Fiinu gets its banking licence
25/07/2022
There's an old saying in England that buses always come in threes, which is entirely apt for UK banking licences at present. Since the 36th new licence was awarded in November 2021 (to The Bank of London), you could have been forgiven for thinking that new authorisations were done. Then suddenly up popped Ashman Finance, now Ashman Bank, in late June with the first new licence of 2022. Within a couple of weeks, ActivTrades (since renamed StreamBank) got its authorisation with restrictions (AWR) from the regulator and now Fiinu has become the third new licence of 2022 and the 39th since the global financial crisis in 2008.
Fiinu was founded by Dr Marko Sjoblom and has been in the process for five years. It will use Open Banking to provide overdrafts to consumers without them needing to switch banks - the firms research identifies 32m consumers in the UK alone who use an overdraft at some point during the year. It intends to use a ‘Fiinu score’ instead of credit scoring to underwrite its overdrafts and have less impact on customer’s credit scores. It applied for its banking licence in December 2021 and appointed Chris Sweeney CEO), Philip Tansey (CFO), Huw Evans (Independent Non-Executive Director) and Wan Chuen Lau (Chief Culture and Culture Officer) in June in anticipation of its authorisation.
The Bank has undergone a reverse takeover by Immediate Acquisition Plc with the new company renamed Fiinu Plc and floated on London Stock Exchange's AIM market where it has a valuation of £42m.
Expect to hear more from Fiinu as it works through the mobilisation process - we expect to see it enter the market in the first quarter of 2023.