Volt Bank was an Australian consumer neobank, the first such bank to be issued with a restricted ADI licence by APRA.[2][3] In June 2022, the bank announced it would permanently close its deposit-taking business and voluntarily return its banking licence, citing funding issues.[4]
Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, the bank was founded in 2017 and was granted a full licence to operate as an authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) on 21 January 2019. Volt used BSB 517000.[5][6][7]
Business
Volt’s banking platform is located in the cloud using the Temenos T24 core banking, Financial Crime Mitigation and Analytics, Salesforce and Microsoft Azure.[8][9]
Volt Bank also has industry partnerships with PayPal, Cotton On and Collection House.[10][11][12]
The bank publishes a mobile app, Volt Labs App, through which customers hold discussions and give feedback on the bank's products and services. The bank was planning to begin serving small businesses in 2020.[13]
History
The banking regulator, APRA, created the restricted ADI (RADI)[14] licensing framework to encourage new entrants and competition to the existing banking system.[15]
Volt Bank was issued with a RADI licence on 7 May 2018, the first organisation to obtain one under the new licensing framework.[16][17] In doing so, it became the first completely new institution to be licensed as retail bank in the Australian market since Australian Bank in February 1981.[18][19][20]
On 29 June 2022, in an email to its customer base, Volt announced their intention to cease their deposit-taking business and return their banking licence, the second neo bank to do so, following Xinja. Accounts held with Volt will be closed on 5 July 2022.[4]
