PCF Bank enters bridging market with £20m pilot

The AIM-listed lender made the announcement as part of the publication of its interim results for the year ending in September.

A spokesman for the bank told Specialist Lending Solutions that it was looking at the more straight-forward 12-18 month bridging market, and not development-based transactions.

“PCF is looking to write about £20m in the coming year,” he said.

“If that goes well and as expected then we would potentially be looking to increase that to around £100m in the following year, but it is still early stages,” he added.

The bank has yet to write it’s first loan but is putting a team of four with more than 30 years’ bridging market experience in place to conduct the launch.

It did not disclose who these were as they have not all started. However Specialist Lending Solutions understands  Sam Pountney who has joined as lending manager from Hampshire Trust Bank.

PCF is looking at deal values below £1m to begin with to avoid concentrating its portfolio risk in just a few loans.

Rates start at 0.75% per month with a maximum of 70% loan to value (LTV) and the lender is willing to lend nationwide.

Avoid competitive master brokers

While it is open to deals from brokers, PCF is looking to go direct to borrowers where possible, and chief executive Scott Maybury highlighted that it wanted to avoid the master broker market.

Announcing the expansion in his results statement, Maybury said: “We have recruited a small team of experienced staff, the first of whom has already joined us.

“This will further diversify PCF’s lending model with a new asset class. The skill set of the team is rooted in bridging finance with more than 30 years’ experience of lending to this market.

“This is an opportunity to enter a large market place in a measured way.”

He added that the move was a valuable one given its recent banking licence approval.

“The intention is to be a specialist property finance provider, avoiding the competitive master broker relationships and building a new business line that meets our net interest margin and return on equity targets,” he continued.

“This is a new market for PCF and there is cost in building our operating model. We therefore expect this new business line to make a contribution at the gross profit level only, in 2019.”

Savings deposits

The bank will largely fund its bridging transactions through savings deposits, but also has some remaining institutional funding which it may utilise in the sector.

Along with retail savings products PCF has three existing lending divisions:

• Business Finance which provides finance for vehicles, plant and equipment to SMEs;
• Consumer Finance which provides finance for motor vehicles to consumers; and
• Azule Limited which provides finance to the broadcast and media industry.