Rod Ashley at the helm in Airdrie Savings Bank

Airdrie Savings Bank has appointed Rod Ashley as chief executive, succeeding Jim Lindsay who is retiring after 13 years in the role.

Ashley, who will take up the post in January, is chief executive of one of Britain’s biggest credit unions, Glasgow-based Scotwest. Since taking up the position in 1996 its asset base has grown by 400 per cent.

“I am excited by the opportunity to lead Britain’s only independent savings bank to a new future,” said Ashley, who sits on the council and audit committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

Jim Armstrong, president of Airdrie’s board of trustees, said: “Appointing Rod is a real coup for the bank.”

Ashley joins the bank a year after the opening of the first branch outwith its Lanarkshire heartland.