Bateman said the bank had applied for a variation of permissions to launch the proposition, as bridging continues to drive its growth.
Bridging proposition strength
“The majority of our book is bridging and commercial bridging, and the rationale behind that is from a scale perspective,” he said.
Bateman pointed to Recognise Bank’s credit and lending teams, as well as its broker and strategic partner networks, as supporting that growth.
He said the bank takes a case-by-case approach to lending, rather than relying on a ‘computer says no’ model.
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Its bridging growth has been driven by a willingness to consider complex structures.
“We will look at those complicated cases that other banks will walk away from… we’re now positioning ourselves as a bank that can take on those complicated cases,” Bateman said.
However, he said strict credit parameters meant that “if we are going to say no, we say no straight away”.
Enabling long-term stability
Since year end, Recognise Bank’s loan book has grown to more than £500m, while deposits have exceeded £600m.
However, Bateman said the bank remained realistic about its position in the wider lending market.
“Our growth is impressive over the period that we had, but if you look at the size of the market, the growth that we’ve had is actually quite small,” he said.
Bateman said this had allowed Recognise Bank to grow at a controlled pace while keeping credit risk exposure and bad debt recovery to a minimum. The bank rebuilt its risk framework in December 2024 to align with its lending strategy, with a focus on capital use and IFRS stages one, two and three.
He added that the bank had “a very robust credit committee and mandate structure”, with larger or more complex deals reviewed by a credit committee made up of most of Exco.
Deals are assessed from “a commercial, financial, risk, regulatory and legal perspective”, as well as from his view as CEO on whether he is prepared to take the risk onto the bank’s book, Bateman said.
Turning loss into profit
Bateman said Recognise Bank had been in a “stabilisation phase” when he joined, requiring a “back to basics” rebuild of its foundations, team, governance and controls.
He said the bank had “restarted the start-up”, replacing processes, systems and senior leadership while relaunching as ‘The Decisive Bank’.
That focus helped Recognise Bank reach breakeven in May, ahead of its September target, moving from a £5.3m loss in 2025 to a post-tax profit of £8.9m for the year ended 31 March 2026.
Managing intermediary relationships
Bateman said the bank’s shift to regionally based lending managers had strengthened broker relationships and expanded its reach beyond its previous Manchester base.
He added that Recognise Bank was prepared to look at deals “within the correct parameters”, which had helped the bank build “a lot of repeat business” with brokers.
Although Recognise Bank continues to expand its broker network, Bateman said the size of the channel “will depend on our available capital”.
Parasol V27 Limited invested £20m in Recognise Bank in November 2024, followed by a further £5m in March 2026.
Bateman added: “When I came on board, the business was very close to a decision point on what its future was going to be. The investment that came from PV27 has allowed us to build.”
He said Recognise Bank did not want to “use up all the capital”, adding: “I want us to be self-accretive, building our growth based on what we are generating from a profit perspective.”
Bateman said controlled growth supported the bank’s profitability outlook over the next 12-18 months and beyond, but warned that expanding the broker panel too widely could damage service levels and its reputation.
Future of growth
Recognise Bank’s planned entry into regulated bridging marks the next step in its growth strategy, although Bateman said the bank’s immediate focus remains on strengthening its existing specialist lending proposition.
Bateman said the bank would continue to grow its lending manager and intermediary networks, but warned against scaling too quickly.
He continued: “If we try to scale too fast, we will collapse. We will fail. Let’s do what we do and let’s do it really, really well”.
Recognise Bank is still embedding the foundations put in place over the last financial year, including new offices, processes and its renewed market position. Bateman said the bank would consider opportunities in other areas, including M&A, if the right opportunity arose, but its business plan remains focused on specialist lending.
The further £5m investment from Parasol V27 supported the continued delivery of that strategy, after Recognise Bank reached profitability ahead of schedule.
Bateman added that further investment could be considered this financial year, but said the priority was to build “a sustainable business” and manage growth “in a controlled fashion”.
