Leading digital challenger Cashplus Bank today announces the appointment of Francesca Shaw to its board as an independent non-executive director and chair of the audit committee, subject to regulatory approval.

The appointment follows Cashplus Bank being granted a UK bank licence by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in February this year.

Shaw has nearly 40 years of experience across a wide range of senior governance and commercial roles within UK and international banks. She most recently served as Chief Financial Officer at C Hoare & Co. in London, before retiring in 2020, and previously worked at TD in the US and Canada, and CIBC in Canada and the Caribbean.

Shaw’s arrival follows the recent appointment of Mark Sismey-Durrant, a former CEO of Hampshire Bank Trust, as Chair. In the run up to bank authorisation, Cashplus also made several key executive appointments, including Donna Cunliffe as Operations Risk Director, Jackie Gray as Audit Director and Helen Cowper as Chief Human Resources Officer.

Cashplus Bank Chair, Mark Sismey-Durrant said: “I am delighted to welcome Francesca to the board. She brings extensive experience in board and governance roles and across a range of commercial and strategic areas. She joins the board at an important moment in Cashplus Bank’s history and her expertise will no doubt be invaluable in supporting the company through its next phase of growth.”

Francesca Shaw, said: “I am very pleased to be joining the Cashplus Bank board at what is both a very exciting time for the business and a uniquely challenging period for the wider economy. As a recently-authorised bank Cashplus will play an important role in supporting the UK’s small businesses as the economy begins to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and I look forward to working with the board and with Rich Wagner and the executive team as we move forward with these plans.”  

As one the of the UK’s leading fintech challengers, Cashplus Bank has served over 1.6m customers since it launched in 2005, providing smart, simple digital banking and lending products for SMEs and consumers. Following its bank licence, Cashplus can use part of its £500m of customer deposits for lending and aims to provide £1bn of credit to UK small businesses throughout the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

Cashplus currently serves 7% of all new UK businesses and, with company formations hitting record monthly highs during the pandemic, Cashplus expects to grow its share of this market to at least 10% within the next three years. To achieve this, the company will focus its product and customer service development around the needs of the 600k new companies registered in the UK each year and the 5.7m businesses with fewer than 10 employees.