Allica nearly doubles profits, hits £3bn in lending during record year

By Gloria Methri

Allica, the bank serving established SMEs in the UK, has reported a profit of £29.9 million ($39.5m) for the financial year 2024, nearly doubling its FY23 figure of £16.1 million. The growth comes as the bank expanded its loan book beyond £3 billion ($3.9bn) and customer deposits rose above £4 billion.

The 2024 results mark Allica Bank’s second consecutive year of profitability since it began lending in 2020. The strong financial performance has been attributed to continued investment in its digital infrastructure and proprietary technology, tailored for the UK’s established small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

The bank’s flagship product – the Business Rewards Account – played a central role in its performance last year. Aimed at SMEs with 5 to 250 employees, the digital account combines advanced functionality with relationship manager support. Allica Bank aims to capture 10% of the established SME banking market within the next three years.

The FinTech now employs more than 200 product and engineering staff in-house and delivered over 3,500 technology releases in 2024 alone. Key developments included new integrations with platforms such as Wise, Sage, and Xero.

Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, said, “2024 has been our best year yet, with significant growth in revenue, lending and deposits demonstrating that we are offering a genuine alternative for established SMEs from the high-street banks and delivering on our promise to give them the banking they deserve. We are pleased to have almost doubled our pre-tax profit to £29.9 million, too, as we continue to grow sustainably. Allica have invested heavily in our proprietary technology capabilities to ensure we have the foundations in place to continue to scale at pace, in terms of the number of established SMES we are supporting and the ways we are helping them.

“We have helped drive tangible change to Basel 3.1 to support more SME lending and have pushed to improve the business savings market with our Great British Savings Squeeze campaign. We will continue to do so in 2025, including advocating for an expansion in the Growth Guarantee Scheme for SME finance, and an increase to the FSCS limit to help businesses earn better returns on their hard-earned cash.”