FinTech Galileo Powers H&R Block’s Spruce Mobile Banking

Galileo announced Tuesday (Feb. 15) that its financial technology now powers Spruce, H&R Block’s mobile banking platform.

Launched last month, Spruce offers a spending account with a debit card, a connected savings account, early paycheck access and overdraft platform.

“Spruce has entered the market at a time when consumers across demographics are adopting more digital banking solutions,” Galileo said in a news release.

“In fact, 44% of U.S. consumers use digital-only banks as a primary or secondary account, while 61% of consumers say they are somewhat or highly likely to switch to a digital-only bank as their primary provider, Galileo research shows.”

Learn more: H&R Block Debuts Spruce Mobile Banking to Help Consumers With Personal Finance

The Salt Lake City company, owned by SoFi, says its cloud-based financial technology platform is built with flexibility, speed and scale in mind, helping brands launch financial services that can adapt to evolving customer needs.

“Helping customers have financial confidence is our ultimate goal at H&R Block. We want them to be able to easily, quickly and reliably access, deposit, transfer and grow their money through Spruce,” H&R Block Chief Financial Services Officer Les Whiting said in the release.

“When seeking a partner to help us launch and scale Spruce, Galileo was the right choice thanks to its decades-long history of supporting the world’s most innovative digital banks and financial services providers. We are excited to continue our collaboration with Galileo as we expand Spruce.”

Read more: Global Rewards Taps into FinTech Galileo’s Platform

The announcement comes one week after the B2B payments firm Global Rewards said it was working with Galileo to give its customers access to Galileo’s cloud-based technology platform and APIs.

“Just as the pandemic fueled an accelerated shift of consumers embracing more digital payments, COVID-19 has helped businesses see the necessity of reducing manual, paper-based processes in favor of digital solutions that save time and money,” Lakewood, New Jersey-based Global Rewards said in its announcement.