Bank of Ireland UK has announced a new partnership with digital finance company Jaja Finance Limited
Under the partnership, Jaja – as part of a consortium of funds affiliated with Centerbridge Partners LP and KKR – will acquire the existing Bank of Ireland UK, Post Office and the AA credit card accounts for an initial cash consideration of c.£530m.
Jaja will also become the consumer credit card issuer for Bank of Ireland UK and its strategic long term partner the AA.
Jaja is led by CEO Neil Radley, former Managing Director of Barclaycard in Western Europe, who brings 30 years’ experience in the credit card and wider consumer lending market. It was founded by London-based Norwegian entrepreneurs – Jostein Svendsen, Kyrre Riksen and Per Elvebakk – each with a successful track-record of launching and scaling technology-led financial services businesses internationally.
Jaja’s technology platform has been built to offer customers a digitally-led experience focused on simplicity, functionality, service and security features.
The acquisition forms part of Jaja’s strategy to scale its UK credit card business by working in partnership with other financial institutions and consumer brands. This acquisition will build on Jaja’s portfolio which includes its own brand credit card, and a point of sale financing solution with ASDA’s George.com.
Neil Radley, CEO of Jaja Finance, said:
“This announcement with Bank of Ireland UK is an exciting and important development in Jaja’s journey and is part of our strategy to create partnerships that will help more people embrace a simpler way of managing credit. Our vision is to enable a new generation of mobile-first credit card products with unrivalled functionality, service and security. We’re excited to be welcoming Bank of Ireland UK customers as cardholders.”
The Bank’s customers can continue to use their credit cards as normal and will still have access to the same Customer Help & Support Service. Customers will be written to prior to the transfer of their credit card account to Jaja in 2020.
The sale excludes the Bank’s Northern Ireland commercial credit card portfolio. The Bank has confirmed that credit cards issued in the Republic of Ireland are not impacted.
