Tandem Bank, a financial startup vying to crack the dominance of Britain’s biggest lenders, is to lose its status as a bank -- for now.
The lender surrendered its deposit-taking license won from the Prudential Regulation Authority little more than a year ago after House of Fraser, the Chinese-owned U.K. department-store chain, pulled most of its 35 million-pound ($43.3 million) investment because of capital controls in the Asian country. Tandem Bank will now re-apply “at the right time for our customers,” the London-based company said in a statement on Monday. Tandem Bank is among a growing number of financial technology companies -- neobanks as they’re known in the industry -- that have won licenses from the BOE to offer branchless, mobile-phone-based banking. The new entrants face a battle to attract customers and investment in an increasingly crowded market.
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