Shawbrook, a leading specialist bank that supports small and mid-sized companies and individuals, has achieved record origination levels and increased its loan book to £8.0 billion, an annualised growth rate of 26.2%.
The Group, which has published its Interim Financial Report for the six months ended 30 June 2021, said that the growth had been driven by demand in its core 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 strong rise in profits to £94.4 million (2020 H1: £5.9 million), attributing the improving economic outlook to significant reductions in arrears and impairment charges.
Commenting on the Group’s performance, Marcelino Castrillo, its new Chief Executive Officer, 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.”
Shawbrook has continued to invest in and deploy innovative technology solutions in order to digitalise customer experience and enhance automation. Earlier in the year, the Group launched the MyShawbrook portal for its buy-to-let property broker community, featuring API access to external data sources and instant, integrated valuations, leading to a material reduction in time to offer and overall completion times. 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.
Reiterating the Group’s commitment to developing best-in class customer experiences by further investing in innovative technologies, Marcelino 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.”