Hampshire Trust Bank has appointed Rob Syrett to be head of orgination within its development finance team.

In this role Syrett will take responsibility for driving and delivering new development business. He is also charged with growing HTB’s specialist development finance team, while will include expanding its team of lending directors, who work closely with existing and new-to-bank development finance clients.

Syrett joined HTB in September 2022 as a lending director. Prior to this he worked in finance recovery, and his previous experience in originations has seen him manage deals of up to £30m.

Rob will report to Alex Upton, managing director, development finance.

Syrett says: “HTB adopts a flexible and specialist approach which enables us to provide an excellent service to clients and third parties.”

HTB’s managing director development finance Alex Upton adds: “The head of origination plays a key role in building strong relationships with our brokers and clients.”

He adds: “We’re investing across the development finance business and setting ourselves up for ambitious growth in 2024.” The bank he says will be looking to expand its specialist team to  maintain services levels as it grows this division.

Upton says this appointment was part of the bank’s wider target to focus on innovation in 2024, and to deliver “insight-driven lending solutions” to brokers and their developer clients.