Atom Bank appoints new chief risk officer

The Midlands-based executive brings over 15 years of compliance and risk management experience to the challenger bank.

Image source: Rebecca Cartwright, Atom Bank.

Atom Bank has appointed Rebecca Cartwright as its chief risk officer. 

Cartwright was previously chief risk officer at the Birmingham-based professional services focused mutual Wesleyan Bank, where she spent three years.

The executive replaces Chris Sparks in the position, who had spent over 7 years at Atom.

Atom said Rebecca will work to maintain and further enhance the risk-management culture across the business,  

Rebecca is also a mentor of the ‘30% Club’, a campaign to encourage female representation at the board and C-suite level.

Aside from her time at Wesleyan bank, Cartwright has spent over 15 years in related roles.

These include three years as the chief risk officer at The Melton Building Society and roles at Yorkshire Building Society, Capital One, and Deloitte’s risk and regulation practice.

The appointment comes as Atom has successfully turned around its business model post-pandemic. 

The company posted an operating loss of £36m at the end of 2021.

However, the bank was able to report a 200 per cent increase in income in the first half of 2022, narrowing its losses to £2m. 

A large part of the bank’s recent growth comes from expanding its mortgage lending operations, which rose from £2.7bn to £3.3bn, while its residential assets rose to £1.5bn, up from £500m the previous year.

Atom isn’t the only financial services challenger to make big hires in its senior risk leadership.

In May, buy now, pay later provider Laybuy poached former group head of fraud in the wealth and personal banking division of HSBC, Jamie Byles, to be its new chief risk officer.

Mark Mullen, chief executive officer at Atom, said: “I would firstly like to thank Chris for playing such a key role in making Atom what it is today, and we all wish him a very happy retirement.”

“I am delighted to welcome Rebecca to Atom.”

“She brings extensive and varied experience within risk and compliance and will be an immensely valuable addition to our team,” he added.