Allica Bank CEO, Richard Davies: Relationship banking, AI powered efficiencies, success metrics, and global expansion

Richard Davies is the CEO of Allica Bank, ranked the fastest growing UK Fintech by Deloitte in successive years, and it’s a bank built specifically to serve established SMEs, a segment that has long been underserved by both traditional banks and many fintech challengers.In a market where much of fintech focused on consumers, Allica took a different path combining modern technology with relationship banking to build a profitable, fast-growing bank designed around the real operational needs of businesses.Richard is a seasoned fintech and FS leader with experience in senior roles at Barclays and HSBC, as well as exec roles at Oaknorth and Revolut so has experienced both the challenges of trying to bank ESMEs as a traditional provider, as well as seeing how some fintechs overlook the sector. In the full episode with Richard, we get into Allica’s product stack, their mission, the different ways in which AI is transforming how they do things, the importance of relationship banking, as well as:Learnings from those senior roles at traditional banks and challenger fintechsThe Kriya acquisition and how Richard and the team approaches build vs buy to fill gaps in their product stackHow AI saved Allica millions in unnecessary consultancy feesThe interest gap and the “9 billion pounds of interest being missed out on each year by SMEs”Where and how AI is being applied to their product-dev lifecycle and lending journeysRichard’s North Star metric for AllicaThe true impact of SME Lending and Banking servicesEuropean expansion and testing the US watersHow they are using AI to scale (and reference to the great blog th