The Bank of London Opens Doors at $1B Valuation

The Bank of London is opening its doors on Tuesday (Nov. 30) as a new financial institution that aims to serve as the first purpose-built global clearing, agency, and transaction bank worldwide, according to a press release.

Founded by Anthony Watson, who serves as group chief executive, the bank is the sixth principal clearing bank of the U.K., tasked with powering the “borderless economic infrastructure of the future.” The Bank of London is the second new clearing bank in over 250 years.

Watson, Barclays former chief information officer for Europe, Middle East and global operations, is leading an executive team of industry movers and shakers and is heading the first pre-revenue bank in history with unicorn status — $1.1 billion valuation — upon its launch.

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“We’ve spent over four years working quietly in the background, bringing together veteran banking experts, leading creative innovators and visionary technologists to build, patent and validate truly game-changing technologies and innovations to transform the very fundamentals of banking,” Watson said.

“We leverage our leading-edge proprietary technology innovations and differentiated bank capabilities to remove unnecessary risk, unlock liquidity and deliver revolutionary products and services at significantly lower costs to enable near-instant settlement without a financial intermediary in the flow of funds,” Watson added.

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The bank recently raised $90 million led by ForgeLight, with participation by 14W Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital. The bank has so far raised a total of $120 million. The Bank of London is now ranked as one of the U.K.’s top 10 most valuable FinTechs.

Its international growth strategy is already in the works and the bank has held advanced talks with regulators in the European Union (E.U.) and North America (N.A.). The bank is also planning to hire more than 3,000 people in the U.K., E.U. and N.A.

“The Bank of London is going to address an arcane part of the global financial system – the sleepy worlds of clearing and global transaction banking,” said Harvey Schwartz, Group Chairperson of The Bank of London.