Harrods Bank loses CEO
Peter Ball, ex-Harrods
Just a couple of months following the appointment of the new CIO at Harrods Bank, its chief executive – Peter Ball – leaves.
Ball has moved to specialist lender Together, to head its retail division.
Together has been ramping up its leadership team – over the last three months alone it has added Colin Kersley, ex-CEO of M&S Bank, as a non-executive director to its retail board; Ron Baxter, senior advisor at the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), as an independent non-executive director in its retail division; and Wayne Bowser, former deputy head of commercial banking at HSBC, as a group non-executive director.
Ball joined Harrods Bank from Virgin Money in January 2014 to “lead the rejuvenation and transformation” of the 120-year old bank.
By then, the bank had already been looking to replace its outdated core system – Misys’ Bankmaster – for a number of years. The protracted selection process finally concluded in 2015, with the bank opting for FIS’s Profile core platform.
This was swiftly followed by a management shake-up at the bank, including the departure of the senior execs responsible for selecting FIS’s Profile.
Incidentally, there were also management changes at FIS in the UK, with a number of key execs leaving the vendor.
With no tangible results delivered, the Profile roll-out was put on hold at Harrods Bank, Banking Technology understands, and the project is believed to be still in limbo.
Harrods Bank operates from the Harrods store in Knightsbridge. It offers personal banking services such as mortgages, loans, high-value current accounts, debit cards and savings, and also business banking services.
