Fintech Pioneers Behind Monzo, Starling, and Nutmeg to Launch Bank for High Net Worth Individuals

The fintech pioneers behind the likes of Monzo, Starling and Nutmeg are launching a bank for high net worth individuals.

“Project Arnaud” as it’s known internally is the brainchild of Jason Bates, who co-founded Monzo and Starling, David M Brear, who as Group CEO of the consultancy 11:FS has created fintechs around the world, and Max Koretskiy, who is one of the founders of Zürich-based wealth management services company, Blackshield Capital.

David Brear, 44, explains: “The likes of Monzo and Starling are light-years ahead for basic retail banking but when high net worth individuals graduate to the organisations looking to serve them, they are often full of hidden fees, archaic account opening and reporting that looks as if it was faxed in from the 1990s. Project Arnaud aims to change all that.”

The team believes that the time is right for a multi-generational, digital wealth solution targeting the financially ambitious. And with decades of collective experience across the industry, they have witnessed first hand the problems big corporations are just not solving.

Brear continues: “A wealthy client recently told me he can order a Tesla in three clicks on his phone, but when he wants to adjust his investment portfolio, it takes three weeks of phone calls, emails, and scanned forms. That’s the gap between what modern life looks like and what wealth services still deliver.”

Jason Bates, 53 adds: “Above all, there’s a need for financial clarity. People are opening four or five bank accounts in different jurisdictions, with different currencies, and having to manage that all themselves. This joint account here, that pocket money account there, this account I’ve got for my personal ‘slush funds’, an account with an overseas bank for my ski chalet. All of those things should be able to be delivered by one provider, sharing access, having some automation, helping you just manage it all. The mass market is doing that with two or three bank accounts. We can do something so much better.”

And the opportunity is huge, globally, the wealth management industry oversees more than $255 trillion of assets. In the UK alone, it’s over £1.3 trillion. And an estimated £5.5 trillion is set to pass between generations in the UK and EU by 2030.

Max Koretskiy, 44, explains: “The largest wealth transfer in history is colliding with rising client expectations, shaped by consumer tech.

“Over £1 trillion will change hands over the 2020s in the UK alone, resulting in a five times increase of wealth held by millennials. And the next generation of wealth owners are digitally native and they’re going to demand the very best in banking and wealth management to manage their money – and that’s precisely what we’re going to provide.”

The group – currently operating through 11:FS Holdings Limited – has earmarked £50 million so far and is expecting to begin another investment round shortly.

www.11fsholdings.com