TINTRA PLC

 (“Tintra”, the “Group” or the “Company”)

Update on UK Authorisation Strategy

The board of directors (the “Board”) of Tintra, 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.