In an increasingly digital financial landscape, it’s not surprising that customers are expecting better self-service capabilities from their banks. They want to be able to answer their own questions, understand their finances at a glance and better manage their money – especially after a year of economic uncertainty. Experian’s recent Global Insights Report highlighted that Australian consumers are conducting more personal banking activities online than pre-COVID-19 times, and more than half now have higher expectations about customer experiences delivered online.

Transactional data on bank statements is often unrecognisable, with merchant names or locations seemingly incorrect meaning there is no easy way for customers to know what they purchased. With over 1 million card-accepting merchants in Australia, 60,000 new merchants each year and hundreds of millions of ways that transactions can appear on a statement, cleaning up this data is a complex challenge.

It was a challenge Data Action (DA) – the leading tech provider for Australia’s mutual banks – saw as imperative to address on their journey of building a more holistic Personal Financial Management (PFM) solution. So, they decided to partner with a cutting-edge provider who could help solve the problem.

In collaboration with their major banking clients, DA partnered with Look Who’s Charging, an Experian Group company, to change the way transactional data appears on their clients’ digital banking applications.

Now, consumers can click on unfamiliar transactions to access more meaningful information – including a trading name, location and category of purchase.
The solution has been live for almost 12 months and marks a key step in DA’s roadmap to delivering more holistic PFM capabilities. This long-term goal was the core driver, but the partnership with Look Who’s Charging has had immediate benefits too.

Look Who’s Charging’s technology has been integrated in record time, with the banking applications of six leading mutual banks including Bank Australia, Qudos Bank and Credit Union SA. A task that wouldn’t have been possible without the DA partnership.

In addition, alleviating administrative pressure on internal teams has been crucial in a year where customer queries have significantly increased and work practices have been disrupted, allowing DA’s clients to focus on better supporting those customers who really need it.