Sesame plans Bankhall renaissance

Sesame Bankhall chief operating officer Stephen Young today outlined his plans to restore IFA support services provider Bankhall to its “former glory”.

It follows the departure of Bankhall managing director David Golder, who Young says left the company "by mutual consent".

Sesame Bankhall has no plans to replace Golder and Young says the business has so far shed 90 job roles - fewer than the 100 initially estimated - as a result of the restructure of the Sesame, PMS, and Bankhall businesses, which merged in October last year.

"We want to get Bankhall back on to a strong business footing," Young says. "When I joined Sesame in 2002, Bankhall was a very strong competitor and we want it to be that again."

Young says Bankhall had been performing poorly prior to the takeover, largely as a result of the economic downturn.

But he says the combined group has begun "a series of actions" to address that, including negotiating more preferable rates with suppliers.

"We want to get Bankhall back to winning market share and winning new customers," Young says.

Golder was formerly managing director of IFA Services at Bankhall before its merger with network giant Sesame in October 2009.

He was later named managing director of Bankhall and assumed overall responsibility for developing and delivering a full range of support services for directly regulated advisory firms. He left the company last week.

"I would like to thank David for the contribution he has made during his time with the company," Young says.