The chairman of a new bank offering specialist services to businesses has claimed there is "huge change" taking place in the UK SME banking sector.

At a time when major UK banks are shutting branches across the UK, David Buckley has been appointed as the new chairman of Redwood Bank, which will launch later this year.

It will offer products to owner-occupied businesses, as well as to experienced commercial and residential property investors.

Mr Buckley holds a number of non-executive and advisory board positions and is currently an independent non-executive director and chair of the audit committee for CIBC World Markets plc.

He was previously the lead independent non-executive director for Fullerton Health in Singapore.

Prior to this, he was European CFO for Morgan Stanley, chief executive of Morgan Stanley Bank International and a member of its European Management committee.

Before joining Morgan Stanley, he was international treasurer and European head of the Global Banking Group for Goldman Sachs.

Mr Buckley said: "I'm delighted to become chairman of Redwood Bank. There is huge change taking place in the UK SME banking sector, and now is exactly the right time to be launching a new proposition.

"With no legacy systems and the ability to develop competitive products, I am excited about our future."

The bank has also announced the appointment of Nigel Boothroyd, who spent nearly 40 years with the HSBC Group, as a non-executive director.

He has held a number of senior roles in the UK, Europe and North America within corporate and commercial banking, credit risk, operational risk, retail banking and wealth management.

Mr Boothroyd said: "The bank has ambitious plans and a strong team in place to deliver on these. I'm excited to be part of this and confident that we can bring a fresh, and more customer focused and efficient approach to SME banking."

Redwood Bank is wholly owned by Redwood Financial Partners Ltd, a company controlled by Jonathan and David Rowland.

Warrington Borough Council has acquired a 33 per cent stake in RFP, the first time a borough council has made an investment of this type.

The council's executive board has approved an investment of £30million in Redwood as part of Redwood's capital funding.

Redwood's headquarters is in Letchworth, from which a team of business development managers will provide a highly personalised, relationship-driven service, focusing on SMEs throughout its southern and eastern Heartland regions of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Redwood Bank will open a northern regional office in Warrington, which will spearhead the bank's lending to SMEs in the town as well as the bank's heartland region of the North West.

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