Remember the dotcom era? Once upon a time, the idea of an online only bank was pretty far out. Working with a group of visionaries at the Prudential Insurance Company in the UK, we laid out a revolutionary idea in banking–how to provide an online service using nascent internet technology, how to make money at it, how to scale quickly, and how to run it.

Our engagement?

We were hired to design the business model. Operationally, how it all worked. What the organisational building blocks looked like. What decision making bodies existed. What departments, what reporting lines, and how many people.

We were to work not just with the future leadership of this first online-only bank, but also to assist as they moved from being a technology project to an actual company. More importantly, we helped them to prepare for an IPO. This involved detailed organisation design work, regulatory and legal compliance work, as well as constant tuning and balancing as the executives and departments found their operating feet.

We also worked closely with the shareholders and directors to understand both expected return requirements and IPO valuations, and how those translated into operating metrics–how many subscribers, how quickly, average bank balances, etc.

What happened?

We got the IPO off in time. We achieved a substantial trading “pop”. We set global records for the uptake of new deposits for a new bank, reaching 8 billion pounds sterling in 90 days post launch. eGG bank was born.