It’s difficult not to have a soft spot for Revolut, not least because Martin Gilbert, the brilliant founder of Aberdeen Asset Management (known as Abrdn, nowadays after a daft re-branding), is a driving force of the digital bank. Revolut’s latest move is to provide small-business administrative services that the mainstream banks try and often fail […]
Starling Bank is in the process of moving from “challenger” bank to a major, mainstream player in the 21st Century’s banking sector. Our friends at Altfi chronicle the latest impressive moves from this quarter: Starling Bank has raised £130.5m from its existing investor base, as it looks to build a “war chest” for acquisitions. The challenger bank […]
There’s a lot of money heading from mainstream finance towards the alternative finance sector. Perversely, one of the key reasons for that is the fact that the alternative sector is working hard to turn itself into something that looks like the mainstream – witness the popularity of banking licence applications, amongst other trends. Altfi reports […]
Another day, another deal in the alternative-finance sector as it marries itseld off to mainstream banking and finance. The latest pairing brings a surprisingly positive comment – good maybe, but “made in heaven”? – from our friends at AltFi, who report: Another partnership that seems to be a match in fintech heaven, this time for […]
The mainstream of financial services has a love-hate relationship with those in alternative finance. It’s a familiar tale of the establishment seeking to assimilate the rebels and smooth off the rough edges. The early days of many FinTech companies saw a weird relationship with the banks, who simultaneously courted and envied their success -and attempted […]
A new snippet of news from the mainstream of financial-services sector reinforces a growing trend we’ve noticed. The mainstream is much better at buying FinTech operations than it is at setting up its own businesses in the sector. This story comes from our friends at AltFi: NatWest has closed Esme Loans, a standalone lending platform it launched […]
More signs of the intense competition – or should that be undignified scramble? – that is the urge to get in to the modern banking space. Our friends at AltFi run a report containing a couple of bouquets – and a brickbat for a leading player: Open banking provider Yapily has today exposed the range of open […]
Cynics might file this one under: “Believe it when I see it.” This latest governmental initiative might work, but we expect more of the same – FinTech acquisitions by mainstream banks when they like the look of the asset prices. Finextra carries the story: Some of the UK’s biggest banks have signed a government-backed pledge […]
The Fintech Times runs an opinion piece on the future of challenger banking. We run an excerpt from the piece below. Regular readers will know that our own view is that more and more “alternative” lenders and lending platforms will either acquire banking licences or be acquired by banks. This is one of the more […]
Money&Co.’s plans to apply for a UK banking licence next year to allow the taking of deposits from retail investors are no secret. Less well-known are the exciting new lines of business coming up. Watch this space. The convergence of mainstream and alternative finance is underlined by a move from HSBC to offer a app […]