Royal Bank of Scotland has hired Marieke Flament from cryptocurrency outfit Circle to lead Mettle, a new standalone digital bank for SMEs.
Unveiled by RBS subsidiary NatWest as a pilot in November, Mettle is set for a full launch within the next couple of months, according to the Financial Times.
Flament has been brought in as chief executive of the unit after more than three years at Circle, where she was managing director for Europe. She is also a board member, fintech, of the Women in Finance Charter.
Developed in partnership with 11:FS and Capco, Mettle will allow customers to open a business current account in minutes, forecast their business performance, create invoices from their mobile phone and provide reminders for chasing payments. All of these features will be wrapped in a single mobile app with a debit card.
Says Flament: “There is a huge opportunity for disruption in SME digital banking. Insight and feedback garnered during the pilot stage have shown that we are in a very strong position to capitalize on this opportunity through Mettle."
NatWest has also recently been staffing up its upcoming consumer digital bank, Bó, hiring the founder and 17 employees of Loot, a millennial-focused app that went into administration last month.