Why does money sit where it earns least, when the account data to move it somewhere better already exists?

01 · The problem

Money sits where it earns least, and the data already exists

Money sits where it earns least, while the account data that would move it somewhere better already exists.

02 · Why now

Open banking is proven here, on the spending side

Akahu gives read access to New Zealand bank account data with the account holder’s consent, and it already runs inside Houseparty for rent and bill tracking. The same infrastructure has not been pointed at savings.

03 · The idea

Three questions about your savings, answered from your own data

Where your money is sitting, what it earns, and whether there is a better place for it. That is the direction. The product is not defined yet, and this page says so rather than dressing a direction up as one.

04 · Who it’s for

Whoever left money in the account it happened to land in

Someone whose money is sitting in whichever account it happened to land in.

05 · Instead of

Nothing, or a rate table nobody was going to read

Most people do nothing, because comparing accounts means reading rate tables at several banks and then moving the money by hand. Doing nothing is the incumbent here.

06 · What it would take

A defined product, consent plumbing, and a line drawn at advice

Before any of it, a decision about what the thing does. Then Akahu consent, and a clear line between telling someone the plain facts of their own money and advising them what to do with it, because one of those needs a licence and the other does not.

07 · What would prove it wrong

People already know, and still do not move the money

If money sits in the wrong account through inertia rather than ignorance, then showing someone a better rate changes nothing and this is a dashboard nobody needs. It also fails if waking a person who was happily ignoring their savings leaves them worse off than before.