A challenger bank which has amassed a substantial customer base of Britain’s wealthiest savers is in talks about raising £200m in private funding before pursuing a US flotation which would raise further questions about the attractiveness of the London market.
Sky News has learnt that Monument Bank, which now has roughly £5bn in assets, has told existing and potential investors that it is targeting a listing on New York’s Nasdaq exchange by the end of 2027, with a secondary listing on a major Middle Eastern or Indian exchange possible the following year.
The British-based lender, whose founding chairman was the former Co-operative Bank chief executive Niall Booker, has already raised about £135m from blue-chip investors since it launched in 2019.
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It has now secured roughly £30m of the £200m Series C financing it wants to raise during the course of this year.
Insiders said the bank was expected to be valued at around £1bn after the fundraising completes.
Monument Bank – named after the famous commemoration to the Great Fire of London in the City – wants to become the bank of choice for approximately 4.8 million professionals, entrepreneurs, property investors and other mass-affluent customers in the UK.
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To date, it is said to have opened more than 60,000 accounts.
It counts Monument Technology Limited, which recently completed a separate funding round, as a subsidiary, although some of the technology arm’s investors are not among the bank’s shareholders.
In response to an enquiry from Sky News, Ian Rand, the former Barclays executive who is now chief executive of Monument Bank, confirmed that it was aiming to raise up to £200m.
“We anticipate that this will be our final fundraise that will support our product and international expansion, and fund our path to listing,” he said.
“We will explore all options for listing and make the final decision at the appropriate time.”
One banking source said other exchange venues had not been ruled out, but marketing materials circulated in connection with the Series C round make explicit reference to the desire for a Nasdaq listing.
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A decision to list overseas would be perceived as another blow to the London Stock Exchange given the company’s name and heritage.
Other so-called challenger banks, such as Monzo, have been at the centre of speculation recently about whether they would seek to float in London or New York.
Shawbrook Bank has drawn up plans to go public in London this year, Sky News reported last month.
Monument Bank has already built a customer base with deposits far in excess of most UK peers, at more than £60,000 on average.
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It also wants to secure banking licences in Dubai and India, according to one of its existing shareholders.
