Britanski izzivalec Bank North propade

Neobank Bank North s sedežem v Manchestru ukinja svoje poslovanje s takojšnjim učinkom, potem ko ji ni uspelo zbrati sredstev, potrebnih za popolno bančno licenco Bank of England.

V pismu delničarjem banke je predsednik upravnega odbora Ron Emerson navedel, da podjetju ni uspelo zagotoviti financiranja v zahtevanem roku, saj je izgledalo, da bo postalo popolnoma regulirana banka.

Bank North je prejela a omejena bančna licenca od UK Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) avgusta lani.

Podjetje je bilo ustanovljeno leta 2018 in je sprva delovalo kot posojilodajalec za mala podjetja v Združenem kraljestvu. To novembra 2021 začel množično financiranje po seriji A, vredni 24 milijonov funtov v začetku istega leta.

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, Desetine, 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.