A FORMER director of York-based credit card insurer CPP has been brought back in to lead the business following the removal of its chief executive last week.

The Holgate-headquartered company saw its chief executive Stephen Callaghan and chairman Roger Canham ousted alongside two other directors last week after shareholders voted in favour of a motion to remove them from the board.

Mr Canham was replaced immediately by Sir Richard Lapthorne alongside new directors Nicholas Cooper and Mark Hamlin.

The group has now announced that from Monday next week, Jason Walsh will take the role of chief executive.

The move marks a return to the business for Mr Walsh, who was a previous employee of the group between 2002 and 2014. He was the managing

director of its UK insurance businesses in his last role with the company and has held the senior approved person functions for both the Card Protection Plan Ltd and Homecare Insurance Ltd businesses.

In his previous roles within the group, Mr Walsh held a number of other senior management positions including business transformation and international product and marketing roles, during which he helped the group through its past Financial Services Authority issues, relating to the company's miss-selling scandal in 2013, and to develop and grow in its overseas markets.

Since leaving CPP in July 2014, Mr Walsh has been working for professional services giant EY within its Financial Services Advisory practice in a role for one of its major UK banking clients, focusing on regulatory and remediation programmes.

Application will be made to the Financial Conduct Authority for the requisite approvals of Mr Walsh as soon as possible.

Speaking about his appointment, chairman Mr Lapthorne, said: "We are delighted to have secured Jason’s services. CPP has been through a difficult period and we must now focus on rebuilding the business - retaining what is great about the company as well as branching out and expanding into new

areas.

"Jason’s knowledge of the business and the sector in which it operates, along with his strong regulatory expertise, will allow the group to do this in a way which is of benefit to our customers, our colleagues and to the creation of long term sustainable value."

Mr Walsh said he was "delighted" to be back working for CPP, adding: "This is a great business, with more than 700 talented, passionate and committed colleagues, serving customers across 12 countries - and it has a very bright future.

"My number one priority is to set a direction for our colleagues and to provide them with an environment in which they can develop and grow, innovate and provide the best possible products and services for our customers, which will in turn generate growing value for our shareholders.

"There is a platform in place and we must continue to build on this to achieve these objectives.

"Much good work has already been done to rebuild the business over the last few years; the company is on a much firmer financial footing but we now need to add pace to the business transformation plans, get new products to market, develop existing and create new business partner relationships, create a competitive advantage in our digital offering, as well as work with the FCA and PRA in order to restore the group’s UK trading permissions as an essential enabler for our goal of achieving better long term performance.

"I look forward to working with the new Board, together with some new and familiar faces in the coming months to deliver against these goals."