Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) has announced the appointment of Sarah Dix as lending director within its development finance division.

Dix (pictured) has 25 years’ experience in the financial services sector, having worked for a variety of major banks during her long and distinguished career.

She joined Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in 1998, working in a variety of customer focused roles within the branch network before moving into commercial banking in 2005 as relationship development manager for Barclays. She worked in business development and relationship director roles within the real estate division from 2007 at the bank before becoming commercial banking director – real estate at Metro Bank in 2014.

She ultimately became head of real estate finance for the bank before joining Paragon Development Finance as a relationship director in 2020, where she was responsible for development finance transactions from £500,000 to £35m.

In her new role, Dix is tasked with winning new development finance business for HTB and developing those client relationships into longer-term partnerships.

She said: “I’m excited to be joining HTB as it has a deserved reputation in the industry for executing complex development finance cases.

“I can’t wait to leverage my contacts gained from 20+ years within the banking industry to support HTB’s ambitious growth aspirations in development finance.”

Alex Upton, managing director – development finance, Hampshire Trust Bank, added:

“Attracting the very best talent that boasts the experience that Sarah holds makes me immensely proud and is a demonstration of the award-winning team we are building at HTB.

“Championing SME housebuilders across the regions, and supporting them regardless of market conditions, is core to our proposition and Sarah will play a pivotal role in providing them with bespoke approaches to development finance.”