Tandem switches CEO as Susie Aliker replaces departing Ricky Knox
The co-founder and CEO Tandem, Ricky Knox, is to be replaced by former Credit Suisse executive, Susie Aliker.
In a statement, Tandem said the board “has agreed” with Knox that he will “step down”.
Knox has agreed to step down from his role
Tandem has been one of the many digital banks to have struggled to break even. In September 2020 it shut its credit cards business to focus on plain vanilla savings and loans.
Tandem investor, Pollen Street Capital, which has a 15% stake, appears to have taken a more hands-on role at the bank.
Prior to setting up Tandem, Knox founded two remittance businesses, Azimo and Small World.
There was no comment from Knox in the Tandem statement; chairman Jeffrey Pritchard, says he “leaves Tandem with our good wishes”.
Aliker spent 14 years at Credit Suisse and, most recently, six years at wholesale bank BACB, where she was appointed CEO in 2018.
The challenger sent a note to its users in September 2020 that it had “tried to make our credit cards work” but hadn’t succeeded.
Rebranding itself as “The Good Green Bank”, Tandem has focused instead on environmental banking and lending, including mortgages in both the buy-to-let and home ownership spheres.
Knox promised the move would prevent Tandem from falling into further losses. It posted losses of £18.9 million in 2019, up 38 per cent from the previous year.
In part, the worsening losses were put down to technology infrastructure investments and provisions for defaults on unsecured loans.
In February this year it acquired the £100 million mortgage book of private banking firm, Bank and Clients.
