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17 November 2015

Hot on the heels of unveiling plans to become a new UK retail bank, Masthaven has announced the appointment of James Blower as Head of Savings. The planned bank has already attracted the significant investment required to meet UK regulatory capital rules and is preparing to launch in the summer of 2016.

James has a strong background in retail banking with a particular expertise in providing savings products and services. As the first Savings Director for Shaw-brook Bank he led the growth in customer deposits from £900million to over £2.1billion in 17 months. He was also the youngest bank MD in Guernsey, having set up Clydesdale Bank International, which operated as a specialist offshore sav-ings bank for National Australia Bank and successfully grew deposits to over £1.6 billion. Prior to joining Masthaven, James was responsible for setting up Harrods Bank savings business.

Jon Hall, who will lead Masthaven Bank as Managing Director, said, “We are de-lighted to welcome James, whose record in providing attractive and valued savings products and services speaks for itself. As Head of Savings James will be key to de-livering Masthaven Bank’s flexible approach which will enable savers to make fi-nancial choices which better suit their goals and easily access a range of competi-tive online fixed-interest savings products.”

Jon Hall added, “In James Blower, we have a proven expert with an enviable track record in understanding and delivering what customers want from their savings.’’

James Blower commented, “I am delighted to be joining Masthaven Bank. Savers have been ignored for far too long and I look forward to providing the products and service to offer Masthaven Bank customers a really attractive alternative to the ‘one size fits all’ mentality of the big banks.”