Our People | Meet Mark Pyatt

Mark Pyatt, Asset & Liability Management

Mark started with Redwood Bank in June 2017 and three years later continues to revel in the world of regulatory requirements and banking business. Despite being settled in his desk-based Asset & Liability Management (ALM) role, Mark admits that if he had not found the financial services industry, he would probably be happily working on a farm somewhere.
 

Tell us more about your role and your proudest achievement at Redwood

My role sits between risk management and strategic planning. Asset and liability management is all about the practice of managing financial risks that arise due to mismatches between the Bank’s assets and liabilities, as part of an investment strategy within financial accounting. It is a complex and skilled job, which I thoroughly enjoy, as it allows me to keep the Bank progressing forward.

One particular stand out moment for me was when we rolled out the smooth implementation of a new, complex, liquidity reporting return to the regulator (PRA 110 Regulatory Return), which has 2,500 data cells in it.

What is the best advice you have received in the past two years?

I can’t recall anything in particular, but I have learnt enough to probably give my own advice to any aspiring bankers out there. It is crucial that anyone working within the financial services market is in touch with their industry, and keen to progress.  My role features risk management and I’ve discovered that I need to ensure that the risks are controlled and measured justifiably, and I can only do that if I know exactly what’s going on across the entire market.

Our performance is evaluated increasingly against our value creation, and so it is in the Bank’s interests that as Head of ALM I need to be as proficient as possible, while also keeping tight control of any new risks that we are facing.

How do you see Redwood evolving in the future?

Since day one of inception, Redwood Bank has been a game changer. It was Britain’s first ‘born in the cloud’ business bank, which immediately put it ahead of its competitors. Since then, awards have been rolling in and our customer satisfaction consistently sits at more than 90 per cent. We’re a dynamic and flexible bank, which we’ve proven during the recent COVID-19 pandemic – as we smoothly transitioned to all staff working completely from home, with absolutely no disruption to our customers.

We have the skills, the highly experienced staff, the infrastructure, and the hunger to lend, so I think Redwood Bank is only destined for bigger and better things. To be honest, I certainly think Redwood is only going to become an even stronger player in the challenger bank lending market.

What advice would you give to someone starting off in banking?

Grab it with both hands as it is an excellent career and an amazing way to understand the financial world. It has been an invaluable life skill to acquire.

And finally, please tell us something we don’t know?

I once played snooker against the former world champion Joe Johnson and I would love to bring Edgar the Peaceable and Debbie Harry back from the dead so they could attend my ultimate dinner party.