Paul Pester

Paul David Pester (born 14 January 1964) is a British businessman and executive. He is currently the Chairman of Tandem Bank. Pester is also a non-executive Director and co-founder of FinTech accelerator, Archie. He was chief executive officer (CEO) of TSB Bank from 2013 to 2018.

Early life
Pester grew up in Plymouth. He was educated at Tamar High School, Plymouth. He has a first class honours degree in physics from the University of Manchester, and a doctorate (DPhil) in mathematical physics from Brasenose College, University of Oxford in 1988.

Career
Pester was employed by McKinsey & Co as a management consultant, before being appointed Group CEO of Virgin Money. During Pester's tenure as CEO, Virgin Money Group launched in Australia. He then began working in various senior roles for Lloyds TSB, Santander and Lloyds Banking Group.

In May 2011, Pester was appointed as the CEO of Project Verde and tasked with moulding a group of 632 bank branches Lloyds was being forced to divest by the European Commission as a penalty for receiving State Aid from the UK Government during the 2008 banking crisis, into a new bank. The new bank was eventually named TSB.

Pester was appointed in 2013 to launch TSB for the Lloyds Banking Group and, in June 2014, listed the bank on the UK stock market. During this time, the BBC reported that he could earn more than £1.6 million that year in pay and bonuses. He stepped down after a significant IT failure at the bank, which he took responsibility for. On stepping down, Pester took a substantial bonus. This was eventually found to be a ‘contractual severance pay agreement’. Pester participated in subsequent investigations into the causes of the IT issues by the FCA, PRA and law firm Slaughter & May. Ultimately the root causes of the issues were identified as a failure by Sabadell’s IT subsidiary. Pester was not found to have committed any wrongdoing by the FCA, PRA, and Slaughter & May.

In October 2015, Pester was appointed as an advisor to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and HM Treasury on competition issues in banking, sitting as a member of the High Level Treasury Advisory Group.

In 2020, Pester was appointed chair of the Fairer Finance Consumer Advisory Board. Pester co-founded Loop, a money-sharing social networking app, in 2021. He was appointed chairman of Tandem Money in 2022. Tandem acquired Loop in April 2023. He has also advised private equity groups including KKR, Centerbridge, and Pollen Street Capital.

In 2023, Pester co-founded the Fintech accelerator Archie.

Personal life
Pester lives in London with his second wife, having divorced in 2015 and remarried in 2017. He is also a competitive swimmer and triathlete, having represented Team GBR in the 2022 European Aquathlon Championships in Bilbao.