Through Danske’s online business banking platform ‘District’ businesses can now get a full overview of their finances and gain a single point of entry to their accounts and transactions, including those with other banks, without needing to switch between different banking platforms.

Following an initial pilot stage, over 60 local businesses in Northern Ireland are now using the new account aggregation functionality.

One of those customers is Co Antrim-based Wilsons Auctions. The family-owned business has grown from a single auction site in Northern Ireland to the largest independent auction company in the UK and Ireland, with 19 sites across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and an annual "hammer total” in excess of £400m.

Paul Clarkin, Finance Director of Wilsons Auctions, said:

“At Wilsons Auctions we operate bank accounts with a number of UK banks but Danske Bank are our lead bank. Using this feature within Danske’s online banking platform has simplified the Group’s ability to process customer payments. We can now see all incoming payments in one handy location which improves our workflow and frees up time for other tasks.

“It also means we have one quick snapshot of all our bank balances on a live basis throughout the day without dealing with passwords, fobs and multi factor authentication for all our other banks. It looks like a modest change, but it has had a big impact.”

David Thompson, Head of Digital Channels at Danske Bank UK, said:

“We want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to bank with us and make how they manage their day-to-day business easier. That means continually investing in innovative new digital features to improve the customer experience. We’re delighted with the feedback so far. Customers have told us they are saving time because they have all the information they need on one screen, which helps them make business decisions based on a full overview of their finances.”

The new solution is based on open banking, which connects banks, third parties and technical providers – enabling them to simply and securely exchange data to their customers’ benefit. It was developed in partnership with Denmark-based open banking specialists Aiia.