Update on UK Authorisation Strategy
29/03/2022 12:30
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RNS Number : 4195G Tintra PLC 29 March 2022
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF REGULATION
11 OF THE MARKET ABUSE (AMENDMENT) (EU EXIT) REGULATIONS 2019/310.
29 March 2022
TINTRA PLC
("Tintra", the "Group" or the "Company")
Update on UK Authorisation Strategy
The board of directors (the "Board") of Tintra (https://tintra.com/) , the
fast-growth RegTech business, announces an update to its UK strategy for
applying for authorisation under UK financial services regulations.
In the Company's announcement of 1 October 2021, the Board stated that the
most appropriate way of progressing its strategy in the United Kingdom was to
operate a business authorised as an Electronic Money Institution ("EMI") by
the UK Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA"), achieved through acquisition, and
that a potential target had been identified.
However, after having undertaken an extensive due diligence process on the
identified target, as well as considering certain alternative targets, the
Board has now concluded that the acquisition of an EMI subsidiary, with a view
to subsequently applying for a UK banking licence, is no longer the right fit
for the Company's evolving strategy.
The Company is developing its technology and artificial intelligence solutions
at a faster pace than anticipated and as such, a key driver of the Board's
decision was that the technology of prospective targets was not comparable to
that being built internally for incorporation into the Web 3.0 infrastructure
as set out in the announcement of 17 March 2022.
Therefore, the Company has amended its UK strategy and now intends to directly
apply in the UK for a Small Bank Licence with the Prudential Regulation
Authority ("PRA") as well as EMI authorisation from the FCA. This will
integrate Tintra's UK regulatory position into line with its Full Bank Licence
Applications in Qatar and Puerto Rico 1 that are already underway. It is
anticipated that authorisation from the PRA will take longer than from the
FCA. However while the timing and success of both cannot yet be estimated
with any accuracy, the process for both has commenced with both UK
applications expected to begin during Q2 2022.
Commenting on the decision, Group CEO, Richard Shearer, said: "At our core we
are building a financial services infrastructure using deeply innovative,
likely patentable, AI & ML technology to solve the problems of compliance
in the emerging world that others are not. To do this we've always seen that
we also need to be regulated at the highest level and "be the bank not just
the fintech".
Whilst a UK Bank Licence was always in our road map, we had intended to take
an incremental route there, but having been through the market place in great
depth, we have realised that we are ahead in so much of the tech team's
thinking, that acquisition would almost slow us down - as paradoxical as that
may seem.
This decision to cut out that middle step and move directly to a UK Bank
Licence application is a very material one, meaning that within the next three
months or so we will be engaged with bank licence applications on three
continents: something that I'm immensely proud of the team for undertaking. It
means that we are positioning the entire Tintra business to operate to the
highest regulatory standards by applying the collective requirements set out
by these three important global regulators for robust governance, controls and
risk management practices.
The validation in our vision that what Tintra is building itself is greatly
more compelling than any potential acquisition target in the market, and that
also cements my view that we truly are building something game changing here
and each week brings the vision closer to reality."
For more information, visit tintra.com (https://tintra.com) .
ENDS
For further information, contact:
Tintra PLC 020 3795 0421
(Communications Head)
Hannah Haffield
h.haffield@tintra.com
Website www.tintra.com
Allenby Capital Limited 020 3328 5656
(Nomad, Financial Adviser & Broker)
John Depasquale / Nick Harriss / Vivek Bhardwaj
1 In Puerto Rico, the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions,
as a regulatory body, is similar in function to the State Banking departments
found across 50 states of the USA. Puerto Rico relies on the US Federal
Reserve System, the US central bank, as its central regulatory institution and
OCIF oversees a strict adherence to all applicable laws and regulations set
out therein.
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