New hire for ThinCats to drive growth in the North
PEER-TO-PEER business lender ThinCats is on the expansion trail again with a new appointment to drive growth in its loan origination in the North of England.
Veteran banker Rob Thompson (pictured), who has worked in commercial and corporate finance for more than 30 years, joins ThinCats in the newly-created role of regional head of credit for the North.
He will be working with Geoff O’Brien in Scotland, Maureen Armstrong in the North East and Matthew Lawrence and Mark Tunley in the Midlands, as well as a new appointment to be announced to cover the North West from March.
Thompson said: “I’ll be working alongside our origination team to shape and structure the deals, helping to resolve any problems and being actively involved in the whole credit process right the way through to completion.”
Read more: P2PFN’s exclusive interview with ThinCats chief executive John Mould
ThinCats said Thompson, who has a 30-year career in corporate and commercial finance working for Barclays, Santander and AIB Capital Markets, will join the firm’s originator specialists in meetings with potential borrowers, particularly the larger and more complicated loans.
“Business borrowers are frequently frustrated when they deal with ‘conventional’ lenders, in that the relationship managers they deal with appear to be like a post-box into which they drop their requirements, with the decisions being made by a far-off and faceless credit team,” said Damon Walford, chief development officer at ThinCats.
“That isn’t the case with ThinCats; we act as a team and ask the right questions at the outset. We make the whole process more efficient.”
ThinCats has had a busy few months, having secured £200m of institutional funding and re-branded its website and logo. In December it hit a monthly lending high of £12m.