Commercial Real Estate Lender Ashman Granted UK Banking License

Ashman announced in a press release yesterday that authorities in its native Britain have given it authority to lend money.

The Birmingham, England-based company has indicated it wants to serve small- and medium-sized entities — a market the company put at $111 billion. The approvals, with some restrictions, came from the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Ashman was founded by real estate entrepreneurs Ashkin Mittal and Manhad Narula and initially will target the commercial real estate sector with loans between $123,000 and $6 million.

Ashman is run by James Leach, former chief operating officer of Maple Financial. The company plans to grow in Birmingham, according to today’s announcement.

“Our banking license is an important first step in realizing our ambitions to support SME borrowers and personal savers alike, with a different approach to lending that delivers the service and range of products we know SME developers need,” Leach said in a prepared statement.

Other executives running Ashman include chief risk officer Lisa Nowell, who came from Monzo; Chief Commercial Office Caroline Luxmore, who came from Aldemore Bank; and Chief Financial Officer Matt Cowan, who has worked at Deutsche Bank, HSBC and RBS. Simon Healy is the chief operating officer.

The license comes at a busy time in online financial services.

Revolut, a digital-banking platform based in London but with a global customer base, yesterday announced an update to its app to expand money transfer ease in a number of countries.

See also: Revolut Releases Simplified App Version in Five Countries

Mastercard yesterday announced more details of its Smart Path Open Banking, which is intended to make it easier for banking startups to scale.

Read more: Mastercard Launches Start Path Open Banking Global Initiative

And PYMNTS research released yesterday suggests there’s more to come. A new report states: “Digital and online technologies have consistently increased competition and innovation across industries — a trend that suggests white-label banking is going to continue to grow in popularity.

Read the research: PYMNTS Intelligence: How Open Banking Developments Are Shaping the Future of BaaS