Monument Bank, the bank for the mass affluent, today appointed Xavier De Pauw as Director of Lending, bringing over 25 years of senior experience in asset-backed finance, lending and digital banking to lead the bank's lending strategy.De Pauw joins from Kennek, an award-winning VC-backed fintech that he co-founded to build private credit infrastructure connecting non-bank lenders with institutional capital. The platform onboarded approximately 30 lenders managing £1 billion in loans, specialising in UK bridging and development finance.Earlier in his career, De Pauw co-founded MeDirect Bank, a PE-backed, ECB-regulated challenger bank focused on mass-affluent clients, deploying €6 billion across asset-backed structures, residential mortgages, leveraged finance loans and covered bonds. As CEO of MeDirect Bank Belgium, he built the lending, credit investment business and digital mass-affluent savings & investment businesses while contributing to growing the group to 250 employees across three countries. He grew MeDirect Bank Belgium from zero to €1.5 billion in client deposits and investments over four years.At Monument, De Pauw will build and lead the bank's lending and Asset Backed Funding strategy, a central pillar of the bank's next phase of growth. His remit will focus on developing lending products designed specifically for the bank’s mass affluent client base. This includes plans to introduce Lombard-style lending that allows clients to borrow against their investments without liquidating their positions and thus continuing to benefit from their investment returns. It is an area where few banks have historically served this segment well, and one Monument intends to change.Ian Rand, CEO of Monument Bank, said: "Xavier has built lending businesses from the ground up and structured some of the most complex transactions in UK and European credit markets. That combination of institutional rigour and the instinct to build is exactly what we need as we move into the next phase of Monument's growth. Lending is a natural extension of what we offer the mass affluent, and Xavier is the right person to lead it."De Pauw said: "The mass affluent are an underserved segment in lending just as they are in savings and investments. Their financial lives are too complex for what mainstream banks offer, but they've rarely had access to the kind of sophisticated lending structures that could genuinely work for them. Monument has already built something real for this segment. The opportunity now is to extend that into lending, and I'm looking forward to doing that.”Monument has grown steadily since its launch as a savings bank for mass-affluent customers, reaching £7 billion in savings deposits and over 100,000 clients by the end of 2025. The appointment reflects the bank's intent to broaden its product range beyond savings, giving clients access to lending solutions built for the complexity of their financial lives.NoYesPeople Moves27 May, 2026