OakNorth Receives Authorization for U.S. Office

OakNorth, a digital bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, has secured authorization from the Federal Reserve and the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for a Representative Office in New York.

The announcement means that OakNorth will now be able to market its products and services from its United States offices.

United Kingdom-based OakNorth has focused on supporting the lower mid-market: scale-up businesses with $1m-$100m turnover. OakNorth has lent over $15bn to these businesses in the UK and US since its inception in 2015, which they claim has supported the creation of over 47,000 jobs.

The United States banking market is very different than the UK and Europe with more than 4,000 registered banks.

Oak North has already successfully completed $600m of loans to the lower mid-market in the US since July 2023, but will likely expand rapidly in 2024 and into 2025 with the recent authorization.

Rishi Khosla, CEO and co-founder of OakNorth, said:  “Without doing any marketing, we've done about three times more business in the US over the last year than we thought we would have done by this point. This is a clear demonstration of the demand from the lower mid-market for a banking partner like OakNorth, which can provide the speed, flexibility, transparency and entrepreneurial approach these businesses need to succeed and scale.”

He went on to say that they would like to continue to support businesses that are vital to the United States economy but that they consider presently being underserved by the United States banking industry.