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Manifesto

• Provide a good online banking experience
• Operate a banking entity transparently and for the benefit of its members
• Bring the benefits of open source software to the financial sector
• Bring the benefits of a lean/agile approach to the financial sector
• Document our journey to make it possible for other people to follow the same path

Reasons to stop

• It's going to take too long
• It's going to cost too much money
• It's going to take too much of our time

Banking entities

In order to provide a decent online banking experience, we think we need to offer basic "current account" facilities. This in turn means we need to be able to "accept deposits". According to the FCA and PRA the definition of accepting deposits is:

the regulated activity, specified in article 5 of the Regulated Activities Order (Accepting deposits), which is in summary: accepting deposits if: (a) money received by way of deposit is lent to others; or (b) any other activity of the person accepting the deposit is financed, wholly or to a material extent, out of the capital of or interest on money received by way of deposit.

Accepting deposits

• Bank - minimum capital requirement of €5 million
• Building Society
• Credit Union
  • Seting up a Credit Union
  • Collaborate with an existing CU
  • Take-over an existing CU
• Friendly Society
• Are there any others?

Other

• P2P Lender
• Crowd-funding
• Bank of Dave

Current goals

• Assuming we can create a credit union, what banking functionality can we offer (direct debits? faster payments? etc)
• Understand the real restrictions on setting up a credit union (e.g. does it really need to take two years? do we really need £10k in the bank?)