Ex-Kensington chairman tipped to be launching lender
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Peter Birch, former chief executive at Abbey and ex chairman of Kensington, is tipped to become the chairman of a new retail, mortgage and savings bank The Home and Savings Bank.
Mortgage Strategy also understands that Barry Meeks, former CEO at Pink Home Loans and managing director of Mutual One, is involved in the launch working as chief operating officer.
Meek’s Linked In profile lists him as being CEO at the bank since September 2009 and he describes the bank as “A new retail savings and mortgage bank launching in Q1, 2010.”
Documents filed on Companies House list Stuart Sinclair, a former boss of Tesco Personal Finance and director of RBS’s retail banking operations as The Savings Bank director.
It also lists Martin Finegold, founder of Kensington and ex- chief executive of Trigold as a director and chief executive at the firm.
Sky News reports today that the the private equity giant Blackstone is backing the new high street lender and has raised more than £250m from investors.
According to reports the bank is expected to consider making offers for the state-owned Northern Rock, and could bid for branch networks sold off by Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Sky News say Blackstone will inject £200m of equity into the business, with a further £50m provided by the Pears family, and a much smaller investment from Cambridge Place Investment Management, the hedge fund run by Finegold.
The bank is believed to have applied to the Financial Services Authority for a banking license last May.
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Readers' comments (2)
Julie | 20 Jan 2010 6:10 pm
Good to see Martin Finegold back in the UK mortgage market. Martin launched Kensington Mortgages the first credible specialist lender which acted with professsionalism and Integrity in the infancy of the new breed of Specialist sub-prime lending - this guy knows an opportunity when he sees one and knows how to put a good team together looking at the other head of co.
Good Luck guys
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Mark Rothwell | 21 Jan 2010 11:21 am
Agreed. I have worked with Kensington under Martys direction and Barry Meeks when he was CEO of HML. Its certainly a recipe for success and I wish them all the best.
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