ClearBank, the enabler of secure accounts, real-time clearing and embedded banking for financial institutions, today announced that it has been selected by Kroo to provide access to all UK payment schemes as well as accounts for its operational funds. Kroo recently secured a full UK banking licence, and ClearBank will continue to support Kroo on its mission to build the world’s greatest fully licenced social bank.

Founded in 2016, Kroo began as an Electronic Money distributor providing a digital-only prepaid card, before being awarded a banking licence in June 2022. At its core, Kroo is a mobile-only social bank focused on app-based transactions, splitting payments and wider sustainable finance initiatives – it has a mission to plant one million trees and plans to contribute five per cent of sustainable profits to social causes its customers to care about. Kroo, which won Best Newcomer at the 2021 British Bank Awards, plans to launch personal current accounts in the coming months.

ClearBank has worked with Kroo for the duration of its journey towards becoming a fully regulated bank, providing the technical and regulatory support to accelerate the process whilst demonstrating the highest levels of operational resilience. Specifically, ClearBank provided operational accounts, access to UK payment schemes and the technical integrations that allowed Kroo to build its banking stack before gaining full regulatory approval. This approach eases one of the burdens of banking licence applications by confirming to regulators that Kroo has a resilient and reliable banking partner for both payments and the safeguarding of client funds.

Andrea De Gottardo, CEO at Kroo said: “At Kroo we are on a mission to build an exceptional digital bank and in order to do that, we are relentlessly looking for like-minded partners with great technology. ClearBank was an obvious choice for us, they have been a great partner on our journey so far and we are excited to continue working closely with them as we approach our public launch.”

Charles McManus, CEO at ClearBank said: “It’s been fantastic to support Kroo on its journey to offering full bank accounts. We’ve had the pleasure of working with the team since 2019, and we’re delighted to continue supporting Kroo as it makes this leap into a new, exciting offering.”

“We understand the importance of regulation and a full banking licence when it comes to garnering trust from consumers and scaling, and we’re proud to be helping innovative, regulated and compliant Electronic Money distributors such as Kroo, evolve into fully fledged banks.”