Sunday 8 November 2015

The Mail on Sunday reports on the launch of Tynedale Community Bank

Jeff Prestige of the Mail on Sunday's This Is Money writes about the launch of Tynedale Community Bank:

"In a week that has seen the already sullied reputation of payday lenders slide to even darker depths, with yet another provider forced into paying compensation to customers, it is good to report the launch of an alternative (and far friendlier) lender.

Step forward Tynedale Community Bank, the brainchild of Guy Opperman, Conservative MP for Hexham in Northumberland.

For the past four years, Opperman, a barrister by training and in his younger days a pretty useful jockey, has been masterminding the launch of this ‘bank’ – an updated version of a traditional credit union.

More than most MPs, he was traumatised by the near collapse eight years ago of Northern Rock, ‘the bank’ of the North East. Constituents queued in their thousands to get money out before the Government stepped in to guarantee all deposits. These events forged in him a steely determination to counter the domination of the ‘casino’ banks and to breathe new competition into the banking industry.

In the process, he has become a political champion for challenger banks – the likes of Aldermore, Atom (soon to launch) and Metro.

It has also led to the launch two days ago of Tynedale which will provide the 55,000 residents that fall inside its catchment area (a big swathe of Opperman’s constituency) with the opportunity to both save and borrow.

Read it in full here: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-3308395/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Tynedale-bank-really-serve-community.html