Barclays ‘open for business’ in Manchester
BARCLAYS Commercial Bank in Manchester has shrugged off the economic gloom and boosted its team in a message to the market that it is firmly ‘open for business’.
It has recruited seven people to the team including a number from its high street rivals – Alliance & Leicester, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Bank of Scotland.
Tony Fulton and Andrew Mulliner, area corporate directors for Barclays Commercial Bank, believe in reality it is not all doom and gloom.
Mr Fulton said: “As a business we have followed fairly prudent lending criteria over the last few years and, therefore, are able to focus on helping existing customers rather than dealing with distress borrowings where the leverage has been too high, the covenants too weak, or simply the structure was wrong from the outset.”
Among the new starters is business development director Gavin Cowling who has previously worked at Alliance & Leicester and Royal Bank of Scotland, while Richard Beaumont has arrived from Bank of Scotland as relationship manager.
Robin Richards, Sue Aldridge and Steve Grant have joined from Lloyds TSB, Alliance & Leicester and HSBC respectively.
In addition, Caesar Hao He has been recruited from the HSBC multicultural team to boost the bank’s presence among Chinese and Far Eastern customers in the North West, while Ramesh Seegolam has arrived in Manchester as commercial manager from Mauritius where he has worked for Barclays for the last 15 years.
Mr Fulton added: “These new appointments reinforce our confidence in the business opportunities within the region and our desire to support our customers through these challenging times.”
