A new bank that is aiming to launch in Newcastle is hoping to create around 120 jobs in a boost to the North East’s growing finance sector.
GBB has been invited to apply for a banking licence and hopes to begin lending and taking deposits by the middle of next year.
The proposed bank is aiming to specialise in lending to property developers, initially in the North but ultimately around all of the regions of the 海角视频 except London and the South East.
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It is also hoping to take deposits from investors, offering bonds starting at £5,000 and going up to £100,000.
GBB currently has around 20 employees at its initial base in Newcastle city centre. It is looking for permanent premises that will allow it to triple its headcount to more than 60 in readiness for launching, and could ultimately employ around 120 people in the city.
Chief executive Steve Deutsch, who was previously chief executive at the Weslyan Bank in the Midlands, said: “This is a great story for the North East. There’s tremendous opportunities for people in finance but also marketing, audit, compliance, customer services and HR. My door is being knocked on all the time by headhunters.
“We’re very pleased to be in this part of the world where we have people like Virgin Money, Atom Bank and Newcastle Building Society. There’s already a number of financial institutions so there are opportunities for us to get some of their people and also to bring people in.
“We’re much smaller than them but it is 120 jobs and that’s not be sniffed at.”
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GBB plans to support residential property development projects of around 10 to 40 houses and commercial properties of between 1,000 sqm and 3,000 sqm.
It estimates that this will support the development of around 12,400 residential properties and over 500 commercial properties.
The property development fund is part of an overall lending plan of £2.9bn with around £2.6bn dedicated to supporting regional property developers and small constructions companies. A total of £2bn will be lent across the North, Midlands and Scotland.
For savers, GBB aims to offer competitive fixed-rate deposit rates with bonds of one or two years.
GBB is now focussed on raising the finance it needs for its launch. It currently has more than £10m in investment but ultimately aims to raise around £210m.
As well as Mr Deutsch, who worked within Lloyds Banking Group for 20 years before become chief executive of the Wesleyan Bank, GBB’s management team has people who have worked in senior roles at Atom Bank, Virgin Money and Santander.