A change at the top of Close Brothers Commercial

Close Brothers, Wimbledon Bridge House. Credit: Close Brothers

In April, Close Brothers, a FTSE-250 company, confirmed that Matt Roper, the merchant bank's CEO of Invoice & Speciality Finance, had been named as Neil Davies’ successor as CEO of Close Brothers Commercial.

Roper joined Close Brothers over five years ago as Group Chief Credit Risk Officer before moving to his current role of CEO, Invoice & Speciality Finance. He will take over Close Brothers Commercial from 1 August, subject to regulatory approval.

For his part, Neil Davies, who joined Close Brothers in 2008 as Director of Close Brothers Leasing, has been with the company for 15 years in various executive roles across the asset finance and equipment leasing part of the business.

Davies will be staying with Close Brothers, working in a part-time position as MD of New Opportunities, which the company said would see him oversee the development of strategic initiatives, including leading on potential future growth prospects.

Neil Davies: First and foremost, not breaking it! There are 23 businesses that constitute Close Brothers Commercial, covering a wide spectrum of industries from renewable energy and manufacturing to transport, beer kegs and sports. Each of those businesses know exactly what they are doing, and why. They know - and I know - that looking after our customers properly and effectively means we retain their loyalty.

In recognition of this approach, we’ve won multiple awards over the past 15 years, many of them for being an SME Champion.

Looking at our performance, the asset finance business was recently again named the third largest asset funder in the UK, and one of the fastest growing in Europe.

We have recorded strong gains over the past years, which demonstrates our continued support for the UK and Ireland’s SMEs during what has – for many – been very difficult times. Our doors have consistently remained open to both new and existing customers – we are proud of backing businesses throughout all economic cycles and will continue to do so.

Looking back, the standout achievement for me is maintaining our very high repeat customer levels.

Neil Davies: My view is that we are at the start of the largest change in a generation.

Market forces, customer demand and economics will drive digitisation but fee disclosures and where this may extend to has the potential to completely change the broker model.

If Consumer Duty, as expected, starts to extend beyond its current focus, it could have significant ramifications as we have already seen in other European jurisdictions.

Neil Davies: Definitely fewer hours! The role’s focus is to identify and manage growth opportunities, which could be an individual, a team or a business to grow from within Close Brothers.

We have a long history of doing exactly that, but I need to ensure we place an emphasis on it and that we risk adjust our due diligence proportionately, and that we integrate quickly and cleanly to start seeing success from an early stage.

Matt Roper: I’m very fortunate to have worked for some great organisations across many different markets. Working in audit and corporate finance for KPMG and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant gave me a good grounding and prepared me very well for my first job in banking in 2008 with Standard Bank in South Africa. I quickly found that I loved supporting SMEs and their owners. These businesses add so much value, and whether they’re based in Manchester, London, or Cape Town their owners are invariably among the most passionate, committed people you can meet. 

I’ve spent most of my 15 years in banking working in Risk, first in South Africa with ABSA, then across Africa with Barclays, and finally in the UK, first with Barclays and then with Close Brothers. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Risk, but have always considered myself a commercial banker, so when I was offered the opportunity two years ago to be the CEO of Close Brothers Invoice & Speciality Finance, I jumped at it. This has easily been the best decision of my career, as growing the business over the last two years has been incredibly enjoyable, challenging, and rewarding.

Matt Roper: My current business, Invoice & Speciality Finance, forms part of Commercial, so I have something of a head start! I also know the other parts of the division reasonably well from my earlier role as Chief Credit Risk Officer. The most important part of the transition will be getting to know the colleagues in Asset Finance and Leasing as well as I know the colleagues in Invoice & Speciality Finance. I think it’s only possible to lead effectively if you understand the people in your team: who they are, what drives them, how they like to be managed and supported.

The most important part of my job is to create an environment in which our people can be engaged and successful. Throughout this process I’ll also be learning - Commercial is broad and diverse, and there’s a lot that I don’t know!

Matt Roper: As Neil alluded to, the Commercial business actually comprises 23 separate businesses, employing almost 1,000 people, supporting thousands of SMEs and their owners by financing cars, trucks, invoices, machinery, printers, dentist chairs, wind turbines, and almost every other asset you can think of.

Commercial has a proud track record of supporting customers over many years, through every economic cycle, delivering funding and levels of service that have built our reputation as a business that delivers when customers need it most. I am proud to be a steward of this legacy, and I look forward to working with our incredible team to build on it and take Commercial to even greater heights.