In his role he will launch a new working capital funding solution, which is expected to launch in the last quarter of this year.
Flaxman was most recently managing director of working capital solutions at Wyelands Bank for just over three years and before that he worked at HSBC for around five years as director for large corporate, global trade and receivables finance.
Prior to that he was head of structured finance for around a year and has also held roles at Credit Agricole and Yorkshire Bank.
The bank said that its “long-term ambition” was to become the “go-to relationship-driven provider of working capital funding for SMEs”.
Conrad Ford, chief product and strategy officer at Allica Bank, said: “Ian’s wealth of experience and respect in the industry makes him the ideal person to lead our growth finance team, and we will be leaning into his experience to focus on the businesses looking for cash to grow.”
Flaxman added: “Too many businesses are unable to access funding from the big banks, that they need to grow and sustain themselves. This is often thanks to automated decision-making and inflexible lending criteria.
“There is a real need for lenders to use technology in conjunction with human expertise to make pragmatic credit decisions and that support business owners through a relationship-based approach.”
He continued: “Allica is in an excellent position to make a difference as it fundamentally believes in the importance of human relationships, underpinned by powerful technology, and they’ve shown that in their success so far. I am delighted to be able to lead the delivery of this working capital initiative.”
