Masthaven Finance has submitted an application to become a retail bank.
The second charge and bridging loan provider says it has “attracted the significant investment required to meet UK regulatory capital rules” and plans to launch in the summer of 2016, should the application be successful.
It plans to offer savings and specialist mortgages for those be rejected by high street lenders.
Jon Hall, who will lead the bank as its managing director, says: “This is a hugely exciting time to launch a new retail bank in the UK. For too long, savers and borrowers have had to dance to the tune of the big banks. The Masthaven approach will be different, recognising that ‘no one size fits all’ and that everyone’s individual financial backgrounds and requirements vary.”
The firm will give share options to staff and says up to 80 per cent of its current and future employees will be eligible for them.
Masthaven founder Andrew Bloom says: “We want our employees to hold a stake in the business that we will be building together, because as a bank we’re only as good as the people we employ. We appreciate that motivated, talented and engaged employees mean a better customer experience for the people we are here to serve.”
The new bank will be majority-owned by Bloom, with the remaining ownership held by the Pears family and Masthaven’s employees.
