Finance Monthly CFO Awards Winners Edition

Finance Monthly CFO Awards 2020 www.finance-monthly.com 21 UNITED KINGDOM Finance Monthly CFO Awards 2020 What were your goals for driving change within the bank upon your appointment as its CFO I was first made interim CFO in mid-2016 prior to my permanent appointment in early 2017. However, the bank had undergone significant change as we moved from private ownership in 2015 to the listed equity capital markets against an improving macroeconomic backdrop. This tailwind was soon to fade as the impact of the Brexit referendum began to weigh heavily on the capital market’s perception of value for listed UK banks. In addition, around the time of the Brexit referendum vote, the bank was also disproportionately impacted by the identification of an internal fraud following significant enhancements to the bank’s control infrastructure, a fraud that would later be recovered in full from the bank’s insurers. In 2017 we delisted the bank with the support of its private equity backers whose belief was that the bank requires more time to fulfil its potential outside the gaze of the public markets. The events of 2017 were individually significant but when compounded together provided a very challenging backdrop for Shawbrook, which needed to concentrate relentlessly on its organic growth agenda in order to fulfil its ambition of supporting those parts of the SME lending market that remain underserved. I have been able to provide significant continuity to the Shawbrook management team, and at the same time driven and supported a lending balance sheet that has grown three-fold since 2015 through both organic and inorganic acquisition. Indeed, coupled with the successful tripling of the bank’s lending balance sheet, one of the earliest achievements for me was the role I played alongside my fellow Board and Executive Committee members in launching our Corporate Growth Strategy in the form of our ‘Five Strategic Pillars’. This project has since proven to be a hugely significant one, driving the bank’s growth on a day-to-day basis through continual reference to our five-point strategic pillars. For reference these are; I qualified with KPMG and specialised in Banking markets both as an auditor and Transaction Services advisor prior to joining Shawbrook as Head of FP&A in 2013. Prior to Shawbrook, I was fortunate enough to have worked with some of the most prominent organisations in the UK financial services sector whilst at KPMG, including advising on the original Northern Rock restructure, RBS’ participation in the Asset Protection Scheme, the potential acquisition of the Lloyds TSB branches and the EU restructuring plans prepared by a large Greek lender. I also worked for KPMG in Germany, advising the region’s largest lenders on active M&A opportunities. I followed the journey of the UK’s nascent Specialist and Challenger banking movement and decided to join Shawbrook to take a more prominent role in this particular wave that interested me greatly. Shawbrook Bank was founded in the aftermath of the global financial crisis to react to the significant shift in risk appetite of the large UK banking groups as they inadvertently removed lending supply to important but specialist segments of the UK economy. Our ambition is to become the UK’s specialist SME Lender of Choice, providing lending solutions to SME borrowers across the UK and serve those markets that have been underserved by the large UK banking groups. • progressively increase originations • achieve strong risk adjusted returns • maintain excellent credit quality • maintain conservative foundations • enhance customer focus Those five-points represent Shawbrook’s long-term objectives. They provide an absolute focus for all of us at Shawbrook across all aspects of the business. I am particularly proud of this project as it was worked on and launched several years ago and still stands true today. It has helped the bank evolve into what it is today and keeps Shawbrook focused on our ultimate end goal of becoming the UK’s Specialist SME Lender of Choice. What have you achieved as the CFO of Shawbrook Bank over the past three years? How has your work impacted the bank’s performance? Being a CFO in a UK regulated bank can be one of the more challenging roles to choose in our sector, however perfect foresight is rare when career planning as a young and ambitious qualified ACA. When coupled with Private Equity ownership and significant debt capital market listings, this role is not always for the faint-hearted, however it is a role and challenge that I enjoy. This enjoyment has been made possible thanks not only to the strong finance team that I have assembled around me, but to the efforts of my colleagues working tirelessly across the Group. Their efforts both collectively and individually have enabled Shawbrook to be the success that it is today. Despite the fact that Shawbrook is a diverse specialist lender, which adds complexity to the day-to-day workings of a finance team in particular, we remain extremely proud of our achievements over the last few years. Q Q