FirstRand to enter transactional banking in the UK
FirstRand has vowed not to take its eye off its South African business, as it plans its entry into transactional banking in the UK through Aldermore. A nine-year-old challenger bank with no branch network, Aldermore, for which FirstRand paid £1.1bn in 2017, gives the banking group a lending and deposit franchise in the world’s sixth largest economy — one that it plans to grow. Freshly armed with a UK banking licence, FirstRand will launch transactional banking through Aldermore, chiefly to attract more deposits. These will be used to fund its vehicle finance business MotoNovo, which is to be integrated within Aldermore as a separate pillar. All this would be done "steady Eddie" style, incoming group CEO Alan Pullinger said on Tuesday at the group’s interim results. "If we stuff it up, we won’t be forgiven." To attract greater deposits, Aldermore, which had deposits of £7.2bn at end-September, needed to offer transactional banking, he said. The plan was not to take on high-street ban...
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