H&R Block Mobile Banking Platform Sees Deposits Nearly Quadruple YoY

H&R Block’s mobile banking platform has nearly quadrupled its customer deposits over the past year.

Since its launch in January 2022, in cumulative results as of Dec. 31, 2023, the app, Spruce, has garnered $456 million in customer deposits, the company said in a slide presentation released Tuesday (Feb. 6) in conjunction with its quarterly earnings call.

That figure is up from the $117 million in customer deposits H&R Block reported as of Dec. 31, 2022, and the $400 million it reported as of Sept. 30, 2023.

The company also saw another 145,000 users sign up for Spruce over the past year. In cumulative results as of Dec. 31, the app has recorded 316,000 signups. That’s up from 171,000 signups a year earlier and 300,000 at the end of the previous quarter.

“We continue to enhance the user experience, have seen improved App Store ratings, and feel good about the increase in new client accounts and engagement,” Jeff Jones, president and CEO of H&R Block, said in prepared remarks for the earnings call.

H&R Block launched Spruce in January 2022, saying the mobile banking platform aimed to “help everyone be good with money,” including the 21 million households that use the company’s services for their tax returns every year.

Today, Spruce includes features like a savings account, spending account, debit card, budgeting tools, free credit score and a “smart tax refund” that suggests to users a portion of the refund that they should save, according to the app’s website.

H&R Block said in the slide presentation released Tuesday that Spruce’s savings features are helping clients be better with money. Jones said in his prepared remarks that among the users of the mobile banking platform who set and achieved a savings goal, 20% did so to build emergency savings and 17% saved for vacations.

Spruce is also promoting the company’s assisted and do-it-yourself (DIY) tax offerings for the first time, according to the slide presentation.

“More than 30% of customers that signed up during last year’s season were not H&R Block tax clients, which we see as an opportunity,” Jones said in the prepared remarks.