Volt Bank, a fintech with a banking licence, no customers and ever worsening losses is either on the brink of something useful or something strange.
Volt Bank is for sale. It was for sale, shopped around.
A$150 million is or was the asking price recently, and a snappy takeover at this price may make sense for another fintech with volcanic ambition and seeking to bypass APRA's clogged system for licencing newcomers to the industry.
Better, the engineers, strategists and artists at Volt that have laboured to invent a better experience, a better service (and, maybe, an ethical banking pact with customers) do indeed go on to get their day in the sun.
Launching a challenger brand into a crowded end of year media market … is that now Volt's plan, 11 months after gaining its licence?
Or later in the summer? Or never?
Sharp pricing on deposit products is the generic pitch from a bank with no products. The Volt website sticks to the language, "We know everyone wants to know the exact rate but we won't make a call on that until we go live. It will be good. It will be variable."
And the opening specials will need to be jolly good, with fellow Neobank Judo Bank the price leader across the curve (albeit on term deposits) according to the Cashwerkz online deposit marketplace, which Volt has also joined.
Volt Bank must be approaching the point where it needs to raise more capital.
In the start-up culture, starting up is a thing, but the currents are all crossed for now at Volt.