Peer-to-peer lender Zopa has undergone a governance restructure in advance of launching its ‘next generation’ bank.

This will establish separate boards for the Zopa P2P business, proposed bank - subject to banking licence approval - and group, in order to facilitate the increasing scale, ensure good corporate governance and protect the interests of its customers.

The changes come with the appointment of two new board chairs and two new independent non-executive directors. Christine Farnish will be chair of the P2P board and Peter Herbert will be chair of the proposed bank.

Farnish has spent the last six years as chair of the P2P Finance Association and is also a non-executive director on the boards of Ofwat and Ofgem. Previously, she was the group managing director of public policy at Barclays, chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds, and consumer affairs director at the Financial Services Authority.

Peter Herbert was most recently chief executive at digital-only bank Tandem, having previously held senior positions at three major operating divisions at Barclays, and occupied the chief executive position at GE Capital’s global mortgage, consumer lending and credit cards business.

Richard Goulding also joins as independent non-executive director, and a member of the group board, coming from Standard Chartered Bank, where he was group chief risk officer and director for 10 years.

Paul Cutter has been appointed as an independent non-executive director, specialising in technology. He has been chief technology officer at Paddy Power Betfair since 2014, having previously spent nearly 10 years in senior technology roles at BSkyB and AOL.

Jaidev Janardana, Zopa’s chief executive, welcomed the new arrivals, adding: “All of them bring a diverse set of skills, experiences, and perspectives to our team at what is a pivotal time for the business.”

Zopa is looking to fill the remaining positions on its proposed bank and P2P boards in the coming months.

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