Allica Bank has appointed Ian Flaxman to the newly created role of head of growth finance to launch a new working capital funding solution.

With 30 years’ experience in financial services, Flaxman joins Allica Bank having held a number of leadership roles within working capital, credit, commercial and invoice finance sectors. He says his immediate focus will be on developing a “best-in-class working capital lending capability” designed specifically for the needs of established SMEs.

Details of the new product have yet to be released, but it is expected to launch in the final quarter of 2022.

The bank says the long-term ambition is for Allica to become the go-to relationship-driven provider of working capital funding for SMEs, following on from the success of its commercial mortgage and asset finance products. Earlier this year, Allica revealed it had lent out over £1 billion since launching to market in March 2020.

Flaxman said: “Too many businesses are unable to access funding from the big banks, that they need to grow and sustain themselves. This is often thanks to automated decision-making and inflexible lending criteria. There is a real need for lenders to use technology in conjunction with human expertise to make pragmatic credit decisions and that support business owners through a relationship-based approach.

“Allica is in an excellent position to make a difference as it fundamentally believes in the importance of human relationships, underpinned by powerful technology, and they’ve shown that in their success so far. I am delighted to be able to lead the delivery of this working capital initiative.”

Conrad Ford, chief product & strategy officer at Allica Bank, added: “Ian’s wealth of experience and respect in the industry makes him the ideal person to lead our growth finance team, and we will be leaning into his experience to focus on the businesses looking for cash to grow.”