The real estate industry faced a major crisis in 2018 when high street banks began closing pooled client accounts, leaving agents scrambling. For Glyn, CEO of Calmony, this crisis was an opportunity to change how agents handle client money.

During the most recent episode of In conversation with Griffin, Glyn shared how the idea for Calmony came from a sister company's experience with distressed clients. "They were coming to us in a blind panic." High street banks were asking agents to open separate accounts for each landlord‍—‌an almost impossible task for agents with hundreds of properties. After conducting a national survey and producing a white paper, it became clear that banks had drastically changed their risk appetite for the letting industry.

Calmony's solution is a comprehensive approach to providing banking products and services to the sector. Rather than agents having to juggle multiple banking systems, Calmony combines client accounts, bulk payments, and card services in one platform.

Glyn described how agents manually process payments one at a time for thousands of landlords because they lack access to bulk payment systems. "I kid you not, they are literally doing one online banking payment at a time," he shared. These inefficiencies eat into profits through percentage-based fees at every stage.

Speaking on the future, Glyn touches on some new regulatory challenges in the industry. From May 2025, letting agents will need to register with HMRC for AML compliance. More significantly, agents will be responsible for monitoring and reporting any sanctions breaches or money laundering concerns‍—‌a daunting task when managing hundreds of landlords.

This is where Calmony's partnership with Griffin comes into play. By leveraging Griffin's banking technology, Calmony can verify landlords and monitor them every 24 hours for changes in status. "You may have known the landlord for 20 years," Glyn explained, "but tomorrow they could be on the sanctions register." This continuous monitoring helps agents avoid inadvertently facilitating financial crime.

The choice to partner with Griffin was driven by our technology-first approach. As Glyn put it, we're a "branchless, bank manager-less bank," providing the technical infrastructure while Calmony builds an ecosystem around it. This partnership allows Calmony to effectively become the branch and bank manager for their customers.

On what’s next? Calmony is developing direct debit capabilities with soft retry features‍—‌addressing another major pain point in the industry. This will allow agents to collect rent more efficiently while paying fixed fees.

When asked about advice for other fintech CEOs, Glyn emphasised persistence in the face of regulatory challenges. "Don't give up," he stressed, acknowledging the tension between fast-moving fintech solutions and slower-moving legislation. He credits maintaining open dialogue with regulators and industry schemes as key to Calmony's successful relaunch.

Our partnership with Calmony shows how modern banking technology can solve real industry problems, making life easier for letting agents and ultimately contributing to a more efficient property management sector.