A new digitally led SME bank from the the City of London Investment Group has been given the go-ahead to start offering its products to market.
The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has lifted the deposit restrictions on Recognise Bank.
This will enable the firm to launch its personal and business savings products, and to start taking deposits.
A new digitally led SME bank from the the City of London Investment Group has been given the go-ahead to start offering its products to market
Recognise Bank will launch FSCS-protected personal savings products on 21 September, with business saving products due to launch later.
As announced in August, City of London Group agreed the sale of Milton Homes Limited and completed a £14million fundraise to meet the capital requirements for the PRA to remove restrictions on deposits.
The development of Recognise Bank has been a central part of the COLG’s strategy, to address the funding and service gap experienced by underserved UK SMEs.
The new capital and funds from the deposit taking products will enable Recognise Bank to increase lending to the UK’s small and medium sized businesses.
Backed by the latest cloud computer technology, the bank’s goal is to make lending decisions quicker and speed-up access to funds, via a network of regional hubs in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.
Recognise currently offers a range of unregulated lending options including commercial mortgages and bridging loans, with professional buy-to-let mortgages to follow soon.
Since opening in November 2020 the bank has already received £750 million in loan enquiries and is aiming to provide more than £1.3 billion of business lending over the next five years.
commenting on the lifting of restrictions Philip Jenks, the chairman of the COLG and Recognise Bank, commented: ‘[This is] a major milestone for COLG and Recognise.
‘We have completed the final step on the journey to becoming a fully authorised digitally led bank which has been our primary objective for three years.
‘We have grown the Recognise employee base to over 60 high calibre members and secured a strong executive team, led by Jason Oakley as CEO.
‘The recent capital raise and sale of Milton Homes will enable us to realise our strategic ambitions for Recognise Bank, namely increasing the size of the loan book with access to funding from depositors through our business and personal savings products.’
Recognise will be launching both business and personal savings accounts later in the year, aiming to serve 50,000 customers.
#fiveDealsWidget .dealItemTitle#mobile {display:none} #fiveDealsWidget {display:block; float:left; clear:both; max-width:636px; margin:0; padding:0; line-height:120%; font-size:12px} #fiveDealsWidget div, #fiveDealsWidget a {margin:0; padding:0; line-height:120%; text-decoration: none; font-family:Arial, Helvetica ,sans-serif} #fiveDealsWidget .widgetTitleBox {display:block; float:left; width:100%; background-color:#af1e1e; } #fiveDealsWidget .widgetTitle {color:#fff; text-transform: uppercase; font-size:18px; font-weight:bold; margin:6px 10px 4px 10px; } #fiveDealsWidget a.dealItem {float:left; display:block; width:124px; margin-right:4px; margin-top:5px; background-color: #e3e3e3; min-height:200px;} #fiveDealsWidget a.dealItem#last {margin-right:0} #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemTitle {display:block; margin:10px 5px; color:#000; font-weight:bold} #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemImage, #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemImage img {float:left; display:block; margin:0; padding:0} #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemImage {border:1px solid #ccc} #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemImage img {width:100%; height:auto} #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemdesc {float:left; display:block; color:#004db3; font-weight:bold; margin:5px;} #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemRate {float:left; display:block; color:#000; margin:5px} #fiveDealsWidget .footerText a:hover{text-decoration: underline;} #fiveDealsWidget .footerSmall{font-size:10px; padding-top:10px;} @media (max-width: 635px) { #fiveDealsWidget a.dealItem {width:19%; margin-right:1%} #fiveDealsWidget a.dealItem#last {width:20%} } @media (max-width: 560px) { #fiveDealsWidget #desktop {display:none;} #fiveDealsWidget #mobile {display:block!important} #fiveDealsWidget a.dealItem {background-color: #fff; height:auto; min-height:auto} #fiveDealsWidget a.dealItem {border-bottom:1px solid #ececec; margin-bottom:5px; padding-bottom:10px} #fiveDealsWidget a.dealItem#last {border-bottom:0px solid #ececec; margin-bottom:5px; padding-bottom:0px} #fiveDealsWidget a.dealItem, #fiveDealsWidget a.dealItem#last {width:100%} #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemContent, #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemImage {float:left; display:inline-block} #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemImage {width:35%; margin-right:1%} #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemContent {width:63%} #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemTitle {margin: 0px 5px 5px; font-size:16px} #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemContent .dealItemdesc, #fiveDealsWidget .dealItemContent .dealItemRate {clear:both} }
