Recognise Bank’s founder CEO Jason Oakley to depart

Bryce Glover, deputy chief executive officer and co-founder, will take on the role of interim CEO and the board is in the process of selecting a new CEO.

Oakley has worked in the financial services industry for around 35 years and helped launch Recognise Bank five years ago.

He has held senior roles at several major banks, including managing director of commercial banking at Metro Bank and head of SME banking at RBS and Natwest. He also served as CEO of Hanco ATM systems, which is the UK’s largest independent ATM deployer.

Oakley has also worked as infrastructure director for Close Premium Finance, where he oversaw IT, operations and credit control functions.

Additionally, he founded Acorn to Oaks Financial Services Ltd, a whole of market advisory business based in the West Midlands, in 2008. Oakley is also a shareholder in Censeo Financial and Equipment Connect.

Recognise Bank gained its banking licence in November 2020, having started the application in 2017. It provides commercial property loans, bridging loans, professional practice loans and SME working capital loans.

It gained permissions to collect deposits from Prudential Regulatory Authority in September and launched into the professional buy-to-let market in November last year.

The bank said looking ahead, it wanted to further accelerate its digital innovation programme with the creation of an Innovation Hub and use existing technology infrastructure to launch new products and services, explore new revenue streams and create cost efficiencies.

Philip Jenks, chairman of Recognise Bank’s parent company City of London Group, said: “We have already built a successful new bank for the UK’s SMEs. The acceleration of Recognise Bank’s digital programme will ensure the bank remains strong as we enter the next exciting chapter, using our technology and innovation to develop new opportunities.

“On behalf of the board I would like to thank Jason for being the driving force for Recognise Bank from day one, developing the vision we have followed to create a successful commercial lending and personal savings provider. We wish him well for the future.”

Oakley said it had been a privilege to lead Recognise Bank over the past five years and he was proud of what the company had achieved, adding that it had proven that its “digitally enabled relationship banking model” could be successful.

“Having achieved all of this, now is the time to hand the baton over to a new CEO who will lead Recognise Bank into its next phase. I wish the bank well and would like to thank the colleagues I have worked with over the last five years,” he said.