Farewell, Harrods Bank
UK-based challenger bank Tandem has singed an agreement to acquire Harrods Bank.
Tandem says it will “benefit from around £80 million of capital coming into the business”. It will also provide Tandem with a banking licence.
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals.
On completion, the Harrods brand will disappear and the bank will operate under the Tandem name and brand.
“The acquisition will allow us to scale the business and ensure we can introduce as many people as possible to a new way of banking,” states Ricky Knox, founder of Tandem.
Earlier this year, Tandem lost a major investor, upmarket retail chain House of Fraser, and with it a potential investment of £35 million.
It also surrendered its deposit-taking (i.e. banking) licence and axed 30 jobs.
Harrods Bank, meanwhile, was looking for a buyer to help its struggling business. The bank has been ramping up losses over the years – in 2015 its losses were £4.9 million, and in 2016 they grew to £8.4 million.
The bank is also currently in the process of implementing a new core banking system, Temenos’ T24.
Tandem is a user of the Agiliti platform from Fiserv. Agiliti is a shared Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, hosted by Blue Chip. It has around 18 Fiserv and partner applications, including Fiserv’s Signature core banking system.
During its system selection a couple of years back, Tandem also evaluated Temenos and its T24 platform, Banking Technology understands.
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