The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price is under scrutiny this morning after announcing its new money and lifestyle app ‘Money by Afterpay’.
Money by Afterpay
The buy now, pay later business announced some details about its new money and lifestyle app ‘Money by Afterpay’ which will begin its rollout today with an Australian staff pilot.
Employees will test the experience in July and a series of features will be included in the weeks leading up to launch;
This is the start of Afterpay’s collaboration with Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) ten months after it was launched. Afterpay is targeting a full Australian consumer launch in October 2021.
Customers will be able to make it their primary money management app. It will display things like their buy now, pay later balance, upcoming orders and instalments alongside their daily spending account and savings accounts. The goal is to give customers a single, seamless view of their finances.
Afterpay says it wants to help customers build financial confidence, starting with a real focus on savings.
Savings accounts
Customers can open up to 15 different savings accounts that will offer an interest rate of 1% per annum. Being able to have so many accounts relates to saving for different goals, large or small.
Fees
The money app offers one daily account with a physical debit card, digital wallet offerings and the ability to make and receive real time fees.
Management comments
Afterpay Co-CEOs Anthony Eisen and Nick Molnar said: “Money will broaden our relationship with our loyal customers and also attract a new group that’s looking to streamline how they manage their finances within the debt economy, further cementing our commitment to supporting responsible spending.
“To bring a money app to life in ten months demonstrates that we can quickly move at pace to get well ahead of customer expectations and bring both cutting-edge features and true ‘surprise and delight’ to the experience.”
Summary thoughts on Afterpay and the share price
Despite the broader market being down today, Afterpay shares are up more than 1%. This seems like a natural extension of the business – the more of a customer’s finances it can offer/be involved with, the more likely those customers are going to stay in the Afterpay ecosystem (and keep buying products and services).
Seems like a smart move, but I’m not sure how important it is when thinking about earnings and the share price. There are other ASX growth shares I’d rather look at first.
