How ‘brutal’ global financial crisis taught founder of financial services firm Pepper to survive – and prosper
- Mike Culhane, a former trading desk assistant, set up small business offering consumers easier access to non-bank loans
- He says Covid-19 pandemic offers ‘glimpse of future of banking’ and shows need to ‘surf wave of digitisation of financial services’
The devastating 2007 and 2008 financial crisis sparked the collapse of the United States housing market, sent international markets tumbling and led to the demise of big American investment banks and mortgage lenders, such as Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual Bank.
Michael Culhane’s world came tumbling down, too. He and his Sydney-based financial services company, Pepper Money, which he had founded in 2000, were left facing an unimaginable loss.
“That was painful,” Culhane, 53, now CEO of Pepper Group, says. “We ran into a brick wall because the markets were effectively shut. That was very defining for us and made us who we are today. It taught me resilience.”
This never-give-up attitude helped Culhane and his business survive its most challenging times.
We ran into a brick wall because the markets were effectively shut. That was very defining for us and made us who we are today. It taught me resilience
Culhane recalls having to “start everything from scratch again”, spending hours crunching away on a laptop to rebuild everything he had lost.
