UK-based LHV Bank has announced its partnership with online savings platform Raisin UK in order to expand into the personal savings market. The partnership follows the LHV Bank’s plan to launch its direct-to-customer savings offering which is set to go live in 2024.

Furthermore, the financial institution aims to provide rates that challenge the market and to use its technologies in order to deliver an improved digital savings experience for its customer base. The deposits from savers will support small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lending directly, which focuses on driving economic growth by offering businesses and entrepreneurs the necessary finance services. As the LHV Bank received its UK banking license in May 2023, the institution is thus fully capitalised.

This means that client deposits are protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to the limit of GBP 85,000. LHV Bank’s SME lending division provides commercial real estate investment loans, as well as trading loans between GBP 0.5 and GBP 5 million to UK small and medium-sized enterprises. The financial institutions prioritise their regional focus, which allows lending directors to improve the manner in which they understand and address the specific needs, preferences, and demands of local users and borrowers.

LHV Bank’s strategy of development UK-based financial institution that specialises in offering banking services for fintechs around the world, SME Lending products to UK customers, as well as personal savings, LHV Bank had multiple partnerships and launches in the last couple of months, covering several different geographies around the globe. In August 2023, the bank finalised the business transfer from its Estonian affiliate, the AS LHV Pank’s UK branch, to its entity which was newly licensed at the time. Following this announcement, the transition affected its banking solutions customers in the UK and came after the financial institution received its banking license, alongside its subsequent approval from the UK High Court in order to transfer the business in a secure and effective manner.

The GBP payment services that were associated with the banking products business were shifted from the previous branch to the new bank. The transition also incorporated the transfer of other associated GBP payment scheme memberships, as well as other related contracts. Earlier in June 2023, LHV Bank partnered with ecommerce checkout provider Montorio to augment its traders and merchant solutions with API-driven infrastructure.

By using the services offered by the bank, Montonio was enabled to improve multiple services and aspects of its suite of tools, such as a more efficient refund process, increased effectiveness in instant EUR Payments, as well as the creation of merchant accounts in the names of respective traders. In addition, the incorporation of safeguarding accounts aimed to ensure the secure segregation of customer funds, while the provision of virtual IBANs (vIBANs) for merchant settlement accounts contributes to the overall optimisation of Montonio’s trader services. .