A career North Carolina banking executive has been named Live Oak Bank’s new president, according to an announcement Monday from the Wilmington-based bank.
 
Scott Custer will replace Neil Underwood as president effective Monday, Live Oak Bank’s news release stated, adding that Underwood will remain president of the bank’s holding company, Live Oak Bancshares, and will also head up Live Oak Ventures, formed in August 2016 “for the purpose of investing in businesses that align with Live Oak’s strategic initiative to be a leader in financial technology.”
 
The personnel change creates an opportunity for Underwood to “focus on technological development at the bank,” Micah Davis, LOB’s marketing director, said Monday.
 
Custer comes to Live Oak from F.N.B. Corp., where he served as a director and consultant after the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based bank’s merger with Yadkin Bank that closed last month. Prior to that, he was a director and CEO of Yadkin Bank and Yadkin Financial Corp.
 
Custer resigned from F.N.B. effective March 30.
 
Live Oak Bank’s new president began his banking career with Wachovia, later becoming a commercial banking manager with First Union National Bank. He then served as chairman and CEO of RBC Bank (USA) from 2004 to 2010, a period in which RBC (USA)’s assets grew from $15 billion to $30 billion, and the bank expanded into an additional five states, the release stated.
 
Custer became a director and CEO of Piedmont Community Bank Holdings Inc. in 2010. The next year, he became a director and CEO of VantageSouth Bancshares Inc. and VantageSouth Bank, serving in that capacity until the merger of Yadkin, VantageSouth and Piedmont in 2014. Under Custer’s leadership, Yadkin and its predecessors grew from a start-up bank in 2010 to assets of approximately $7.5 billion before its merger with F.N.B., according to the release.
 
With the addition of Custer, Live Oak “is strengthening the management team as it expands into new industries, products, and solutions to support its growing small business customer base,” the release stated.
 
“We are growing fast. Scott brings the kind of experience that I think will be very valuable,” Davis said Monday.