The Interview
Grand ambitions
Small and medium sized businesses are starved of liquidity and government pressure on the big banks is having only a limited effect. Sarah Davidson finds out what other options there are for SMEs
Stephen Johnson comes with some mortgage pedigree. His dad is David Johnson, whose career spans more than 30 years and whose experience in specialist mortgage lending is probably second to none.
David is the boss at newly launched Shawbrook Bank but it is Stephen I am here to talk to today. As new business director he is the face of Shawbrook: the next generation of Johnson and the “next generation of lender”. Shawbrook is the rebranded and
relaunched Whiteaway Laidlaw Bank; itself a mishmash of commercial lender Commercial First, secured lender Link Loans and savings and investment firm WLB.
Although the lender started originating loans in April this year under the WLB brand and has agreed funding in excess of £100m, it probably makes a lot of sense to rebrand and come to market with a name and image untainted by the past. Particularly to give the three distinct legacy businesses some coherence.
But “becoming Shawbrook Bank
isn’t about throwing away any of our well respected heritage, it’s about using everything we have learnt to become even better,” says Johnson.
The rationale behind the name choice is typical in the financial services market after a downturn. “Credible, dependable and solid are the connotations you get from the word shaw – it’s a play on sure,” explains
Johnson. “Brook comes from the idea of possession, of having that dependability. We also wanted it to sound more personal and less corporate.”
Johnson characterises Shawbrook as a “modern bank” with “traditional values”. They’ve tried to catch that in their strapline: “Specialists in good sense.” It all sounds convincing but the
proof of the pudding is always in the delivery. Although Shawbrook itself has only been up and running for a month it has changed very little underneath the bright pink veneer of its rampant lion logo.
46 mortGaGe introducer NOVEMBER 2011
A rose by Any oTher As WLB the lender was respected by brokers, particularly for its willingness to work with them to structure a deal and understand the reasons for doing it. If there’s one thing that’ll floor an application it’s not having the right information in the right place. Brokers often complain that perfectly good commercial deals don’t get past the post with lenders and often there is no obvious reason why. But Shawbrook has been praised for its criteria “shopping list” given to distributors to help them structure a deal to get it done.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68