Manchester-based fintech, Firenze, has announced the appointment of its new Head of Corporate Finance, Paul Emery.
With senior roles at Rothschild, Coutts and St. James’s Place, Paul brings two decades of experience in wealth management, investment banking and client proposition design, making him uniquely placed to expand Firenze’s funding partnerships and accelerate its mission to democratise Lombard lending.
Paul has a proven track record in developing innovative lending solutions for high net worth clients.
Building on his time advising clients on complex lending solutions at Coutts, Paul and his teams at St. James’s Place worked on scaling credit offerings and broader wealth propositions to new client segments. Earlier in his career, his M&A work at Rothschild included debt structuring, whilst balance sheet optimisation was part of his role leading on corporate development at Coutts.
He brings his FTSE 100 expertise to a start-up that’s going from strength to strength, making waves in the wealth management world.
Earlier this year, Monument Bank forged a £160m strategic partnership with Firenze, an agreement of unprecedented between a challenger bank and early-stage fintech. Paul will be responsible for building upon this successful partnership and scaling Firenze’s funding options alongside partnering with banks on their own Lombard propositions.
Paul’s new role is pivotal in ensuring Firenze has strong financial foundations as it scales its offering of Lombard loans to the mass affluent.
Previously restricted to ultra-high-net-worth individuals at Private Banks, Firenze is partnering with wealth managers, advisors and investment platforms to open access, making Lombard loans available as an option to the mass affluent.
With loans being offered from £65,000, with plans to lower this to £25,000 in 2026, to those with portfolios as modest as £150,000, the need for secure financial backing is core for loan provisioning.
The wealth management client proposition is evolving, and with Paul joining an already innovative team, Firenze will be leading the charge to offer previously inaccessible Lombard lending solutions to the UKs 13m “mass-affluent” customers.
Speaking on his appointment, Paul Emery, said:
“I’ve been seriously impressed by David and the wider Firenze team and the solid foundations they’ve built already. I’m excited by the opportunity to make the product offering much more available and accessible within the market.
“The role itself will draw on both my wealth management sector experience and my strategic & corporate finance skills and background – I really look forward to helping drive the growth of the business!”
Founder and Chief Executive of Firenze, David Newman, said: “I’m delighted to announce our newest hire to the growing Firenze team.
“Paul brings a huge amount of relevant experience and industry knowledge to the team; I have had the pleasure of getting to know Paul over the last couple of years and have been continually impressed by his knowledge, experience and ambition and am proud that we have been able to attract someone of his calibre and unique skillset.
“Firenze has quickly established itself as the category defining solution for unlocking Lombard lending. As we grow our client base and increase our loan book, having someone of Paul’s reputation heading up our foundational partnerships means that we can not only help consumers access opportunity previously kept to the wealthiest in society, but can also help wealth managers and advisors retain their AuM and better compete against private banks.”