Funding Circle said that the head of finance that brought the struggling peer-to-peer lender to market will leave the business.
Sean Glithero, 46, will step down as chief financial officer will step down “later this year, providing sufficient time for an orderly transition”, said the FTSE 250 firm.
He will be replaced by Oliver White, 51, currently chief financial officer at sub-prime credit card group Vanquis Bank.
In a career spanning almost three decades in financial services, White spent 15 years at Barclaycard, part of his time at the lender was as chief financial officer at Barclaycard, its global credit card unit with £40bn of assets, £5bn of revenues and £1.6bn in profits. White has also worked for credit card specialist Capital One.
Underserved market
Glithero had previously told the peer-to-peer lender he intended to leave its board and resign from his current role, Funding Circle said yesterday. He joined the group, which lends to small firms, in 2017.
Chief executive and co-founder Samir Desai (pictured) thanked Glithero for his service adding: “He has been an integral member of the team and someone I have always enjoyed working alongside.”
Desai said: “Oliver has a proven track record and deep understanding of growing an international loan provider and I look forward to him joining.”
White added: “Small and medium-sized enterprises [SME] lending is a substantial market and has been hugely underserved for years. The team at Funding Circle have shown over the last decade there is an alternative and better way to help SMEs access the finance they need to run their businesses.”
Cut forecasts
Funding Circle has been under pressure since it cut its group growth forecasts in half to 20 per cent in July, due to a sharp drop in demand for loans.
The group operates in the US, Germany, the Netherlands and its core UK market. It has lent more than £8bn to 77,000 small firms since it was founded in 2010.
The lender retained its 2019 forecasts of five to seven per cent annual returns on loans for its UK business, the firm’s largest market, in a fourth-quarter trading statement released earlier this month.
It added bad debts would remain broadly the same at 2.1 per cent to four per cent of the loanbook in the UK.
Troubled listing
The firm floated on the London Stock Exchange in October 2018 at 440p per share, valuing the platform at £1.5bn.
However, analysts say an overpriced launch and a slowing economy have taken their toll on the stock, which lags almost 80 per cent below its market debut. The firm was demoted from the FTSE 100 to the FTSE 250 last September.
Funding Circle lifted 3 per cent in early trading to 83.2p as investors digested the coming change at the head of the group’s finance operation.
