Owen Woodley, former deputy
CEO of Secure Trust Bank and its motor finance subsidiary Moneyway,
has emerged as chief executive of Whiteaway Laidlaw, a small UK
bank recently bought by RBS Equity Finance from the Manchester
Building Society.

The bank only has 18 staff
and a £30m loan book, but has been given an extremely heavy hitting
board. Former RBS chairman Sir George Mathewson has been brought in
as chairman, while former HBOS board member Sir Brian Ivory will be
a non-executive director.

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Woodley said: “The nature of
the board of directors is a reflection of the ambition backing the
business,”, adding a significant investment had been made by RBS
with a view to “seriously increasing” the size of the
bank.

While Woodley confirmed
Whiteaway Laidlaw would not provide a motor finance offering at
first, he said it had not been ruled out as a possible future
product line.

Gary Jennison, formerly the
CEO of Secure Trust and a long-term colleague of Woodley, had been
involved in discussions about starting a motor lending operation at
Whiteaway before its investors decided against the
strategy.

Meanwhile, Jennison is
involved in a second attempt to seize control of Manchester-based
asset finance house Davenham Group, along with ex-Hitachi Capital
director David Anthony.

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A general meeting will be
held on 10 March in order to vote on resolutions put forward to
appoint Anthony and Jennison as directors in place of the group’s
current Board.

If successful, Jennison has plans to begin a motor finance
business at Davenham.