Grow Finance has announced the appointment of Ryan Armstrong as senior partner, head of structured finance operations.
Armstrong (pictured above) will be based in Grow’s Sydney CBD headquarters and will be heavily focused on streamlining operations to facilitate greater scalability, as well as applying his technical expertise to enhance the lenders ‘low friction’ tech platform to expedite funding.
Armstrong has 17 years of financial services experience with the HSBC Group across Asia, the Middle East and Australia. During his time with the bank, he concentrated on global trade, receivables finance and supply chain finance.
Armstrong said his goal for the non-bank lender was to be a market leader for structured finance products, along with contributing to Grow’s aggressive growth targets.
“Coming from a banking background, being part of the growth journey of a leading fintech was highly appealing,” Armstrong said. “I believe Grow’s offering is cutting edge and I’m excited to be part of this dynamic team that prioritises new product development and innovative technology.”
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Grow Finance’s co-CEO David Verschoor said the appointment of Armstrong was part of Grow’s broader team extension to manage increased deal flow, improve service levels and ensure brokers were well supported.
“Ryan will work closely with Grow Finance’s managing partner, structured finance and payments Andrew Speers and in conjunction with David Keeling’s product development team,” Verschoor said.
“Ryan has deep product and sector expertise that directly aligns with our long-term focus of structured finance expansion.”
Verschoor said the appointment of Armstrong would help Grow combat supply chain challenges with tailored invoice finance, trade finance and asset-based lending facilities.
“We’re delighted to welcome Ryan to the asset-based lending team,” he said. “He has extensive financial services experience in multiple markets and we have no doubt that his specialist knowledge of trade and supply chain finance will be invaluable for Grow’s ongoing product enhancements, extensions and refinements.”
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Verschoor said Grow Finance was there to support mortgage brokers after it recently launched its new real-time app through its broker portal, which provides instant decisioning.
The app was designed to provide an application outcome within two hours from submission, which Grow said more than 80% of app users received.
“It is a custom-built portal by our team and we have enabled any accredited broker to be able to log in and submit a client’s application to us,” Verschoor said. “From our standpoint, it gives us a huge edge in taking data requirements and pushing them through a platform to allow us to provide almost instant client approval. With that decision occurring, we have seen an uptick in volume from brokers on our product and seeing them benefit.”
