A Letchworth specialist business bank has bolstered its leadership team by appointing an industry expert with a quarter of a century's experience.

David Kennedy, who has previously worked for Lloyds, Barclays, Shawbrook and Masthaven banks, is the new Chief Operating Officer at Redwood Bank. 

He was attracted to the role by the Bank's people and culture of acting with integrity and passion, delivering great service and outcomes for its customers, simple and effective lending and deposit offerings and a business and growth plan which is very exciting over the coming years.    

He said: "I met a lot of people during the interview process who championed these ideals, but also who didn't take themselves too seriously.

"With these attitudes and values, anything can be achieved, and Redwood have these in bucketloads." 

Towards the end of last year, it was announced that Redwood Bank's parent company, Redwood Financial Partners Ltd (RFPL), had signed Heads of Terms for the reverse takeover of R8 Capital Investments plc (R8), a company listed on the London Stock Exchange, in 2024. David is keen to be involved in these changes, planned for this year. 

"We will be building the flexibility of our proposition," Mr Kennedy explained, adding: "strengthening the expertise of our people so that we can continue to be completely focused on supporting our brokers and customers, streamlining our processes and increasing the speed of approval and completions."

He went on to say: "There are a number of exciting technology and system upgrades in 2024, which will allow us to use our technology to support customers and brokers further, improve our engagement with third parties such as the land registry and valuers and, where it makes sense, increase straight- through processing, all while retaining a human touch throughout." 

The new COO acknowledges the differences at Redwood that help the Bank provide an efficient and professional service.  

"Redwood has a strong foundation built upon its people," he insisted, going on to say: "many who have been here from day one. This has led to a unique and widespread customer-centric culture in the Bank, which goes beyond catchy words on a page. Our teams in Redwood speak of customers by name, not a set of numbers on a spreadsheet. 

"We review every loan application individually and work hard with our broker community to try and make every application work, providing customers with a credit-backed approval, often when other lenders don't have the willingness to support." 

As Nub News has reported, the specialist Letchworth bank recently celebrated £500m-worth of savings in support of businesses 

Redwood Bank passed the landmark figure in the customer deposits it holds, with a 13 per cent growth since December 2022.  

Gary Wilkinson, Founder and CEO of Redwood Bank, added: "We are delighted to welcome David, who has joined at an important juncture and who will be a great addition to our leadership team.

"His attitude and commitment to our colleagues and customers will see him lead by example as our story continues."  

For further information, visit www.redwoodbank.co.uk.