New specialist lender launches to market

Chordis Capital will provide funding for businesses, property investors and developers.

Chordis Capital is part of the ARMCo group, which includes Innovation 4 business, Finance 4 Business, Atlas Land & Planning, Walker Doble, Cape Insurance, Liquidity Club and Midshore Partners.

As such, Chordis Capital is able to extend its offering to ARMCo group clients, offering a fully integrated service.

After 17 years building a lending business for a large building society, Rob Lankey became the executive director of lending and operations in 2007 at a new start-up commercial lender which merged with Ruffler Bank, laying the foundation for new British Bank Aldermore.

Rob was formerly managing director of commercial mortgages, specialist buy-to-let mortgages and property development finance, and a member of the original four-person team when Aldermore formed in 2009. After his career with Aldermore, Rob was CEO of the NACFB and built another specialist lending business, before joining Shawbrook as director of commercial investment lending in 2019.

The Chordis expertise pool is further bolstered by fellow non exec-director and chair of Chordis, David Totney. David has held senior positions at Santander and is a former executive board director at Lloyds Commercial Finance.

Rob Lankey, managing director of Chordis, commented: “Russell and I have kicked the concept of a broker lender relationship around for quite some time. With no legacy loan books, a strong funding line and the chance to build rapidly as the country emerges from lockdowns, the timing is ideal. We expect there will be a strong uplift in businesses and investors looking for finance, but who don’t meet the criteria of other lenders, for a variety of reasons. Being new, we are not impacted by some of the huge challenges other lenders have faced as a result of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Chordis is well placed to find a lending solution for the often complex needs of clients and provide a consistent and tailored approach. This will be a lifeline to many looking to emerge stronger and seize property opportunities, capitalising on the air of optimism as the country prepares to open back up for business.

“We’ve opened our new offices in Peterborough which will become our centre for operational excellence, and at this stage, we’re interested in speaking to any talented operations people who would like to chat about a new exciting opportunity. It’s great to be back in the market leading my own lender firm, and Russell and I are confident we’re starting a journey to build the biggest and best specialist non-bank lender in the UK.”

Russell Martin, co-founder of Chordis, added: “I’ve wanted to launch a lender into my ARMCo group of companies for quite some time, but there’s only one person in the market I would take this step with, and that’s Rob Lankey. Rob’s track record and reputation speaks for itself, and to bring a new lender to market in under six months during the toughest period of restrictions we’ve all endured, is an achievement we’re very proud of."