Allica Bank brings in four new relationship managers to drive SME lending
Allica Bank has made four appointments to its award-winning business relationship manager team to further strengthen its operational capacity in commercial property finance and asset finance lending. All four will be focused on developing Allica Bank’s broker distribution channel.
Michael Mann and Maria Fraughan join the bank as business relationship managers, specialising in commercial mortgages. Michael has more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry across corporate and commercial markets, while Maria has worked in high-street banking for more than 30 years, with the last five years in the broker arena.
“My goal is simple,” says Maria. “To work with brokers to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the UK get the finance they need to flourish. As Britain recovers from this pandemic, it has never been more important to ensure SMEs have access to this support – especially while the traditional lenders are tied up with the government’s Covid lending schemes.”
Michael says his focus will be to build long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with the broker community in his region: “Key will be providing best-in-class service alongside competitive funding solutions to enable the SME market to thrive once again.”
Daniel Kneafsey and Craig Edwards’ appointments reflect Allica Bank’s ambitions to continue to expand the footprint of its new asset finance division, which launched earlier this year.
Daniel says the role provides an exciting opportunity: “To join a young fintech bank and help them become one of the leading, go-to-banks in the SME market is something I couldn’t pass up. Having worked as a finance broker myself, I understand what it is they want and need from a lender, and I am looking forward to putting that experience into practice.”
Similarly, Craig, who has been working in the banking sector for 25 years, says Allica Bank offered an opportunity to work with an organisation aligned to his own goals: “Allica Bank is looking to make an entrance in an established sector based around a straightforward, honest approach to lending that is technology led.”
Nick Baker, managing director – Intermediaries at Allica Bank, says the appointments put the Bank in a very strong position to achieve its goal of empowering established SMEs to succeed: “I’m delighted to welcome Maria, Michael, Daniel and Craig to our award-winning business relationship manager team. They bring with them over 80 years’ experience and expertise across commercial mortgages and asset finance, and will help us continue to deliver the first-class service the broker community has come to know and expect from Allica.
“This expansion of the team will further support our unrelenting focus on helping established SMEs get the finance they need as the country rebounds from the challenges of the past 12 months.”
Allica Bank also recently increased its lending capacity to a maximum commercial mortgage loan size of £2m to £3m.
