SME lender Allica Bank has hit £4 billion in customer deposits and £3 billion in business lending.

The digital bank, which describes itself as the UK’s only full-service bank focused on established businesses, reached its first full year of profitability in 2023.

In May, fellow challenger bank Zopa also topped £4 billion in customer deposits just under four years since it was granted a banking license.

At the time, the bank said that the ISA market had been particularly attractive to consumers looking for a “tax efficient” way to save money. Zopa’s Smart ISA alone accrued £1 billion in less than a year.

Allica, which will report its full year performance in April 2025, said that business loan balances increased by 64 per cent this year, passing £1 billion of new lending for the year in October.

Total deposits were up from the £2.6 billion recorded at the end of 2023.

Commenting on Allica’s growth this year chief executive Richard Davies said: “Our success over the past few months illustrates the continued hard effort and razor-sharp focus of the Allica team to build products that truly meet the needs of established businesses."

He added: “The pace of Allica’s growth is testament to the frustration that our customers feel with the status quo, and that Allica is offering a real alternative. We will continue to fight the corner for established SMEs who are so often overlooked and develop our offering even further for them.”

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