A UK challenger bank aimed at the SME business sector has opted to give up its banking licence in order to spend more time developing its IT infrastructure prior to its launch.
Civilised Bank was awarded a banking licence in May 2017, becoming the 31st challenger to be authorised by the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) since 2009.
Civilised chairman Chris Jolly promised a branchless, digital proposition that would reinvent traditional business banking by bringing back "one-to-one relationship banking to SMEs, enabled by the very latest technology - both online and mobile" and "wthout any legacy issues".
Jolly also vowed to have a local banker in every town and city in Britain by 2023.
The decision to release its licence and reapply at a later, unspecified date has been supported by both the PRA and Financial Conduct Authority as well as Civilised's main shareholder Warwick Capital Partners as a sensible alternative to rushing through its current development phase, said Jolly.
"For us, it is essential that we can deliver an optimal customer offering, so we prefer to delay this stage of our development and have more time to get it right,” he said.