Pallas Capital has appointed Darren Rix as head of credit risk as the specialist bridging and development finance lender expands its UK team and lending pipeline.
Rix (pictured) joins the management team with immediate effect and brings 37 years of banking experience to the role.
He will oversee the firm’s applications process, credit papers and lending decisions. The appointment creates a dedicated senior credit risk function as the lender seeks to maintain its credit standards while increasing its business.
Rix spent 28 years in retail banking, specialising in corporate real estate and credit risk. He held senior positions at Barclays, Bank of Scotland and Santander before leading a project covering mixed property assets for a private equity firm.
He subsequently served as head of credit at two start-up non-bank lenders focused on development finance. His most recent position was head of real estate credit risk at Hampshire Trust Bank.
Rix says: “Having worked through the financial crash and several cycles since, I know what disciplined credit risk looks like when markets get difficult, and what it takes to back the right developers through them. Pallas Capital has real ambition, and this is a fresh challenge for me.
“I want to help build the business into a formidable lender and the go-to name in our market.”
Discussing current conditions, Rix adds: “It has been a difficult period since Covid, and the market is still recovering. Labour and material costs remain elevated, and political and economic uncertainty continues to weigh on decision-making, while the war in Ukraine has constrained the supply of key materials.
“The planning process remains a significant obstacle, even as we see a real build-up of development activity coming through. While that uncertainty persists, we want to be the lender that SME and mid-level developers can rely on.
“We’re increasingly seeing a slight shift away from main contractors, given a number of failures in that space, towards developers who self-deliver through construction management, with loyal labour pools, reliable suppliers and better process control. That’s exactly the kind of borrower Pallas Capital is built to support.”
Uliana Kuzmis, chief credit officer at Pallas Capital, says: “Darren is one of the strongest credit professionals I have ever come across. His experience spans multiple cycles and covers exactly the segment of the market we focus on: bridging for experienced borrowers and development finance for SME and mid-level developers.
“Darren’s appointment reflects the scale our UK team and pipeline have reached, and the importance we place on maintaining rigorous credit standards together with speed and efficiency as we grow.
“He is a strong addition to Pallas’ management team, and I’m looking forward to working closely with him again.”
