KBC first bank to allow customers to view balances from rivals

KBC will become the first bank in the Republic to allow customers to view balances on accounts they hold with rival providers from today.

The Belgian bank, which employs more than 1,200 people in the Republic, introduced the new function to allow customers to view current account balances held with either AIB or Bank of Ireland in the KBC app.

KBC Ireland's director of transformation and innovation, Kelvin Gillen, said the new product was the first phase of the bank's "multi-banking approach".

with this being a big step on our journey towards achieving this,” he said.

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KBC was the first and remains the only bank to offer digital wallets from four technology companies. Those services are Apple Pay, Google Pay, Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay.

The bank’s move is possible under a European payment services directive which requires banks to make current accounts and details of those accounts available to authorised third parties at the client’s request.

The bank's Dublin innovation hub is where KBC Group tests digital solutions to be rolled out to other European markets. It says the country's young population, growing digital economy and high mobile penetration rate make it "the ideal test bed".

In the first nine months of 2018, KBC grew customer numbers to 278,000.