Railsbank enters Aus with Volt as its first local banking partner

More digital banking deals Down Under.

Banking as a service provider Railsbank has launched in Australia with local challenger bank Volt as its first client.

Railsbank, which acquired large chunks of the former Wirecard UK business last Autumn, raised $37m in funding in November in part to fund such international expansion.

As well as Australia, CEO and co-founder Nigel Verdon says Railsbank is planning to deepen its footprint in Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam later this year.

“This is a significant partnership for Railsbank as we continue not only our global expansion, but also strengthen our foothold in Asia Pacific,” said Verdon.

“This deal [with Volt] has a personal resonance for me as one of my ancestors, Sir George Verdon, was General Manager and a founding father of the ANZ Bank, so it's good to be back in Australia again!”

Volt was Australia’s first digital bank when it launched in 2017, the brainchild of Luke Bunbury and Steve Weston, and remains one of the country’s most prominent challengers.

The nascent sector was thrown into some amount of disarray last year as Australian digital bank Xinja exited the market and 86 400 announced its plans to combine with the National Australia Bank.

However, clearly Railsbank and Volt both view the market as still being in its infancy.

“This partnership demonstrates how our prudent and measured approach to market entry, built on the sturdy foundation of our unique BaaS platform and partnership strategy, could help to make Volt a long-term contender for a share of Australia’s highly lucrative banking sector,” said Volt’s CEO and founder Weston on the partnership.