Since its launch in 2015, OakNorth has lent over £5.1bn to the ‘missing middle’, a market segment of businesses that are significant contributors to economic and employment growth, with £1.6bn of facilities repaid — including loan repayments of £1.3bn and £300m of facilities closed.

Since entering the market, OakNorth has directly helped with the creation of over 22,500 new jobs and more than 17,600 new homes, the majority of which are affordable and social housing.

The bank has had a cumulative 10 defaults since inception, six of which have been resolved with 100% recovery, with no loan write-offs to date. 

On the remaining loans in default, it had provisioned for £5m as of 31st December 2020.

The lender attributes these results to the insights provided by its ON Credit Intelligence Suite cloud software.

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Rishi Khosla, CEO and co-founder at OakNorth Bank (pictured above), said: “Given the challenges of the pandemic on society and the economy over the last year, OakNorth’s mission — to empower the ‘missing middle’ — has never been more important. 

“As demonstrated by the tens of thousands of new jobs and homes that have been created off the back of the circa £5bn we’ve lent to date, these businesses are the most significant contributors to economic and employment growth. 

“They will play a vital role in the post-pandemic economic recovery, so we’re proud to have continued supporting them through not one, but two unprecedented events: the Brexit vote and the withdrawal process that followed and Covid-19. 

“In doing so, we’ve been able to build a robust and profitable business supported by 170,000 loyal savers.”

OakNorth’s lending is supported by its savings franchise, offering a range of FSCS-protected products to savers at all stages of life and businesses at different levels of growth.