Corporate Information

Secure Ṫrust Bànk PLC is a longstanding established UK bank, having been incorporated in 1954. Its core business is to provide banking services including a range of lending solutions and savings products. The bank operates from its head office in Solihull, West Midlands and had 589 full-time equivalent employees at 30 June 2014. It has been a subsidiary of the Arbuthnot Banking Group since 1985. The bank successfully listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in November 2011 and has increased its portfolio in recent years, acquiring the Everyday Loans Group and the V12 Finance Group in June 2012 and January 2013 respectively and the trade and certain assets of Debt Managers Holdings Ltd in January 2013.

The bank’s diversified lending portfolio focuses on its core products of unsecured personal lending, motor finance and retail finance, whilst it is also now developing lending solutions for the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) market. It provides current accounts to UK customers who may not be adequately served by other banks and its lending is entirely funded by customer deposits, with no exposure to wholesale funding.

Personal lending

These are fixed rate, fixed term products with loan terms of between 12 and 60 months and advances varying from £500 to £15,000. The acquisition of Everyday Loans in June 2012 has significantly broadened the bank’s reach to a wider market as well as introducing a high street presence.

Motor finance

Motor finance is a multi-channel offering through motor dealerships and brokers. These are fixed rate, fixed term hire purchase agreements which are secured mainly against used cars with finance term periods ranging from 24 to 60 months and a maximum loan size of £15,000. The bank services the majority of the Top 100 UK car dealership groups.

Retail finance

Retail finance offers lending solutions for store and online retailers for fixed rate unsecured loans of up to £25,000 and terms ranging from 6 to 48 months. The bank acquired the V12 Finance Group during 2013; an acquisition which was complementary to the bank’s existing retail finance activities and which has enabled it to integrate its retail lending activities with those of the V12 Finance Group to leverage their market leading point of sale system.

SME finance

This comprises the Real Estate Finance, Invoice Finance and Asset Finance businesses.

Real Estate Finance has built a significant pipeline of predominantly short-term development finance, typically for house building. The new Invoice Finance and Asset Finance businesses are also being developed with proven high quality teams recruited.

Current Accounts

These offer customers a current account with a prepaid card. A monthly fee is charged for the service but customers have the ability to earn rewards at participating retailers. The current account product has undergone progressive enhancements since its introduction.

Savings products

These represent a combination of instant access accounts, notice deposits and deposit bonds with competitive interest rates.