Santander to open digital-only bank for UK SMEs

Santander to open digital-only bank for UK SMEs

Santander is preparing to launch a standalone digital unit in the next few months that will target the UK's small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Spanish giant's new unit will offer smaller firms lending but also other services, such as help with payrolls and pensions, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

The business banking service was first outlined in October, one of four independent "speedboat" digital units being developed by Santander, but no details on where it was to be based were revealed.

Santander is one of several smaller banks competing for an £833 million fund that RBS is being made to hand over to boost competition in the business banking sector.

A bank spokesman told the Telegraph: "We are working on a project to build an open digital financial services platform for SMEs We look forward to sharing more about the platform soon."

Another of the "speedboats", Openbank, could also arrive in the UK, following a successful launch in Spain, where it already claims 1.3 million customers.

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