Paragon Bank launches with loans and savings
Paragon Group launches online bank, promising simple products and old-fashioned values.
Specialist lender the Paragon Group has launched Paragon Bank, which will offer loans and savings products.
The bank is based in Solihull and will offer its products online. It promises a “simple, safe and straightforward approach to banking”.
Who is Paragon?
The Paragon Group is a FTSE 250-listed company, founded in 1985, that offers buy-to-let mortgages and loan management services.
What will Paragon Bank offer?
Paragon Bank is launching with two car finance loans, one hire purchase and the other lease purchase.
It says it will launch both instant access and fixed rate savings accounts in the spring, although there are no details as yet of what rates will be on offer.
Paragon will also launch personal loans later in the year.
There's no word on whether it will launch a current account.
The bank says it doesn’t have “expensive branches or complicated products”. We’ll see about the latter in a few months’ time.
Compare current accounts with lovemoney.com
Is Paragon protected?
Paragon Bank is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It’s also part of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which guarantees up to £85,000 of money you hold with any banking group in the event it goes under.
More new players to come
Paragon’s launch is one of several planned for this year. Both Tesco Bank and Virgin Money – which already offer credit cards, savings accounts and mortgages – are due to launch current accounts. Meanwhile, the Post Office is set to roll out its current account nationwide, following a pilot in the east of England.
In the meantime, to see who's offering the top interest rates on savings right now, take a look at Where to earn most interest on your cash.
Compare current accounts with lovemoney.com
More on banking and saving:
Why some current accounts beat top savings accounts
Best buys that are only for banks and building societies' existing customers
Where to earn most interest on your cash
The best Cash ISAs
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Spot on Aitkenb. Add any pension provider .Do not trust anyone.How sad is that especially from someone of my age who was brought up to respect older people,policemen,politicians,doctors and school teachers. We now live in an age of greed and more greed. Work out everything for yourself.
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Good one Aitken B. Be wary of letting NHS 'share' your medical records. There will no doubt be a lot of 'selling' of data along with this 'sharing'.
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Paragon ? Having been active in the buy-to-let market since the 80's I've used Paragon as a mortgage provider in the past. Once ! Definitely the most 'reluctant' lender I've ever dealt with. Only went with them on the advice of a broker and was too far into the deal by the time I discovered just how difficult they were to deal with. It was a good few years ago so maybe their customer service has improved, but I've no wish to find out, and heaved a huge sigh of relief when I finally re-mortgaged with a more confident provider. And don't get me started on their valuation and arrangement fees ! Or their calculations based on Libor rather than Bank Base Rate ! The real reason I used them was my broker's belief they would have the loan in place in a timely manner as I wished to proceed quickly on the property I was purchasing. In the event the process was the most tedious and time consuming deal I've ever been involved in. Of course, they may have improved their operation since then ..............................................
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19 February 2014