Despite the headwinds from the pandemic and the general economic landscape, Cambridge & Counties Bank had a strong year in 2021. We had prepared for a challenging period given the significant impact of Covid-19 in 2020 on customers, staff and normal operating processes. Instead, last year saw heightened customer demand for our product suite and very robust lending.
Our real estate book enjoyed record levels of new business, for instance. While demand was spread across investment types, we saw particular activity with regards to warehouses, distribution and logistics properties along with office, semi-commercial and mixed-use buildings. Residential demand was also strong, including areas such as holiday lettings.
At this time of year, it is not unusual to look ahead to the coming year and back at the previous 12 months.
Despite the headwinds from the pandemic and the general economic landscape, Cambridge & Counties Bank had a strong year in 2021. We had prepared for a challenging period given the significant impact of Covid-19 in 2020 on customers, staff and normal operating processes. Instead, last year saw heightened customer demand for our product suite and very robust lending.
Our real estate book enjoyed record levels of new business, for instance. While demand was spread across investment types, we saw particular activity with regards to warehouses, distribution and logistics properties along with office, semi-commercial and mixed-use buildings. Residential demand was also strong, including areas such as holiday lettings.
Much of the activity reflects wider trends in the UK property sector but also, for me, underscores our competitive positioning among real estate professionals and the commercial finance brokers that support their aspirations.
In addition to strong real estate growth, our asset finance team also had their best year, while the total volume of customer deposits broke through the £1 billion mark. We maintained very high customer satisfaction scores and, across the year, invested further in our customer service infrastructure and technology.
Asset finance remains a core focus for us. Electric vehicles (EV), suddenly everywhere and now firmly part of our everyday lives, have been a noteworthy growth area for the bank’s asset finance team, from car fleets to industrial assets such as tractors. It was pleasing to see the hard work from the team in developing the EV campaign, recognised through a Business Moneyfacts Awards nomination for Innovation in the SME Finance Sector. No doubt, as the EV sector grows so will this business line for us.
Indeed, this demand for EVs is part of the wider corporate and social focus on the environment and combatting climate change. Financial institutions such as Cambridge & Counties Bank have a significant role to play here, and we are very conscious of this responsibility.
In June last year, we were rated Carbon Neutral Plus by the independent consultancy Carbon Footprint Ltd. The accolade reflects the bank offsetting more carbon than it produces, across all our satellite offices and working from home infrastructure, not just our Leicester headquarters.
The bank was also, for the sixth year in a row, accredited by Investors in the Environment, a national scheme that helps organisations reduce their impact on the environment. For the 2020/2021 period, it received a Green Award and was also named Overall Outstanding Achiever.
I would like to thank our fantastic staff for their dedication, relationship-based customer approach, their drive over 2021 and for giving the bank real momentum as we start the new year. As a people-led business, the incredible recognition we have in the market, and our competitive edge, is down to them.
Colleagues continue to tell us the bank is a great place to work, with leading engagement scores and recruiting great people. We have sought to make it a very positive working environment and will continue to do so. The good news is that we expect to hire a significant number of new colleagues in 2022 to help meet demand and expand further into new regions across the UK.
2022 will be our 10th anniversary. The institution has achieved a truly huge amount since launching in 2012. We will be celebrating this milestone across the year, and I hope personally to be able to meet up or talk to as many of our customers, brokers, and business partners over the next 12 months as possible as part of our celebrations.
I would say the bank is very well positioned to capture further customer and market demand as we look ahead.
So, an enormous thank you to everyone that makes Cambridge & Counties Bank the great success it has become over the past 10 years.