Jeremy Takle and Ben Harvey have announced the launch of a digital bank called Pennyworth.
The company has already began the pre-application process to become an authorised UK bank in March 2020.
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Instead of competing for current account switchers, like most banks do, Pennyworth will use open banking and artificial intelligence to offer customers oversight of their existing accounts and a personalised banking service.
Pennyworth has also opened a waitlist with the goal of recruiting 1,000 ‘Pennyworth Pioneers’. Pioneers will gain advanced access to the company’s mobile banking app as part of beta testing in early 2021.
CEO Takle said: “Banking is broken and our mission is to fix it by making it easier for busy people with complex needs to achieve their financial goals. Traditional banks continue to exploit busy people by providing poor value, impersonal service, and the first wave of neobanks have failed to break that inertia because they are too busy battling to win current accounts that most people don’t want to switch.”
Jeremy Takle was Managing Director of Barclays Digital Consumer Bank, a U.S challenger bank he formed in 2016. Before that he was a member of Barclays UK Management Committee and led Barclays Consumer Lending to become the UK’s largest digital lender. Jeremy was also CFO and later CMO for Barclays Europe.
Ben Harvey was Commercial Director of Barclays Mortgages and before that Barclays Consumer Lending, transforming it into the UK’s largest digital lender. He was a member of the executive team that successfully grew EnterCard from start-up to a highly profitable business. Latterly he was advising fintechs Oakbrook Finance and Aire on product strategy and execution.
“We are building a digital bank for ‘aspiring affluent’ young professionals, busy people climbing the corporate ladder with complex financial needs, who would benefit hugely from personalised service and financial planning insights, but who struggle to access them in their traditional form,” said Ben Harvey, chief product officer of Pennyworth
