Mortgage Strategy speaks to Ashman Bank chief executive James Leach about the new entrant’s ambitious plans in the real estate lending market ahead of its planned formal launched in 2023.

What will be involved in your scale-up plan? And have you received regulatory approval?

Ashman plans to more than double its headcount over the next year, with the aim to reach around 150 employees by the end of 2025. Our team has shown their passion, determination, and vision for this project over the last few years to deliver the exciting infrastructure we have in place. We are now looking for more like-minded individuals who are driven by the opportunity to launch a bank which is focused on creating new solutions for small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) at a time when it’s needed most.

As an ambitious new entrant SME bank, we aim to become a leading lender for property entrepreneurs and businesses and have spent the last few years building the infrastructure and systems needed to scale rapidly as a regulated bank. We’re excited to make our vision a reality to help provide SMEs with much-needed financing while providing savers superior rates at a time when they most need it. 

Ashman was the first new entrant bank to receive its UK banking license this year authorised with restrictions, which means it has been authorised and regulated to trade with restrictions by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). We’re proud to have achieved this with invaluable support from our network of partners and look forward to taking this next step in our scale-up journey. 

Can you tell us any more about the ‘advanced discussions’ for the funding round you aim to complete by the end of this year?

We’re well on track to meet our ambitious goals. We already have several investors involved as they see significant value in the opportunity to launch a new bank dedicated to supporting the backbone of the British economy – SMEs, as well as savers alike – at a time when simple, transparent access to finance is needed more than ever. 

Our series B funding round will enable us to add the final elements to our platform, fund our lending activity and critically enable us to formally launch as a bank. 

What are you doing in the lending space?

Property SMEs have had a hard time. They have been underserved with slow decision-making and a lack of certainty with many providers re-pricing or withdrawing products. This makes it even harder to operate against a backdrop of heightened challenges with growing investor and tenant expectations, soaring interest rates, and persistent political and economic volatility. Plus, they are also tackling the growing need to get their heads around how they can reduce the climate impact of their properties. This has created a perfect storm for property entrepreneurs and businesses which they need to navigate through when it comes to access to finance. 

That’s why we want to make it easy for SMEs to access the right lending for their needs today, offering products and services that provide the know-how and incentives to create more climate-friendly properties and practices of tomorrow and we have ambitious plans to launch exciting new products to address that across bridging, commercial mortgages and buy-to-let (BTL).

How are you working with intermediaries?

Our intermediary partners are vital to our success, and we’ve been working directly with brokers to shape our future offerings and our panel to ensure continual connection and innovation with their needs in mind. The panel will be supported by a super experienced team, led by Caroline Luxmore and Neil Molyneux who really understand our brokers’ needs and the importance of keeping simplicity at the heart of everything we do while making sure we are utilising innovative technology to allow for transparency and ease.

As we get closer to launch, our broker community will be further immersed in our lending proposition, and we’re really excited to be working with them. To ensure full service of the market, we work with brokers spread all over the country, and with introducers large and small, new, and established. 

What are your plans over the next 12 months? Or where do you see yourselves in the next 12 months?

Plans for the next 12 months are guided by Ashman’s ambition to support the commercial real estate market. We are focused on launching our lending and savings business first with our initial product offering spans bridging finance, BTL, development finance, commercial mortgages, and personal savings accounts for consumers. We’ll also have a firm eye on developing innovative products and services that meet the evolving sector’s needs. 

We want to play our part in creating a greener future for all, through finance. We believe Ashman can make better happen by enabling property entrepreneurs to be decisive and pursue growth opportunities without compromising on their climate ambitions. Over the next few years, we also want to connect savers who want to do more for the planet with businesses who want to build better.