IBS Journal July 2017


43


Having James has been amazing. He started with us in November last year. He was employee number two at Tandem, and has built a really good UK digital challenger bank from the ground up. He’s taken that business from license application to provisional approval, building the tech team, etc. It’s just been great, we are really fortunate to have him around.


Are you inspired by or following the path of any other neo-banks?


We are following our own path, but if there’s any bank that assimilates what we’re doing is Number 26. We want to go all the way from asset and liability type products, but also wealth products. That’s why we target the demographic of the affluence, who want that. We’ve also got an offshore banking proposition, so we will have the ability to trade US and Indian equities, integrating robo-advisors, and having the capacity to buy ETFs and the like… But it’s all fully-integrated in our one app.


What is the technology running under the hood, and what are your plans to implement it?


Rather than doing what Monzo has done, where they’ve built all the technology from the ground up – although I get why they’ve done it, and it’s been incredible for them – my view is that sometimes there’s better ways to spend your money.


Where we think that we can genuinely add massive value with our design and the likes of that, then we will invest in the IP. Where we think somebody else has created something amazing, we’ll try to utilise that through partnerships or licensing. It’s a magic blend of latest fintech, latest generation of core banking technology and our own secret sauce that we put on top. That secret sauce is all about the experience, the customer journey, and the way we underwrite.


At the moment, I’m under an NDA, so it’s difficult to disclose any more specifics.


“WHERE WE THINK


SOMEBODY ELSE HAS CREATED SOMETHING AMAZING, WE’LL TRY TO UTILISE THAT THROUGH


PARTNERSHIPS OR LICENSING.”


www.ibsintelligence.com


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