Blend & Astra partner to Enable Near-Instant Deposit Account Funding

Blend, the leading platform for digital banking solutions, announced a new partnership with Astra, the pioneer in instant payments-as-a-service, to enhance the digital onboarding experience for consumers looking to quickly and seamlessly fund their new deposit account.

For Consumers: A More Frictionless Deposit Account Opening Experience

One of the most common challenges preventing consumers from funding their deposit account within a single session is the lack of optionality and convenience in funding methods. Traditionally, ACH transfers have been the primary method for account funding, but as digital payment methods evolve, banks and credit unions are increasingly offering debit card funding as a more convenient and user-friendly alternative for consumers.

By eliminating the need to find and enter routing and account numbers that are required with ACH transfers, debit card funding offers a quicker and more seamless account funding process, enabling consumers to activate new accounts for use in a single session.

Additionally, consumers with limited funds face a higher risk of overdrawing their accounts when using ACH, which can lead to additional fees. Debit cards help avoid this risk by only allowing transactions up to the available balance. Debit card transactions typically also result in immediate or near-immediate access to funds, while ACH transfers can take a few days to process.

For Financial Institutions: More Accounts Funded, Faster

By integrating Astra’s Card to Account payment solution directly within Blend’s Deposit Account application flow, Blend customers are able to drive digital engagement beyond just the initial application capture, helping to reduce abandonment rates and increase the speed it takes for consumers to complete an application. And for internal support teams, that means less manual outreach and follow ups to get accounts fully funded, and more time deepening customer relationships.

“Today consumers expect a frictionless, real-time product experience, and that starts at account opening,” said Gil Akos, Co-Founder and CEO of Astra. “Financial institutions and fintechs need to deliver a best-in-class onboarding flow to win new customers – instant account funding is the perfect solution, leading to improved activation rates of 30% or better on day one. We’re proud to partner with Blend to offer this experience to their customers.”

Benefits of card funding:

• Accelerated Onboarding: Allow new accounts to be funded sooner by removing friction in the application process.
• More Activated Accounts: Convert consumer interest into more activated accounts by offering multiple account funding options.
• Reduced Abandonment: Reduce the likelihood of consumers abandoning the process by driving digital engagement beyond just the application capture.
• Smoother Application Experience: Consumers report a smoother application experience with user-friendly funding options like debit cards.
• Less Manual Intervention: Support teams spend less time doing manual outreach and follow-ups to get accounts fully funded when consumers have multiple funding options to choose from.

Strong Consumer Preference for Card Funding

As shown through data from Blend’s vast customer base (which includes 140 of the top 1000 depository institutions by deposit assets as of Q2 2024), card funding is one of the most popular options selected by consumers when opening up a new deposit account:

• One of the nation’s largest credit unions by asset size and a Blend customer, reported that 82% of their new deposit accounts were funded using Astra card funding, significantly outpacing four other available funding methods.
• Another Blend customer and one of the top 100 largest credit unions in the United States showed that 66% of consumers prefer Astra Card funding over other funding methods.

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