Alba Bank, the UK’s newest challenger bank dedicated to supporting SMEs, has partnered with ClearBank, the enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking, to manage payments for its customers.
Alba Bank will be leveraging ClearBank and Mambu’s partnership to offer near real-time payments to its customer base and will be accessing these services via a single API integration. Alba will be able to connect with multiple payment schemes, including Bacs, CHAPS and Faster Payments, all allowing transactions to clear rapidly and over a secure platform.
Founded by Scottish entrepreneur, Jim McColl in 2018, with its headquarters in Glasgow, Alba Bank was established to provide commercial finance to UK SMEs which remain underserved by the mainstream banks. Bucking the trend of remote contact centres favoured by the big banks, Alba is developing a network of regional commercial finance experts with the experience to work alongside SMEs as they grow.
Alba was, earlier this year, granted its banking licence by the UK Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) and the FCA, allowing it to move into mobilisation, during which time it is currently focusing on building out its team, operations and infrastructure.
Sandeep Kadam, Chief Technology Officer at Alba Bank, said: “Building our bank with industry-leading partners is the best way for Alba to scale quickly, in the knowledge that we’re being supported by the very best in the business. ClearBank has established a superb reputation among financial institutions and will provide us with the speed, agility and security that we need to help our SME customers grow and prosper.”
John Salter, Chief Customer Officer at ClearBank, added: “Just like Alba, ClearBank designed and built its entire IT system from scratch, bolstering competition and innovation in financial services, allowing for more efficient and cost-effective transactions for our customers. We’re delighted to be working with Alba as they prepare to launch and scale in the market.”
Following the recent appointments of Robert Sharpe as Chair and Andy Lewis as Chief Risk Officer, the bank has also announced a partnership with Mambu, the SaaS cloud-native lending engine which will enable Alba to build a variety of loan offerings tailored to customer needs.
Since launch in 2017, ClearBank has more than 700 employees based across the UK, with over 200 financial institutions using its platform. ClearBank works with 16 of the UK’s newest banks.