UK neobank OakNorth has appointed Lord Adair Turner as its new chairman.

Lord Turner has previously worked as vice-chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, board director of the Bank of England, chair of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and was a founding member of the Financial Policy Committee.

OakNorth said that he came into his role at the FSA only days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and played a "central role in financial regulation post crisis that laid the foundation for the creation of new banks".

OakNorth’s current Chairman, Cyrus Ardalan, stepped down at the end of 2023 after eight years in the role, in accordance with the Corporate Governance Code.

Commenting on the appointment, Rishi Khosla, chief executive and co-founder of OakNorth, said: “Lord Turner’s appointment as our Chairman is an exciting milestone for the business. His expertise will be invaluable as we continue our journey expanding into new products and services, and supporting our customers in their growth ambitions. Adair joined the FSA as Chairman at the peak of the financial crisis in 2008, so had a front row seat as to what went wrong and played a central role in writing the regulation to help prevent history from repeating itself."

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