Checkmate rebrands to Portillion
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Checkmate Mortgages has rebranded to Portillion and appointed Philip Dearing, former chief executive officer at Market Harborough as its savings director.
Dearing’s appointment suggests the lender will look to retail deposits for its funding when it launches.
Portillion has yet to reveal when it plans to launch or if it has obtained its banking licence from the Financial Services Authority.
Dearing also works as a non-executive director at Mutual One and Computer Service - a subsidiary of Skipton Building Society. It is unclear whether he will remain in theses posts once the lender starts trading.
Dearing’s appointment is just one of several new recruits.
“The board, management team and governance structure that has been put in place at Portillion is as good as I have seen anywhere in the industry.”
Gerald Gregory, non-executive chairman, Portillion
Gerald Gregory, previously a director of Britannia Building Society is taking on the role of non-executive chairman, with Ronnie Baird, previously a director of the FSA, becomes a senior non-executive director and chairman of Portillion’s audit committee.
David Hill, previously chief financial officer and chief executive officer at Stroud & Swindon Building Society, has been appointed as chief financial officer and David Kindred, previously head of decision sciences at Lloyds Banking Group is to become chief risk officer.
Stephen Knight, previously executive chairman at GMAC-RFC and Checkmate, takes on the role of chief executive officer at Portillion.
The name change is a result of the lender carrying out research in 2009 into the business to business and business to consumer sectors.
Derived from the French word “portillon”, meaning the security gate in front of a castle, the new name passed various tests of positive association and recall.
Gregory says: “The board, management team and governance structure that has been put in place at Portillion is as good as I have seen anywhere in the industry. When the time is right for us to launch, I am sure we will improve choice and benefits for customers.”
Readers' comments (5)
Rob Jupp | 22 Feb 2010 8:45 am
This sounds like an excellent strategic move and lets hope that the team at Portillion get their banking license quickly to allow them to start lending in 2010. The Mortgage Industry craves an intermediary focused lender and with Stephen, Gerald and the whole Portillion team I am certain that this will be a wonderful success.Good luck to you all.
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Anonymous | 22 Feb 2010 10:23 am
Lots of Chiefs....lots of cost.
The BS movement is currently in disarray due to the funding crisis in the markets. Retail deposits in isolation are somewhat insufficient.
A company which has yet to launch, that is burning cash with a huge infrastructure cost; is now 're-branding' following "the result of extensive research carried out in the fourth quarter of 2009"
Yep, and adding more costs!
So does this all mean an imminent launch?
Eh no, the time is "still not right".......
Hope I am wrong but even though the strategy is OK'ish it all sounds a little pretentious re-branding at this juncture.
Perhaps the actions of a company with lots of cash and too much free time?
Portillion a Fermé - Gate (still) Closed?
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Kevin friend | 22 Feb 2010 12:19 pm
The comment, which is anonymous needs to be disregarded as clearly it is sent by someone who has no knowledge of the industry and must be diluded! the team is one of the best, Stephen will not be associated with any failure and the Chiefs are good one with lots of indians to follow no doubt! This is the best story to hit the market over the last year or so and one to follow very closely.
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Dan McGeehan | 22 Feb 2010 1:13 pm
The anonymous comment has a lot of merit. Yes the team that has been assembled have been good in the past however the market has changed dramatically. I do not see them being the saviour of the intermediary market but rather a niche lender like kensignton or along the same volumes as Platform. They are not coming in to replace adverse lenders that left but to compete in the mainstream arena.
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Anonymous | 23 Feb 2010 3:47 pm
There will be securitisation possibilities once the process is totally transparent. Had the sub prime mortgages been sold on as such we may not have had the issue we ended up with. As it was, sub prime were thrown in with AAA and judged to be the same risk leading to the world's most expensive game of pass the parcel and when the music stopped somebody was lumbered with it. If investors are fully aware of what they are buying then securitisation can happen again.
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