(26 March 2018 – Australia) Joseph Healy, the former head of NAB’s business bank has launched Judo Capital, an SME only bank, with fellow NAB alumni David Hornery.
The new SME-focused bank will focus on relationships rather than property-secured lending to the sector in an effort to take on the big four.
Judo, which will service SMEs is Melbourne and Victoria before scaling up to NSW, has applied to become a full bank under the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s normal regulatory framework, rather than the government’s new start-up bank framework.
Mr Healy and Mr Hornery say Judo is “emphatically not a fintech” and will instead focus on relationship-based lending. Mr Hornery said Judo would focus on a business’s broader circumstances to try and move away from the traditional model of only lending when property is used as security.
“Our purpose is to become the most trusted bank for SMEs in Australia,” he said.