Tide to open platform to non-account holders

This will allow small businesses to save time and money on their financial admin, by using the full range of finance and admin products available on the Tide platform, without opening a Tide business account. The Tide platform will be gradually opened to offer access to more and more products over time. 

Increasing competition in the business banking market has been a priority for government and regulators for a number of years. While with the help of the RBS Alternative Remedies Fund good progress has been made in introducing competition in the new business segment, doing the same for established businesses has been more challenging. Surveys regularly report that around 13% of businesses look to switch banks within 12 months, yet in practice only an estimated 4% actually switch per annum. Only 4% are estimated to have accounts at different providers.

This gap between intention and action is explained by the high demand business owners have on their time and the complexity of informing business partners of new bank details. Tide’s Open Access move is sponsored by the RBS Alternative Remedies Fund Pool E. Tide targets serving 100,000 businesses with third party bank accounts by end 2022.  

Tide will give business owners the opportunity to connect their third-party business bank account to Tide to access Tide Cashflow Insights, a product that predicts a business’s future cash flow, using data from their business bank account. Tide will scale its Open Access offering, giving businesses with third party bank accounts the ability to connect to Tide and use products ranging from invoicing to expense management, payroll, and credit services, the official press release concludes.