The new lender, Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance, is designed to capitalise on the boom in asset-backed lending, after businesses received a record £18.9bn of funding from asset-based finance in the three months to June.
Two-thirds of SMEs plan to expand in 2015, although 25pc struggle for capital – a gap that John Bevan, the former Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays banker who will run Secure Trust Bank’s new SME lender, hopes to close.
Secure Trust’s new commercial finance business, which launches today, will typically provide SMEs with loans of up to £15m.
The company has already signed a number of clients, and expects to receive strong interest from SMEs in the services, manufacturing, transport and food sectors.
Its head office will be based in Manchester, with sales teams in Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, the South Coast and London.
Mr Bevan said: “Traditional debt finance remains difficult to obtain for many businesses, and may not be the right fit.
“Companies are more aware of alternative forms of finance than they were several years ago, and have to some extent accepted the fact that the UK’s historic reliance on traditional funding cannot continue.”
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