The group stated the new bank will serve UK small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) as well as the personal and business savings markets.
“We aim to submit our formal application and move to the next round of investment in early 2020,” said Michael Goldstein, chief executive of COLG.
“We put in place a strong board for Recognise to support the ambitions of the executive team. We firmly believe that this is the optimum time to launch a new relationship banking service to currently underserved UK SMEs.,”
The group said it would consolidate its interests in asset finance, professional funding and bridging loans into the new business once authorisation is granted, potentially later in 2020.
It will raise new equity to finance its plans.
Recognise was established with an executive board under COLG chairman Philip Jenks (pictured), former deputy chair of Charter Court Financial Services Group.
“The new enterprise and its highly experienced management team will target the vital but underserved SME lending market offering service excellence, speed, flexible structuring and personal service through dedicated relationship managers,” the company said.
“Our objective is to bring a fresh face to UK SME banking in 2020 built on solid foundations,” said Jason Oakley, chief executive at Recognise.
The group raised £15.2m in March 2019 to fund development of the new lending business.
