Paragon Bank has announced several promotions within its development finance division as it looks to strengthen its national support for small and medium-sized property developers.

Dan Cresswell has been promoted to relationship director from relationship manager, while Lilly Sargeant and Megan Andreou move up to senior portfolio managers.

In addition, Ben Leigh has been appointed associate director – a newly created role in which he will support managing director Neal Moy, lead projects including the use of AI, and help develop new business lines and complex transactions.

Cresswell began his career in development finance at Close Brothers before joining Titlestone in 2016. Following Paragon’s acquisition of Titlestone two years later, he continued with the bank’s expanding property lending arm. Both Sargeant and Andreou joined Paragon in 2021 as junior portfolio managers.

Moy said: “It is fantastic to see these individuals progress over the past few years, so these promotions are hugely deserved. Career development is massively important to us, and we are dedicated to helping nurture and support our people.

“In recent years we have fast evolved from mainly funding residential schemes to expanding into new markets – now supporting PBSA, build-to-rent, later living and pre-let commercial, amongst others.

“We have ambitious growth plans and we need the right people to enable us to meet them, so I’m delighted to be able to make these promotions.”

Paragon reported a 7.5% rise in new development finance lending to £262 million in the first half of its financial year. The new business pipeline increased by 44% year-on-year to £268.4 million, while the development finance loan book stood at £877.5 million at the end of March 2025, up from £849.9 million a year earlier.

Pictured (L-R): Daniel Cresswell, Megan Andreou, Lilly Sargeant, Ben Leigh