London bank expands its presence into major UK city with new hires

OakNorth Bank is expanding its regional footprint with four new senior hires and the opening of an office in Birmingham.

This follows an announcement earlier this year which saw the bank appoint several debt finance directors, including Dave Rowlinson and Chris Swarbrick to oversee lending operations out of its Manchester office.

Since then, the Manchester lending team has grown to five people, with several transactions being led by the team, including loans to many businesses.

Steve Mitchell who spent more than six years at Santander will be accompanied by his former colleague, Marcus Hook, to spearhead lending operations out of the new Birmingham office.

Ben Barbanel, head of debt finance at OakNorth Bank, said: “The launch of our Birmingham office and senior-level hires come at a pivotal moment for OakNorth Bank as we look ahead to 2020 and the future lending pipeline.

“While we are of course being more cautious when it comes to assessing credit risk, we see the next six months as a key opportunity to not only prove the strength of our proposition, but to also gain market share at a time when many of the high-street lenders will be pulling back.”

Ben added: “As the second largest city in England and home to almost 23,000 SMEs, Birmingham is an ideal place for us to expand our regional footprint.”