OakNorth Bank Plc is hiring for key positions in the US ahead of its acquisition of Michigan-based Community Unity Bank, which the firm hopes will unlock even more lending to businesses in the country.

The all-share deal, which was announced a year ago, is “progressing” with regulators, according to Rishi Khosla, chief executive officer and co-founder of OakNorth Bank. “We are hopefully months away,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

As part of the CUB acquisition, OakNorth has sought approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve for a US national bank charter. It’s had permission to run a representative office for back-office and marketing tasks since August 2024.

The London-based fintech is looking to add staff in product, compliance, business lending and debt financing in New York and Michigan, according to online job listings. It’s also working to recruit an investment banker to evaluate market entry, as the 11-year-old firm continues to explore M&A and fundraising opportunities.

These measures will add to OakNorth’s already rapid expansion in the US, after it stepped into the gap left by the collapse of specialist lenders including Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank two years ago.

Its annual results on Tuesday show pretax profit rose slightly to £222.5 million ($297 million) while its total loan book grew 11% to £4.9 billion. Lending in the US accounted for 40% of gross loan originations and generated most of its growth while business in the UK was steady.

Khosla said the flat performance in the bank’s home market was a deliberate step to protect credit quality. “What we experienced in the UK first half of last year was irrational behaviors,” he said, adding that lending had picked up again in the second half of the year.

OakNorth, whose backers include Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, is among many fintech firms jockeying for licenses in the US, seeking to capitalize on what many business leaders see as a permissive regulatory climate in President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.

Wise Plc is moving its primary listing to the US from London as well as seeking more American business, while Revolut has targeted a US banking permit to help roll out more services there. Latin American fintech Nu Holdings Ltd. won conditional approval from the OCC earlier this year.

Though corporate lending and geographic expansion is OakNorth’s focus, the CEO aims to support entrepreneurs in a more “holistic manner” including via wealth management, though he said that foray would be “one day probably, not something imminent.”