Former UK chancellor Lord Hammond appointed new Railsr chairman
Former UK chancellor of the exchequer, Lord Philip Hammond of Runnymede, has been appointed as chairman of the London-headquartered embedded finance platform Railsr.
Lord Hammond (bottom right) joins Railsr as its new chairman (Image: Railsr)
Lord Hammond replaces Rick Haythornthwaite, who is standing down to become chairman of NatWest Group, effective 15 April 2024.
Commenting on his successor, Haythornthwaite believes “the company will benefit enormously from Lord Hammond’s extensive business and political experience at this key juncture”.
Lord Hammond has occupied several prominent cabinet positions throughout his political career. Prior to serving as chancellor of the exchequer between 2016 and 2019, he acted as the UK’s foreign secretary, secretary of state for transport and secretary of state for defence.
In recent years, Lord Hammond has assumed many commercial roles, including chairman of Copper Technologies, non-executive director at Ardagh Group and senior adviser at OakNorth Bank.
Railsr offers a range of Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and Cards-as-a-Service solutions, including BIN sponsorship, card issuing and virtual wallets, which can be connected to major payment schemes like Bacs, SEPA, Swift and UK Faster Payments.
The appointment of Lord Hammond comes after a dramatic 2023 for Railsr, which saw the fintech hire a raft of new executives following a rescue sale to a consortium of venture capital firms.
