Lloyds Bank has ended its partnership with FinTech Satago after just two years of their planned five-year deal. In 2022, Lloyds invested £5 million into Satago for a 20% equity stake to help provide SME customers with cash against outstanding invoices. Satago specializes in bills payable automation, risk assessment and invoice finance meant for SMEs and accountants. However, following an internal review, Lloyds Bank has given notice to terminate the commercial license agreement for the software platform. The termination of the contract was announced by Satago investor TruFin in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. Gwynne Master, MD of working capital at Lloyds, had previously stated: “Our partnership with Satago goes beyond a supplier-buyer relationship.”
The notice reinforced that the termination was not due to the platform’s quality or robustness. TruFin believes Satago can still produce significant value through its lending-as-a-service embedded finance strategy, as evidenced by its ongoing successful partnerships with Sage and the Bank of Ireland. Ben Stephenson, Lloyds’ board representative, will step down immediately.
Satago, however, will continue to support and meet the needs of businesses that are presently using the platform as required. The board of TruFin continues to have confidence in Satago’s potential, and its ability to form alliances with other tier 1 banks and specialist lenders. To make for easier reading, the content has been broken up into paragraphs with transition words. The content is written in the active voice, with the same word count and meaning as the original.
