B-North, the Manchester-based firm building an SME lending bank for the UK, has selected Newcastle Strategic Solutions Limited to provide its deposit-taking solution. B-North will be offering a range of fixed-term retail savings products when it launches in 2020, and will be using Newcastle Strategic Solutions for account opening and account management.
Working with Newcastle Strategic Solutions - the UK’s leading savings management platform - allows B-North to benefit from its robust and proven platform and services. B-North’s savings products will be available online only, with online and telephone support provided by Solution’s award-winning customer services team.
Workshops to develop the B-North savings operation are well underway which will help accelerate B-North’s entry into the savings market.
By outsourcing the deposit-taking side of its business, B-North can concentrate on developing its lending service, which will be based around regional Pods. This highly localised, technology-enabled, model will allow loans to be made available to SMEs in as little as 10 working days. Typically, traditional banks process loans centrally across different departments, a process which can take 3-4 months to complete.
B-North is important to the future prosperity of the UK, with SMEs making up the vast bulk of the UK economy, accounting for 99% of UK businesses and employing over 16m people - 60% of all private sector employment in the UK.
Jonathan Thompson, Founder and CEO, B-North, said: “We looked across the market for suitable organisations to support the deposit-taking side of our business after deciding to outsource it, and Newcastle Strategic Solutions had the track record and is a proven and highly trusted supplier. By working with Solutions it allows us at B-North to concentrate on developing our truly unique SME lending model.”
Phil Grand, MD, Newcastle Strategic Solutions, said: “We want to extend a big welcome to B-North, a challenger delivering fast and localised lending to SMEs, an underserved yet vitally important sector of the UK economy. Our focus is on supporting B-North’s deposit-taking by delivering seamless online savings management, and providing an exceptional customer experience.”