Zopa bank hires new CTO, COO

Digital bank Zopa has appointed Peter Donlon and Kate Erb as CTO and COO respectively, pending regulatory approval.

Peter and Kate add significant technology and operations experience to Zopa’s leadership roster as the company matures and enters its next stage of growth to become Britain’s best bank.

At Zopa, they will support the bank’s continued growth, driving further efficiencies and automation while making sure it scales sustainably, on strong foundations, and in a resilient way.

Peter will oversee Zopa’s 220-strong engineering team, expanding its best-in-class products and technology infrastructure while ensuring its platform retains an unrivalled leadership position in the use of AI and machine learning.

Prior to Zopa, Peter scaled Moonpig PLC’s tech function from 30 to 200 engineers and led its £1.2bn London Stock Exchange listing. Previously, he served as Head of IT Development for the UK’s second largest supermarket Sainsbury’s, overseeing its technology capabilities across 1400 shops and 190,000 employees.

Kate will lead business critical functions like operations, customer service, collections and recoveries, building on Zopa’s profitable unit economics and industry leading NPS to drive strong customer outcomes. She will also continue to evolve Zopa as a great place to work with one of the highest employee satisfaction scores across the UK fintech industry.

A qualified chartered accountant with KPMG and over 20 years of experience in financial services, she joins Zopa from Leeds Building Society.

Peter Donlon, CTO at Zopa bank said: “One of the things that attracted me to Zopa is its ability to deliver great outcomes through cutting-edge technology, markedly improving the financial well-being and resilience of its customers. I am proud to be joining Zopa’s purpose driven team and look forward to scaling its digitally native offering, reaching even more customers as it continues to grow profitably.”

Kate Erb, COO at Zopa bank added: “I am excited to be joining Zopa’s leadership team as it prepares to serve 5 million customers in the coming years. I look forward to continuing the delivery of its brilliant customer experience through fair, intuitive, and transparent products that have established Zopa as the UK’s most customer centric bank with one of the highest NPS scores”.

Zopa’s most exciting innovations, proprietary technology, and extensive application of AI enable users to improve their financial health, gain access to better priced credit, and access saving products based on individual preferences towards interest and flexibility.

Last year Zopa borrowers saved on average £601 when taking a debt consolidation loan; its savers earned on average 4.5x more interest than they would have done at a high street bank.

The news comes as Zopa reaches an inflection point in its journey as a fully regulated bank, following multiple quarters of strong growth and achieving monthly profitability.

To date Zopa has attracted £3.5 billion in deposits, more than £2 billion of loans on balance sheet, and issued over 400,000 credit cards.