Britain’s first bank to be launched in the cloud does not use automated credit scores, does not have an automated answering service or an online chatbot, and doesn’t keep customers waiting on hold when they call the bank.
Redwood Bank, which serves small to medium-sized businesses, balances traditional banking values with advanced technology. Its mission is “to be the UK’s best, go-to, specialist business bank.”
In 2021, four years after it obtained its banking licence, Redwood became one of the fastest challenger banks to achieve profitability, while building a strong internal culture and winning high satisfaction scores from its employees and customers.
CEO and co-founder Gary Wilkinson describes the journey and the insights it yielded, in this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
Gary has 30 years' experience within financial services, in both the banking and building society sectors. He has held senior positions at Alliance & Leicester Plc, Nationwide Building Society and Newcastle Building Society before joining Pensions Bank in September 2010 as Chief Executive Officer.The assets and undertaking of Pensions Bank was then transferred to Cambridge & Counties Bank, which obtained a new banking licence in 2012, with Gary as its Chief Executive Officer. In 2015, Gary co-founded Redwood Bank, which obtained its banking licence in 2017.
Gary was named in the 2017 'Power 50' by the Digital Banking Club and in the UK's Top 25 Business Leaders of 2018 by CEO Monthly. He is currently a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Risk Committee of Hinckley & Rugby Building Society.
Gary Wilkinson