Despite expressing doubts last year about re-entering the financial services industry, former ME Bank chief executive and first class cricketer Jamie McPhee has returned to the sector with bat and ball in hand.
McPhee, who exited ME last July, has been appointed a director of digital finance platform, SocietyOne.
He will be joined on the board by former American Express veteran Melanie Cochrane, who previously led the global card company’s merchant services business in the Asia Pacific region.
McPhee and Cochrane join SocietyOne at a critical moment for the business after it hired Evans and Partners to advise it on a possible IPO later this year.
SocietyOne continues to position itself aggressively as an alternative source of personal loans to the major banks, despite entering a strategic partnership with Westpac’s banking-as-a-service platform in February.
The partnership with Westpac might present a strategic incentive for a string of mutual ADIs to cash out their investments in the SocietyOne given that it is expected to begin marketing deposit products for the major bank towards the end of the year.
At least four mutual institutions – G & C Mutual Bank, Beyond Bank, Regional Australia Bank and Unity Bank - own shares in SocietyOne’s holding company.
Other key investors include News Corporation and Seven West Media.
Since it was launched in 2012 SocietyOne says that it has originated more than A$1 billion of personal lending through its peer-to-peer platform.
A feature of the company’s lending strategy has been its livestock lending business which was the first peer-to-peer online lending service aimed at agribusiness borrowers.