Britain’s leading challenger bank, Aldermore, has now lent over £2 billion – in a combination of commercial mortgages, residential mortgages, asset finance and invoice finance - since first opening its doors for business in the summer of 2009.

 

The news follows the recent figures from the Bank of England on the Funding for Lending Scheme, which showed Aldermore’s lending was making a vital contribution to the overall lending volumes to SMEs; Aldermore was the fifth largest net lender in the scheme, at a time when a number of the UK’s largest banks are reducing their overall lending.

 

Supporting SME customers to finance and grow their businesses has been one of the cornerstones of Aldermore's strategy since its launch.

 

Today, Aldermore has over 12,000 SME customers and has increased its client base by 52 per cent in the past year.

 

The £2 billion figure includes almost £1 billion of residential mortgage lending as Aldermore supports people to buy a home who may have been turned away by high street lenders’ ‘tick-box’ approach to mortgages.

 

Alongside growing its loan book, Aldermore has also attracted more than £2 billion o retail and business savings and now has over 83,000 retail accounts.

 

Phillip Monks, Chief Executive of Aldermore, said: “Since the financial crisis the big banks have been shrinking their loan books. Increasingly SMEs have found themselves refused credit despite being quality businesses and so they are coming to us because we will take a balanced view of their business and support their growth aspirations. Furthermore, with an expert team of client managers, in every major economic conurbation in the UK, we understand the issues facing the SMEs on a daily basis.

 

“Equally, when someone comes to us for a mortgage we treat them as an individual, not a computer profile, providing a tailored service to support home ownership.”