Tim Riseborough, chief operating officer of Rimbal and group operations director of ValidPath, has received authorisation from the FCA to join the board of ValidPath.

His appointment to the Rimbal-owned adviser network was effective from 18 September.

He played a pivotal role in expanding the team and operational capacity of ValidPath over the past 12 months, the company said.

Mr Riseborough has more than 25 years’ experience in operational and finance roles in banking and financial services. Before ValidPath, he was COO/CFO for a wealth management fintech and COO for an SME specialist lender. Before that he worked at a number of global banks including HSBC, Barclays and Goldman Sachs. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

The company said his appointment underscores its commitment to building its management team and enhancing its governance framework to support its IFA members.

Angus MacNee, chief executive, ValidPath, said: “Tim has been instrumental in supporting the growth of ValidPath over the past 12 months. He has a track record and a wealth of operational experience to build and support our growing team and proposition.”

Tim Riseborough, said: “With the objective to deliver more value over time to network members at lower cost, it requires an investment in people, technology and our services framework to enhance our propositions.”

Earlier this year ValidPath launched a £100,000 loan facility to help established adviser firms wanting to leave their current network who, it said, feel shackled by so-called 'golden handcuff' deals.

ValidPath is part of financial services and technology group Rimbal. Based in Cardiff it was set up as an FCA-registered IFA network in 2002. It serves a network of more than 100 financial advisory businesses and independent financial advisers, mortgage brokers and support personnel and their clients across the UK.

It says it is the only network with multiple FCA authorisations, a captive insurance company providing PII certainty, Open Banking permissions, proprietary network management technology and a funded succession solution for IFAs (an alternative to consolidation).