Volt Bank reported a $27 million loss in the six months to September 31.

There’s a fair bit of red ink in Volt’s most recent accounts. The group’s holding company, chaired by former HSBC Australia chairman Graham Bradley, reported a $27 million loss in the six months to September 31, with employment and IT expenses the two biggest items on its profit and loss statement. Growth-minded investors are likely to forgive the red ink. However, they will be trying to work out exactly how big and how quickly Volt could capture retail banking market share as part of the funding round. Investors will also be thinking about Volt Bank’s long-term future; SME-focused Judo showed it was possible to list a neobank on the ASX, and you would have to think it’s one of the medium-term options being discussed around Volt’s boardroom table. Sources said Rothschild’s bankers had been helping Volt review its options, including around the Series F funding round. It comes after Volt added Australian Finance Group as a strategic investor last year, with a 7.6 per cent stake at about a $200 million valuation. AFG chipped in as part of the upsized $100 million-odd Series E, which closed late last year. Volt got its banking licence in 2019 and runs as what it calls a “banking-as-a-service” business. Instead of raising deposits and loans by itself, it goes through partners like Railspay, AFG, Australian Mortgage, BTC Markets and QPay. Volt brings the banking licence and the infrastructure, while the partners do the consumer-facing work. Around the same time that it added AFG as a shareholder, Volt Bank hired Bradley to head its board. Bradley had an ambitious target, wanting to grab a 1.5 per cent (or $30 billion) slice of home loans.

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