When digital banks first arrived on the scene a decade ago, Britain’s high street rivals were rattled. Centuries-old institutions that had never seen much competition were suddenly threatened by a group of twenty-something coders in T-shirts.
It was an opportune time to disrupt the sector. The 2008 financial crash had wrought havoc on the high street stalwarts — some of whom needed emergency bail-outs from government. Their reputation was in the doldrums, along with their share price, and there was little room for investment.
No one with a computer science degree wanted to work at a bank, because they were uncool — and they weren’t building much, anyway. And with interest rates at record lows, Brits were hardly in love with their current account providers....