Secure Trust Bank Business Finance has appointed Nick Leitch as head of asset-based lending, tasked with building the bank's UK mid-market presence, an appointment that matters broadly because it adds senior capacity to a lending category increasingly used for growth funding rather than just distress, and matters specifically to accountancy professionals because ABL facilities are typically structured, refinanced or unwound alongside the restructuring and insolvency accountants advising the same mid-market businesses.

Secure Trust Bank Business Finance is the asset-based lending arm of Secure Trust Bank, a UK challenger bank offering invoice discounting and ABL facilities of between 5 million and 50 million pounds to SMEs and larger corporates, sourced directly from clients, private equity houses and professional introducers.

Leitch brings more than 30 years of financial services experience spanning restructuring, debt advisory, private equity and leveraged finance, including a decade at Seneca Partners and Endless and eight years leading Shawbrook Bank's ABL operation, where he grew total facilities to 1 billion pounds.

Leitch said ABL is moving into the mainstream, pointing to businesses and sponsors increasingly using it to diversify senior debt structures rather than treating it as a last resort.

That shift matters directly for restructuring accountants. UK insolvency and restructuring specialists have flagged construction, retail and hospitality as sectors under most pressure heading into 2026, with directors seeking advice earlier and advisers focused on reassessing underperforming assets before formal insolvency becomes necessary.

Asset-based lending sits precisely at that decision point: refinancing against receivables, stock or plant can give a business breathing room that a restructuring accountant often identifies and structures, working alongside lenders like Secure Trust Bank rather than proceeding straight to administration.

As ABL expands beyond its traditional distress role into growth and private equity funding, restructuring accountants gain a wider set of asset-backed tools to offer clients earlier in a downturn, rather than only once formal insolvency looks unavoidable.

For the sector, senior hiring at ABL lenders signals more capacity for exactly the kind of asset-based refinancing work restructuring accountants increasingly rely on to keep clients out of formal insolvency altogether.

Source: Credit Connect / Finance Connect / DMH Stallard