Manchester-based small business bank B-North has chosen Leeds-based RegTech firm TruNarrative to provide customer onboarding and compliance capabilities.

TruNarrative’s platform will be added to B-North’s selected technology stack providers, which already includes core banking from Mambu and loan originations workflow from nCino.

Founded in 2018, B-North is led by a team of former senior leaders from Atom Bank, Metrobank, First Direct and Santander. The business offers loans of between £500,000 and £5 million in as little as 10 days.

TruNarrative’s technology will enable B-North to rapidly and compliantly deliver their lending products to market, with a single risk view through the implementation of biometric verification, risk assessments, business credit insights, multi-bureau Know Your Customer, sanctions and adverse media.

The partnership follows a competitive tender process and will now see the TruNarrative solution integrate with B-North’s core banking platform and front-end systems to deliver a seamless experience for employees, direct customers, commercial finance brokers and intermediaries.

B-North has raised over £7 million in seed capital to date, most recently surpassing its crowd fundraising goal of £2 million at the turn of the year. It is currently fundraising again to raise capital which will underpin its bank licence and support its lending activities during mobilisation, due to begin in the second half of 2020.

Tapping into a UK SME lending market valued at over £150 billion per year, B-North will operate regional ‘Lending Pods’ of underwriters, valuers and expert lending bankers across the UK - the first of which will launch in Manchester - to build face-to-face relationships with growing businesses and deploy capital efficiently.

“TruNarrative is a key partner for us in building our tech-focused bank and will be instrumental in helping us deliver fast, informed lending decisions whilst ensuring the highest levels of compliance and a smooth customer experience,” commented B-North chief executive Jonathan Thompson.

“We aim to facilitate SME lending with market-leading technology and lead times, and to give our customers the best of the traditional and the modern.”

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