New challenger bank in the UK – StreamBank

StreamBank is a new challenger bank in the UK, with a specialist focus on the property market. The start-up intends to provide savings and financing solutions, such as bridging and development finance, to property professionals.

New specialist bank in the UK – StreamBank

Headquartered in Cardiff, Wales, the bank was founded by Alex Pusco, who is its sole shareholder. He is also the founder of ActivTrades, a UK-based brokerage firm that provides an electronic trading platform to trade FX, contracts for difference, and spread betting.

StreamBank’s CEO is Steve Pateman. He previously had a one-year stint as CEO of Hodge, the parent company of Hodge Bank and Hodge Lifetime, and prior to that he was CEO of another UK challenger bank, Shawbrook, for three years. He also held senior roles at Santander and the Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest.

StreamBank applied for a banking licence last year and has now received a restricted authorisation, with the final approval and the full licence anticipated next year.

It will provide fixed term and notice savings accounts, short-term property loans between £250,000 and £5 million, bridging finance options, development finance products and commercial mortgages.

For its core banking platform, the start-up has selected domestic technology provider Mutual Vision and its MV Core Banking platform.

Commenting on the choice of tech, StreamBank CTO Paul Ramkumar (long-standing CIO of ActivTrades), comments: “Finding a platform provider that not only offered the core fundamentals of reliability and security but also provided an online cloud-based solution that had the customer at its core was central to our brief.

“Mutual Vision ticked all the boxes and over the past 12 months they have helped us shape the platform to provide the customer with a first-class experience, while giving us the option to rapidly deploy a wider product set in the future.”