Alex Bank poaches Judo, Aussie senior staff

Jeff Nel has been named as Alex Bank’s new chief operating officer, after being head of core technology services and business assurance at small-business specialist Judo Bank.

Mr Nel has a reported 20-odd years of experience within banking in Australia and South Africa, including stints on the start-up and scale-up teams for UBank and Judo.

He has also been manager, broker relationships at NAB and a banker at Westpac.

Meanwhile, Sascha Hunt has joined Alex Bank to become its new chief growth officer, after being head of brand and marketing at Aussie.

Previously, she has held senior roles at Citibank, ING Direct, Allianz, Tabcorp, Google and BT Financial Group.

Alex Bank chief executive and co-founder Simon Beitz commented the pair have a combined experience of close to 40 years in the banking and digital sectors.

“They are industry experts and their expertise will be invaluable as we continue to execute on our growth strategy,” Mr Beitz said.

Alex Bank chief financial officer and co-founder Craig Fenwick added the bank will be focusing on scaling its lending business, releasing new products and working towards its full banking licence in 2022.

“We’re expanding our reach with the broker network and are laser-focused on delivering the best customer experience,” Mr Fenwick said.

Alex Bank gained its restricted banking licence from APRA last year and began scaling its risk-based personal loan product, before it partnered with aggregator Platform Finance and raised $20 million in capital to support its growth.

To date, the bank reported that it has settled around $25 million in loans.

[Related: Former ANZ Trustees non-executive joins non-major banking group]