Anthony Thomson, co-founder of Metro Bank and Atom Bank, is specializing in the global super-rich new businesses.
The Home Office Bank (FOB) will target super-high new networkers with at least $30 million in investable assets and a home office that manages $100 million or more.
The bank will live in Jersey and plans to sign 2,000 of the world’s wealthiest clients within five years, including more than 500 family offices, reaching a $10 billion balance sheet by 2030. Thomson’s investor filing project FOB went bankrupt even in 2028 and has annual profits of more than $100 million since then.
The initial fundraising campaign will begin in September, raising $5 million for the first time, followed by another $95 million in the following months. The first round of investors will receive a 25% discount on the next two capital rewards. FOB is currently valued at $20 million.
Thomson said wealthy clients have poor service to existing private banks, which focus on selling investment products and may respond slowly. He enumerated a case where a home office promised $120 million in listed assets and waited for six weeks to get $30 million in loan approval – it was too late to meet demand.
Before expanding to more complex products, the bank will initially acquire time deposits and offer unsecured loans and mortgages. It is applying for a license from the Jersey Financial Services Commission, expected in December, and plans to capitalize on Asia’s fast-growing super-wealthy population in its second office in Singapore.
FOB will be co-founded with former TSB head Paul Pester and former Yorkshire Bank CEO Stuart Grimshaw and Clydesdale Bank, who are also chairman of the Australian Roche family office. Thomson wants the bank to be privately owned by wealthy clients under the “evergreen” shareholder structure.
Catering to super-wealthy clients is a competitive market in the UK, which includes Coutts, C Hoare & Co, SG Kleinwort Hambros and private banking weapons from HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds. However, Thomson believes that FOB can make itself different through the convergence of relationship managers and cutting-edge technologies, including generative AI without traditional systems.
The global wealth of ultra-high net worth individuals is expected to increase from $49 trillion in 2023 to $68 trillion in 2030, with such numbers increasing to 588,000. Home offices are also expanding rapidly, with over 9,000 operations worldwide.
Thomson, 71, left Metro Bank in 2013. He has since co-founded Atom Bank and Australian Digital Bank 86400 in 2014, which was sold to National Australia Bank for $440 million in 2021.
