ClearBank Ltd names Mark Fairless as the new CFO in its drive for growth, effective from January 2023, subject to regulatory approval.
Recently shared in a press release with Finance Magnates, Mark Fairless, who previously held executive roles at M&G, Santander and Barclays, has been appointed by ClearBank, a UK clearing and embedded financial institution provider, as its new Chief Financial Officer.
Fairless will reinforce the bank’s accelerated expansion in the UK, Europe and internationally. Additionally, he will sit on the financial institution’s UK Board and Executive Committee.
The appointment comes at a crucial time for ClearBank, having reached profitability in 2022. From this outcome, the bank expects to deliver a selection of new products and services as well as expand into Europe later in 2023.
A Review of Fairless’ Experience
Prior to ClearBank’s announcement, Fairless served M&G most recently as the Heritage CFO which he has held for 14 months. Before this post, he served the company as the CFO to COO of Support Services and the Director of Strategic Cost Management. Initially, he began at the financial institution in April 2019 as the Director of Strategic Cost Management.
Simultaneous to his role as the Heritage CFO at M&G which is still current, Fairless has been taking on the responsibilities as a Finance Trustee at Bore Place (Home of Commonwork Trust), a non-profit organisation devoted to investigating approaches of living sustainably, running education programmes for schools and disadvantaged youths.
Earlier, he spent five and a half years at Santander UK in four separate roles with his last position as the Head of Transformation. His other roles included Head of Transformation, Head of Decision Support, Head of Planning & Reporting and his first role at Santander Head of Remediation Finance and MI.
Additionally, Fairless fulfilled four roles at Barclays Capital starting from an Analyst in Structured Capital Markets and finally attaining two concurrent roles of Vice President and Finance Business Partner after approximately three years.
Originally, his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers began as an Audit Executive, and after almost two and a half years, he was awarded the promotion to Transaction Services Executive.
A Truly Exciting Time
"I believe strongly in the potential of ClearBank to drive innovation within financial services, and of the significant opportunity that lies ahead. 2023 is set to be a hugely important period for the business. I’ve joined at the perfect time and cannot wait to help ClearBank achieve its sizable ambitions,” Fairless said.
Commenting on the announcement, Charles McManus, the CEO at ClearBank, stated: “Mark joins us at a truly exciting time for ClearBank, as we build on the achievements of 2022 and make progress on our growth ambitions for 2023. Mark will bring a wealth of global knowledge, expertise, and experience to the ClearBank team that will be critical to our future success.”
