"Brokers will be absolutely crucial for us. All of our mortgage products will be distributed exclusively through intermediaries."
FR: What’s the latest on Bevan Money gaining bank status?
We have just completed the pre-application stage of the Bank of England’s New Bank Start-up Unit. The journey towards full authorisation is a long and difficult one, and that’s how it should be to be honest - as an industry we should only want banks that are fully committed and prepared to gain that authorisation. It takes much more than deep pockets (although that certainly helps!)
Thankfully, this stage is now complete. It is the longest stage of the authorisation process, and means that we can now submit a formal application to the regulators.
We aren’t quite there yet, but we can see an end to the journey to Bevan Money becoming a bank very soon.
FR: When is Bevan Money likely to launch?
We’ve made real progress on getting towards a formal launch date by completing the pre-application stage. As a result, we are planning on a full launch at some point in 2023/24.
In the meantime, we are doing a lot of work behind the scenes getting the infrastructure in place so that we are ready to hit the ground running once we achieve full authorisation. That has meant putting the right team in place, selecting the right supplier partners (Mark Making for our brand and marketing, CSI Limited for Managed IT, Whistlebrook and Sopra Banking Software), getting this technology up and running, finding our office location and of course building a compelling brand that helps us get across the story we want to tell.
As you’d expect, we’re equity funding so if this is of interest, please get in touch.
FR: What is it that Bevan Money aims to do differently?
Public sector workers have long played a hugely important role in the UK. Indeed, they are the bedrock of the society that we enjoy today, from teachers and civil servants, police officers to healthcare workers and those in the military.
And thankfully a lot of the time the excellent work that they do is publicly acknowledged and celebrated by the general public at least. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always extend to financial services, where all too often public sector workers find it much too difficult to obtain the funding they need in order to get onto the housing ladder.
The problem is that too many banks, building societies and other lenders take a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to borrowers. That’s great if the client has fairly vanilla circumstances and can fall within that criteria, but that isn’t always the case for public sector workers with their overtime/allowances which can be irregular.
We know from our conversations with these workers that they are essentially being priced out, and feel powerless to secure the homes and financial futures that they want. This stretches from younger workers at the start of their homeownership journey to older people who are perhaps stepping down from their jobs but do not have the right options to help them unlock some of the money tied up in their properties.
At Bevan Money, we believe that this is unacceptable and want to address it by delivering a bank with products that are specifically aimed at public sector workers. There are around 5.74 million people who work in the public sector, so that’s an awful lot of potential borrowers who stand to benefit from a lender that’s specifically focused on them and their needs.
It’s not just a question of fairness, either - by filling this gap and supporting public sector workers, we believe that we can help build a stronger and more equitable society which will support longer term financial health.
We also think that our brand will resonate with the public and this will enable us to establish our brand firmly into the UK Savings market and attract deposits which we will put to work in providing affordable mortgage lending products.
FR: What role will mortgage intermediaries play for Bevan Money?
Brokers will be absolutely crucial for us. All of our mortgage products will be distributed exclusively through intermediaries.
The vast majority of mortgages arranged in the UK go through brokers, and with good reason. No matter where you are on your home ownership journey, you can always make use of the expertise and guidance offered by brokers.
That’s particularly true for public sector workers, whose circumstances can be a little more complex and require the specialist helping hand of an intermediary. We are excited to get out and speak to brokers about our plans and how we can help their clients in the months ahead.
