Business banking aspirant Go Bank Limited is considering an option to rebrand the organisation as its licence application continues to be assessed by APRA.
Go, which was established in 2018 by CreditorWatch founders Colin Porter and Dale Hurley, is expected to be among the next companies to secure a restricted banking licence from the prudential regulator.
While APRA announced in April that it had suspended issuing new banking licences for at least six months, the regulator is continuing to assess applications that were already under consideration before the global pandemic disrupted economic activity.
Go is aiming to muscle into the business banking market where another startup - Judo Bank – is challenging the dominance of the four majors in SME lending.
The company recently registered new business names for “Avenue Bank” and a company source confirmed that this was part of a potential rebranding program.
The Go Bank brand is already used in the United States by retail giant Walmart to provide digital and checkout banking services to shoppers.
While it is not clear whether Walmart’s use of the moniker has influenced the Australian company’s rebranding move, Banking Day understands that a proposal to adopt Avenue Bank as the trading name will be submitted to board in the next few months.
The company currently holds around A$9 million of capital, with Porter accounting for around half of the paid equity in the company.
Private equity firm Nightingale Partners, which provided the seed capital for the business when it was launched two years ago, now holds a 12 per cent interest in the company.
Go has been expanding its technology team in the last six months following the recruitment of former E&Y director and Xinja chief information officer Jacqui McPherson.
Another key hiring is former UBank head of product and analytics Peita Piper as the company’s chief customer officer.