Intelligent Finance picks marketing and products director

Intelligent Finance has appointed Duncan Movassaghi to the newly created position of director of products and marketing.

After the retirement of director of marketing Angela McIntosh in August 2002, the bank integrated sales and marketing. Ian Jeffery, who was appointed sales and marketing director at the time, will return to a sales role as sales and service director. Both Jeffery and Movassaghi will report to Intelligent Finance chief executive Grenville Turner.

Movassaghi was a regional sales director in Scotland for Intelligent Finance’s parent company Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBoS). Previously he worked as an analyst at consultancy McKinsey and in a sales role at IBM.

In addition to heading marketing, Movassaghi will be responsible for developing new products to diversify the internet and phone bank’s product range. Best known for its offset mortgages, Intelligent Finance also offers loans, savings, credit cards and current accounts.

Intelligent Finance uses Union for its advertising and BLM for its media buying and planning. Navigator holds the brief for direct marketing.

Intelligent Finance founder Jim Spowart recently parted company with HBoS after it scrapped plans to expand into Europe. Intelligent Finance, launched in 2000, expects to break even by the end of this year, but its 600,000 customers is well short of the original target of 2 million set by Spowart.