Bud launches in Australia after securing ACCC accreditation

London-headquartered Open Banking fintech Bud has announced its launch in Australia after receiving accreditation from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The company has gained accreditation as an Unrestricted Accredited Data Recipient under the Consumer Data Right (CDR) meaning that it can now offer a range of Open Banking services using the new financial APIs.

Ed Maslaveckas, CEO of Bud

Ed Maslaveckas, CEO of Bud, said: “Affordability checks are cumbersome for borrowers and inefficient for lenders. The CDR brings with it a huge opportunity to address that using intelligent financial data.”

Maslaveckas noted that the fintech had been working on solutions in this area with tier 1 banks in the UK, Europe and New Zealand, stating “it will be a big focus for us in Australia”.

Bud has already been working with ANZ in New Zealand on providing more automated affordability checks over the past year. Today, the bank is processing the majority of all consumer lending using the Bud tool.

In a company blog post, Maslaveckas wrote: “When we started Bud, we did it because we believed that it should be easier for everyone, everywhere to be good with money. Open Banking in the UK gave us the opportunity to take huge steps forward towards that goal and the Consumer Data Right in Australia offers that same opportunity. So we’re taking it.”

For Bud’s global customers, this means they can now be supported in the Australian market. For Australian businesses looking to build new services using financial data, it means the fintech can help turn unstructured financial data into powerful customer insights to solve their bug bearers.

Bud’s product suite is designed to help both financial and non-financial organisations transform key business processes with transaction data. Its core platform provides access to, and insights derived from, financial data, whilst a set of configurable solutions help clients get their services to market at speed.