The former head of private banking at Coutts, Peregrine Banbury, is to become the chief executive of a new regional bank, Cambridge News reports.

According to the report the new bank will be open for business within the next couple of months; Mr Banbury is currently in talks with lawyers in London, meanwhile the business plan is being finalised and Financial Services Authority approval has been sought. 

The bank is reported to have one very sizeable investor and an opening balance of £50 million (around $79.4 million). This is expected to grow as more investors come on board. Lending will be focused on Cambridge businesses from any sectors which are considered assets to the community.

The architect and chairman of the new business, Nigel Brown, is the former chairman of finance boutique NW Brown.

"We will be putting the bank manager back in the business," Mr Brown is reported as saying. "He will be a proper manager, he won't be trying to flog products. Really the idea is to go back to the roots of local banking.”

"Rates will be competitive, and there will be no baggage like the other banks have. We will need to make a profit on this bank and this bank alone."

Following the financial crisis, public trust in the financial services industry was eroded as doubts were raised about whether it truly acted in customers’ interests - after widespread allegations of product mis-selling - or added social value, as many hold banks to have abused implicit government support through speculative behaviour and risk taking.

In contrast to this, the new bank will have a decidedly "ground roots" and regional focus, says the publication.

As well as Mr Brown, who is also chair of the Greater Cambridge Partnership and on Cambridge University’s managing council, other board members named in the report are David Gill, director of St John's Innovation Centre, Paul Ffolkes-Davis, bursar of Trinity Hall and a former banker, and Mr Banbury.

"We are different from anyone else," Mr Brown reportedly said. "We are not doing a [Richard] Branson and buying someone else's bank, and we are not showering it with gold. We are determined to build up carefully from the ground up. It is about doing something for the Cambridge sub-region."