Wesleyan Bank bags former TSB exec as digital head
Wesleyan Bank, the Birmingham-based financial advisor and banking provider for professionals, has landed TSB’s former head of digital experience and adoption as its new head of digital.
Genevieve Kangurs spent four years at TSB spearheading the bank’s digital transformation.
In 2018, TSB experienced a huge IT outage. It left customers unable to access their accounts due to a botched core banking replacement. Since then, the bank has experienced a series of outages, including one in April and another last November.
Before TSB, Kangurs spent ten years at Barclaycard.
Genevieve Kangurs
Move to Wesleyan
Wesylan’s offering is two-pronged. It offers financial advisory and banking services to GPs, hospital doctors, dentists, teachers and lawyers. But it also offers its financial products via their employers.
Founded in 1841, Wesylan announced a package of support measures for its customers in April amid the coronavirus.
It includes free access to a 24/7 healthcare and wellbeing support hub called “Wesleyan Wellbeing”, as well as online psychological triage assessments.
Kangurs’ arrival ties in nicely with the roll-out of new digital services to meet evolving client needs.
The firm also hired a new chief financial officer (CFO) Iin June – Gillian Cass – who starts in November. She is a former Prudential and Aviva exec.
Pivoting operations in COVID-19
“It’s never easy for an organisation like ours with 2,000 people based broadly in one building,” group CEO, Mario Mazzocchi, told FT Adviser in July.
“They are used to operating in a very physical way in terms of interacting with each other, going to the office every day, seeing colleagues.”
Former Lloyds exec Mazzocchi says the firm “invested a lot” in digitising operations “at the right time”.
It has also noticed a shift in interest from investing to protection products. This is in large part down to many customers wanting to hold onto their cash during the uncertainty of the pandemic.
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