Fintel plc has appointed Phil Smith as Executive Chairman, moving the chair of its board into an executive role to lead the integration of its recent mortgage technology acquisition and a wider transformation of the group.
The AIM quoted company, which trades under the ticker FNTL, set out the change in a regulatory announcement on 23 October 2026. Smith was already chair of the board, so he steps up into executive responsibility rather than arriving from outside the company.
The appointment is deliberately time limited. Fintel expects the executive chairmanship to run for 12 to 18 months, after which Smith is expected to return to his post as Non-Executive Chairman. He will commit four days a week to the role initially, a commitment the company expects to reduce over time.
His brief is specific. Smith will lead the integration of Mortgage Brain, the mortgage technology business the group acquired, and drive a broader transformation programme, with his attention directed at the acquired portfolio and at back office operations.
The arrangement leaves the chief executive in place. Matt Timmins remains Chief Executive Officer, and the effect of the chair taking on executive responsibility for integration is to free Timmins to concentrate on market opportunities and on the enterprise sales pipeline. The announcement made no change to his title.
A second appointment in the same announcement expands the finance brief. David Thompson, already Chief Financial Officer, has been appointed to the new role of Chief Financial and Operating Officer. He keeps his existing responsibilities for finance and takes on the group's centralised functions, which the company listed as technology, IT infrastructure, human resources, legal and risk.
Read together, the two changes pull operational responsibility toward the board. The chair moves from oversight into execution for a defined period, and the finance chief becomes the owner of the operating functions that sit behind the group's platforms and services. The structure concentrates accountability for delivering an acquisition in the two people who already carry the board's financial and governance responsibilities.
An executive chairmanship is an unusual structure for a quoted company, because it narrows the separation between the person who leads the board and the executives the board supervises. It is normally adopted for a limited period and for a stated reason, and the usual expectation is that it is unwound once that reason has been dealt with. Both conditions are attached here, a stated purpose in the integration work and a stated end point in the expected return to a non-executive chairmanship.
The board now has three executive directors and three non-executive directors. The company said it is looking for one further independent non-executive director, which would restore a non-executive majority.
Fintel is a United Kingdom provider of software, data and expert support services to the retail financial services market. It operates through two divisions, one covering software and data and one covering services, supplying technology and support to intermediary businesses, data and distribution services to financial institutions, and product ratings used by consumers.
