Launched in November 2021, the on-line Bank of London remains under investigation by City watchdogs and faces “significant doubts” over its future, latest accounts show, as losses mount at the troubled fintech.
The challenger clearing bank recorded a net loss of £24 million for the year ending December 31, 2024, almost double its £12.4 million loss the previous year, according to corporate filings. The accounts said the losses were the result of investment in infrastructure and hiring “the high-calibre workforce required.” Losses were in line with directors’ expectations, the accounts added.
Net assets fell from £26.7 million to £22.1 million over the year, while net interest income rose from £1.2 million to £2.7 million. The bank submitted the results at Companies House on January 23. It was the second year running that it had missed the statutory deadline
Since 2024, Bank of London has attempted to recover from a string of financial and regulatory setbacks that have put its governance under scrutiny. The firm disclosed in May that the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) was investigating it over “historical matters”.
“The firm remains subject to enhanced regulatory supervision from the PRA and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA),” the latest accounts read. “There is a pathway to removing these measures based on the resolution of the various underlying matters that is underway as at the date of signing these financial statements.”
Bank of London’s auditor EY warned in the accounts that unfavourable or punitive outcomes from the ongoing regulatory probe could result in significant penalties, remediation costs, or restrictions, increasing financial pressure”.
EY reiterated “significant doubts” over Bank of London’s ability to continue as a going concern, with “material uncertainty surrounding the current funding” despite shareholders’ commitment to inject capital into the group.
“Owing to significant turnover of staff and inadequate record keeping creating challenges to the retrieval of historical data, the directors have been unable to conclude on the completeness, accuracy and disclosure of the employee share scheme records,” EY added.
To avoid “further additional delays” to the accounts, the bank agreed with EY to provide only limited information on share-based payments, according to the accounts.
A spokesperson of the bank said the 2024 performance was “under entirely different leadership and ownership” and that the results “reflect continued progress on a comprehensive transformation.”
Accounts for the Bank of London’s holding company, which changed its name to Oplyse last year, have still not been published despite originally being due in September. The holding company previously boasted high profile board members, including Labour party grandee Peter Mandelson and Carlyle boss Harvey Schwartz- both of whom quit in October 2024.
“I don’t understand how a bank is permitted to repeatedly file late accounts without regulatory sanctions,” said Dan Neidle, former UK head of tax at law firm Clifford Chance and founder of think-tank Tax Policy Associates.
Anthony Watson, who founded Bank of London in 2016 and which was valued at $1.1 billion in a February 2023 fundraiser, stepped down as its CEO in September 2024, two days before its holding company briefly became the subject of a winding-up petition from the UK’s tax authority – which the firm blamed on an “administrative error”.
While on the issue of investigations in banks, I can mention here that German prosecutors have searched Deutsche Bank’s offices in Frankfurt and Berlin as part of an investigation into allegations of money laundering.
The Frankfurt prosecutor’s office said on January 28 that it was conducting a preliminary investigation into managers and employees of Deutsche Bank on suspected money laundering. The bank has maintained business relationships with foreign companies that are suspected of having been used for money laundering in other investigations, the prosecutor’s office added.
A Deutsche Bank spokesman said. “The bank has cooperated fully with the public prosecutor’s office. We cannot comment further.”
Andy Jalil
The writer is our foreign correspondent based in the UK.
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