Afin Bank, offering mortgages for African diaspora, wins UK licence

A new digital-only bank that plans to target the African diaspora living in Britain is preparing to start lending next year after securing a banking licence from City regulators.
Afin Bank is the latest in a string of new online lenders that have sprung up in recent years with the aim of taking market share from the big incumbent high street banks.
Unlike its rivals, Afin plans to focus on the roughly 1.5 million nationals of African countries who live in the UK, a cohort it believes is under-served by existing banks. It is majority-owned by WAICA Reinsurance Corporation, based in Sierra Leone, but is led by Jason Oakley, a veteran of British banking who spent almost two decades at Royal Bank of Scotland, which is now part of NatWest, before taking a senior role at Metro Bank and founding Recognise Bank.
One niche that Afin hopes to target is young African professionals who have moved to the UK but struggle to secure a mortgage from a mainstream bank because they have only lived in Britain for a relatively short time.
“Until you’ve got a credit footprint, they won’t consider you, which means you’re forced to rent for two to three years,” Oakley said.
Other bespoke products that Afin hopes to offer include buy-to-let mortgages for affluent individuals living in Africa who want to acquire investment properties in the UK to diversify their portfolios and shield themselves from the devaluation of their currencies. Oakley said that Afin would undertake enhanced due diligence on such overseas clients to combat attempts at money-laundering.
WAICA, which has offices in countries including Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, as well as Dubai, has committed £62 million to its Afin venture, of which £23 million has already been invested. The African insurer controls just over 90 per cent of the new bank, while the budding lender’s management team owns the rest. Afin is the new name for All Africa Capital, which Oakley has led for two years.
The start-up bank has secured so-called “authorisation with restrictions” from British regulators, a mobilisation period that can last up to a year and enables new lenders to finalise their operations. During this time it can only hold £50,000 in deposits.
Other digital-only lenders that have shaken up British banking in the last decade include Starling Bank, Monzo, Atom and Zopa Bank.
Revolut, the financial technology giant that started as a foreign exchange and money transfer business nine years ago, in July was also granted “authorisation with restrictions” after a three-year wait to win regulatory approval for a banking licence. The privately owned Revolut is considered the crown jewel of Britain’s fintech industry and in August was valued at $45 billion when employees of the company sold shares in the group.