Building on the success of their parent company, The Marygold Companies, Inc. (NYSE-American: MGLD) who also owns a U.S. subsidiary that creates and manages ETFs in the U.S. totaling approximately $3 billion in assets under management, they set out to create Britain's most intuitive money management app for individuals and small businesses.

The challenge: Building behavioural banking from scratch

Creating a money management app that truly understands human psychology requires more than just clever UI design. Marygold needed modern banking infrastructure that could support innovative features like digital piggy banks, time-lock savings, and personalised financial nudges, all while offering competitive interest rates and the full regulatory protection required from companies offering savings products in the UK.

Key requirements:

• FSCS-protected embedded savings accounts with competitive rates
• Flexible infrastructure and a modern API to support innovative behavioural features
• KYC and KYB onboarding capabilities for both their consumer and business customer segments
• Seamless integration support for a superior user experience

The solution: Griffin's embedded savings accounts

Griffin's embedded savings account product provided the foundation for Marygold to build this unique approach to savings.

FSCS-protected savings with competitive rates: Griffin's savings accounts gave Marygold the ability to offer their customers attractive interest rates with full FSCS protection. This was crucial for building trust with their SME customer segment who had been let down by traditional banks offering typical rates of 1% or less. They could finally earn meaningful returns on their working capital and idle cash.

Infrastructure for behavioural features: Griffin's flexible banking infrastructure seamlessly supported Marygold's innovative features which include:

• Digital "piggy banks" that delay savings visibility to promote discipline through an "out of sight, out of mind" approach.
• Time-lock features provide cooling-off periods for large purchases, helping couples align financial priorities and protecting vulnerable customers from scams.
• Personalised nudges deliver automated reminders tailored to individual financial behaviours
• Money pools facilitate centralised financial goal management based on a customers' personality.

Compliance and customer protection: Griffin's comprehensive onboarding solution, Verify, enabled Marygold to build a complete end-to-end product with minimal third-party integrations. Ongoing customer due diligence and transaction monitoring are built directly into Griffin's banking infrastructure, removing additional operational complexity. Marygold also has the right data to recommend safety features for the elderly and vulnerable, including trusted contact alerts for large withdrawals.

“Our savings app is built around a simple truth: we all save differently. We designed its features to work with human behaviour, not against it. To deliver this, we needed a banking partner that could handle the regulatory complexity while we focused on what we do best‍—‌helping customers save better. Griffin gave us exactly that. Their technology is intuitive to work with, and their model means our customers hold individually named, FSCS-protected accounts directly with a regulated UK bank and earn competitive interest.”

Seamless customer experience: The partnership allowed Marygold to focus entirely on delivering a superior user experience and behavioural innovation while Griffin handled the complexity of banking operations.

The result: A complete financial psychology platform

This partnership has enabled Marygold & Co. UK to deliver on their vision of emotionally intelligent savings. The app successfully addresses the reality that most UK citizens don't feel traditional banks adequately meet their financial needs.

Individual customers benefit from:

• Personalised savings strategies based on their unique Financial DNA
• Behavioural nudges that promote healthy financial habits
• Competitive interest rates with full FSCS protection
• Innovative features that make saving feel effortless and rewarding

Small businesses gain access to:

• Competitive rates on working capital and idle cash
• Tools designed around the human factors that impact business financial decisions
• Simplified cash management that recognises companies are run by people with the same psychological complexities as individual customers

"Our partnership with Griffin marks a significant milestone in our mission to revolutionise personal finance management in the UK. By leveraging Griffin's robust banking infrastructure, we can offer our users a seamless, secure, and innovative experience that radically simplifies the process of money management."

The future: Addressing the advice gap and more

The robust foundation provided by Griffin's embedded savings accounts means Marygold can continue expanding their behavioural finance approach, with plans to introduce investment products, advisory products and enhanced personalisation based on financial personalities, all while maintaining their core principle of simplification. With more recent FCA permissions, Marygold is now tackling the UK's substantial advice gap through what Matt calls "bionic advice.” This is a hybrid approach that bridges the gap between automated tools and human financial advice for the 10 million people in the UK who have over £10,000 to invest but lack investment appetite.

"Our work with Marygold & Co. is a classic example of how Griffin works with fintechs to bring best-in-class products to market. Marygold & Co.'s vision to provide secure, dependable and intuitive wealth-building tools aligns perfectly with this, and we're excited to support their growth journey."