Tandem Money
Tandem Money is a UK company that owns Tandem Bank, a British challenger bank. Tandem Bank operates as an internet bank, with a web app. The acquisition of Harrods Bank in 2017, subsequently renamed Tandem Bank, allowed the company to provide services using the former's banking licence. History. The company was founded by Ricky Knox, Matt Cooper and Michael Kent in 2013. In December 2016, Tandem announced that it had secured a £35 million investment from The Sanpower Group, the Chinese company that also owned the department store House of Fraser; however, £29 million of  this investment was later revoked by Sanpower over concerns that the Chinese Government would object to the investment following increased restrictions on outbound investment in China. This resulted in a delay in the launch of Tandem's savings products, which, at the time of the revocation, was expected imminently and, more importantly, meant that Tandem volunteered the return of their banking license but retained all other permissions. In August 2017, it was announced that Tandem would fully acquire Harrods Bank, founded in 1893, in a deal that would bring a near-£200m loan book, over £300m of deposits  and nearly £80 million of capital. Prior to its sale to Tandem Money, Harrods Bank catered for high-net-worth (HNW) individuals and operated from the Harrods store in Knightsbridge, London. It offered a variety of personal and business current and savings accounts, mortgages, foreign currency and gold bullion trading services. In 1991, the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee ordered the Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Robin Leigh-Pemberton, to order the owners of Harrods, Mohamed Al-Fayed, and his brother Ali Al-Fayed, to transfer control of the Harrods Bank to trustees after they  found that the Fayeds were not "fit and proper" to run the bank. On 7 August 2017, Tandem Money Limited announced a deal to acquire 100% of Harrods Bank Limited shares. The purchase deal closed successfully on 11 January 2018. In March 2018, Tandem agreed to acquire Pariti Technologies Limited, developers of the Pariti money management application. It was announced on 8 February 2021 that Tandem had agreed to purchase the a mortgage book from private bank Bank and Clients, consisting of 300 B&C customers for an undisclosed amount. Features. Tandem has introduced an 'Autosavings' feature, designed to help users  save money. Using a number of rules, the account automatically puts money aside based on the user's spending habits. Tandem has launched two versions of credit cards. The first, called Journey, has been launched for people with limited credit history, helping them build up their credit score. The Cashback card gave users 0.5% cashback on worldwide purchases, with an initial credit limit from £500 to £12,000. On 8 January 2020, Tandem announced it would be discontinuing its Cashback card, replacing it with the Tandem Membership. Tandem Membership launches on 9 March 2020, with any existing Cashback card  holders having their accounts closed.