New UK bank planning 'very rapid' growth. Aldermore, the new British bank, which marked its first year of operation at the end of May, has said it is planning “very rapid” growth. The announcement comes as another new bank, Metro, launches.
 
Aldermore was set up to help fill the void in the funding of SMEs created by the banking crisis.
 
Backed by AnaCap and Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, Aldermore provided a total of £300m of funding to SMEs in its first 12 months.
 
It now has approximately 1,000 SME customers and 12,000 depositors and is planning for further very rapid but sustainable growth.
 
One advantage of Aldermore is that it is entirely UK based, including call centre staff, making it easy for consumers to open and manage their saving accounts online, by post or by phone.
 
In the residential mortgage market, Aldermore is targeting creditworthy borrowers who are being penalised by automated credit scoring systems and lenders who no longer employ skilled and experienced underwriters.
 
Aldermore is led by chief executive Phillip Monks, who has over 26 years of banking experience.
 
He said: “Other banks make a lending decision based on whether a company passes a computer-driven credit check. We think that is an incredibly blunt instrument. We get a banker to sense-check and review every decision.”