Advertisement
UK markets closed
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     
  • HANG SENG

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • CRUDE OIL

    83.12
    +1.77 (+2.18%)
     
  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,252.90
    +40.20 (+1.82%)
     
  • DOW

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • Bitcoin GBP

    56,068.98
    +1,405.72 (+2.57%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • NASDAQ Composite

    16,379.46
    -20.06 (-0.12%)
     
  • UK FTSE All Share

    4,338.05
    +12.12 (+0.28%)
     

Challenger Bank Names Tory Peer As Chairman

A former leader of the House of Lords during David Cameron's tenure as prime minister has become the latest peer to enter Britain's financial sector by taking on the chairmanship of a little-known challenger bank.

Sky News can reveal that Lord Strathclyde recently joined Bank and Clients (B and C), a business set up by investment firm Ocean Capital offering products including savings accounts and specialist mortgage loans.

His appointment as B and C's chairman was approved by the Prudential Regulation Authority last month but has not been publicly announced.

Lord Strathclyde, who led a review last year aimed at asserting the primacy of the House of Commons, has replaced Sandy Flockhart, a former HSBC executive.

ADVERTISEMENT

Mr Flockhart, who was appointed as B and C's chairman in 2014, is understood to have stepped down owing to ill health.

The new chairman is one of a number of peers who have turned up in senior roles in banking.

Lord Flight is a board member of Metro Bank (Other OTC: MBNKF - news) , which listed on the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) this year, while Lord Turner, the former chairman of the City watchdog, is a director of OakNorth, another new bank.

Lord McFall, a former chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, briefly joined Atom Bank, another start-up, as a non-executive director, but stepped down to join the Banking Standards Board (BSB), a new body designed to promote better industry ethics.

That role also proved short-lived when he quit after a bust-up with the BSB's chairman.

B and C, one of a breed of lenders established in the aftermath of the financial crisis to challenge the dominance of Britain's five biggest high street banks, also offers loans to large and medium-sized companies.

Lord Strathclyde held a number of ministerial roles, including at the Scottish Office, Department of the Environment and the Department of Trade and Industry where he was Minister for Small Firms.

A source said his political background had helped to identify him as a suitable chairman for a fast-growing bank.

The lender entered the UK banking market after paying £13m to Virgin Money to buy a licence held by the Somerset-based Church House Trust.

The challenger banking sector has been hard-hit by the financial turbulence emerging after the UK's vote to leave the European Union.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in companies including Aldermore, Shawbrook and Secure Trust Bank have all fallen sharply, while Virgin Money said on Tuesday that it was deferring a move into lending to small and medium-sized businesses.

B and C declined to comment beyond confirming Lord Strathclyde's appointment.