< p>Bridging lender Masthaven Finance is to become a bank as of next year.

Masthaven Finance has plans to launch as a retail challenger bank by next summer and has already applied for a banking license.

The new bank will be owned by Andrew Bloom, founder of Masthaven Finance, where the rest will be owned by the Pears family, who own a stake in the lender, as well as the lender’s employees.

Jon Hall, who is currently Director of Masthaven Bridging Finance is set to become Managing Director after holding a number of senior roles at retail banks previously.

The lender plans to offer a range of online fixed-interest savings accounts so that maturity terms and interest rates can be adjusted.

Masthaven’s underwriters will also treat each loan on a case-by-case basis as a rival to the more robotic high street banks.

For those customers that do not meet the banking criteria, they will still have access to the specialist mortgages Masthaven has been known and awarded for in the alternative finance industry.

Employees of Masthaven will also benefit from the move as the lender plans to offer them share options in the business.

The news follows many other alternative finance lenders gaining their banking licenses, including OakNorth and Chartercourt Financial Services (the parent company of bridging lender Precise Mortgages) earlier this year.

The FCA also revealed this summer that 14 new banks had been authorised in the UK since 2013 and another 20 were in the pre-application stage.