City of London Group to launch challenger bank
UK-based City of London Group (COLG) is in the process of obtaining a banking licence as it targets commercial, SME, bridging and development finance.
The new entity will be headed by Jason Oakley, former MD of commercial banking and mortgages at Metro Bank and head of SME at NatWest and RBS. He will be joined by Bryce Glover, former MD of commercial banking at Alliance & Leicester / Santander and a non-executive director of Newcastle Building Society.
Like everybody else, COLG says “the political climate continues to be supportive of these new [challenger] banks” and there is “a strong desire to break the banking oligopoly and this is further strengthened by advances in technology, making a ‘bricks and mortar’ network of branches less significant as a barrier to entry”.
The objective is for a full banking licence to be obtained within two years. Oakley will subscribe for £400,000 and Glover for £50,000 worth of shares in COLG.
COLG, which is backed by Delancey and Bard family, recently raised £20 million for its plans.
COLG is the parent company of a group which has two operating platforms, the first focused on providing finance to the SME sector, including professional services firms, through both lease finance and loan finance, and the second on providing both traditional and home reversion plans in the UK residential property market.
With so many new entrants trying to muscle into the UK banking sector, Banking Technology has put together a comprehensive list of the known challengers to date and the technology they are using.
