Lending Director

LHV Bank Limited is a UK-licensed bank operating across three core business segments: Retail Banking, SME Lending, and Banking Services (BaaS). The bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of LHV Group, a listed financial services provider headquartered in Estonia. LHV Bank operates under a full UK banking licence granted in May 2023.

The Bank supports over 200 fintech clients with embedded financial infrastructure, provides retail savings products via digital channels, and offers SME credit solutions across the UK. In line with its regulatory responsibilities and growth ambitions, LHV Bank is committed to maintaining a robust and proportionate financial crime control environment.

Expanding our services, LHV Bank now provides personal banking solutions. Our offerings include current accounts with competitive interest rates, fixed-rate bonds for long-term savings, and debit cards.  Customers can conveniently access these services through the LHV App, enabling secure account opening and management.

We are looking for a Lending Director to join us at this exciting time in our growth to support the needs of trading businesses lending requests.

The Lending Director role purpose is as follows:

• Develop the Bank’s reputation as an active, creative lender and relationship banker in the SME market.
• Identify and establish sustainable relationships with new creditworthy clients, through key business introducers such as the Broker network.   

 Duties and responsibilities:

• Build and nurture LHV SME’s presence in the community with local business networks, leading to the acquisition of borrowers through established Brokers, Accountants and business contacts.
• Help to develop and implement the team acquisition & relationship strategy (incl. which relationships and networks to target, in what order, and assist with driving the lending volumes across a suite of products designed for SME customers.
• Be a “Hunter and Farmer”, with an appetite to build long-lasting relationships from the start.
• Manage the pipeline and diary being organised and a self-starter.
• Assess and recommend lending applications as first line of defence, write detailed Credit reports (inc detailed financial analysis) on complex cases to develop appropriate solutions and establish a strong working relationship with the Credit team.
• Motivated by success in numbers, and driven to achieve individual and team targets.

Experience & Knowledge:

• Proven business development/sales experience within a Business / Commercial Bank environment.
• Experience working with Brokers and other Intermediaries with access to SMEs.
• Banking qualification ACIB or equivalent.
• In-depth knowledge of Trading Business lending.
• Advanced Microsoft skills – PowerPoint / Excel & Word.

Skills & Behavior:

Be able to Demonstrate:

• Strong communication (incl presentation skills) between key stakeholders, internally and externally.
• A commercial awareness, in relation to the external competitive market but also the requirements. and flexibility required of working within an SME organisation.
• Taking responsibility and ownership of work delivery.
• Strong customer centricity and appreciation of changes in customer behaviour.
• Acting as an advocate and setting the cultural tone for the wider organisation.
• Multi-tasking and prioritisation in a changing environment.
• High standards of personal performance in daily execution of tasks.
• Identifying opportunities for efficiency, cost reduction and continuous improvement.

Some of our benefits (only applicable to UK based roles not Internship programmes) 

• Competitive salary &lots of opportunities to learn, grow and progress professionally.
• Open and inclusive culture.  
• Hybrid working.
• Fantastic offices and great working environment.
• Vitality Health Plan (includes private health insurance, travel insurance, gym discounts) 
• Health cash Plan (Medicash health plan Level 3)
• 6% employer pension contribution.
• Life assurance – 4 x salary.
• Income protection insurance – 75%  
• 28 days holiday plus 3 additional days, & further days for various key life events as well as the opportunity to sell up to 5 days per calendar year.
• Swap public/bank holidays each year for alternative days that align with your personal, cultural, or religious observances. 
• Enhanced family friendly and family forming policies.
• Access to a wide range of retail discounts. 
• Team Socials.