Santander has appointed Andrew Whelan as managing director, regional real estate finance.
He will be responsible for leading the real estate team to “develop stronger relationships with new and existing customers within the real estate sector”.
Santander’s team of more than 320 regionally based relationship directors will support him in this national role.
Whelan has more than 20 years’ experience working in Yorkshire, Scotland, London, the Midlands and Wales, has was made managing director of structured finance in October following the death of Scott Stuart from cancer.
Santander Corporate & Commercial said it is one of the few banks that has grown its lending in the real estate sector for each of the past five years.
Its commercial real estate division last year added £1.8bn of facilities for new and existing customers – a 15% increase on 2012 – to its book reflecting a net increase of £760m.
The Spanish bank said it “continues to attract good-quality real estate customers even in the face of an increasingly competitive market”.
Andrew said: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead a great team of people to continue to build on our reputation in the sector and further expand on our ambitions in the real estate market which will assist our aspirations of being the SME bank of choice.”
Marcelino Castrillo, managing director of SME Banking at Santander, said: “With clear signs that conditions are improving, it’s important we continue to deepen our commitment to the real estate sector.
“We are one of the very few banks that has grown our real estate lending in the last five years and under Andrew’s leadership we plan to build on this further.”
Bridget.O’Connell@estatesgazette.com
