Allica Bank appoints Ravneet Shah as CTO

Allica Bank announces new CTO to drive-forward pioneering digital banking proposition

Key appointment comes following Allica’s acquisition of AIB’s SME lending portfolio and as the bank prepares to launch its innovative Business Rewards Account

Allica Bank – the fintech challenger bank that seeks to empower Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses – has today announced the promotion of Ravneet Shah as Chief Technical Officer (CTO).

In her new role – reporting directly to CEO Richard Davies – Ravneet will lead Allica’s overall technology vision and proprietary software development to provide customers with the best possible experience through the bank’s innovative digital products.

Ravneet’s promotion to CTO comes as Allica Bank scales to become a major force in serving British businesses, delivering the funding, technology and expertise needed at what is a crucial time for the British business sector. Allica recently acquired AIB’s £0.6billion SME lending portfolio and plans to launch its pioneering Business Rewards Account later this year.

Ravneet joined Allica in January 2020 as Lead Integration Engineer, shortly following Allica’s successful application for a banking licence. She arrived with 15 years’ experience gained in critical software engineering positions at leading institutions including Santander, Infosys, Teradata and Aricent. At Allica, she quickly established herself as a top performer, leading on the build and successful delivery of Allica’s online banking portal and leading the move of Allica’s architecture to microservices and micro-frontends.

These achievements led to her promotion in May 2021 to Allica’s senior leadership as VP of Engineering, leading the engineering team and technical architecture across web, mobile, back-end engineering, data and testing, and later in 2021 also took on responsibility for the platforms teams. She has fast established herself as an inspirational leader at Allica and across the wider tech industry, and actively works to encourage talent and ambition across the entire diversity spectrum. Ravneet’s work and achievements have gained industry recognition, and she was a finalist at the 2021 Women in Technology Awards.

Ravneet’s key priorities as CTO over the coming months will include seamlessly migrating AIB’s SME customers over to Allica and supporting the launch of the Business Rewards Account. She will also continue to lead on Allica’s building of market leading proprietary software dedicated to the established SME segment that Allica serves, and supporting capabilities such as continuous integration and delivery and platform scalability.

Ravneet Shah, CTO, Allica Bank, said:

“Ever since I joined Allica, I’ve enjoyed the challenge of helping drive forward the bank’s mission to combine easy-to-use and robust technology with a tailored personal service. With a relentless focus on innovation and providing the best possible digital products for customers, Allica is truly taking digital business banking to the next level – it is a fantastic place to develop a technology career.

“I started my career developing code to record temperature readings, I’ve enjoyed the journey I’ve been on to get here, and am proud to be starting my new challenge of leading the technology function for Allica as it goes on its mission to reimagine relationship banking for SMEs.”

Richard Davies, CEO, Allica Bank, said:

“Allica prides itself on offering our customers digital banking to make life easier for hard-working established SMEs, alongside setting a new standard for service in the SME banking market. Ravneet has been fundamental to developing Allica’s proprietary software and her efforts have rightly earned her respect and admiration across the bank and the wider industry.

“Ravneet’s promotion is thoroughly deserved. We are delighted to able to benefit from her skills and experience as we continue on our quest to become the leading SME challenger bank for the decade ahead.”