Italy’s FinecoBank to expand to UK
FinecoBank has its sights set on the UK
The UK’s challenger bank sector is set to gain another player. Unicredit’s subsidiary, FinecoBank, is coming to the UK this autumn, according to City AM.
FinecoBank has been around since the late 1990s and today has over 1.1 million clients in its home market of Italy and €55 billion of assets.
Alessandro Foti, CEO and GM of FinecoBank and head of asset gathering at Unicredit, claims FinecoBank is the only entity in Europe to offer traditional banking alongside stockbroking and investing on a single platform.
Another differentiator is that instead of standard bank branches it has “shops” where customers can seek help from staff regarding online banking or discuss more complex matters face-to-face with a financial planner. The bank has 350 such “shops” across Italy.
It is understood FinecoBank will launch in the UK initially with current accounts, individual saving accounts (ISAs), self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) and execution-only stock broking. Financial planners will not be part of the early offering.
In another development, Bloomberg has recently reported that Unicredit is looking to fully dispose of FinecoBank. Earlier this month, it sold a 10% stake, which netted €328 million.
Want to know more about the UK’s challenger bank space? Click here to read the latest instalment by our fintech columnist, Devie Mohan.
