Marcus is not on Silicon roundabout. The boss isn’t 25 years old, does not have a beard and has not raised £50m in cash from VCs to burn through ahead of an IPO in 5yrs time. However if reports of a 1.5% interest rate are true, then Marcus will immediately leapfrog Virgin and Sainsbury’s Bank to the top of the savings best buy tables.
We’ve seen the future of banking. Those fintechs clustered around London’s “Silicon roundabout”, such as Monzo (900,000 current account customers already) and Revolut (2 million customers since launch in 2015) have attracted smartphone-obsessed millennials with their digital prowess. But a new bank quietly launched on Thursday, called Marcus, turns the conventional fintech story upside down. Marcus is not on Silicon roundabout. The boss isn’t 25 years old, does not have a beard, and in his PR shots even sports a tie. The horror. Nor does he have £50m in cash from a venture capital outfit to burn through ahead of an IPO in five years’ time.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/23/look-no-beard-marcus-subverts-the-fintech-story
