Allica Bank lends £1bn to Britain’s SMEs
Allica Bank – the fintech challenger bank dedicated to serving and supporting Britain’s established small and medium sized businesses – has today announced that it has reached its largest milestone yet with over £1bn in loans to Britain’s SMEs as at end June 2022.
Allica is no stranger to setting, and achieving, ambitious targets for the lending support it wishes to offer SMEs. In 2021, Allica set itself the target of £500m committed lending offers, which it exceeded by achieving £560m. The bank now forecasts to complete £3bn of lending to established SMEs in the next three years.
As set out in its end of financial year review recently, the bank has scaled at pace in its first two years of operation, demonstrating robust growth across all aspects of business. Of note, in November 2021, Allica welcomed c2,000 SME customers when it acquired AIB’s GB SME lending portfolio. Allica is fast becoming the leading SME challenger to the previously dominant high street banks, most recently demonstrated with its recent competitive repricing in commercial mortgages which now compete with rates offered from high street banks, while still providing market leading customer service.
Allica is also announcing today that it continues to make impressive strides in its asset finance business, having now completed over £100m of asset finance funding since launching in 2021. This figure is expected to double by the end of 2022.
Richard Davies, chief executive officer, Allica Bank, commented: “Allica was created with the aim of empowering Britain’s established small and medium sized businesses, which have long been overlooked and underserved by the banking sector. Everybody at Allica is therefore very proud of achieving this momentous milestone of lending £1bn to SMEs – this is lending that will make a critical difference to helping established SMEs up and down the country to significantly strengthen and scale their businesses.
“We are also thrilled by the progress of our asset finance proposition, which has grown impressively since its launch early last year. The £100m in funding we have completed so far is a huge achievement, not least as over 70% of this took place in the first half of 2022. And we’ve only just got started; our newly strengthened teams are looking forward to accelerating this progress in the second half of this year.
“Our ambitious, yet achievable, target of lending £3bn to SMEs over the next three years will enable us to support even more SMEs to finance their ambitions as they bounce back from the pandemic and deal with the current challenging economic climate.”
Today’s announcement follows on quickly from Allica’s recent publication of its exceptional performance in 2021 across all aspects of the business.
The bank has built strong financial momentum alongside its lending to SMEs. Annual net operating income increased to £7.8m in 2021, and April year to date net operating income has already exceeded this at £10.1m, driving the bank towards monthly profitability in 2022.