The group has published its Interim Financial Report for the six months ending 30 June 2021, and said that the growth had been driven by demand in its core small to medium enterprise (SME) and property markets as customers take confidence from an improving economic environment and look for more specialist lending propositions to serve their needs.
Shawbrook also reported a rise in profits to £94.4m from £5.9m in H1 2020, attributing the improving economic outlook to significant reductions in arrears and impairment charges.
Marcelino Castrillo, chief executive officer at Shawbrook Bank, said: “Strong performance in the first half of 2021 was driven by demand for our specialist propositions in our core SME and property markets.
“Deep sector expertise, combined with our technology-enabled model and proven resilience, have allowed us to continue to support our customers against a challenging, but improving, macroeconomic backdrop.
“This was reflected in our record origination levels and our loan book reaching £8.0 billion as at June 2021.”
Dylan Minto, chief financial officer of Shawbrook Group, added: “As the economy recovers from the lockdown impacts of the pandemic, the investment in the digitalisation of our customer proposition, backed by solid operational resilience, meant that we were well placed to support our customers as confidence returns to our specialist lending markets.
“Looking forward, as we capitalise on our specialist lending proposition in our addressable markets, we remain well positioned to further support our customers and communities.”
Earlier in the year, the group launched the MyShawbrook portal for its buy-to-let (BTL) property broker community, featuring access to external data sources and instant, integrated valuations.
It has also started the deployment of its new platform for growth solution for its SME lending, as well as integrating open banking data sources within its API-led consumer fintech platform.
Castrillo added: “This focus on building out our digital capabilities and technology is aimed at ensuring Shawbrook can combine the agility and customer service of a FinTech, alongside the deep specialism and profitability we have already built in our chosen markets.”
