The UK’s Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable joined Aldermore Bank at its offices to celebrate its Asset Finance division reaching a milestone of £875m (€1.02bn) lent to SMEs and discuss the position of ‘challenger’ banks.

The Aldermore team and was joined by two of the leasing brokers it funds, 1pm and Asset Advantage, at the meeting.
Cable said: "We want to get greater diversity in the financial services, so that businesses have more choice and there’s increased competition in the market.

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"Aldermore Bank should be proud of having reached such a significant milestone of support for small and medium sized businesses. I hope it is able to maintain this momentum and help even more firms access finance so they can invest and grow.

"The Government sees challenger banks like Aldermore as an important way of getting finance to SMEs, including through initiatives such as the business bank. I look forward to working closely with them as we support more SMEs to access credit."

Aldermore Asset Finance has lent more than £875m to more than 12,000 UK businesses and grown its balance sheet to over £500m since starting in January 2010.

The lender recently announced it was extending its asset portfolio to include ‘soft assets’ and George Ashworth, managing director of the Asset Finance division, said he was looking forward to hitting the £1bn mark in the near future.

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He said: "We are continuing to expand our lending and supporting SMEs make vital purchases and investments to grow their businesses and in so doing support the UK’s economic recovery."