United Trust Bank has extended the range of assets it will now consider financing to include engineering and manufacturing equipment.

The lender says it is keen to consider proposals on a wide range of engineering machinery and equipment and also to increase its activity in the high performance car sector.

United Trust Bank’s asset finance division had until 2011 primarily operated within the agricultural sector. Now it offers finance on a wide range of wheeled and tracked equipment including bus & coach, construction equipment, high performance cars, engineering equipment including CNC machinery, together with the more traditional car and commercial vehicle business.

In a recent poll carried out by United Trust Bank 82% of brokers working in the asset finance sector felt that demand from SMEs for asset finance would continue to grow over the next three years and 73% expected to grow their own businesses in 2014. United Trust Bank is keen to continue supporting SMEs with their funding requirements through its’ broker partners.

Martin Nixon, head of asset finance at United Trust Bank, said: “Having consulted with a number of broker partners to see if there’d be demand for United Trust Bank to start lending on engineering equipment we found the feedback to be very positive.

“We’ve already completed several transactions financing CNC machinery, with several more in the pipeline. And although we have financed high performance cars for some time we’ve now extended our funding options for leasing luxury vehicles and we are keen to do more business in this sector for high net worth individuals and company directors.

“United Trust Bank enjoyed a very strong second half of 2013, doubling our business volumes from the same period of 2012. We recognise that there’s a significant and continuing demand for bespoke asset backed funding delivered with a swift turnaround and exceptional broker service and we aim to capitalise on that demand by continuing to develop the team and our offering.”