Mark Fairless is chief executive of ClearBank, the London, England, bank that provides accounts and real-time payment clearing to fintechs and other banks. He took over from co-founder Charles McManus in March 2025 after two years as chief financial officer.
Two Decades in Finance
He held senior posts at Barclays Investment Bank and Santander UK, then became chief financial officer of the M&G Heritage Business, an international savings and investments arm of M&G. In January 2023 he joined ClearBank as chief financial officer and a Group Board member, where the bank credits him with putting its long-term strategy into effect.
Taking Over From the Founder
ClearBank was founded in 2015 as the first new clearing bank in the UK in more than 250 years. On March 11, 2025, it announced that Fairless would succeed McManus, who stayed on the Group Board as a non-executive director. Group Chair Peter Herbert called him "a proven leader with a track record spanning over two decades in financial services." "This is a business that has made significant strides in recent years and which has huge potential to go further," Fairless said.
His First Full Year
In 2025 ClearBank grew normalised revenue to of about $162.6M, up 34%, and a third straight year of UK profit, while the group as a whole lost money investing in Europe. The bank grew to 279 clients, launched corporate embedded banking and opened a Paris branch. "We have built unrivalled infrastructure and are scaling it efficiently across new propositions, new jurisdictions and new segments," he said.
He joined to run the numbers at a founder-led bank. He now leads it, and the numbers are his to deliver.
