OakNorth Bank has expanded its office network into Scotland with a new site on Glasgow's George Square.
Fraser McPhail has been hired as a new senior director of debt finance, alongside associate debt finance director Matteas Law.
They both move from similar positions at Cynergy Bank, having also previously worked together at Santander in Edinburgh.
McPhail, who also previously worked for RBS and has more than 17 years' experiences in property finance, said that joining OakNorth was driven by conversations with head of debt finance Ben Barbanel.
While it's just an office of two at the moment, the plan is to gradually grow the team, with back office support provided from India and the bank's London headquarters.
"I'm now in my third week and there's been an encouraging level of support - far better than anything I've experienced before," McPhail told Insider. "OakNorth have already written about £300m in Scotland, so that credibility and strength was a big selling point."
Barbanel commented that Scotland is a key area for further growth at the bank - hence the decision to get people on the ground here.
"We never wanted to be ‘day-trippers’, doing deals from afar, having local experts in local markets is good for everyone," he stated.
Previous Scottish financing has included funding the first Soho House expansion in Scotland, working with the House of Gods hotel on its expansion, backing the new TopGolf driving range, helping to finance the Met Tower redevelopment and providing a loan to get the Wave Garden surf centre off the ground.
Barbanel said the lending book to date has been roughly two thirds traditional property transactions, with the rest split between a variety of disparate sectors. "I see no reason why that won’t continue in a similar proportion - it's a real mix - we're definitely opportunistic."
The challenger bank's founders mission was to help growing businesses in the "missing middle" part of the market, defined as established small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which are seeking to scale.
OakNorth has lent more than £886m to British businesses in the first half of this year, and around £11bn in total.
As for Scotland specifically, Barbanel said he sees no reason why with a physical presence in the country, lending can't be doubled to round £750m in the next few years.
McPhail added that he knows several "very good operators" that are being targeted, with "lots of redevelopment opportunities in Glasgow and Aberdeen" which make him "confident we can get into the market and grow the business further".
While the various economic pressures of interest rates, inflation, skills shortages and the cost crisis have been hitting the UK hard, Barbanel sais that OakNorth's lending book "is holding up well" amid the confusion.
"We're certainly not complacent, but rather cautiously optimistic," he added, putting much of this down to the bank's proprietary 'forward looking scenarios' analysis, which applies different metrics to different sectors to see how they are likely to fare.
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