Den britiske udfordrer Bank North kollapser

Den Manchester-baserede neobank Bank North afvikler sine aktiviteter med øjeblikkelig virkning efter at have undladt at rejse de nødvendige midler til en fuld banklicens fra Bank of England.

I et brev til bankens aktionærer sagde bestyrelsesformand Ron Emerson, at firmaet ikke havde sikret finansiering inden for den krævede tidsramme, da det så ud til at blive en fuldt reguleret bank.

Bank North modtog en begrænset banklicens fra UK Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) i august sidste år.

Virksomheden blev grundlagt i 2018 og fungerede oprindeligt som långiver for små virksomheder i Storbritannien. Det gik til crowdfunding i november 2021 efter en serie A på 24 millioner pund tidligere samme år.

Writing on LinkedIn, Bank North co-founder Richard Baker, who left day-to-day operations last year but remained a shareholder, says: “Many of us had put our heart and soul into making Bank North the success it was – a specialist lender to support UK SMEs.

“The inability to raise further investment is a disappointment, albeit not unexpected given previous fundraising challenges along with the gathering uncertainty in investment markets.”

Baker additionally cites the failure to launch its savings business to UK customers despite having a restricted banking licence as “a further disappointment to its outsourced service providers”.

The challenger bank intends to “sell its loan book” and transfer “about a third of its headcount” as part of its wind down, Baker adds.

Another UK challenger, snesevis, announced its plans to close earlier this year. Australian challenger bank Volt also closed its doors in June this year, citing failure to raise sufficient funds.