New UK challenger bank Masthaven opens digital doors
New UK retail challenger bank, Masthaven, has launched – offering savings and lending products.
As Banking Technology reported in April, Masthaven got its UK banking licence and implemented a new core system. A domestic vendor, DPR Consulting, is providing its front-to-back office retail banking platform. The software itself is a new development, with Masthaven being one of the very first takers.
Jon Hall, managing director, Masthaven, says “everyone has different financial needs and that’s why we are providing products that our customers want, not just products that banks have always had available”.
Masthaven says it is the UK’s only owner-managed challenger bank with a partnership model, which at launch sees 80% of employees already shareholders in the business.
Since April, it has spent the subsequent months forming a team approaching 100 people, building its technology platform and road-testing its products with customers.
Masthaven, which has been a specialist lender since 2004, will launch into the mortgage market in early 2017, for homebuyers who “may not meet conventional banks’ requirements”.
The bank’s chairman is Peter Harrison, ex-CEO of the UK financial services practice at KPMG. Andrew Bloom is CEO. After working for KPMG and Strand Hanson he founded Masthaven Finance in 2004.
There are 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.
