Volt Bank has become Australia’s first retail challenger bank to receive an Australian Prudential Regulation Authority-granted Authorised Deposit-Taking Institution (ADI) licence since the early 2000s.
The new licence would enable Volt to offer its services to all Australians by removing the limit on the maximum size of deposits from a single depositor, and on the aggregate amount of deposits it can accept.
The licence comes eight months after Volt became the first organisation to receive a restricted banking licence from APRA in May last year, with the bank since doubling its team to 100 employees and forging multiple industry partnerships.
The announcement also followed the appointments of former Foxtel and News Corp CEO, Peter Tonagh, and former Tabcorp CIO, Kim Wenn, to Volt’s board of directors.
The bank’s co-founder and chief executive, Steve Weston, said it was a landmark day for Australian consumers, and credited the milestone to the calibre of the team.
“Against the backdrop of systematic failures and breaches of trust by incumbent banks, our mission is simple; to empower people and make financial services easier,” said Weston. “It’s about giving Australians a fundamentally different banking experience, one that is honest and fair.”
Volt said it would progressively roll out a full suite of consumer deposit and lending products this year, and intends to offer small business banking services in 2020.
The bank also announced the launch of Volt Labs, an app-based online community that lets customers provide their insights and ideas to contribute to designing the bank’s products and services.
