Shawbrook Bank has joined the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) and has now drawn down its first tranche of funding.
In an interview with B&C yesterday, Stephen Johnson, Managing Director of Commercial Lending at Shawbrook Bank, confirmed that the Bank drew down its first tranche in August.
Stephen said: “Shawbrook has now received its first drawdown, after working with the Bank of England for some time to join the scheme. The FLS scheme has been extended by a further year as well so that works well with our future funding strategy.
“We’ve also been in discussions with the Department for Business and Innovation and Skills with other government initiatives, such as the Business Bank, which will further help us to support UK SMEs.”
The lender had been in talks with the Bank of England for a number of months and the news of joining the Government Scheme will be a welcome one as the lender looks to pick up more business.
Bank of England data has shown that FLS lending has failed to boost loans to SMEs, with the more established banks continuing to struggle with increasing capital adequacy requirements and shrinking balance sheets.
Shawbrook Bank announced earlier this week that it had passed the £1 billion lending milestone, with the specialist lender advancing nearly £369 million to individuals since it was formed in January 2011, and lending a further £766 million to small and medium-sized enterprises.
While the more established banks struggle to address their capital reach amongst small businesses, more and more individuals and businesses are signing up with Shawbrook Bank.
The £1.1 billion breakdown
|
Lending by customer type |
|
|
SMEs |
£766,256,146 |
|
Individuals |
£368,806,462 |
|
Total lending |
£1,135,062,608 |
|
Customer numbers |
|
|
Loan customers |
28,093 |
|
Deposit customers |
29,165 |
|
Total customers |
57,258 |
Lending to property investors: over £376 million
|
Lending by region |
|
|
Region |
Total |
|
Greater London |
£327,117,852 |
|
South East |
£227,060,633 |
|
South West |
£96,141,557 |
|
North West |
£96,626,122 |
|
Scotland |
£129,507,022 |
|
Yorkshire/Humberside |
£53,171,480 |
|
West Midlands |
£ 56,622,165 |
|
East Midlands |
£41,834,029 |
|
East Anglia |
£49,829,513 |
|
Wales |
£27,936,181 |
|
North East |
£20,554,908 |
|
Other |
£8,661,146 |
|
TOTAL |
£1,135,062,608 |
The Bank’s growth plans are well ahead of schedule, with its second year results showing that its commercial mortgages division grew by a huge 437 per cent.
Stephen said: “We’re 25 per cent above our growth plans and have had to reforecast our plans twice already as a result.”
Shawbrook values its model of distribution channels and relationships with the intermediary market. The network of specialist brokers has been successful as a result of the relationships and personal touch to its underwriting procedures.
The lender has recently appointed four new brokers on to its Strategic Partnership Programme, launched one year ago, bringing its broker panel to 32 members.
Speaking about the USPs that differentiates Shawbrook with others within the industry, Stephen replied: “Our personal service levels are key to the ethos of Shawbrook, we’re all about personal relationships. There is no score card lending and I really believe that our expert underwriting team is the best in the industry.
“We’ve made a heavy investment in our staff, processes and have also built new integrated systems.”
In July, Shawbrook also enhanced its commercial product offering, and last month, Shawbrook launched into the mainstream buy-to-let industry. It launched products in a pilot scheme to three of its broker partners over three months. The pilot is still in motion and an update is expected later this year.
The plan at Shawbrook is that its underwriting team will grow to around 25 members of staff by the end of the year, and the total staff numbers will rise from 50 to 60 going into next year.
Stephen added: “It’s a really exciting time for the Bank and we’ve reached fantastic milestones already, with some real success stories.
“We are fully supportive of the intermediary market and will continue to improve on the great start we’ve made. We’re always looking to improve and supporting SMEs lies at the heart of our business.”
Shawbrook is forecasting 30 to 40 per cent growth across all business lines over the next year, and sustainably over the next three to five years.
Continued enhancements, working with the intermediary market and listening to brokers has been all too clear with the Bank this year. The constant enhancements to its structure and commercial product offering are testament to its success and the commitment the specialist lender has to property investors and businesses.
Leave a comment