How Allica Bank Is Rebuilding SME Banking From Scratch
Listen to teaser:
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE ON:
🎙 Apple Podcasts
🎙 Spotify
🎙 and all other relevant podcast platforms.
Banking innovation usually gets reduced to apps and features.
But the real changes are happening underneath.
In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, joins the couch to talk about how challenger banks are actually rebuilding SME banking in the UK.
Richard breaks down why established SMEs need a very different banking model, why go-to-market is harder than building the technology, and how value, trust, and low cost structures become the real advantage over time.
The conversation moves through how digital banking has matured in the UK, what open banking really delivers today, how AI is being used inside regulated banks, and where stablecoins and tokenised money actually make sense and where they do not.
An honest discussion on SME credit gaps, the limits of the super-app idea, the role of humans in an AI-led bank, and what the next decade of challenger banking could realistically look like.
🎙️ In this episode:
• Why challenger banks are replacing major banks for SMEs, not just competing with them
• The hidden problem of fragmentation in SME finance
• How Allica is building an all-in-one bank for established businesses
• What open banking gets right and where it still falls short
• AI inside banks: productivity, agents, and the limits of automation
• Why SMEs are not ready for complexity in digital assets
• The real use cases for stablecoins and cross-border payments
• What creates a defensible moat in modern digital banking
• How regulation helps and hinders SME lending in the UK
• What the next 3 to 5 years of SME banking could look like
👉 Watch the full conversation to understand how challenger banks are scaling trust, profitability, and relevance in a post-hype fintech world.
#CouchonomicsWithArjun #SMEBanking #ChallengerBanks #Fintech #UKFintech #DigitalBanking #AIinBanking #FutureOfBanking #Leadership #FinancialServices
PARTNERS
Couchonomics with Arjun Season 04 is brought to you by:
Adyen → https://www.adyen.com/
Thunes → https://thunes.com/
Mastercard → https://mastercard.com/
Digit9 → https://www.digitnine.com/
SC Ventures → https://scventures.io/
SOCIAL LINKS
Arjun’s LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjunvirsingh/
Couchonomics LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/couchonomics-with-arjun-singh/
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/couchonomics/
Twitter → https://twitter.com/Arjun_Vir_Singh
TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@couchonomics
Newsletter → https://bit.ly/3WI4A6E
CHAPTERS
00:00 Why SME banking is being rebuilt
02:40 The maturity of UK challenger banks
06:30 The real SME credit gap problem
10:20 Fragmentation vs all-in-one banking
15:00 Go-to-market challenges in SME banking
19:30 Open banking realities for SMEs
24:30 AI inside regulated banks
30:10 Human banking in an AI-first world
36:00 Stablecoins, tokenisation, and real use cases
42:00 What creates a defensible banking moat
47:30 Regulation, growth, and the road to 2030