Oxbury Bank delivers a new approach to agricultural finance with ClearBank
- Cost-effective access to FPS, Bacs and CHAPS provides comprehensive payment options to customers without the cost and overheads of building and maintaining direct scheme connectivity.
- Real-time payments deliver an enhanced banking experience and positive customer reviews.
- Significant business growth with savings account deposits growing exponentially in the last twelve months to reach £2.38bn by November 2024.
Oxbury Bank is the only UK bank dedicated to the rural economy. It provides the food and farming industries with the funding and support they need, as well as offering savings accounts to individuals and businesses that want to back farmers.
As one of the fastest fintechs in the UK to reach full-year profitability, the bank wanted a payments partner with access to the latest technology. ClearBank’s ability to deliver advanced payment technology with real-time processing capabilities made them stand out, explains Stuart Ellidge, Chief Technology Officer at Oxbury Bank.
“As a bank, we didn’t want yesterday’s technology. Some firms had APIs giving a facade of real-time but measured payment processing in minutes rather than seconds because, behind the scenes, it was batch-based. We built our platform, customer interfaces and mobile apps but didn’t want to go through the pain and cost of building our own integration into the payment rails. We wanted a partner that was genuinely real-time and would grow with us. ClearBank was a compelling choice.”
As the UK agriculture sector undergoes transformation, the demand for customised financial solutions is increasing, especially as traditional banks retreat from this market. Oxbury is committed to providing flexible financing to farm businesses across the nation.
Prior to implementation, Oxbury Bank spent time with ClearBank’s technology and infrastructure teams to collaborate on the bank’s launch. That experience reinforced the relationship between the two firms and set them up for success.
“We talked through our plans and that one afternoon did a lot to set us on the right path, with a personal approach that really mattered to us,” Ellidge explains. “It didn’t feel like a customer-supplier relationship, we had senior people meeting us to understand what we were looking to achieve. ClearBank’s focus throughout was on how they could make us successful.”
ClearBank’s API seamlessly connects Oxbury Bank to various payment schemes, including the Faster Payment System (FPS), Bacs and CHAPS enabling cost-effective access without the burden of maintaining direct connections.
This strategic partnership allows Oxbury to focus on nurturing customer relationships and enhancing product offerings while ClearBank manages the complexities of scheme upgrades and maintenance.
“We wanted to own aspects where we could deliver differentiation. But there were critical aspects such as scheme connectivity that, with a technology team of just over 20 people, would have been too time, cost and resource intensive.” Ellidge comments. “That is ClearBank’s focus and where it excels, and we can leverage its resilient infrastructure, 24/7 scheme monitoring and so on. That meant we could take care of building our platform and launching to market.”
Since its launch Oxbury has seen considerable growth. The bank’s flagship product, Oxbury Farm Credit, offers a competitive alternative to traditional banks’ overdrafts or trade finance services.
Along with the success of Oxbury’s longer-term lending product, Oxbury Farm Loans, as of November 2024, total lending has surpassed £1 billion, and the popularity of Oxbury’s savings products has resulted in a significant increase in customer deposits to £2.38 billion.
At the heart of these propositions are real-time payments, delivered through ClearBank.
“Knowing exactly where funds are at given times means we can drive a lot of behaviours off the inbound events,” comments Ellidge. “Our customers love it, and it is pivotal to us delivering a greater experience. We’ve got reviews that reference the fact they deposit money and within 30 seconds they received an email from us to say it’s arrived in their account.”
That experience is made possible by ClearBank’s highly resilient infrastructure and proactive approach to API and payment scheme updates, delivering high uptime and straight through processing (STP) rates.
“The service reliability has been excellent. Beyond that, the relationship we have with ClearBank is proactive, collaborative and transparent,” Ellidge explains. “A great example was a CHAPS update that required new fields. We had some thoughts as to how the API could be changed. It was discussed, taken away for a week, and then a week later the update was released to the API. Having a partner like ClearBank that engages with us and takes ownership is something we appreciate.”
As Oxbury Bank looks ahead to future expansion plans, it describes its partnership with ClearBank as pivotal to that success.
“We launched formally in early 2021. Our first profitable month was in 2022, and our first profitable year in 2023,” Ellidge comments. “With ambitious plans for expansion in the United Kingdom and beyond, Oxbury is focused on leveraging its partnership with ClearBank to drive innovation and enhance its offerings while continuing to thrive in the competitive market.”
