Over the coming months CivilisedBank will focus on meeting its regulatory capital requirements and on developing its technology and operations platform ahead of launch early next year.

CivilisedBank will not have branches but will operate through a network of Local Bankers backed by an innovative, yet tried-and-tested technology platform being deployed for the first time in the UK. Its unique, branchless local banker network will help build one-to-one relationships, without the traditional costs associated with high street banks.

CivilisedBank will target owner-managers of small and medium-sized UK businesses by offering businesses current accounts with deposits, transaction banking, overdrafts, foreign currency exchange, investments, savings and loans. It will also address the UK retail market with specific savings and investment products.

Led by a team with a proven track record in the UK financial services industry including Santander, Handelsbanken, HSBC, Societe Generale, Lloyds and Bank of Scotland, CivilisedBank will include the only person to have built and launched two new UK banks and a credit union.

The management team1 of CivilisedBank includes Christopher Jolly (Chairman), Gordon Dow (Chief Executive Officer), Hazel Hellier (Chief Business Development Officer) and Fiona Archbold (Project Manager), and has been further strengthened with the appointment of Mike O’Connor as Chief Strategy Officer.

Mike O’Connor is a leading alternative asset manager who joins from Arrowgrass where he led the firm’s corporate development and structuring team. Prior to that he was a portfolio manager at GLG Partners and he was also heavily involved in designing the exit strategy for UKFI of state owned banking assets through gifting shares in banks to taxpayers.

Chris Jolly, Chairman, CivilisedBank said: “Applying for a full banking licence is a major milestone for CivilisedBank and places us firmly on track for a customer launch early in 2017. Customers remain poorly served by the incumbent banks, which is why our team of local bankers will be responsive to their financial needs. We will bring back the best of banking: one-to-one relationship banking for business customers, enabled by the latest banking technology.”

CivilisedBank will be driven by the Profile FMS.Next banking engine, a proven technology platform, which is being used already by a number of European banks. The technology will allow CivilisedBank to deliver state-of-the-art customer service and products through an interface with unparalleled usability. It will allow low-cost, flexible operations delivering the sort of service bank customers would expect from a civilised bank.