South Canterbury Finance has appointed Bill Baylis to replace founder Allan Hubbard as chairperson of the company.
The recently-restructured lender has been rebuilding its financial strength in the last year, shoring up capital, stripping out bad loans and retaining investors.
Mr Baylis is based in Queenstown and is chairman of Real Journeys and a director of Landcorp Farming, Port of Tauranga and several private companies.
He previously worked as a partner with KPMG, and chaired Pyne Gould Guinness, PGG Wrightson and Naylor Love Enterprises.
Mr Hubbard stepped aside as chairman last week, but will still attend board meetings in his new role as president for life.
South Canterbury has been accepted into the Government's extended retail deposit guarantee, which runs until December next year, but its credit rating has since been downgraded.
