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Bank of London (clearing bank)
Clearing bank From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Bank of London is a British clearing bank launched on 30 November 2021[6] as the United Kingdom’s sixth principal clearing bank. It operates an API-based payments and clearing platform and is a participant in the UK Faster Payments and Bacs systems.[7][8][9]
In January 2025, Christopher Horne was appointed chief executive and Monique Melis as chair of the board, as part of an investor-led restructuring that also brought board changes.[10][11] The bank has partnered with SAP Fioneer to integrate the Cloud for Banking platform within its technology stack.[12]
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The bank was founded by Anthony Watson, , who left in 2024.[13][7][14] In 2021, Harvey Schwartz was appointed as Group Chairperson and Non-executive Director.[15]
The executive team spent four years prior to the bank's launch creating proprietary technology which allowed them to enter the market with a $1.1 billion valuation. It became the first pre-revenue bank to achieve 'unicorn' status. The bank had raised $120 million in funding within weeks of opening for business. Its funding within its first month put it within the UK's top 10 most valuable fintech firms. In December 2021, it was in talks with three additional investment firms to raise additional funding.[16]
The bank uses cloud-based core banking technology and a software as a service (SAAS) delivery model.[17] The bank's goals are to take on established banks in the market for clearing and settlement, deliver global banking transactions for the corporate market, and to provide SAAS to assist companies in embedding payments into their products.[18]
In June 2022 the bank announced it was to open an office in Belfast,[19] in order to capitalize on Belfast's high concentration of fintech employment.[20] The office opened on 17 August 2022, with the Economic Minister of Northern Ireland, Gordon Lyons, visiting on the opening day.[21]
In August 2022 the bank announced it would be creating a technology hub in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has signed an 11-year lease for 40,000 square feet (3,716 m2) in Uptown Charlotte in 101 Independence Center to house 350 staff. The bank chose Charlotte for its talent pool and ranking as the second-largest banking city in the US behind New York City.[22][23][24]
In February 2023, the bank secured an additional $40 million as an extension to its Series C funding. Investors of this round were Mangrove Capital Partners, 14W Venture Capital, and ForgeLight Investment Funds.[25]
Beginning in May of 2024, the bank laid off the remainder of its US workforce. This left no one in the New York or Charlotte, North Carolina offices.
On 5 September 2024, HMRC petitioned to wind up the bank's parent holding company Bank of London Group Holdings Limited.[26] However, on 9 September 2024, the bank stated that it had since paid all its taxes and the HMRC petition was the result of an administrative error on the part of Bank of London.[27]
New Leadership and Ownership
In late September 2024, the bank announced changes to its board of directors, including the departure of several non-executive members and the transition to a new governance structure.[28][29]
On 20 January 2025, the bank named Christopher Horne (former UK CEO of Credit Suisse) as group chief executive, in the context of an investor-led restructuring backed by Mangrove Capital Partners.[30][31]
In 2025, subsequent hires included Tony Bullman (Chief Financial Officer, former CFO at Credit Suisse) and Tom Howie (Chief Transformation Officer, former COO at HSBC) in June/July. Hana Rolles (Chief Commercial Officer) joined in August, followed by Aris Asimakis (Chief Risk & Compliance Officer) later that month.[32][33][34]
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