ING pulls the plug on Yolt after pivot to B2B Open Banking

Less than a year after shutting down its consumer-facing smart money app, ING-backed Yolt is set to close completely, shuttering its business-to-business open banking operations, according to Finextra. Yolt shut down its consumer-facing smart money app last year in order to focus on the B2B operations, arguing that this was the best way to accelerate the adoption of open banking.

ING had high expectations for the smart money application when it was first introduced. At the time, it seemed like a valuable service for ING customers looking to get a better grip on their finances. Unfortunately, the service never gained major traction, and an initial shutdown began in late 2021. While some people held out hope this would be a temporary measure, ING decided to pull the complete plug earlier this week.

Due to that decision, Yolt will shut down its B2B open banking operations completely. The phase-out will be gradual and is expected to conclude in April 2023, Fintoism reports. 

ING says that in the context of a rapidly changing market, it is „not feasible to achieve its ambitions with Yolt”.

ING issued a statement to add:

“ING and its businesses continuously evaluate activities, including assessing whether they are likely to achieve the preferred scale in their market within a reasonable time frame. In this context, the evaluation has led to the decision to phase out Yolt.”

Unfortunately, ING sees no future marker opportunities due “rapidly changing market conditions”. Whether that means the overall interest in this application dwindled, or it simply didn’t generate enough revenue remains subject to speculation. The pivot from consumer-facing solutions to B2B operations seems to have sped up the ultimate demise of this project.