A group of well-known fintech pioneers behind the likes of Monzo, Starling and Nutmeg are launching a bank for high net worth individuals.
Dubbed 'Project Arnaud', the initiative is the brainchild of Jason Bates, who co-founded Monzo and Starling, David M Brear, group CEO of the consultancy 11:FS, and Max Koretskiy, who is one of the founders of Zürich-based wealth management services company, Blackshield Capital.
Brear explains: “The likes of Monzo and Starling are light-years ahead for basic retail banking but when high net worth individuals graduate to the organisations looking to serve them, they are often full of hidden fees, archaic account opening and reporting that looks as if it was faxed in from the 1990s.
"A wealthy client recently told me he can order a Tesla in three clicks on his phone, but when he wants to adjust his investment portfolio, it takes three weeks of phone calls, emails, and scanned forms. That’s the gap between what modern life looks like and what wealth services still deliver.”
The group - currently operating through 11:FS Holdings Limited - has earmarked £50 million so far and is expecting to begin another investment round shortly.
The team behind the project are not the only fintech pioneers eyeing the market. Anthony Thomson, the founder of Metro Bank and Atom Bank, is also seeking to shake up the private banking market with the creation of a new international bank to serve family offices and ultra high-net-worth individuals.
Thomson has set a late 2026 timeline for go-live, catering to wealthy individuals and investment groups who are seeking more personalised financial services.
Globally, the wealth management industry oversees more than $255 trillion of assets. In the UK alone, it’s over £1.3 trillion. And an estimated £5.5 trillion is set to pass between generations in the UK and EU by 2030.
Proect Arnaud's Max Koretskiy says the opportunity is huge.
“The largest wealth transfer in history is colliding with rising client expectations, shaped by consumer tech." he explains. “Over £1 trillion will change hands over the 2020s in the UK alone, resulting in a five times increase of wealth held by millennials. And the next generation of wealth owners are digitally native and they’re going to demand the very best in banking and wealth management to manage their money - and that’s precisely what we’re going to provide.”