OakNorth hires new CFO

The SME lending-focused neo bank has appointed Rajesh Gupta from Kensington Mortgages.

SME challenger bank OakNorth has hired Rajesh Gupta as its new chief financial officer, replacing Christina Alba Ochoa.  

Gupta is joining OakNorth Bank from Kensington Mortgages, a leading specialist lender, where he spent the last five and a half years as its CFO. 

He also had a 21-year career with General Electric, where both Alba Ochoa and Oaknorth co-founder Rishi Khosla cut their teeth, where he held various positions including: CFO of GE Capital Bank UK, CFO for GE Money Bank in the Czech Republic and Head of Financial Planning and Analysis for the EMEA Region. 

Alba Ochoa, who joined the Bank as its CFO in April 2017, is moving to Barcelona to be closer to family, but will remain CFO until Gupta joins which is subject to regulatory approval. Alba Ochoa will continue at OakNorth indefinitely, albeit in a different role. 

OakNorth is both an SME lender (and deposit taker) between £500k-£50m as well as a provider of core banking platforms via its global banking as service operation which licenses its credit underwriting technology. In total it has lent £4.5bn to hundreds of businesses across the UK.

The UK firm, which is five years old, is one of the most highly valued in Europe Unlike many peers it has recorded profits for a number of years, most recently early this year where it said profits had doubled in 2019. 

In the role, Gupta will be on OakNorth’s executive committee and board, and will also attend credit committees meaning he will be among the handful of people making decisions on loans.  

Rishi Khosla, CEO and co-founder of OakNorth Bank, said: “Rajesh has a wealth of CFO experience, leading institutions with assets up to 10 times that of OakNorth Bank. In the five years since we launched, OakNorth Bank has lent over £4.5bn to hundreds of businesses across the UK, directly contributing to the creation of tens of thousands of new homes and jobs across the country. However, we aim to have a much larger impact in the years to come, so it is essential that we continue strengthening our leadership team.”