Banking outside the box – meet APS financial

The UK doesn’t need another bank. We have established high-street banks, online only banks, and now a stream of new challenger banks. But it does need better and simpler banking.

That’s where we come in. Since we launched ten years ago, we have been leading the revolution to deliver barrier-free digital banking services, working tirelessly on our mission to simplify banking for those small business and consumer groups for whom access to traditional banking services continues to be a challenge.

During this time, we have taken great pride in being a company of ‘firsts’ – forging the way to be the first EMI (Electronic Money Issuer) and non-bank issuer to gain MasterCard membership in 2007, the first to implement credit building facility on a debit card solution, the first EMI with Faster Payments and Direct Debit, and most recently, becoming the only non-bank to offer real time banking services to our CashPlus account holders, through the Post Office’s 11,500 branches. We are now one of the few digital banking alternatives that holds both FCA e-money and credit licenses, allowing us to offer a full suite of services and lending products that have traditionally been reserved for the high street banks.

Never has the word ‘bank’ been so easily divorced from ‘the provisions of banking services’ – there are more creative ways to deliver banking services than the traditional approach of becoming a regulated bank. Leveraging data and technology, we've already built a suite of versatile digital products and services that are based on instant acceptance and real-time, anywhere access. From our consumer and business accounts to currency cards and alternative lending products, we’re changing the very nature of how financial services work.

We have now marked this evolution, and our new position in the market with a new trading name – APS financial.

 What does simple, and barrier free mean to us?

•  Instant digital current and card accounts – decisioned in seconds for immediate use
• Instant online currency exchange – into a currency account of a customer’s choosing
• No fail Direct Debit lending  – a globally unique service for customer’s short on money which simultaneously alerts  and offers an emergency loan to stop the payment rejecting 
• Real-time emergency overdraft – right at checkout, online and in-store, to instantly cover a shortfall

In the coming months and years, the definition of what it means to be ‘a bank’ will continue to evolve, as FinTech firms get even smarter at using APIs, web services and clever partnerships to be able to offer the full range of services they wish to offer.

We’re on a mission to create a new kind of digital banking culture – proving that you truly don’t need a bank, to bank.