Zopa (the P2P site) to launch a bank.

fun4everyone

Received an email from them today, the gist of it is they will be opening a bank in the not so distant future to sit alongside their P2P offering. A quote from the email..

We want to offer consumers even more choice, which is why, subject to regulatory approval, we are planning to launch a next generation bank to complement our existing peer-to-peer products.

We will continue to offer our peer-to-peer investment products.

Launching a bank, to sit alongside our existing peer-to-peer business, will allow us to create new and innovative savings and borrowing products. At launch, Zopa will offer FSCS protected deposit accounts to savers and overdraft alternatives to borrowers.

Notice they mention savers a couple of times, more competition can only be a good thing for us savers but will the rates be any good? Only time will tell and I wouldn't bet on it . Still, nice to see.

Anthorn

Yup it's yet another bank, folks. But not really a bank which offers a full banking service. They will be concentrating on the retail banking method of generating cash by collecting money in savings products and loaning it out to make a profit. Those banks already established and in the pipeline already flood the savings market but don't really offer anything different to what is already available. The savvy amongst savers will probably stick to current accounts which offer better interest.

At the rate of growth of new challenger banks the situation may arise where it is easier to say who is not launching a new bank instead of saying who is. That's just how ludicrous the current slew of new banks is.

PeacefulWaters

It would be nice if the regulatory and social environment made it possible to launch a nice new cuddly building society.

antrobus

fun4everyone wrote: »

Received an email from them today, the gist of it is they will be opening a bank in the not so distant future to sit alongside their P2P offering. A quote from the email....

Confirmed by the DT.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/savings/peer-to-peer-giant-zopa-to-launch-digital-bank/

Interesting.

Zopa lost £6.1m in 2014 and £8.9m in 2015; accumulated losses to date of £31.2m.

Perhaps they are hoping that the bank will actually make some money and help pay for the P2P business.:)

Rachel_MBA_Student

Sounds interesting, I think it will increase competition and innovation.