Operational Update

Fiinu PLC

28 April 2023

 

28 April 2023

Fiinu Plc

("Fiinu", the "Company" or the "Group")

Operational Update

Fiinu, a fintech company including the fully owned Fiinu Bank Limited, creator of the Plugin Overdraft®, today provides an operational update.

Further to the announcement of 15 March 2023 in regard to the issuance of equity it was noted that the Company had future funding requirements necessary for Fiinu Bank Limited's anticipated exit from mobilisation period and the commencement of operating without restrictions. Continuing challenging capital market conditions have impeded this fundraising process and whilst good progress has been made with regard to our operational readiness for full banking activity, the lack of full funding commitment at this stage has slowed the necessary regulatory application processes such that the Company together with Fiinu Bank Limited has determined a preferential  course of action is to make an application to withdraw its licence aiming to re-apply after a short period of 2 - 3 months. This application has now been submitted to the PRA and FCA. It is expected that the PRA and FCA will require a short period of time to confirm their acceptance of the restricted licence being withdrawn and the Company will provide further updates on progress.

This action will allow the Company to focus on securing its exit funding requirement which is estimated to be in the range of £34 - £42 million. Once this funding has been secured it is intended for the application process to be resumed and completed promptly, again subject to the necessary PRA and FCA approval.

Chris Sweeney, CEO of Fiinu, said:

"Since the update provided on 15 March excellent progress has continued on our operational readiness, especially given the completion of testing of our technology solution with the release of the phone-based App to a limited internal group for trials. With the exception of friends and family testing, which will now take place once the licence application process recommences, we have largely completed all requirements set for us by the PRA and FCA in order to exit mobilisation. Evidence of this has been submitted to the regulators for their review.  We look forward to working closely with the PRA, FCA and future strategic investors with the aim of commencing full banking activity without restrictions."

Market Abuse Regulation ('MAR') Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ('MAR'), which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, until the release of this announcement

ENDS

Enquiries:
Fiinu plc Chris Sweeney, Chief Executive Officer Philip Tansey, Chief Financial Officer www.fiinu.com	via Brazil London (press office for Fiinu)
SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nomad) Mark Brady / Adam Dawes	Tel:  [phone]
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Joint Broker) Matthew Johnson / Charlie Bouverat (Corporate Finance) Abigail Wayne / Rob Rees (Corporate Broking)	Tel:  [phone]
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Broker) Stephen Jones / Atholl Tweedie (Corporate Finance) Tom Scrivens / Hugh Rich (Corporate Broking)	Tel:  [phone]
Brazil London (press office for Fiinu) Joshua Van Raalte / Christine Webb / Jamie Lester	Tel:  [phone] Email: [e-mail]

About Fiinu

Fiinu, founded in 2017, is a fintech group, including Fiinu Bank^{1}, which is authorised by the Prudential Regulatory Authority^[1]. Fiinu's Plugin Overdraft® is an unbundled overdraft solution which allows customers to have an overdraft with Fiinu Bank without changing their existing bank. The underlying Bank Independent Overdraft® technology platform is bank agnostic, allowing Fiinu Bank to serve all other banks' customers. Open Banking allows Fiinu's Plugin Overdraft® to attach ("plugin") to the customer's primary bank account, no matter which bank they may use. Fiinu's vision is built around Open Banking, and it believes that it increases competition and innovation in UK banking.

For more information, please visit 
www.fiinu.com.

^{1} Fiinu Bank Limited obtained its UK deposit-taking banking licence with restrictions from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and with the consent of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in July 2022.

 

END