Clearbank releases its 2024 annual results
ClearBank, the enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking, today released its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2024 and 2024 Annual Report. These show the business has made progress on its growth strategy, positioning itself for long-term international expansion as it establishes its Group structure. The UK business posted annual pre-tax profits for the second year running, with strong growth in fee-based income, deposits and clients.
2024 was a milestone year for ClearBank as it became the newest European bank, securing its European banking licence from the European Central Bank (ECB) under the supervision of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). Building on this, ClearBank has ‘passported’ into 11 new European markets to date, opening up further access to its innovative payment and banking products for businesses.
Alongside major investment in its European business launch, last year ClearBank focused heavily on the scalability of its technology platform and business model, while also shifting its revenue focus away from interest income – reducing its exposure to rate sensitivity – and towards higher-quality fee income.
The business’s like-for-like proforma revenue performance, adjusting for one-off contractual changes relating to interest share arrangements, saw total revenue increase 30%, from £86.4m to £112.1m.
Fee-based income – which includes recurring platform fees, payments fees and spread-based interest income (which is less sensitive to interest rates) – increased by 63% to £53.3m.
The UK business has maintained profitability for the second year running, recording a £9.9m pre-tax profit on an adjusted basis in FY 2024, versus £25.3m in FY 2023. Reporting at a Group level for the first time – as a result of costs related to the European expansion, the implementation of the new Group structure, and the shift away from interest fee income – ClearBank posted a pre-tax loss of £4.4m on an adjusted basis.
Key 2024 highlights:
- Major growth in customer balances and transaction volumes: ClearBank, which provides over 13 million accounts, nearly doubled its customer balances, which stood at £10.8bn in 2024 (compared to £6.1bn in 2023). The business also recorded a 55% increase in payment scheme transaction volumes, processing 167 million payments throughout the year.
- ClearBank now serves more than 250 clients: The bank added 40 new clients to its portfolio in 2024, generating new business with some of the industry’s leading brands, including Revolut and Wealthify (Aviva’s digital savings and investment platform).
- Growth in high-quality revenue: An increase in embedded banking clients, agency clients and volumes resulted in fee-based income growth of 63%, including recurring platform fees. Such fee growth, without reliance on high interest rates, demonstrates the quality, stability and sustainability of the business model.
- Embedded banking progression: As a result of strengthened partnerships with Chip and Wealthify, as well as onboarding Revolut as a client, the total number of FSCS-protected accounts stood at 1.7m by the end of 2024 (compared with 1.2m at the end of 2023).
Mark Fairless, CEO of ClearBank, said: “We have realised a number of our key strategic priorities in 2024, turning particular attention to international expansion, and significantly improving our earnings quality, as we build a more efficient and scalable business model that stands the test of time. We have made strong progress, cementing our position as the enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking, and setting the pace for the industry.
“Building on our continued profitability in the UK, we are poised to increase our market share across Europe to further support our clients’ growth, as well as continuing to push boundaries through product innovation. With the investments made last year, we are well-positioned for long-term, sustainable success as we work towards our ambition to become a global leader.”