25% hike in new business at bank

Jun 20 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

PROPERTY finance specialist Dunbar Bank has reported a 25% hike in new North East business as the company celebrates its 10th anniversary in the region.

New business acceptances for the bank across the UK in 2007 reached £771m, smashing 2006’s total of £579m, which had been the previous record total for the bank.

Other northern and Scottish offices in Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds also saw large rises in new business. The bank held a summer party yesterday lunchtime at the Blackfriars restaurant in the centre of Newcastle, with Dunbar chief executive Andy Deller and leading figures from the regional property industry in attendance.

Regional director Neil Leitch, based in Gateshead, has been responsible for the strategy in all the growing offices after setting up the bank’s office in Newcastle back in 1998.

Mr Leitch said: “It has been a great privilege to watch the fortunes of the North East and Dunbar Bank develop and prosper. Despite the national economic problems we all face, I remain very confident for the future of both the bank and the region.”

Mr Deller added: “Dunbar Bank remains very much open for business. We have a strong and varied mix of funding that is extremely secure and that has remained very stable over the last few months.

“Because of the growth in our lending teams across the UK and Ireland and because of the withdrawal of many banks from the marketplace, we are extremely busy.”