Watts Bridging Finance has joined the ASTL as a full member with effect from 1 April.

This will increase the ASTL’s membership to 27, a 17% increase over this time last year.

Watts Bridging Finance established itself as a lender a year ago and provided its first loan in August 2013. It is part of the large Watts Group, established in 1985, which offers everything from small asset finance facilities to multi-million pound transactions.

Watts is entering the bridging market in order to fulfil the requirements of the many borrowers that approach it every week in need of a top end bridging solution. The aim of Watts Bridging Finance is to provide a solution not only from a bridging point of view but also a commercial point of view helping to provide a clear exit strategy to the loan and put in place any finance required after the bridge. Watts Bridging Finance will focus on first change non-regulated bridging loans but will also provide borrowers with the complete service so they have a clear way out.

Watts will continue to pass any borrowers with wider bridging needs to its other bridging lender partners. Its aim is to grown sensibly and steadily; it will be a subset of Watts Commercial.

Benson Hersch, chief executive of the ASTL said: “The Watts Group is highly respected and I expect that Watts Bridging Finance will be an asset to the bridging industry.

“The Watts Group has long worked with other bridging lenders and so the directors behind Watts Bridging Finance know the market well and are likely to make a positive contribution both to the ASTL and to the bridging market as a whole.”

Phil Gray, commercial director of Watts Bridging Finance, said: “We are a relatively new entrant to bridging lending but we have operated in financial services for almost 20 years and we have built up a reputation for excellence coupled with world-class customer experience. It is these qualities and ethics that we are bringing to bridging finance and this is a key reason for our immediate membership of the ASTL.

“We fully support the ASTL’s drive to raise the standards and ethics in the bridging market while also working to promote and resolve the issues faced by its membership at the highest levels. Joining the ASTL was therefore a common sense decision and we look forward to taking an active role supporting the ASTL in its aims.”