Seven years after the crash, can 'challengers' fill the banking gap?

Liontrust's Jamie Clark explores how challenger banks have fared in their aim to create more competition.

With the toxic burdens of the credit crunch of 2008, and the historic misconduct that continues to afflict the incumbent UK banks, an investment case for the challenger banks such as Virgin Money, Shawbrook, Secure Trust, Aldermore, M&S, TSB and Metro bank among others, can easily be built, particularly as they have a legacy-free earnings potential.  According to KPMG, the challengers are outperforming Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Barclays and Santander in terms of growth with a compound annual growth rate of 8.2% between 2012 and 2014 compared to a reduction of 2....