Curve, the UK based financial service provider known for its OTT banking platform recently revealed in an announcement the inception of its new credit business and appointment of head of the unit. As per the statement released by the firm, it has hired Mr. Paul Harrald to lead its new credit business.
In his new role as head of Credit business, Paul is responsible for setting up and leading this newly conceived business division and is based out of the firm’s head office in the UK. Aside from his role as head of Curve’s credit business unit, Paul is also serving as Managing Director at Sepkis Ltd – a consultancy specializing in fintech investment evaluation, bank prudential regulation and capital management.
As per the information in his LinkedIn profile, Paul has been a part of Sepkis Ltd for 4 years and five months now. However, it should also be noted that he did a brief stint at Chinese venture capital firm CreditEase where he served as Managing Director for 5 months. The statement also revealed that it was during his term at CreditEast where he handled its UK and European private equity investments that he began to develop an interest towards the curve.
The incoming head of the credit business unit has a distinguished career history and is a veteran with 25 years of experience having served as part of data analytics, risk management and financial services in many industry-leading firms of said sectors.
He began his career while still pursuing his Ph.D. in economics from Simon Fraser University has joined Manchester University as a tenured Lecturer in business economics and to this day holds the reputation of becoming one of the youngest academics to achieve such position in the university. Later in his career, he also served as a visiting professor in computer science at UCL.
Some of other most notable roles from his multi decade long distinguished career include – Corporate VP of Risk Strategy and Global Data Science at GE Consumer Finance/GE Money, Global head of Portfolio Risk and Group Head of Risk Strategy at Standard Chartered bank, Director of Business Analysis at RBS, Head of Alternative Leading at Arrowgrass Capital Partners LLP, CIO & Director of Analytics at SAV Credit and Credit & Risk Advisor at Google.
Commenting on his new role at the firm, Paul said, “It’s my belief that, in time, Curve can rival Klarna, a company I admire greatly. Curve is uniquely positioned in the market as an Over-The-Top banking platform to offer consumers unrivalled simplicity in managing multiple payments and credit products. The launch of Curve Credit in 2020 will provide its customers with phenomenal control of their finances and the ultimate financial experience”.
Speaking about Paul’s addition to the senior-level leadership team, Shachar Bialick, Founder and CEO of Curve added, “Paul’s credit industry expertise is second to none. He has a remarkable track record for building and growing hugely successful credit products and it is a massive coup for Curve to have secured such a talent and be able to draw on his expertise as we look to enter the highly competitive credit market later this year”.
The firm was most recently in news for becoming the fastest start-up to raise 4 million pounds in crowdfunding event in startup history when it managed to smash its target of 1 Million GBP in under five minutes and managing to raise nearly 6 Million GBP by end of the funding round in September earlier this year. Aside from the creation of its credit business division it is also currently planning to expand its business further into Europe and US markets in 2020.
Source:
https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/80945/curve-hires-paul-harrald-to-lead-new-credit-business
