New SME bank Recognise appoints regional director for the West Midlands

Recognise Bank is pleased to announce the appointment of Arun Sohanta as regional director (West Midlands). Arun will be based out of Recognise’s regional hub in Birmingham.

Arun has more than 15 years’ experience in banking and finance in the West Midlands, most recently as a director of Acorn to Oaks, a specialist financial services provider.

Prior to this, Arun has held positions at a number of banks, including commercial banking manager in the West region at Metro Bank, where he was awarded ‘Top Commercial Lender’ and ‘Commercial Lender of the Year’. During this role he was relationship manager to 170 commercial customers, which is a key part of Recognise’s SME banking offering. Arun has also spent time at Lloyds TSB and Barclays during his career.

In his new role at Recognise, Arun will be responsible for developing and managing relationships with customers in the West Midlands, one of the key regions for the bank. Initially his focus will be on commercial real estate lending, particularly bridging finance, before expanding into new lending products.

Arun Sohanta, regional director (West Midlands) at Recognise Bank commented, “This is an exciting new role at Recognise Bank, which is placing relationships at the heart of SME banking again. The bank has ambitious growth plans, particularly in the West Midlands, and I am looking forward to providing SMEs and entrepreneurs a relationship-led banking proposition that is sadly missing in the sector.”

Jason Oakley, CEO of Recognise said,“Arun brings a breadth of experience to Recognise, particularly in the West Midlands. We are looking forward to working with Arun and utilising his knowledge to establish Recognise as a leading bank in the region for SMEs”