Specialist commercial lender Wesleyan Bank has announced it will be expanding its credit team with two new hires following a strong start to the year, during which £60m of new funding was given to businesses in the first six months of 2021 resulting in its highest ever loan book.
Rob Irving has been appointed senior underwriter, whilst Essie Quinnell will join the team as a credit underwriter. Together, they will bring a combined industry experience of 20 years to their new team. Irving has spent the last four years at Haydock Finance and previously worked at NatWest, while Quinnell joins from Metro Bank.
Yvonne Wiseman, head of indirect sales at Wesleyan Bank, said: “Already in 2021 we have broken records in proposals and new volume written with sales, operations and back-office teams working extremely hard to deliver for our broker partners and their clients. To ensure we are brilliant to do business with, we needed to move quickly and hire experienced industry professionals who can hit the ground running by providing tailored and flexible solutions to support our rapid growth.”
“We are focused on continually improving our service levels and really appreciate the support and feedback from our broker partners. Rob and Essie are excellent additions and will help us increase capacity in our credit function. We are also investing in emerging talent and digital technologies to reduce manual processing and turnaround times for low-value deals to better serve our customers.”
Headquartered in Birmingham, Wesleyan Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wesleyan Assurance Society. It has been providing funding to SMEs within the UK since 1993. As of 2019, Wesleyan Assurance Society is one of the UK’s strongest financial mutuals with over £8bn of assets under management. Wesleyan Bank is also looking to hire sales support professionals to assist its broker account managers in providing dedicated service to its panel of brokers.
