Top executive takes up board position at Edinburgh-based Tesco Bank

Tiku Patel has joined the board of the Edinburgh-based banking offshoot of the retail giant as an independent non-executive director.

Patel is the chief executive of Blue Motor Finance, a private equity owned technology and analytics driven motor finance provider.

He has substantial experience in retail having worked in four Kingfisher Group businesses for more than ten years. He has spent the last 20 years leading financial services businesses in Barclays, Experian - where he led all of its UK businesses - and the PRA Group where he led a European business operating in 15 markets.

He has an MA in mathematics from The Queen’s College, Oxford, is a qualified accountant and has attended Harvard Business School’s programme for management development.

Sir John Kingman, chairman of Tesco Bank, said: “I’m very pleased to be welcoming Tiku to Tesco Bank. His experience in the financial services and retail markets will be a great asset to our business and to our board.”

In October, it emerged that the Tesco Bank operation had returned to profit. It came as Tesco - the UK’s biggest retailer - hiked its profit targets for the year on the back of “strong” half-year sales and unveiled plans to hand some £500 million back to shareholders.

The group hailed a robust performance as it reported that both sales and profits grew more than expected in the six months to August.

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