Case Study: ClearBank launches the UK's first new clearing bank in over 250 years with Microsoft Azure

Microsoft collaborates with ClearBank: Launch of first new UK clearing bank in over 250 years

ClearBank launched as the first new UK clearing bank in over 250 years to give fintechs, challenger banks and FCA‑regulated firms direct access to UK payment systems and core banking capabilities. The company was created to overcome legacy operational constraints that limited competition, slowed product rollout and drove up the costs of transactional banking.

Built on Microsoft Cloud (Azure plus Office 365 and Dynamics 365) with a hybrid public/private cloud architecture hosted in UK datacentres, ClearBank delivers secure, scalable clearing, settlement, current account and payment services. The solution enabled faster, lower‑cost processing and compliance with data‑residency and regulatory requirements, while increasing market competition and potentially saving the UK transactional banking sector an estimated £2–3bn annually.

ClearBank

Nick Ogden

Executive Chairman