Shawbrook has appointed Santander’s former executive director and head of UK banking Steve Pateman as group chief executive subject to regulatory approval.

He will take up the post from 1 January 2016.

At Santander Pateman was responsible for running the bank’s corporate, commercial, business and retail banking operations as well as wealth management. He is responsible for annual revenues of £5bn and 15,000 employees and is a member of Santander UK’s executive committee.

He joined Santander in 2008 with responsibility for building an SME franchise. Over the following seven years he successfully built a corporate and commercial business with a balance sheet in excess of £30bn, a 7% market share and market leading customer satisfaction scores.

Before joining Santander UK Pateman spent eight years at RBS, where he was CEO of business banking, retail markets and managing director of commercial banking and corporate banking, corporate markets.

The appointment follows Richard Pyman’s decision to take leave of absence on 21 May – Shawbrook has now confirmed he will leave the group with immediate effect.

Tom Wood, who has been running the bank during Pyman’s absence will remain interim chief executive officer until Pateman’s arrival, after which he will continue his role as chief financial officer.

Iain Cornish, chairman at Shawbrook, said: “Richard has helped develop Shawbrook into a specialist lending and savings bank that supports our customers with first class service and strong values.

“The board is extremely grateful to Richard for his exceptional commitment and contribution to the group, in particularly for his leadership through the bank’s successful IPO.

“The board would also like to thank Tom for his energy and dedication in leading Shawbrook to continue to deliver strong results as interim chief executive officer.

“I am delighted to welcome Steve as Shawbrook’s new chief executive. He brings a tremendous breadth and depth of experience across all of our asset classes and an outstanding track record in building highly successful SME banking businesses.

“His absolute focus on delivering excellent customer service fits perfectly with the bank’s specialist and relationship driven model and we are confident that Steve will help Shawbrook to achieve even greater success in the future.”

Pateman said: “I know the Shawbrook team well. There is much ambition and the group’s expertise and people are highly regarded throughout the UK banking sector.

“They have made tremendous progress leading up to and since its listing in April this year and I am really looking forward to working with the senior management team, the board of directors, and all the employees of Shawbrook to build on the group’s strong momentum.”