Simple, one of the first mobile-first banks is shutting down. The company sent an email notice to the users regarding this development and now the company’s spokesperson has also confirmed the plans of shutting down the online bank.
This move is a part of an on-going effort by BBVA — one of the largest banks in the world — to streamline its business. It comes just ahead of the company’s merger with financial services firm PNC.
All the existing users of Simple will be migrated to the BBVA USA application but the company has not revealed when this will happen. After the company’s merger is finalized, all the customers will then become PNC customers.
Commenting about this development, the company’s spokesperson said: “BBVA USA continually evaluates strategic priorities and resources, including existing and potential partnerships with outside organizations. As a result, today we’re accelerating some changes and stopping work on others, including the closing of Simple. These reviews are part of our normal processes, and have resulted in other ventures being closed in the past year or so based on performance and the economic environment, including Covault (2020) and Denizen (2019).”
While not much is known about the transfer process but the company has promised to share more information about this with Simple customer in the near future. The current user count of Simple bank is not known but in 2014, it had around 100,000 users.
As said, Simple was among the first to launch a mobile-first bank but now there are a few other options available in the market, including Venmo, Chime, and Varo, among others.
