Al Rayan Bank announces new CEO
Al Rayan Bank, the UK’s largest and longest-established Sharia compliant retail bank, has appointed Peter Horton as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Mr Horton brings many years of senior leadership experience from the global banking sector, most recently from Commonwealth Trade Bank, formerly known as Diamond Bank (UK), where he served as CEO from 2016. He also served as CEO of Bermuda Commercial Bank between 2013 and 2016 and Bank of Maldives from 2011 to 2013. Prior to this, he worked in number of senior management roles with Barclays, in the UK and Africa, over a 20-year period.
Mr Horton will take up his position as CEO effective as of 6 April. Interim CEO, Ahmed Sheikh, will continue in his role as Director of Al Rayan Bank (UK) and Chief Operating Officer of Masraf Al Rayan (Qatar), Al Rayan Bank’s parent bank.
Commenting on the announcement, Simon Moore, Al Rayan Bank’s Chairman said, “On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am delighted to announce Peter Horton as our new CEO. He has extensive leadership experience within UK and international banking and has throughout his career managed ambitious transformational agendas to deliver excellent results. This makes Peter well qualified to lead Al Rayan Bank through its next phase of growth and development. I would like to thank Ahmed Sheikh for the excellent job he has done since April 2019 in helping us continue to build a healthy and high-performing institution.”
Peter Horton added, “The Bank has grown significantly since its inception more than 15 years ago, thanks to growing demand amongst Muslim and non-Muslim customers for its market-leading products. I also believe Al Rayan Bank fulfils a unique role in the UK banking landscape, not only for its customers and shareholders but also UK society as a whole. I’m hugely excited to be leading such an experienced and dedicated team in developing our business and growing our presence in the UK’s Sharia compliant ethical finance market.
Founded in 2004 as the first Islamic retail bank in Europe, Al Rayan Bank currently serves more than 90,000 customers and has a current asset book in excess of £2 billion. A recent independent study into the economic impact of Al Rayan Bank found that it delivered £389million to the UK economy in 2018.
As an independent UK bank, Al Rayan Bank is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the PRA.