IBS Journal November 2015


Masthaven to become new UK bank; implements new core system from DPR Consulting


Masthaven Finance, a UK-based specialist mortgage lender, is aspiring to become a bank and has submitted its banking licence application following discussions with the country’s regulators, Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).


Products and customers Masthaven says the planned bank ‘has already attracted the significant invest- ment required to meet UK regulatory capital rules’. The launch is penned for next summer. The new bank will offer mortgages


and savings products to retail customers. These will include online fixed-interest sav- ings products, ‘enabling customers to tailor maturity dates and interest rates in a way which suits them’, according to Masthaven. It will also provide specialist mortgages


for consumers who struggle to get a mort- gage from high-street banks and lenders. ‘This is a hugely exciting time to launch


a new retail bank in the UK,’ states Jon Hall, MD of Masthaven Bank. ‘For too long, savers and borrowers


have had to dance to the tune of the big banks,’ he says. ‘The Masthaven approach will be different, recognising that “no one size fits all” and that everyone’s individu- al financial backgrounds and requirements vary.’


Technology Masthaven Bank is being built on a new retail banking platform from a domestic vendor, DPR Consulting. The platform is a recent development,


initiated a couple of years ago. DPR Con- sulting decided to build its own back office solution to add to its existing front-end offering when it failed to find a suitable core banking solution partner. ‘The new core technology solution will enable a single, integrated banking solu- tion across savings and all lending at Mast- haven Bank,’ says Hall. ‘It provides scalability, security and


flexibility which meets the functional requirements of retail online savers and mortgage intermediaries.’


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London, home of Masthaven Finance © Diliff, Wikipedia


Masthaven Bank went to market ear- ly in 2015 and is now a number of months into the implementation. ‘The strategy is to implement proven


banking software alongside an out- sourced managed service provider capable of complying with industry and Masthaven risk and security standards,’ Hall says.


He describes technology as ‘a key ena-


bler’ for customers and employees. He identifies the key priorities for Mast-


haven in the technology space: • demonstrating security; • making the most of the data within our systems;


• implementing scalable and flexible solutions which minimise the risk of legacy systems;


• © IBS Intelligence 2015 delivering a straightforward yet www.ibsintelligence.com


personalised user experience across devices.


‘This is achieved by obsessing about marginal improvements throughout the process,’ Hall states.


Ownership Masthaven will give share options in the business to its staff. The company states that these will be distributed throughout the business, with up to 80% of current and future employees eligible for them. (‘Unlike other companies,’ Masthaven adds.) The new bank will be majority-owned


by Andrew Bloom, MD of Masthaven Finance. The remaining ownership will be held by the Pears family (which also has a stake in Masthaven Finance) and Masthaven’s employees.


Tanya Andreasyan


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