Virgin Money has appointed George Ashworth, the former head of asset finance at Aldermore, to build up its SME banking arm.

Ashworth joins from ABN Amro Lease NV where he was managing director of the UK branch.

He has a 25 year track record in SME banking and was previously chairman of the asset finance division of the Finance & Leasing Association.

The news comes as Virgin Money released its third-quarter trading update which revealed that gross mortgage lending was up 38%.

“I am delighted with the strong performance of the business in all areas in the first nine months of 2015,” said Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Chief Executive Officer.

“Q3 has seen a continuation of delivery on our promises on all key metrics.

“In the same way, we have continued to build out our capabilities and we have made further and considerable progress towards our long-term strategic objectives.”

The news comes after Aldermore revealed that staff in its invoice finance team are facing job cuts and it has lost its development finance manager to Wellesley Finance.