FORMER Bradford & Bingley boss Christopher Rodrigues is to step down as chairman of Leeds-based International Personal Finance (IPF), the former overseas arm of Bradford-based lender Provident Financial.

Mr Rodrigues, who was B&B chief executive between 1996 and 2004 when he left to join Visa International as president and chief executive, steered the former building society through its stock market flotation in 2001.

He will retire as IPF chairman at its annual general meeting on April 30 2015. The firm has appointed Dan O’Connor, a former executive chairman of Allied Irish Banks, as an independent non-executive director – he will join the board on January 2.

IPF confirmed it had made a cash offer of more than £23 million for online lender MCB Finance, based in Estonia, which provides short and medium-term loans to customers in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Australia.