LEADERSHIP
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n the past , high street banks each had a bank manager familiar with local businesses , who could approve loans based on knowledge of a small or medium business and its owner . Amir Nooriala , COO of UK-based challenger bank OakNorth , says that nowadays , with local branches disappearing across the UK and larger financial institutions concentrating on huge capital investments , SMEs have been left significantly underserved . “ Those bank managers have gone ,” he comments . “ There ’ s now a central computer . So in a world where people have gone to technology and scale , we can actually recreate the bank manager using artificial intelligence ( AI ) and machine learning .” Enter OakNorth , launched in 2015 , which provides business and property loans worth between £ 500,000 and £ 45mn in order to help businesses scale and grow . Becoming COO in July 2018 , Nooriala brought with him experience from software and consultancy giants Cisco and Accenture , his own startups , as well as a significant stint
“ ACT AS IF YOU HAVE NO MONEY , EVEN IF YOU HAVE MONEY . IT WAS THAT LEANNESS THAT GOT YOU THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE ”
Amir Nooriala , COO , OakNorth
at Barclays Investment Bank . “ I spent my career working across pretty much every area of tech you can , as well as lots of different operations departments – I ’ ve run lots of change programs ,” he comments . Now , Nooriala is in charge of operations at a fast-growing unicorn which has soared into pole position as the most valuable fintech in Europe – operating directly in the UK and across the continent via licensed platforms . Nooriala cites the hugely under-
APRIL 2019