Digital bank Kroo to help UK current account holders seize the rewards of its competitive AER.
The UK challenger Kroo launches its current account offering this week containing a two per cent AER (up to £85,000).
Along with its overdraft and deposit protection services, the bank’s competitively-priced current account seeks to put money back in customers’ pockets. In this light, international spending on cards incurs zero fees.
Its analysis of Bank of England data reveals the £271billion sitting idle in UK households’ non-interest-bearing sight deposits (as of 30 September 2022). That equates to £5.4billion in lost interest per year across UK households; or nearly £200 per household.
The bank adopts a ‘2&2’ model. This means that in addition to its AER, Kroo will plant two trees for every current account opening. The bank is achieving this through its charity partner One Tree Planted.
Kroo was granted a full UK banking licence this year. It remains the third bank to receive one since 2016.
Kroo is leveraging this licence to provide high-street bank-grade security combined with fintech customer service.
Kroo confirms its intended use of predictive technology to track spending in real time in the future. This strategy it hopes will help customers to make better financial decisions and stay on top of their transactions, as well as upcoming payments.
Building a bank
Kroo was established in 2016 by co-founder Nazim Valimahomed, an advertising veteran of more than 25 years. He joins CEO Andrea De Gottardo, an experienced banker with deep knowledge of the sector and risk and regulatory frameworks.
De Gottardo describes building a fully licensed bank from scratch as “exceptionally hard” and requiring “a huge amount of time, resilience and passion.”
Kroo “breaks the standard profit extraction logic of incumbents” and “focuses on genuinely having our customers’ backs,” he reassures. “Kroo is a bank that truly connects people financially and champions values our customers can identify with.”
Adding to this, Valimahomed identifies how industry barriers have allowed banks’ greed and complacency. For over a century, banks have reaped financial benefits “even at the expense of customers and the planet,” he says.
“We built Kroo to address this imbalance,” continues Valimahomed. “We want to improve the relationship people have with their banks and money. And ultimately, to give them more financial independence and control.”
Last year, Kroo won the ‘Best Newcomer 2021’ award from the British Bank Awards and the ‘Banking Innovation Newcomer’ award from the Finder Awards.
