The inspiration behind the granting of additional banking licences appears to have been a response to the banking royal commission that aired criticism of a lack of competition for the big four.
The “success” measurement comes courtesy of the fact that the banks’ depositors didn’t lose any money and were repaid (or being repaid in Volt’s case) in an orderly fashion.
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Investors in the neo banks - all of which have now handed back,or are in the process of handing back,their banking licences - haven’t all fared so well.
Those who had funded Volt and Xinja will walk away with nothing,while shareholders in 86 400 Ltd were luckier because it was bought and subsumed by National Australia Bank’s digital bank a year ago. Whether 86 400 would have survived independently never got tested.
While there was a fourth banking licence awarded to Judo Bank,lumping this organisation under the umbrella term of a traditional neobank is a mis-labelling.