Bibby Financial Services (BFS) has appointed Riana Azam as regional head of corporate for businesses in the North of England and Scotland.

She has over 15 years’ experience in the invoice finance and asset based lending sectors in the North West. In her previous role, she worked as a regional sales director across the region for Nucleus Commercial Finance.

She has also held senior business development roles at Metro Bank and Santander UK, in addition to spending eight years at RBS Invoice Finance, where she managed a portfolio of commercial banking clients in Yorkshire.

Azam will head up BFS’s corporate team in the North, based from the business’s Manchester office. Her team is focused on developing deals for larger businesses with turnover of up to £100m supporting a range of requirements including cashflow funding, growth and expansion, management buy ins and buy outs, refinancing, corporate restructuring and mergers and acquisitions.

Gary Davis, BFS’s head of UK sales, said: “We have had an incredibly strong first half of the year with our sales teams across the country, delivering fantastic results and continuing to support UK SMEs.

“I’m delighted to welcome Riana to BFS at a time of positive change. With her experience and connections, I’m confident we’ll be able to bolster our support for businesses throughout the region even further.”

Azam added: “At a time when SMEs need proven, reliable funders, I wanted to join a well-established market player to support the industry during this post-pandemic recovery phase.”