UK challenger Atom Bank hires Gareth Jones as new chief risk officer
UK challenger Atom Bank has named Gareth Jones as its new chief risk officer (CRO), replacing Chris Sparks, who is set to retire after nine years at the company.
Gareth Jones joins Atom Bank as chief risk officer
The bank says that the latest addition to its leadership team will be tasked with ensuring that Atom “maintains and further enhances its excellent risk-management culture”.
Jones joins Atom following a 26-year tenure at The Co-operative Bank, where he most recently served as CRO having previously held “a broad range of roles across product, strategy, finance and risk management”.
Speaking on his appointment, Jones says that the opportunity to join Atom was “too good an opportunity to pass up”.
Atom CEO Mark Mullen says that Jones boasts “extensive experience in the sector” and “excellent credentials”, which he hopes will prove “vital to Atom as we continue to grow our proposition and build sustainable profitability”.
The appointment comes just days after Atom published its “strongest ever financial results” for 2023, with a 600% increase in operating profit.
At the time, Mullen said the bank had “maintained robust credit quality” throughout last year, when its loan book increased by 39%, and “avoided fraud losses altogether”.
