Griffin to officially start operating as a bank

Following this announcement, Griffin is authorised to begin holding a limited amount of deposits, as well as starting to offer payment services and products to its customers. The company designed its tools to provide clients and fintechs with the possibility to access all of the UK’s payment rails, debit cards, credit cards, bank accounts, customer onboarding automation, and an integrated ledger. 

The banking application was submitted ten months ago, at the beginning of 2022, as Griffin raised GBP 19 million in funding received in total. 

Griffin’s partnerships and product launches

In November 2022, Griffin announced its partnership with 11:FS Foundry, aiming to enable businesses and companies to actualise and improve the benefits of embedded finance. The collaboration also focused on expanding 11:FS Foundry’s current integration, by adding the BaaS products incorporated by Griffin. Both of the businesses also leveraged their collective capabilities to shape the industry’s perception and thinking of embedded finance through helpful content. This decision provided those looking to embed financial products a better understanding of revenue opportunities and ways to serve their customers in a more effective and secure way. 

Benefits of this deal included an operational current bank account to run their company, access to the UK’s payment rails (such as CHAPS, Direct Debit, BACS, or Faster Payments), embedded customer accounts (specifically the safeguarding and client money accounts) for regulated fintech companies, and access to Griffin’s first BaaS product, Verify, aiming to offer customers solutions for managing risks, automating KYC and KYB checks, as well as to streamline customer onboarding. 

Verify was launched earlier in September of 2022, and it was presented as a customer onboarding product. According to the press release, the tool was created to give companies the opportunity to regulate the fintech onboarding process more easily, while focusing on meeting regulatory requirements as well. 

Griffin’s mission was to launch a technology-driven bank that combines developed software and the security and reliability of an authorised bank. Thus, the technology behind Verify remained a core pillar of Griffin’s vision to improve the way businesses launch financial products, without compromising on compliance. The product provided a certain level of flexibility that was easy to use, and domain expertise that prioritised the onboarding procedure of customers in a safe, compliant, and seamless manner. 

The key features of Verify included customisable check flows and decision logic for automatic accept and decline results, a single API integration point with clear documentation for easy implementation, service desk support from Griffin’s team that is made of compliance experts, a clear audit trail that allows visibility over every check result or decision justification, and more.