British Business Investments makes £25m Tier 2 investment in Secure Trust Bank
British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, today announces a £25m Tier 2 capital investment in Secure Trust Bank, demonstrating its continued commitment to improving access to capital for UK smaller businesses.
Secure Trust Bank focuses on carefully selected segments of the business and consumer markets and this year signed up its one millionth customer.
Funds raised from the Tier 2 issue, which was completed today, will enable Secure Trust Bank to increase its volume of lending, including to smaller businesses, supporting the bank’s growth over the medium term.
The £25m capital investment is being made under British Business Investments’ Investment Programme, which has so far committed over £800m to providers of finance to UK smaller businesses.
Paul Lynam, chief executive officer of Secure Trust Bank said: “Secure Trust Bank is a proud supporter of UK SME businesses. Our core SME operations have lent over £1 billion directly to UK businesses and smaller housebuilders since 2015. As at June 2018 our Real Estate Finance lending balances had grown to £705 million from £541 million a year earlier, representing our continued lending to professional landlords together with small and medium-sized house builders for whom access to finance remains a major barrier. Earlier this year we announced that our invoice finance division had funded over £2bn in customer invoices since it began trading in 2014. Furthermore, we are the UK’s third largest retail finance lender and help thousands of retailers sell their products via the provision of promotional finance and our motor finance offerings help car dealers sell tens of thousands of cars each year.
“We are delighted to enter into this transaction with British Business Investments, which supports our ambitions to increase our lending, directly and indirectly, to UK businesses in the years ahead.”
Catherine Lewis La Torre, CEO, British Business Investments, said: “Our investment in Secure Trust Bank – a fast-growing challenger bank – shows our continued commitment to increasing the diversity of smaller business finance in the UK.
“A diverse finance market means that smaller businesses benefit from more choices and better terms that increased competition can offer. We believe our investment will not only help support Secure Trust Bank’s strong growth trajectory but will also drive the bank’s ability to increase their lending to this important part of the finance market.”