Xero + Santander: Bringing banking innovation to UK small businesses

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Launching the first in a next generation of bank feeds, this week we announced our integration with Santander. The first bank in the UK to take advantage of our open platform, this feed will enable our joint customers to effortlessly move financial data from their bank accounts to Xero, free of charge.

With a full integration such as the one between Santander and Xero – using our open API, for those more technologically-minded – things become even more slick from a customer perspective. In the coming months, Santander Business Banking customers can set up the feed directly from within Xero within a couple of minutes, and once it’s done, it’s done. No logging back in with various usernames and passwords every time you go back into Xero.

The importance of data

Both Santander and Xero understand the importance of up-to-date and accurate banking data for small businesses, which is why we’ve tried to remove as many hurdles as possible for our customers to get this feed – no cost, online set-up, do it all in Xero.

Quality of financial information is critical for small businesses and this new bank feed will ensure this standard is high, enabling customers to more accurately analyse, forecast and manage their cash flow. It also makes conversations with accountants or bank managers a lot easier and lending or investment decisions easier to navigate.

Santander’s Head of Customer and Innovation, Sigga Sigurdardottir:

‘We are always looking at new ways we can provide customers with a seamless service so this feels like a natural partnership for us. We’re excited to be the first UK bank to launch an API link with Xero.

“We want to help businesses prosper and it complements the other options we have to help our customers manage their cashflow.”

Leading the Market

In the UK, Xero integrates with all of the country’s leading banks to reduce administrative costs and improve access to vital financial services for small businesses. Xero’s integration with Santander comes off the back of other banking relationships that Xero has in place globally. Xero partners with Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank in Australia, Wells Fargo and Capital One in the US. Additionally, Xero partners with more than 100 other financial institutions around the world as well as global payments integrations with PayPal and Stripe.

Together, Xero and Santander are committed to building a financial web that reduces admin and saves small businesses time when dealing with their finances.

We believe the growing connection between accountant, business and bank will fundamentally rewire how small businesses operate. With access to high quality data and financial services, it’s easier for entrepreneurs to run and grow their businesses. By doing so, we can light a fire in the engine room of the UK small business economy.

The feed will be available to Santander Business customers from mid-October. We’ll be in touch when you can upgrade your bank feeds.

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