MasterCard has become the latest financial company to look at integrating digital budgeting tools with financial products in an effort to appeal to the millennial market.
The payments company today announced it is launching a new service called Assemble, which it calls a “prepaid innovation hub” designed to allow Mastercard partners or issuers to provide checking, budgeting, and payment features, as well as additional money management tools.
Issuers and partners can choose to deploy a white label version of the solution or to integrate specific functions into their current user interfaces through application programming interfaces, the company said. According to MasterCard, the first product available from Assemble is geared toward millennials, offering them a way to manage money through a digital prepaid account, a mobile app and a payment card.
“Prepaid is much more than just a way to safely store and use funds; it is a foundation to create new possibilities for consumers,” said Tom Cronin, Mastercard's senior vice president of global prepaid product development, in a press release. “This technology enables our partners to deliver best-in-class digital experiences today, as we work to address additional segments such as gig economy workers and underserved consumers and micro businesses.”
The move comes at a time when financial institutions are increasingly looking to integrate budgeting tools into financial products specifically as a way to court millennials.
JPMorgan Chase last month launched its millennial-targeted
It’s not just banks; some fintechs too have launched bank accounts tied to a value-added service they already offer, such a micro investing and money management. One recent example is Stash Invest, a microinvestor
