New bank for buy to let and property investment sectors

A new bank called Monument is aiming at property investors and established buy to let landlords seeking to grow their portfolios.

Its launch statement says it will focus on some 4.8m potential customers described as “mass affluent” - property investors, landlords and other entrepreneurs. 

Monument is offering clients buy to let and bridging loans to support experienced landlords to manage and grow their portfolios. Clients will be able to borrow up to £3m for BTL investments, supported by specialist relationship managers with what is called “deep experience of the market and understanding of client needs.”

The bank has already raised up to £60m in capital via funding rounds, including one just finished which gathered some £20m. 

Mintoo Bhandari, chief executive of Monument, says: “We are ready and eager to serve clients, who we believe have been lacking a bank that is being developed to serve their needs and service requirements. While we never planned to build and launch a bank in the middle of a global pandemic, the timing could not have been more relevant as the demand for, and comfort with, digital finance has accelerated dramatically over the past 18 months.

“We are very excited to take our first steps of addressing the substantial, aspirational, hard-working, asset-rich but time-poor community which holds trillions in wealth in the UK and which lacks the right financial services partner.

“We will be entirely focused on understanding our clients’ needs and providing them with great service, enabled by technology, which we think will set a new standard. Our goal is to create an institution that truly understands this community, helps them save and grow their wealth, but which also recognises that there is more to wealth than money. Today marks an important step for us towards achieving that goal as we launch for clients as a fully-licensed bank.”

In addition, the bank is developing a further suite of ancillary services specifically for the mass-affluent which will be launched in due course.