Member Article

Challenger bank capitalises on SME disillusionment

Cambridge and Counties, one of the so called new “challenger banks” has signed up its 1000th new customer.

The bank, which launched in June 2012 was targeted at SMEs, has so far issued £40m in secured lending.

The milestone could indicate a growing appetite among businesses for alternative lenders as chairman Paul ffolkes Davis suggested the endorsement of SME customers was a sign of their frustration at traditional banks.

Gary Wilkinson, chief executive, said: “SMEs account for the vast majority of UK businesses and the UK’s economic recovery relies heavily on the ability of these firms to grow. Over the past couple of years, however, many SMEs have their hands tied by bigger banks unable or unwilling to lend. Our popularity shows that there needs to be more activity from alternative lenders. We have already lent around £40m and are on course for our book to hit the £100 million mark by the end of this year.

“We are immensely proud of our achievements in our first year and believe much of our success is down to our local and personal relationship approach. This includes our business development managers focusing primarily on our heartland regions of East Midlands and East Anglia.

“We then combine this with a national broker model which allows us to maintain a balanced growth across geographies, market sectors and property types, avoiding inappropriate concentration risk.”

Of the 100 lending cases so far at the bank, around half have been refinancing loans; a service businesses would traditionally turn to normal conventional banks for.

Cambridge & Counties Bank is jointly owned by Cambridgeshire Local Government Pension Fund and Trinity Hall, a College of the University of Cambridge.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .