LHV Bank granted license to operate in the UK
Estonian-founded bank LHV has been granted a license to operate in the United Kingdom. LHV's British subsidiary, LHV UK Ltd. Will be operating under the LHV Bank brand.
This brings the tally of the parent company, LHV Group, to two licensed banks – the new U.K. outfit plus LHV Pank, operating in Estonia.
The U.K. has the one of the largest financial services sectors in the world, and the new licsense permits LHV to take on deposits in that country, as a separately regulated credit institution. LHV's operations in Britain up to that point had been as a branch of LHV Pank.
Talking to ETV news show "Aktuaalne kaamera", Erik Kilu, LHV Bank Ltd's CEO, said of the development that: "What is to changed most from now is that we can, as LHV Bank Ltd., start to take deposits from U.K. customers too, which is a necessary move in order for us to develop our lending activities."
"We will have three branches in the U.K.: The headquarters in London, offices in Leeds, which will include the development team, and a third office in Manchester, which will host the lending activities. We have a total of 80 staff in those three cities, plus 50 more employees in Estonia who are on LHV Bank's payroll, making a total of 130 staff at present," Kilu went on.
The U.K. has for the past decade had two financial services regulators, the The Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Merili Nael
Source: 'Aktuaalne kaamera'
