Scottish challenger Alba Bank scales leadership team with two new appointments
Newly-licensed challenger Alba Bank prepares for mobilisation with two new senior appointments.
Alba Bank’s new hires: Robert Sharpe (left) and Andrew Lewis (right)
The Glasgow, UK-headquartered bank, which focuses on small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lending, has appointed Robert Sharpe and Andrew Lewis to chair of the board and chief risk officer (CRO), respectively.
Sharpe, who will be responsible for helping the bank develop its strategy, brings 45 years of experience in retail banking to the role. He currently serves as chair of Metro Bank, Hampshire Trust Bank, and investment manager Pollen Street Capital. He also served as chair of Bank of Ireland in 2016-2020.
“Alba is now well-set for the next stage of its journey, with a strong board, an experienced executive team and supportive shareholders,” he comments.
“The bank is well capitalised and fully focused on building a modern, customer-centric, efficient organisation which can successfully take on the competition. I am very excited to be part of this new venture.”
The bank’s new CRO Lewis brings 25 years of experience in financial services.
He joins Alba from another SME lender in the UK, Aldermore Bank, following an almost three-year tenure as CRO. He also served as an expert partner at the financial services and digital practice of management consulting firm Bain & Co for a year.
The bulk of his experience, however, comes from his two-decade career at NatWest Group, where he co-founded its now-closed SME digital lending platform Esme Loans, while serving in a variety of senior business and risk roles, most recently as MD of commercial and private banking.
“I’ve spent a lot of my career working with the SME sector which has been consistently failed by the big banks,” Lewis explains. “There are many reasons for that failure, but we see a real opportunity for Alba to champion this key part of the UK economy as a specialist lender.”
He describes Alba as a “safe, scalable and sustainable bank” that will offer “compelling SME lending and online savings propositions” to the UK businesses.
Next steps for Alba
The bank was founded in 2018 by Scottish entrepreneur Jim McColl.
It landed a banking licence from the UK Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) earlier this year.
“With the addition of Robert and Andy to our leadership team, Alba has reached another crucial milestone in our journey towards launch,” comments Rod Ashley, the bank’s CEO. “We’ve now got a team with the right experience and values to deliver a new challenger bank aimed at supporting SMEs to achieve their true potential.”
