Capital International Bank Limited, which officially launched in May 2021, is celebrating its first year in operation as the island’s first-ever digital-only bank.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Capital International Group Limited, the bank was developed over a five-year period, after it became clear that there was a gap in the market for a modern banking solution built to meet the needs of corporate clients.

This coincided with the launch of the Isle of Man’s Alternative Banking Regime (ABR) which was introduced in 2016 with the aim of widening the scope for new banking opportunities in the island.

The ABR enabled the Capital Group to apply for a Class 1(2) Banking Licence.

In only one year in operation, Capital International Bank has attracted more than 330 clients with more than 1,100 accounts currently in operation.

The Douglas bank serves businesses in a range of sectors including e-gaming, professional services, fiduciaries, e-commerce and e-sports.

Group chief executive officer Greg Ellison said: ‘One of the key factors to our success is our focus on speed. When we carried out our initial market research with the bank’s target clientele, one frustration that cropped up time and time again was around the waiting times for account opening. We learned that the worst-case scenario for clients was the “slow no”. If the answer is no, say it quickly. If the answer is yes, have an account open in days, not months.’

Capital International Bank offers five working day account opening for standard risk accounts and 7-10 working days for high-risk.

The Circular Road bank’s current record is 24 hours to take an eGaming account from initial enquiry to account opening.

This speed of service has in part been achieved through the bank’s digital platform, VELTA, which was developed in-house by Capital’s technology team.

Mr Ellison said: ‘Whilst we knew it would be a huge undertaking, we decided to develop the front-end of the bank ourselves so that we could more easily adapt our service to meet our clients’ needs.

‘Much like an iPhone has an iOS update every few weeks, our teams are working constantly to assess and prioritise the interface and functionality improvements that we release every month, guided by the feedback we receive from our clients.’

Since the launch of the bank last year, there have been 12 new platform updates of Capital International Bank, whereby new features have been added and improvements have been made.

Mr Ellison said: ‘As Capital International Bank grows, we will continue to learn and adapt. Our mission is to become the dominant offshore bank by 2028. Dominant doesn’t necessarily mean biggest, but we want to become the “go to” bank for clients in the offshore markets who demand something better, something that makes their money work better for them.

‘This passion is what fuels us every day, to make money work better for our clients, for our people and for our communities. For every account we open, we plant a tree in the island and in Africa as part of our group goal to become carbon neutral by the end of 2025.’