Cristina Alba-Ochoa

OakNorth

CFO

Cristina Alba-Ochoa is the CFO of OakNorth - the bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs – where she sits on the board alongside Rishi Khosla (CEO and co-founder), Cyrus Ardalan (Chairman), Navtej Nandra (non-executive director), and Ted Berk (non-executive director) amongst others.  Prior to joining OakNorth, Cristina spent several years at GE Capital International where she  led a team of experienced senior finance managers and analysts who facilitated the management of over $100Bn worth of sales across multiple jurisdictions. She also oversaw the creation of GE Capital’s Centre of Excellence dedicated to cost analysis and forecasting, leading to a cost base reduction of $2Bn over three years. She was also CFO for the EMEA Leverage Finance Bank of GE, and prior to it she held several positions in finance and risk. The strong governance framework she incorporated enabled transactions to be completed at speed whilst still ensuring security - much like the debt finance transactions between OakNorth and its borrowers.  

Event Sessions Featuring Cristina Alba-Ochoa


Fireside Chat

A deep dive into OakNorth’s rapid rise

AltFi London Summit 2019 - Monday 18 March 2019

  • Challenger banks might have the slick operational features that customers like, but they don't have the trust or origination that big banks can access. Zuck believes that while the cost of acquisition can be low for fintechs compared to incumbents, it's scalability that will prove the hardest to overcome for smaller players while they reach for profitability. Customer segmentation is going to prove key: as use cases and models appear of what customers need or require from their banks, platforms need to pay attention to how their relationship with their customers will progress.
  • If you look at where banks will go in the future, as you strip away core services, all that will be left is customer trust. Bringing in the ability to "farm out" other services like lending to partnerships is going to become the way forward, says Taussig. People don't use banks like they use Instagram, but they'll still feel the value in being able to access all their banking needs in one place.
  • There are areas where it is natural for banks to partner with fintechs for rapid reinvention, says Kerton. Esme is looking at product innovation just as much as tech innovation, but it's important to get the systems in place and then build the tech around it. Alba-Ochoa says that OakNorth, on the other hand, adapts to all its clients. From a lending point of view, OakNorth creates a new product for every new client it gets. Every second, something new is being tested.



Articles Featuring Cristina Alba-Ochoa