Cashplus posts revenue record as it prepares to submit final banking licence
Cashplus, one of Britain’s longest-established digital challenger banks, has hailed a record year of revenues, as it gears up to submit its final banking license in the coming weeks.
The digital lender has told City PM that revenues rose 19 per cent year-on-year to £45.6m in March, while operating profits rose for the eighth consecutive year.
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Profits after tax fell to a reported £1.1m loss, with the firm citing an exceptional cost of £1.3m which it spent on preparing for its banking license application.
Cashplus is set to submit its final bank licence application in the next month, as it looks to grow its SME credit business and join the likes of Monzo and Starling in taking on Britain’s largest lenders.
“This is another outstanding performance for Cashplus, maintaining operating profit and rapid revenue growth against a backdrop of growing losses for many other UK fintechs,” said Rich Wagner, chief executive of Cashplus.
He added: “We’re on track to submit our final bank licence application in the next month, we’ve continued to improve and expand our products with more industry firsts, and we’re delighted to be recognised as a unicorn, when measured like-for-like against peers.”
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Cashplus, which holds roughly £300m, has its lending currently financed by debt.
It says that by becoming a bank, it will immediately reduce its cost of lending capital to effectively zero and will be able to (responsibly) utilise a significant portion of deposits
The firm projects that it will be able to hit £54m of pre-tax profits by 2024, “with a fairly modest increase” from seven per cent to 10 per cent share of new UK business accounts.