Challenger Bank OakNorth Partners with Clearbank to Leverage Payment Tech

UK challenger bank OakNorth will use Clearbank’s platform to provide real-time payments and agency banking to its clients. The collaboration will begin with OakNorth using ClearBank’s Faster Payments infrastructure. The challenger bank was attracted to ClearBank’s API and virtual account support capabilities and hopes to build a long-term strategic partnership with the fintech provider. OakNorth provides debt finance between £500,000 and £45 million to businesses and property developers and investors. Since its launch, OakNorth has lent over £2.6 billion and raised deposits from more than 36,000 customers. In the beginning of February 2018, OakNorth closed a $440 million funding round with the SoftBank Vision Fund and the Clermont Group as it set its sights on international expansion. ClearBank is the first new clearing bank in 250 years and was one of the three banks recently awarded some money in the first round of the RBS innovation fund.