Hampshire Community Bnk’s board has decided to put the company into administration.
Nine founding investors, comprising councils, local universities, and a community interest company, agreed to support the creation of a community bank and its application for a banking licence with funding provided in stages as part of a contractual legal arrangement, each stage payment reliant on an independent expert review of the progress made.
Hampshire Community Bnk was set up in 2014 with the aim of creating a not-for-profit community bank to provide tailored support to local businesses with loans and for 50% of the bank’s profits to provide a community grants programme.
The company’s aim was to become a retail bank, offering banking services to members of the public. This required it to be licensed by regulators but it has been unable to achieve this with the funding available and within the necessary timescales so the decision has been taken to close the company.
A Portsmouth City Council spokesperson said: “It is deeply regrettable that Hampshire Community Bnk was not able to succeed. Along with the eight other shareholders, the Administration at that time were supportive of the project and agreement was secured at a meeting of the Full Council in July 2014 to provide funding for it. The money lost by the Council was approved and set aside in 2014 and so will not affect our future budgets or the services we provide people in the city. This is a lost opportunity for businesses in the city to benefit from easier access to finance, but we will continue working to build the local economy and raise prosperity in other ways.”