Lloyds Banking Group has recruited Franklin Asante from Coutts to run its private banking offer for entrepreneurs. Asante takes the title of head of entrepreneurs at Lloyds Private Banking and will be based in the bank’s Mayfair office in London. He leaves Coutts after more than 18 years. The hire gives the Lloyds private bank a specialist with long experience of advising founders at one of its most established competitors.
Asante started at Coutts as a private banker, a job he held for 15 years. In 2023 he became the bank’s entrepreneurs proposition leader, and he was later named head of business growth and exits. At Lloyds he will support founders and business owners with their personal and commercial finances, with the aim of removing obstacles that hold them back and helping them build, scale and protect both their companies and their personal wealth.
He also has a profile outside banking. In 2024 he wrote The Money Ladder, a three-step guide to making and growing wealth, published by Hachette UK. He is vice-chair of governors at a London college and a trustee of two charities that offer personal development and mental health support in local communities. He also runs a social media page that teaches financial literacy.
Asante announced the move on LinkedIn, describing it as the start of a new chapter. He wrote that entrepreneurs have been a large part of his career and, increasingly, of his life outside work. From his experience as an investor and adviser, he said, building and scaling a business depends on far more than money: founders need the right people around them, good advice at the right time and the ability to deal with setbacks and take opportunities.
He said he and his team would look after founders’ personal and business needs together, because for entrepreneurs “the two are inseparable”. Asante added that he has spent much of his career listening to business owners and helping them through periods of growth and change, and that the new role lets him do more of that work and make a positive contribution to the wider entrepreneur community.
