Fintech vendor APS Financial gets UK credit licence
Rich Wagner, APS Financial
Advanced Payment Solutions (trading as APS Financial) has secured a credit licence from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
This development allows APS to carry out consumer credit lending (including high-cost short-term credit lending) to its customer base of micro SMEs, sole traders and consumers.
Rich Wagner, CEO and founder, APS Financial, says: “This credit licence now completes our suite of financial licences, allowing us to conduct complete banking services, standing as proof that you do not need to be a bank to offer banking services.”
APS now holds both FCA e-money and credit licences, and says it can offer traditional credit cards, account overdrafts and loans, and specific credit products.
One of these specific products is “Debit Protect” – a solution that provides “instant one-off loans to customers who are predicted to have a direct debit fail on the following day”.
The company sees itself as a “bank challenger” with a “mission to revolutionise” the UK’s digital banking landscape. It was founded ten years ago and since then has issued 1.3 million+ cards and processed £4 billion worth of payments.
Boom or bust?
While APS is not a bank, it competes against them. It also has to contend with the UK’s digital banking space, which is lively and crowded.
Many new banks are trying to muscle into the banking sector, spurred on by the reduced barriers to entry and calls for competition. Will this boom be followed by a bust?
