New Bank Start-Up Unit | Bank of England

Introduction

The New Bank Start-up Unit (NBSU) is a joint initiative set up by the UK’s financial regulators, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to give firms which are interested in, and/or currently applying for authorisation as a deposit-taker, the information and support they need to set up a bank in the UK.

Firms that want to become banks in the UK must be authorised by the PRA. Authorisation of a new bank also requires the consent of the FCA.

The PRA’s assessment will focus on their:

statutory objective to promote the safety and soundness of firms; and

secondary objective to facilitate effective competition between firms.

The FCA’s assessment will focus on their statutory objectives of:

protecting consumers;

protecting and enhancing the integrity of the UK financial system; and

promoting effective competition in the interests of consumers.

This page provides targeted information from both the PRA and FCA (‘we’ or ‘us’) for firms to use if they are thinking of setting up a bank in the UK, and for newly authorised banks. We encourage firms to actively reference this page and use it as a key source of information when developing their business proposition and documents.

This page has been developed as a reference tool for firms, which covers a number of key supervisory topics, it should not be treated as a comprehensive summary of all relevant laws, rules, and regulatory policies (‘Regulations’) applicable to newly authorised banks. Firms are responsible for considering the relevant Regulations and ensuring that they understand and fully comply with them.