Nearly a year after landing its banking license, UK-based challenger bank CivilisedBank has secured an undisclosed investment.
The bank received a banking license from the Bank of England in May last year. Following the investment, which came from current investor Warwick Capital Partners, CivilisedBank said it is looking to launch its services in the first half of 2018.
The company is currently talking to existing and new investors about funding the launch of the bank and supporting its growth. While the previous investment rounds have not been disclosed, Warwick Capital has provided the majority of the capital to CivilisedBank to date, according to the company.
CivilisedBank is a new business bank that has a local banker network and is focused on the SME market. The platform will support businesses through savings and loans, transaction banking, overdrafts, current accounts with deposits and foreign exchange.
Its Local Bankers network will incentivise one-to-one services to SMEs within their local community and support each customer with real-time information. Alongside its SME services, it will support the UK retail market with a selection of savings products.
Warwick Capital Partners co-chief investment officer and founding partner Ian Burgess said, “The CivilisedBank business model will reinvent traditional banking through a network of Local Bankers who visit customers at their business premises.
“With the support of a new technology platform, designed to enable relationship banking and taking speedy credit decisions, Local Bankers will be able to provide their SME customers with the best-in-class service that they have to date been missing out on.”
Last year, fellow challenger bank, OakNorth, received a big wave of funding from investors. Across two funding rounds, the bank pulled in a total of £244m from backers including GIC, The Clermont Group, Toscafund and Coltrane. This capital was raised to support the launch of its new ACORN product which collects SME data from around the world and compiled together to build better credit decisions.
Earlier this month, UK challenger bank Monzo received regulatory approval to operate in the Republic of Ireland. Monzo, which has received more than £100m in funding since starting in 2015, said the move was the first step in its plans for international expansion. Despite no immediate plans to open an office in Dublin, the company has received passporting permission from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to operate in the country.
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
