Pepper Money is to create a new entity to seek authorisation for a banking licence from the Bank of England and has announced a number of key senior hires to support this initiative.
The lending division of Pepper (UK) Limited, which entered the UK mortgage market in 2015, has commenced initial discussions with the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Laurence Morey, CEO of Pepper Money, said: “Pepper Money has had a strong entry into specialist residential and buy to let mortgage lending in the UK and this move is designed to further strengthen our ability to support those customers who are under served by high street lenders.
“It will enable Pepper to expand the range of solutions we provide to our core customers – including people with complex incomes, the self-employed, those who fall outside high street credit scoring, first- time buyers and buy to let landlords – as well as securing more diverse funding sources for the business in the form of retail deposit funding.
“We will also be considering targeted acquisitions to further the range of solutions we can provide for our customers as part of our growth plans.”
In order to support the move towards becoming a bank, Pepper Money has bolstered its leadership team with the following appointments, which will be subject to regulator approval:
John Maltby joins as non-executive chair. His career in financial services included positions at PWC, Barclays and NatWest before becoming chief executive of Kensington Group in 2000. He went on to become group commercial director of Lloyds Banking Group in 2007 for five years and was also CEO of Williams & Glyn, before moving in to non-executive roles in 2015.
He chaired BlueStep Bank and the risk & audit committee of Tandem Bank and currently holds non-executive roles with Bank of Ireland and Simplyhealth.
David Bowles is joining as chief risk officer. He has 25 years’ experience as a risk management professional working in a number of financial services providers including GE Capital, Northern Rock Plc, Cattles Plc and Allied Irish Bank. In recent years, he has worked with a number of new entrant UK challenger banks including Shawbrook Bank and Monzo.
Bob Golden arrives as chief commercial officer following 17 years with Close Brothers on the board of the Bank and CEO of the retail division. His experience in lending covers motor, mortgage, invoice, retail and premium finance. At Pepper, he will be responsible for driving the commercial development of the existing residential and buy to let lending businesses as well as developing new markets.