Peer-to-peer lender Zopa said its new bank will launch with no teaser rates, no hidden fees and no current accounts.
“We want to offer simple fair products with no teaser rates and no hidden fees,” said the firm’s P2P chief executive Natasha Wear (pictured), speaking at the sixth annual AltFi London Summit held on Monday.
However, Wear added the business, which became the world’s first peer-to-peer lender in 2005, would offer a fixed-term savings account.
She said: “Customers say they want this type of service from us. We will offer the same rates to both existing and new customers." The group expects a "crossover" of customers between its peer-to-peer business and the much anticipated new bank, which has yet to set a launch date.
Wear pointed out that the UK savings market is worth £1,450bn, compared the the British peer-to-peer market valued at £5bn.
However, Wear said it would not launch a current account, simply adding the business “has little experience here”. She confirmed Zopa will also offer a credit card.
After a two-year application process Zopa was granted a banking licence with restrictions by regulator the Financial Conduct Authority in December 2018, under the terms of its agreement it must launch its bank by December of this year.
Zopa has facilitated loans between approximately 500,000 people in the UK since it was founded, and last month become the first peer-to-peer consumer lender in Europe to originate £4bn of loans.
Zopa, alongside Funding Circle and Ratesetter, is one of the UK’s ‘big three’ peer-to-peer lenders.
