Bibby Financial Services’s (BFS) asset finance division, Bibby Leasing, has announced a series of new hires and a refocused growth strategy to increase lending throughout the UK.

With over 50 years’ combined experience in asset finance, the new team will support the business’s strategy, led by managing director, Sean Neville.

Neville (pictured) explained: “As a business, we’re in a fantastic position to support UK SMEs in 2023 and beyond. We have a refocused strategy designed to bolster our support for brokers, build new vendor partnerships and to uncover new opportunities by working more closely with colleagues across Bibby Financial Services to develop ABL transactions.

“The depth and breadth of experience of our new team, combined with our existing asset finance expertise is testament to our growth strategy, which saw us almost double new business volumes in 2022 alongside 20 percent growth in our portfolio during in the same period.”

Sean Taylor joins as head of national broker sales from Renaissance Asset Finance where he was senior corporate sales executive. With over 16 years’ experience in asset finance, he has held sales roles with Five Arrows Business Finance and State Securities.

James Pegler joins as senior risk manager – specialised and structured transactions. He previously held underwriting, credit and client-facing roles at Renaissance Asset Finance, Shawbrook Bank and Barclays UK.

Jonathan Sollitt has held credit and underwriting positions with CSI Leasing Europe and HSBC, and joins Bibby Leasing as credit manager.

Lauren Davis, joins as manager for Bibby Leasing’s newly created sales support team from Renaissance Asset Finance where she spent almost seven years developing such a unit.

The new hires follow the appointment of Brian Cartwright as director of strategic partnerships & market expansion last year and the return of Rebekah Middleton as head of corporate & structured transactions, after almost two years with Time Finance.

Neville added: “This is a really exciting time for Bibby Leasing and the wider Bibby Financial Services family. We have highly experienced people, a great range of products to support SMEs and brokers, and are well positioned for growth.”