Close Brothers Makes Key Appointment

Close Brothers Premium Finance (CBPF) has appointed Colin Wallace as Director of Sales – Personal Lines.

Wallace, an experienced insurance industry executive who has spent 30 years working on both the insurance side and on the broking side, begins his new role on 3 May, reporting to Seán Kemple, managing director, Premium. He will sit alongside Elliot Hayes, who oversees commercial broking.

Seán said Wallace will be responsible for growing the premium finance business among personal lines brokers in both the UK and Ireland, and supporting broking partners and their customers as they navigate their way through the continued challenges brought about by change, especially in the regulatory environment.

“It’s great to have someone of Colin’s immense experience on board at a time when personal lines broking is going through the seismic changes caused by the dual pricing regime in the UK, and further change ahead as a result of the new Consumer Duty.”

“We were insistent on finding a candidate who fully understood the challenges and opportunities facing personal lines broking and could support and guide our partners with real authority. It quickly became apparent that Colin fitted the bill perfectly.”

Seán added: “His appointment is a key step in our plan to build the bench strength of our senior team and bring the most experienced industry talent to the business. It is part of CBPF making sure that broking interests are taken account of in our investment programme and all our strategic decision that impact our partners.”

Commenting on his new role, Colin said: “This new opportunity is hugely exciting. In my previous role (at TransUnion), I championed a strategy to close the gap between what clients were saying and how the business responded.”

“My new role will enable me to build on that, and in particular to help CBPF make better use of insight-led engagement to deliver value-based sales for personal lines brokers.”

He said: “I’m really impressed by CBPF’s commitment to investment in innovation and its focus on putting customers at the centre of its strategy, with insights, training and access to subject matter experts already being part of the standard proposition.”

“I look forward to working with Elliot and Seán to cement CBPF’s position as the market leader in finance provision in the UK and Ireland, and it will be great to be part of the CBPF team meeting brokers from all over the UK at BIBA 2022 in a couple of weeks’ time.”