Cambridge & Counties Bank Reports Strong Annual Growth

21 April 2015
 
Mike Kirsopp 2015

Cambridge & Counties Bank has announced a strong increase in business

  • Loan book reached £253 million by the end of 2014 – a rise of 126% on 2013
  • The bank is seeing one of the fastest growth rates for any bank currently included in the Bank of England Funding for Lending Scheme
  • Deposits grew by 87% to reach £388 million
  • The bank opened two new offices in Bristol and Sheffield
  • Bank delivers Profit Before Tax of £4.1 million for 2014
  • The bank predicts further strong growth

Cambridge & Counties Bank has announced a strong increase in business for the year ended 31 December 2014.  During this period, the challenger bank, which provides lending and deposit products for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs), saw its loan book grow by 126% to reach £253 million, and the value of deposits held reached £388 million, a rise of 87% on 2013.

The bank is predicting continued strong growth, and this will be partly fuelled by its successful application to the Funding for Lending Scheme, which was accepted at the start of 2015.

The bank, which is owned jointly by the University of Cambridge’s Trinity Hall and Cambridgeshire Local Government Pension Fund, reported that on 31st December 2014, its capital position remained strong at 15.2% for total capital, and 10.1% for Core Tier 1.

Overall, the bank declared a Profit Before Tax of £4.1 million for the year ended 31st December 2014, which represents a turnaround for last year’s small start-up loss of £99,000.

Cambridge & Counties Bank, headquartered in Leicester, has grown by focusing on its heartlands of East Midlands and East Anglia but it has also expanded across the UK through its national broker coverage.  To help support this, in 2014 it opened two new offices – one in Bristol and the other in Sheffield - to add to its existing locations in Cambridge and Leicester.

Mike Kirsopp, Chief Executive at Cambridge & Counties Bank, said:

“Trading conditions during 2014 continued to improve, and whilst a number of new competitors entered into the SME deposit and lending arenas, our strong proposition enabled us to exceed all of our growth targets.

“The quality of our lending business continues to meet our credit appetite, and we continue to lend against assets providing good yield and strong cash flow.”

Paul ffolkes Davis, Non-Executive Chairman, Cambridge & Counties Bank said:

“2014 was distinguished as a year of growth for us.  We continued to attract a wide variety of customers through our simple, appropriately priced and flexible lending products, and also our range of attractive deposit accounts.  This helps explain why our customer satisfaction levels remain in excess of 99% for new clients, and over 98% for those that have been with us for a year or more.”

Cambridge & Counties Bank launched in 2012 with 9 staff and at the end of 2014, it had 65 employees.

Strong growth has continued into 2015 with the Cambridge & Counties Bank loan book now exceeding £300m, supported by deposits of over £400m.  Staff numbers have also grown to 75 and reflects the launch of a new business line in the second quarter of the year, when the bank plans to provide an Asset Finance offer to its target SME customers.