Everyone is a bank with Babb’s blockchain plan
Babb takes baby steps with blockchain-powered banking platform
London-based fintech start-up Babb App says it is creating a bank based on a “permissioned” blockchain implementation of a distributed ledger using Ethereum smart contracts.
The Babb banking platform will operate a decentralised information model to “minimise costs while maximising data fidelity and security” – i.e. the usual suspects.
It expects to do a soft launch in Q2 this year and says “everyone is a bank irrespective of their income level”. Babb does not see itself as a “challenger bank” but as co-operating with existing banks and financial institutions.
Guido Branca, CEO of Babb App, says through blockchain and mobile technology it will “both provide new features not seen in the high street banks and include many who have been excluded from the traditional financial system”.
The firm will use big data analytics for match-making and control risk; and offer artificial intelligence-based customer self-service. The app connects users to each other (P2P) and every user who downloads the app, and provides a selfie and a voice print, gets a UK-based account upon activation.
Babb is currently regulated as an approved payment institution (API) by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The start-up has also applied to enter the FCA’s sandbox.
It has partnered with a UK-based alternative payments and banking solutions provider, Contis Group, to utilise Contis’ white-label licence and banking services infrastructure to provide UK bank accounts, transfer and card payment services.
In June 2016, Babb raised seed funding and was accepted into the Level39 Accelerator Space at Canary Wharf, London.
