Last year, the SME finance provider launched its bridging offering in Scotland and bolstered its bridging team.

New hires – which doubled the size of its bridging team – included Dawn Trustam and Kayley Stelfox.

Ashley also completed a milestone bridging loan of £2.2m last year, its largest to date.

Liam Cavanagh, operations director at Ashley Finance (pictured above), said the whole team was delighted by these results.

“Bridging was a key growth area for the company this year and is anticipated to continue as we progress further into 2018.

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“While the huge increase [in] new business is definitely the result of the hard work and dedication of our bridging team, it also highlights the need for an open-minded lender like ourselves in the market.”

Ashley offers a range of products, including bridging loans up to £2m against LTVs of up to 75%, with rates starting from 0.95%.

The lender has paid out deals in as little as four days and said it was significantly quicker than the industry average completion time of 50 days.

“In the last year, this need has become widely recognised with more brokers coming on board than ever before, which is extremely encouraging,” added Liam.

“Ashley Finance is dedicated [to] delivering fast and flexible funding to all small businesses that need it and without judgement.

“Following this fantastic year, we have high hopes that growth will continue into 2018 and beyond.”