Tuesday 20 October 2009

The A4e Bank

A4e's aspirations to run a bank for poor people have been mentioned before. But it's a reality!

Back in January this year Mark Lovell described it on his blog as seeing "the potential for A4e to develop a relevant offer". A4e's bank is called Capitec Uk Ltd, and derives its name from a South African bank, Capitec. Lovell says that Capitec "helped us shape our thoughts and ideas on banking for people in poverty" but it is not clear whether there are closer links.

By the time that Lovell was writing about this, A4e's bank had already secured a grant of £1m from the Regional Industrial Development Board in Yorkshire, as we see from the minutes of Yorkshire Forward's board.

Yet the company is now dormant. What happened?

3 comments:

  1. Too close to Capitec Ltd (www.capitec.co.uk). A4e probably got sued or something?

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  2. did they have to repay that grant?

    to me its slightly disturbing, a4e gets kids, gets adults, eventually they will go into the funeral services, from cradle to grave trust a4e..

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  3. I'd like to offer my services, free of charge, to A4e. I'm a gravedigger!

    On a more serious note. The banking crisis means that banks now require a lot more money as security than they did before. Which could mean that A4e's plans for a bank meant it was undercapitalized.

    ReplyDelete

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