Live Oak Bancshares Inc., the bank holding company for Live Oak Banking Co., eliminated the role of chief operating officer at the bank, according to a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Gregory B. Thompson served as chief operating officer of Live Oak Bank since March 2016. The elimination of his role was effective Feb. 2. Live Oak officials didn't have any other comment about the change this week, saying the filing contained everything the company planned to disclose about the matter.

Prior to being chief operating officer, he was the bank’s general manager since October 2015. Before working at Live Oak, Thompson served as the executive vice president of shared services at Square 1 Bank from August 2011 to October 2015.

Live Oak is a commercial bank that primarily offers small business lending. It is one of the top small business administration (SBA) lenders in the country.

The Wilmington-based company also offers commercial and industrial loans, construction and development loans, and owner occupied commercial real estate loans for agriculture, death care management, healthcare and independent pharmacies, among others.

In other news, Live Oak Bancshares announced Friday that it has launched Canapi Inc., formerly known as Live Oak Ventures, "to transform how financial services are delivered to customers," according to a news release. The aim is to create an ecosystem of like-minded firms that focus on digital banking transformation, the release stated.

“Canapi invests in companies that supply banks and credit unions with innovative technology to compete in today’s fast-paced market,” said Canapi Managing Director Neil Underwood, in the release. “Our leadership and partners believe open APIs will revolutionize how banks deliver their services. By integrating fintech solutions, we can make banking easier for customers.”

According to the release, Canapi’s mission is to partner with and invest, alongside industry veterans, in open bank infrastructure companies that deploy on next-generation platforms such as Salesforce, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

Live Oak is led by James "Chip" Mahan, chief executive officer and founder. Prior to Live Oak, Mahan was the chief executive officer of S1 Corporation and the founder of Security First Network Bank.

Mahan also founded cloud banking software company nCino, which spun out of Live Oak in 2012.

Live Oak was founded in 2008 and holds $1.75 billion in assets.

This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism. Greater Wilmington Business Journal Assistant Editor Cece Nunn contributed to this report.