OakNorth Bank

OakNorth Bank offers fast, flexible debt financing, ranging from £250,000 to tens of millions, to high-growth businesses across the UK, including property developers, care homes, specialist schools and nurseries, hotels, bars and restaurants, pub operators, as well as fund and specialist finance providers. With a range of specialist secured and unsecured business loans, get capital that caters to your growth plans, without giving up equity.

Despite experiencing not one, but two unprecedented events – Brexit and COVID-19 – since its launch, the bank has continued supporting growth businesses across the UK. Its lent over £8 billion to date, directly helping with the creation of almost 34,000 new jobs and more than 25,000 new homes (the significant majority of which are affordable and social housing).

OakNorth Bank has a team of five people covering Yorkshire and the North East, who have worked across a range of transactions. These include a £2.1M loan to Europa Wools, the West Yorkshire-based trader and processor of natural wool, to support a management buy-out, a £25.4M loan to Scarborough Group International, one of the UK’s most active privately owned developers to support the development of a new 133,118 sq. ft office building at Thorpe Park, Leeds and a £7.5M loan Springfield Healthcare, for the development of a major new luxury care home in Beverley, East Yorkshire.

With the past being a hugely difficult period for both lenders and borrowers alike, OakNorth Bank continues to see lenders retrench from the market and concentrate their efforts on prioritising their existing loan book, over supporting new businesses and growing…

At OakNorth, we’ve been able to do both, with our Yorkshire-based lending team playing a key role in our achievements to date. We’ve carved a niche for ourselves and continue to lend throughout times of economic turmoil.

By behaving as reliable, long-term partners to our customers throughout the pandemic, rather than just bankers, we have been able to make them our best advocates. As a result, our borrower Net Promoter Score averaged 70 throughout 2021, with c.80% of new lending coming via referrals, and 40% repeat borrowers.

OakNorth differentiates itself from other lenders via four unique selling points:

  1. Speed – we offer quick ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decisions so that we don’t waste business’ time. We will always try to find a path to ‘yes’ and will never take a computer-says-no decision.
  2. Flexibility – we take the time to get to know a business and structure a bespoke facility for its unique needs. No off-the-shelf solutions or ready-made products – we look at each deal with a fresh pair of eyes.
  3. Transparency – every business we consider lending to is given the opportunity to meet our Credit Committee and discuss their borrowing needs directly with the decision-makers.
  4. An entrepreneurial approach – we were founded by entrepreneurs, not bankers, so have a unique understanding of the opportunities and pain points facing businesses, and speak the same language as them.

An entrepreneurial approach – we were founded by entrepreneurs, not bankers, so have a unique understanding of the opportunities and pain points facing businesses, and speak the same language as them.