Santander Pitches Savings Plan to Verizon Customers

Verizon has launched a long-term partnership with Santander’s U.S. digital banking platform.

The collaboration, announced Tuesday (March 18), offers a high-yield savings account on Santander’s Openbank platform to Verizon’s mobile and 5G customers in the U.S.

The Verizon + Openbank Savings account, the companies said in a news release provided to PYMNTS, features a rate 10 times the national average, while also offering customers the ability to save up to $180 a year on their Verizon bills.

“Verizon has long been committed to delivering value and savings beyond wireless services,” said Hans Vestberg, Verizon’s chairman and CEO.

“Our scale enables the creation of exclusive financial services solutions and savings accessible only to Verizon customers. Adding the power of Openbank’s secure, simple high yield savings account to our financial offerings provides Verizon customers with unique and differentiated value in the telco and financial services category.”

Ana Botín, executive chair of Banco Santander, added that the partnership is a major milestone for the bank as it scales its Openbank offering, which launched in the U.S. last year by offering high-yield savings accounts.

However, Santander has said it wants Openbank to be a full-service digital bank by the end of 2025, offering things like certificates of deposit (CDs), payments and checking accounts, while also expanding its network or branches.

“Our aim is to become a national, digital bank with branches, and reaching this deposit milestone at record pace is a testament to our customer-obsessed mindset, commitment to innovation, and global connectivity,” Swati Bhatia, Santander’s head of retail banking and transformation, said last month after the company marked $2 billion in deposits for Openbank.

PYMNTS looked at some of the challenges involved in digital banking late last year in an interview with Eric Lee, vice president of product at Amount. He noted that all financial institutions (FIs) are dealing with similar challenges in terms of regulations and drawing in new customers and deposits.

“Many of these FIs are looking for external help,” Lee said.

Joint research from PYMNTS Intelligence and his company has found that while most FIs would rate their digital lending processes as good or even excellent, only 25% of banks can actually fulfill their loan processes from the moment of application all the way to distributing funds to retail customers and small businesses within the same day.