Former Citi banking veteran joins leadership team of challenger bank Zolve

Zolve, a new bank in the US, has appointed banking veteran Steve Freiberg to its leadership team.

Zolve appoints Steve Freiberg to its leadership team

Prior to Zolve, Freiberg was chairman of the board at a digital credit card start-up, Fair Square Financial (founded in 2016, it was sold to Ally Financial for $750 million in 2021).

Freiberg also had a long career at Citi, spanning 30 years, where he was co-chairman and CEO of Citigroup’s global consumer group, looking after all business lines serving consumer and commercial customers, spanning 53 countries and 230,000 employees.

During his time as CEO of Etrade, he stewarded the company back to profitability following the 2008 financial crisis.

Freiberg is also vice chairman of the board at SoFi, board member of Compas Digital Acquisition Corp, board chairman of Portage Financial Technology Acquisition Corp, and retired board member of Mastercard.

He is also the founder of Grand Vista Partners and a senior advisor to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and TowerBrook Capital Partners.

At Zolve, Freiberg will advise on overall growth and business strategy with a focus on international markets.

“I am extremely excited to be joining a highly energetic and dynamic team at Zolve and am hopeful that I will make valuable contributions to the company’s business and growth in the international market,” he comments on the appointment. “I am looking forward to new learnings and challenges.”

This is the third strategic appointment at Zolve within a month, following the hire of Anandapadmanabhan Ramabhadran from BCG and Douglas T. Hamilton as the chief compliance officer.

The company says it’s currently on a hiring spree, looking to fill a variety of roles in customer support, product, fraud and risk, collections, and marketing.

Zolve says it develops financial services for “global citizens”, with its core teams based in the US and India.

It offers an FDIC-insured bank account as well as a high-limit credit card to new immigrants in the US, which is done via a tie-up with a partner bank.

Early last year it raised $15 million in seed funding, followed by a $40 million Series A round (one of India’s largest Series A funding rounds).