Wyelands Bank in ownership, brand and core banking software overhaul
New bank to boost UK manufacturing
Wyelands Bank (formerly Tungsten Bank) is relaunching in 2017 with a new core banking system, Banking Technology understands.
It is understood that the new system of choice is Olympic, supplied by Switzerland-based banking software vendor ERI. It will replace the legacy Misys’ Equation platform.
“We are not currently at a stage where we can provide any comments,” the bank told Banking Technology.
The small UK-based bank, owned by Tungsten Corporation, received the regulatory approval to be taken over by Wyelands Holdings in November 2016. The £30 million acquisition is expected to close before the year end.
It will relaunch with a new identity and focus as a specialist provider of financial solutions to commodities, steel and engineering enterprises.
Olympic has a broad international user base consisting mainly of private banks.
In the UK, ERI’s customers are BFC Bank (a new challenger bank), CBH London (a subsidiary of Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique) and Kleinwort Hambros. The latter, however, is planning to move away from Olympic onto a new platform developed by FNZ.
Sanjeev Gupta, Liberty House Group
A boost to UK manufacturing
Wyelands is part of Gupta Family Alliance, which also owns Liberty House Group, an international business focused on metals trading and the manufacture and distribution of steel and advanced engineering products. It has offices in 30 countries worldwide, a turnover of $4.3 billion and nearly 3,000 people on the payroll.
The group’s executive chairman is Sanjeev Gupta. Gupta is behind the Greensteel strategy that aims “to rejuvenate the UK manufacturing by creating a competitive, low-carbon sector based on renewable energy, re-melting of UK scrap steel and downstream engineering integration to make innovative products”.
The acquisition of Tungsten/Wyelands Bank is part of the strategy to support the UK manufacturing, Liberty House Group states.
The group has been very busy throughout 2016, including the acquisition of EAF, (casting equipment, rod and bar mill in Sheerness), Tata Steel plate plants in Scotland, and Mabey Bridge Asset (renewable energy factory in Monmouthshire).
It also reopened structural hollow sections mill in Tredegar, South Wales, as well as the Dalzell Steel mill.
In October, it launched Liberty Metal Recycling, a new business focused on the UK, Europe and the US.
In November, it reached an agreement to purchase the hydro-power and aluminium smelting operation at Lochaber near Fort William, Scotland, from Rio Tinto Aluminium.
It is also currently in negotiations to acquire Tata Steel UK’s Speciality Steels business.
