Unity Trust Bank \u2013 a key part of the Birmingham business landscape for nearly 40 years \u2013 is celebrating after winning the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce Business of the Year award.<\/p>\n
The Brindleyplace bank, which also won the Contribution to Community category, was originally founded by the trade unions in 1984 to serve the common good.<\/p>\n
The awards \u2013 hosted by broadcaster Ed James \u2013 took place at the ICC in Birmingham on Thursday night with around 1,100 guests in attendance.<\/p>\n
The event was supported by headline sponsors Birmingham City University, Elonex, Schumacher Packaging and headline partners Birmingham City Council.<\/p>\n
Judges praised Unity Trust Bank\u2019s mission to \u201ccreate a better society, delivering impact not simply maximising profits.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2022 the bank recruited seven new commercial banking officers for the region and three new relationship managers covering North and South Birmingham, the Black Country and Sutton Coldfield, taking the size of its frontline Midlands team to 20 people.<\/p>\n
Net lending increased by \u00a363 million to \u00a3786 million in H1 2022, including an additional 99 borrowers accessing loans through responsible finance providers.<\/p>\n
The lending supported 149 jobs, enabled 384 people in safe housing, created\/renovated 488 bed spaces, provided 504 day care spaces and 89 community facilities.<\/p>\n
The Birmingham bank unveiled two new charity partnerships for 2022\/23, with the Prince\u2019s Trust and Fareshare.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Deborah Hazell says the bank loans to applicants with a solid financial base, a good credit risk and the ability to demonstrate social purpose. The minimum loan level is \u00a3250,000.<\/p>\n
Deposit clients include the likes of charities, parish councils, care organisations or trade unions, all with a social purpose, and the bank also supports Community Development Financial Institution Funds.<\/p>\n
In 2022 Unity extended its established employee volunteering programme, initially launched in 2009, with the unveiling of Unity and Me, described as a \u2018vibrant and engaging employee experience.\u2019<\/p>\n
Katrina Cooke, the GBCC\u2019s chief commercial officer and chair of the awards judging panel, said: \u201cA huge congratulations to Unity Trust Bank on winning the Greater Birmingham Business of the Year award.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe judges were extremely impressed by the standard of entries for this year\u2019s awards, which reflect the breadth, diversity and talent of businesses across the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to all those who took the time to enter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce president Deb Leary\u2019s President\u2019s Award went to the team behind the success of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n
Professor Geoff Thompson, deputy chair or the Birmingham 2022 organising committee, collected the award on behalf of all the partners, volunteers and businesses involved in last summer\u2019s Games.<\/p>\n
Deb Leary said: \u201cBirmingham 2022 became a home Games for every nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the iconic Raging Bull on opening night through to the legendary Ozzy Osborne closing the event, the Games captured the imagination of the city, the region, the UK and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
AWARD WINNERS:<\/strong><\/p>\n Greater Birmingham Business of the Year, sponsored by Crowe Excellence Contribution to Community, sponsored by runyourfleet<\/em> Excellence in Customer Service, sponsored by Birmingham Airport<\/em> Excellence in Hospitality and Retail, sponsored by Pinsent Masons<\/em> Excellence in International Business, sponsored by Gowling WLG<\/em> Excellence in Manufacturing, sponsored by University of Birmingham<\/em> \u00a0<\/strong>Excellence in People Development, sponsored by GuruYou<\/em> Excellence in Responsible Business, sponsored by Aston University<\/em> Excellence in Sales and Marketing, sponsored by Birmingham City University<\/em> Excellence in Sustainability,<\/strong> sponsored by South & City College Birmingham<\/em> Excellence in Technology and Innovation, sponsored by Close Brothers Asset Management<\/em> Excellence in Third Sector, sponsored by Unity Trust Bank<\/em> Excellence in Training and Development, sponsored by University College Birmingham <\/em><\/strong>BMet College<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unity Trust Bank \u2013 a key part of the Birmingham business landscape for nearly 40 years \u2013 is celebrating after winning the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce Business of the Year award. The Brindleyplace bank, which also won the Contribution to Community category, was originally founded by the trade unions in 1984 to serve the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,37,3,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-local-news","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64433,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64431\/revisions\/64433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em><\/strong>Unity Trust Bank<\/p>\n
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