Five fintech firms scoop combined £25m from RBS competition fund
Five fintech firms have been awarded a combined £25m from an RBS competition fund designed to boost business banking competition.
Codat, Fluidly, Form3, Funding Options and Swoop Finance were all given £5m in Pool D of the £775m fund, where the focus shifted to the commercialisation of fintech.
Read more: Metro, Starling and Clearbank win £280m from RBS competition fund
The capability and innovation fund was a condition of the government’s £45bn bailout of RBS during the financial crisis.
The first round of the fund saw challenger bank trio Metro Bank, Starling Bank and ClearBank given a combined £280m earlier this year.
Metro Bank received the largest share – £120m – despite discovering a major loans blunder the just weeks earlier.
In Pool B, The Co-operative Bank, Nationwide and Investec were granted a total of £80m to modernise existing business account offerings.
Pool D, which has been awarded ahead of Pool C, has been designed to push fintech relevant to small and medium sized businesses.
Read more: Eleven banks chosen to join £350m RBS incentivised switching scheme
“There is a vibrant and varied fintech community across the UK and Europe and BCR received a diverse range of strong, ambitious and innovative applications,” BCR chairman Godfrey Cromwell said.
“Those selected provide services ranging from lending to international payments, from cash flow management to technology infrastructure, and are an exciting addition to the portfolio of grants to date,” he added.