UK’s digital bank Zopa has appointed Graham Robinson as its new Chief Risk Officer.
Graham joins Zopa as it “completes its successful first year as a digital bank and sets its sights on further growth,” according to an update shared with CI.
With more than 20 years’ experience of leadership across credit risk, operations and digital, Graham brings “a wealth of knowledge from both established and challenger banking institutions.” During over 18 years at Capital One, Graham held different positions including VP Digital, VP: Customer Management, Collections & Recoveries, and Head of Credit in Italy.
Recently, Graham was serving as the Director of Credit at Monzo where he “built the credit risk management capability to support the scaling bank,” the announcement revealed.
Graham Robinson, CRO at Zopa remarked:
“Zopa is unique as it has the energy and innovation of a new bank, but 16 years’ experience and expertise in the lending market. No other provider has this combination across digital banking. Zopa’s growth so far has been exciting, and I believe that its approach to risk management can continue to give it a competitive advantage in the future. I’m delighted to be joining Zopa at this pivotal point in its journey and to be part of a team delivering products and services that truly help people manage their money better.”
Jaidev Janardana, Zopa’s CEO stated:
“At Zopa we have an ambitious vision. We will only achieve it by attracting the best talent across all functions, including in our senior leadership team. We’re delighted to welcome Graham to the team. He brings a wealth of experience in risk management which will enable Zopa to build a strong and well controlled platform for continued growth.”
As noted in the update, Zopa Bank is the 18-month-old “Unicorn” that acquired more than $500 million from the early investors of Slack, Uber, and Alibaba to establish the UK’s “best” bank for lending and savings. Zopa is also “the world’s first Peer-to-Peer lender with 16 years track record of lending experience,” the announcement added.
Softbank led the firm’s last round in October 2021 ahead of a planned IPO in Q4 2022, the announcement noted.
Zopa claims half a million customers. It helps them “better manage their money with a fee-free credit card, savings accounts, personal loans, auto finance, money management, and financial health tools.”
Zopa in numbers
During the past 16 years, Zopa has approved more than £6 billion in personal loans. Since the launch of the bank in June of last year, Zopa has “attracted £700m in deposits, issued 165,000 credit cards becoming a top 10 credit card issuer, more than doubled revenue per customer.”
Zopa has 450 employees; its service is “rated as Excellent with 4.7 / 5 on Trust Pilot and 4.1 /5 on Glassdoor.” It has been “voted the UK’s Best Personal Loan Provider 5 years in a row from the British Bank Awards.” Zopa Bank deposits are “protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000.”
Zopa Limited is authorized and regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Zopa Bank Limited is authorized by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by the PRA.