FR: Please tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your role at Recognise Bank.
I started my banking career at big banks where, at different times, I looked after customers of all types and sizes but usually focusing on SME businesses. Since 2015, I have worked in smaller UK lending banks where I have been able to focus more on making a difference to how the firm can support our customers.
At Recognise, my role includes helping to set lending policy and being responsible for the underwriting team who make the individual decisions on whether or not to lend on a given transaction. I love working together with our lending managers and underwriting team to find a route to say yes so that we can support a customer in their business.
Outside of my role at the Bank, I am a board member at The Social Investment Business, one of the UK’s largest social investors working to unlock energy resilience and strengthen community assets and services. I am also lucky to have a lovely family who keep me both busy and grounded in the here and now.
FR: How can banks like Recognise provide consistent finance solutions to SMEs where traditional retail banks are unable to?
While the big high street banks have been restricting their lending appetite over past years, Recognise has been stepping in to provide bridging loans and commercial mortgages through our dedicated team of lending managers who know their local markets and understand the Recognise Bank lending appetite. We’ve demonstrated our willingness to lend by substantially growing our loan book year-on-year.
FR: NACFB’s recent Intermediary Outlook 2025/26 report stated that 62% of broker-facilitated lending was delivered outside London and the South East, as a lender who operates across England, Wales and Scotland, how does Recognise Bank adapt its lending to SMEs across the UK?
Recognise has lending managers covering most areas of the UK and whilst we might not know each local area intimately, we work with brokers and professional advisers to ensure that we understand each property we are financing and the business that operates from it.
In the past year Recognise has lent to projects in the north of Scotland, on the Cornish coast, in Wales and in East Anglia. We do this by understanding the needs of our customers so that we can offer them bespoke financial solutions that meet their needs.
FR: What challenges do you see being faced by SMEs and how can banks like Recognise provide solutions?
SME business owners regularly say that access to financing is one of their big challenges. Through clarity of lending appetite, Recognise is able quickly to identify where we can help, agree a loan structure and then deliver that financing at pace. So that ultimately, our customer can get on with what they want to be doing, running their business, instead of all the details in arranging the loan.
FR: If any of our readers have never used Recognise Bank before, how would you briefly summarise your lending proposition and its particular strengths?
We provide bridging loans from £250,000 to £10m with terms up to 24-months. We lend to UK customers including individuals, partnerships and incorporated entities secured against most sorts of property in England, Wales and Scotland including land with or without planning permission and finished buildings.
We pride ourselves in quickly delivering a clear answer to your loan application and, once a loan is approved, getting you the money drawn down as fast as possible.
