Tandem Bank acquires lender Oplo to hit £1.2bn assets

Tandem Bank has been given the regulatory permission to fully acquire consumer lender Oplo, bringing its total assets to £1.2bn and customer base to 171,000.

Both firms are portfolio companies of Pollen Street Capital, a private equity and debt investor, that has been active in the fintech and alternative finance space for a number of years.

The acquisition will broaden Tandem’s product offering, it says, across a range of consumer lending products including first and second charge mortgages, home improvement loans, car finance and personal lending

Susie Aliker (pictured), the CEO of Tandem Bank will lead the new combined entity, which now has over 500 UK staff. 

She says the deal will create a bank “totally focused on helping our customers to make fairer and greener” financial choices.

“The two businesses are a great fit, bringing together a complimentary range of lending and savings products, with a shared common purpose to make a difference for our people, customers and the planet. With our flexible digital platform, new enlarged scale and strong profitability, Tandem is fantastically well positioned to become one of the UK’s leading digital banks,” she said.

Oplo was launched in 2009 by Alex Mollart, who is the new deputy CEO of Tandem Bank, and then sold to Pollen Street in 2016

“We have built Oplo into one of the UK’s leading consumer lenders with a clear mission to offer financially fair lending products, helping hard-working people across the UK who are often overlooked and underserved by traditional lenders,” he said.

Ricky Knox founded Tandem in 2014 and left the business in May 2021, slightly less than a year after Pollen Street invested in its last funding round. It is no stranger to M&A having acquired Harrods Bank in 2018 and Allium Lending Group in 2020.

The acquisition has received regulatory approval and will complete before the end of January 2022.