much cash to move every month and then pick stocks/funds, and then disinvest when I need cash back. Urgh :nauseated_face: . Freetrade is for more considered investing - I also want something for my cash.

Shred it. Or love it.
Give me your thoughts :thought_balloon:

P.s. tech stack worked out. All viable. Line of credit similar to an overdraft facility can handle delay between debit/spend and fund disinvestment so that payments can be instant.

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I will start by saying not only do I get the idea but I also like it at a high level.

However, my experience in my job leads me to think the biggest problem would be regulatory. You would perhaps struggle to comply with FSCS scheme rules in particular for maintaining a Single Customer View file in a timely fashion.

Additionally the firm would need to meet such large capital requirements for both investment and operating a payment account. There are ways around the latter with certain types of clearing account providers which hold capital at the Bank of England and do not invest this themselves.

The line of credit is a good idea, but only really to de-risk interchange fees for card payments. Each account holder would need to be issued a line of credit up to their total investment if you really wanted to allow someone to spend all they have.

E.g. imagine I had £3,000 invested and I went and bought a holiday for £2,500 - there would need to be sufficient credit to de-risk that amount while it is cleared but the firm can allow the debit card payment to instantly be authorised.

£2,500 isn’t such a massive problem, but imagine if you wanted to allow people free access to all their cash. On average each year I save £22,000 - I would need a line of credit to match which would then present problems with my access to other credit or even a mortgage potentially.

A more minor issue, would be if there was a difference / fluctuation in the sell price in the short time between authorising and selling. Who pays the difference? This is relatively minor as firms such as Mastercard require strict authorisation timing, such as a sub 600 millisecond response for authorisation in some cases.

I think a good option would also to only allow Apple Pay or PIN payments. Otherwise how to you prove confirmation of instruction to sell? If someone stole my card and spend via contactless, I could say I didn’t authorise these and now I have lost money on an investment that dropped in price. Who pays?

I know it’s just an idea currently and appreciate you may not be serious about taking it forward, but if you ever get capital for investment, I’m interested in helping resolve all of the above :wink:

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PS: Welcome back to the forum! :raised_hands:

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I don’t think it’s a full current account but I think Wise do something similar to that

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You legend.
This is good stuff.
Thoughts on Single Customer View file especially interesting. Hadn’t considered that.

Believe we’d be able to handle the capital requirements for a while via partner trading platforms but this is one of many areas that needs exploration.

May get back to you in the future!

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I completely didn’t think of partner capital into the mix so good point. :ok_hand:

What if you could analyse someone’s spending patterns and try to dynamically drop money in and out, like Chip for savings but in reverse?

I would love to talk to you about another idea I have and get your thoughts. I’ll DM you when I’ve actually woken up properly and explain it and see what you think.

If need anyone to chim in with needless GIF’s I’m your man

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How much equity do you ask for doing so? :joy:

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So used to seeing your mug with the pink FT background I nearly replied to this post with “Sorry buddy we already have our own resident GIF master :rofl:

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Meanwhile @Big-g Gary you’ve got rid of your rainbow if I am correct?

Just for @NeilB I have added a Finn to my profile pic for a celebration of Finnish stock :+1: My Rainbow Tomorrowlands one will be back later. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I demand equity based on quantity and spiciness if the GIF, I’m sure we can write a smart contact as I will only accept S***coins as payment.

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