Relationship & Branch Manager
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
Job Title: Relationship & Branch Manager
Location: Birmingham Branch
Employment Type: Permanent, Full-Time
Salary: £70,000-£80,000
Work Model: Onsite, 5 days a week
Role Overview:
We are seeking an experienced Relationship & Branch Manager to drive profitable growth through the sales and service of Commercial and SME clients. The successful candidate will manage an assigned portfolio, expand existing relationships, and originate new business, while maintaining portfolio health and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.
Key Responsibilities:
-
Lead and manage branch staff, coaching and developing the team to achieve KPIs and business objectives.
-
Manage and grow a portfolio of commercial clients, delivering lending, deposits, and other banking solutions.
-
Oversee branch performance against targets, including account volumes, asset and liability growth, and remittance values.
-
Ensure sales and service activities are conducted professionally and in line with regulatory and compliance requirements.
-
Monitor portfolio performance, identify early warning signals, and take proactive actions to maintain asset quality.
-
Build and maintain strong relationships with clients and stakeholders, supporting business development initiatives.
Candidate Profile:
-
Minimum 5 years' UK banking experience in running sales teams and managing corporate/SME portfolios.
-
Proven leadership skills, with experience coaching, inspiring, and developing high-performing teams.
-
Strong commercial awareness with a track record in business development, relationship management, and client origination.
-
Knowledge of UK banking products, procedures, and relevant legislation, including AML and Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) regulations.
-
Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage internal and external stakeholders at all levels.
-
Results-oriented, with a can-do attitude and ability to drive KPIs and exceed targets.
Key Competencies:
Achieving excellence, influencing, inspiring, communicating effectively, building trust, developing people, collaborating, gathering information, understanding issues, and finding solutions.
Key skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Highlight your UK banking experience and SME portfolio management at the top of your CV as this is explicitly required
📊 Quantify your team leadership results: 'Led 8-person branch team, achieving 115% of annual KPIs'
🏦 Emphasise your commercial banking expertise and knowledge of AML/TCF regulations prominently
🎯 Include specific metrics from portfolio management: 'Managed £25M commercial portfolio with 2.1% NPL ratio'
🤝 Showcase relationship building achievements with concrete examples of client origination and business development success
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Led 12-person branch team to achieve 118% of annual KPIs, generating £3.2M in new commercial lending whilst maintaining 1.8% NPL ratio
- •Managed £42M SME portfolio across 180 clients, delivering 15% asset growth and £890K in fee income through cross-selling banking solutions
- •Implemented AML compliance framework reducing regulatory findings by 85% whilst maintaining TCF standards across all client interactions
Free to copy — tailoring requires a 30-sec CV upload.
Your cover letter is ready
We've drafted a cover letter for LJ Recruitment. Preview the opening, then unlock the full personalised version.
Letter preview — tailored to LJ Recruitment
Dear Hiring Manager,
LJ Recruitment's Relationship & Branch Manager position combines exactly the commercial banking leadership and SME portfolio expertise I've developed over my career. Your requirement for UK banking experience with AML and TCF compliance aligns perfectly with my background in managing commercial client relationships and driving branch performance.
My background in leading sales teams whilst maintaining portfolio health and regulatory standards positions me well for this Birmingham-based role. I have consistently delivered against KPIs whilst developing high-performing teams and originating new business relationships.
Free signup, no card needed. Export to PDF/Word requires a £1.99 trial (14 days).
Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›How do you assess credit risk when evaluating SME lending applications?
- ›What AML procedures would you implement for new commercial client onboarding?
- ›How do you monitor early warning signals in a commercial banking portfolio?
- ›Explain your approach to managing asset and liability growth targets
- ›What banking products would you recommend for a growing SME client?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you had to turn around an underperforming branch team
- ›Describe a situation where you identified portfolio risk early and took corrective action
- ›Give an example of how you developed a high-performing team member
- ›Tell me about your most successful client relationship and how you built it
- ›Describe a time you had to balance competing priorities between sales targets and compliance requirements
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a time you had to turn around an underperforming branch team
Describe a situation where you identified portfolio risk early and took corrective action