Zopa Bank acquires brand and tech assets as part of corporate restructure
ZOPA Group has undergone a restructure, giving the new banking arm oversight of the brand, technology and staff.
The latest annual report from Zopa’s peer-to-peer lending division revealed that it sold the Zopa brand and technology assets to Zopa Bank for £3.8m last year and that it expects to transfer “the significant majority” of remaining staff and technology assets to the bank business in 2019. It will then receive these services from Zopa Bank as part of an intra-group outsourcing agreement. An industry analyst said that this restructure was likely for tax or regulatory reasons.
“In 2018, we changed our corporate structure in line with launching the bank,” a Zopa spokesperson told Peer2Peer Finance News via email.
“Zopa’s bank entity will operate all processes relating to the products that the bank plans to offer, therefore all assets and people that will support these products are also moving to sit under this entity.”
Zopa announced in 2016 that it was launching a digital bank, which would run alongside its P2P business. It was granted a provisional banking licence last December.
Zopa Group said in its latest annual report that its key priorities for 2019 would be the continued development of its bank and the completion of the capital raise required to enable the regulators to lift the remaining restrictions on its banking licence.