Joining a group of other big brands that have had to shelve their mobile wallet, Barclays have announced that after 10 years they will sunset the iconic Pingit, one of its early payment innovations.
Barclays discontinue mobile wallet Pingit
Staff were informed last week that Barclays is retiring Pingit having “run its course.”
It’s an anti-climatic end for the project, which stood out as one of the earliest mobile banking innovations — beating most FinTech start-ups to the market in 2012 and attracting 1.2 million downloads in its first year.
The Pingit app allowed customers from any bank to transfer money to any account in the UK, acting as a wallet — similar to apps like Venmo in the US or France’s Lydia.
Barclays’ decision to close Pingit follows a swathe of digital mishaps at big banks. Last year saw the end of JP Morgan’s Finn, RBS’ Bo bank, Nationwide’s SME-banking venture, and Santander’s online business bank, Asto.
Last year, Barclays also pivoted away from its US consumer online bank, highlighting wider difficulties in keeping up in the digital realm.
“As a result of a recent review, we will be making some changes to Pingit over the coming months,” said a Barclays spokesperson. “For the time being customers can continue to use the Pingit app to manage their money. We will be contacting customers shortly with more information.”
Inside Barclays, Pingit’s demise has come as little surprise. The app struggled to innovate in recent years, one former employee said, “throwing away” its early advantage.
“It lost its way,” the employee said, adding that the app “struggled for a home” — straddling between the digital team and mobile banking.
While early stats looked promising, the active user base was limited. “It never took off,” they said, noting that most early-adopters were also already Barclays customers.
It’s worth stressing that Pingit’s retirement won’t have much immediate impact on Barclays. The app makes up minimal revenues and a fraction of the bank’s user-base.
Meanwhile, Barclays customers will simply migrate onto the bank’s core mobile app (which has a similarly good rating as Pingit on the App store, and a better rating on Google Play).
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