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* Turner becomes senior independent director
* Bank will open for business this summer
LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) - New British bank OakNorth hasbeen granted a banking licence and appointed former topregulator Adair Turner as its senior independent director.
The bank, which will focus on lending to small firms withhigh growth potential, said it would begin lending and takingretail deposits this summer. It plans to differentiate itselffrom other banks by accepting different types of collateral andnot just property as security on loans to small businesses.
OakNorth will join a number of new entrants to the industry,looking to challenge the dominance of Britain's "Big Four"lenders - Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and HSBC.
"Fast-growing small and medium sized businesses play apivotal role in the economy, but they find it more difficult toaccess finance in Britain than they would in many othercountries, such as the U.S. or Germany," said Turner, whochaired the Financial Services Authority between 2008 and 2013.
"We see an opportunity to focus on this market of growthSMEs, be more flexible in the range of collateral we accept fromthem and invest in IT that improves customer service," he added,without giving further details.
It plans to lend over 1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) tobusinesses over the next few years. Bank of England figures showthat net lending by banks to small firms fell by an average of430.5 million pounds in each quarter last year.
Ratan Engineer, former chief financial officer at fundmanager Invesco, will be chairman and Robert Burgess, formerchief executive of Alliance Trust Savings, will be anon-executive director.
OakNorth was founded by Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman, whoset up financial research firm Copal Amba before selling it toMoody's.
(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; editing by Susan Thomas)
