Ex-Standard Life boss named chairman of LendingCrowd

CITY veteran Sir Sandy Crombie has been named chairman of Scottish peer-to-peer lender LendingCrowd.

Crombie (pictured right, with LendingCrowd chief executive Stuart Lunn), was appointed as chief executive of Standard Life Investments in 1994. He became group chief executive of Standard Life in 2004 and retired from his post in 2009.

More recently, he held the role of senior independent director at Royal Bank of Scotland. He received a knighthood in 2009 for services to the insurance industry in Scotland.

LendingCrowd has lent out more than £45m to UK-based small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since launching in late 2014.

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In March, the firm secured an external funding round of £2.2m led by angel syndicate Equity Gap, alongside Scottish Investment Bank and a number of private investors.

“LendingCrowd has made impressive strides in a relatively short space of time, supporting the growth ambitions of hundreds of businesses,” said Crombie. “This is an exciting time for the business and I look forward to working with Stuart and the rest of the team as the platform scales and delivers even more benefits to SMEs, which are the backbone of both the Scottish and UK economies.”

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“Attracting such an experienced and highly-rated individual as Sir Sandy is a validation of our approach to building a long-term, sustainable model capable of being scaled in a high-growth sector,” said LendingCrowd’s founder and chief executive Stuart Lunn.

“We have a strong focus on financial processes, regulation and compliance and Sir Sandy will bring invaluable knowledge and expertise around these issues and in supporting our strategic aims. I look forward to a positive, collaborative relationship with Sir Sandy as we drive scale into our business.”