The former head of the personal loans arm at HBOS has been named as the new managing director of credit card business Vanquis Bank as its parent firm Provident Financial again hit back at a £1.3 billion hostile takeover offer.
Neil Chandler, who will take up the role on 15 April, was previously chief executive of Shop Direct Financial Services.
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Prior to that he had been chief executive at Sainsbury's Bank and head of personal loans at HBOS after joining as chief operating officer for its cards business.
Malcolm Le May, chief executive of Provident Financial, said: "Neil has the ideal skill set to build on Vanquis Bank's successful track record, strong retail banking, cards and consumer finance experience, combined with a collegiate, practical and customer focused approach to building long-term sustainable businesses."
The appointment came as Provident again reiterated its claim that Non-Standard Finance’s (NSF) hostile bid for the firm is "strategically and financially flawed".
Patrick Snowball, chairman of Provident said: "The Provident board believes that NSF's hostile offer represents an irresponsible approach in the context of a regulated business which is emerging from a period of substantial instability.
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“As such, the offer would have a negative and destabilising impact on Provident stakeholders, including its customers, for a considerable period of time. The Provident board believes that the offer would be value destructive and that the arguments put forward by NSF do not take into account the significant operational progress made by Provident's management team.”
In a statement yesterday, NSF said the Provident Board "have presided over Provident's recent chaos and business disruptions, have insufficient operational experience in the sector (even following Provident's new appointments) and have no clear strategic plan for Provident. They appear to have lost sight of what success looks like".
