Banking on it: Taking your money off the high street

Banks losing interest

And you no longer need to be a bank to offer a banks services.

Former Google vice-president Douglas Merrills ZestFinance uses similar maths to the search engine to offer a big-data approach to underwriting payday loans.

With banks still a bit frugal with lending, AvantCredit, a 2012 personal loans start-up active in the US and UK, uses machine learning and a host of big-data variables to identify worthy near-prime borrowers.

And Sheffield-based Ffrees offers current accounts without being a bank (but a 75p withdrawal fee).

Each company says it can provide one of retail bankings key services better than the banks themselves.