Amicus Finance applies for banking licence
The UK specialist lender to SMEs has submitted a banking licence application to the regulatory authorities.
The UK specialist lender to SMEs has submitted a banking licence application to the regulatory authorities.
UK specialist financial services group Amicus Finance has submitted a banking licence application to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Subject to Authorisation it anticipates receiving its licence in 2017, which “will enable Amicus to fulfil its long term growth objectives by accessing an alternative and efficient source of funding”. Ahead of authorisation, the group will convert £30m of the debt currently used to fund its lending activities into equity, which will form the capital base of the bank’s operations.
Since its formation in 2009, Amicus has expanded its specialist lending activities and provides short term property loans, small and medium enterprise (SME) lending and working capital solutions through its three divisions, Amicus Property Finance, Amicus Commercial Finance and Norton Folgate.
The group has also strengthened its senior management team and governance structure by appointing David Fisher, Alex Shapland and Paul Stevens as non-executive directors to the Board. David Fisher is former chief executive officer (CEO) of Sainsbury’s Bank, Alex Shapland was previously a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Paul Stevens is the former head of Investec Private Bank in the UK.