Former chief executive at Standard Life, Sir Sandy Crombie, has joined the board of fintech lender LendingCrowd as chairman.
Sir Sandy resigned from his position as senior independent director at Royal Bank of Scotland at the start of this year and now joins the only fintech lender in Scotland.
Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, LendingCrowd launched in 2014 and has so far facilitated £45m of loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the firm said.
In March it had secured an external funding round of £2.2m led by angel syndicate Equity Gap.
Sir Sandy said: "LendingCrowd has made impressive strides in a relatively short space of time, supporting the growth ambitions of hundreds of businesses.
"This is an exciting time for the business and I look forward to working with 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."
Sir Sandy received a knighthood in 2009 for services to the insurance industry in Scotland and is also the chairman of Scottish civil justice startup Amiqus.
Stuart Lunn, founder and chief executive at LendingCrowd, said: "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.
"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."
rachel.addison@ft.com
