Challenger banks, including Virgin Money, TSB and Metro Bank, are seeing a market that is becoming more crowded by the day and profit margins in lending areas are being trimmed; mortgage rates coming down and customer acquisition costs going up are two of the main reasons for these worries; pricing in consumer credit has also forced some of these banks to pull out of that segment all together as competition has become too much; the newest space entrants, like Atom, Monzo and Starling, are only adding to the heated environment; Richard Iferenta from KPMG explains to the Financial Times, “The challenge is, if you want to build a bank, how do you get sufficient scale, attract a big customer base, and make a lot of money.”; one group who is particularly benefiting is the consumer, they are seeing prices come down and new innovative products hit the market that are helping them to better understand their finances. Source
