Harrods Bank to be acquired by Digital Challenger Tandem
The new UK digital bank Tandem, which previously lost its banking licence after losing some of its start-up capital, has announced that it will acquire Harrods Bank. The acquisition will provide £80m of capital as well as a banking licence to allow Tandem to bring forward it's digital ambitions in the Tandem app.
The banking department of Harrods was founded in 1893, offering customers of the Victorian age a place to transact their financial affairs with comfort and convenience while visiting Knightsbridge. It was transformed in 1969 to provide a fuller range of services both domestically and internationally and in 1988, the bank began trading under the name of Harrods Bank Ltd.
Tandem was previously in the news after losing £35m of agreed investment from House of Fraser after the department store's Chinese owner, Sanpower, restricted capital during a crackdown on capital leaving Beijing. This meant that Tandem's banking licence application collapsed as they had received only £6m of the £35m required for their capital adequacy. As a result, staffing numbers fell from 120 to 80. In a blog post covering the proposed acquisition, Tandem stated that their 'future is secured'.
We will keep you abreast as the acquisition progresses. Should you wish to discuss this further, please do give us a call on 0191 4813777 and we'll be happy to discuss.