Arbuthnot Banking Group has said it issued £26 million in new loans in the first four months of the year, despite a more challenging lending environment.

Arbuthnot Latham’s parent, the private banking and investment group, said a key challenge had been uncertainty in terms of property valuations, though it had worked around this by using clients’ other assets as collateral.

Assets under management fell 4 percent from £1.11 billion at the end of 2019 to £1.04 billion at the end of April 2020, reflecting the bank’s defensive investment style, it said.

The bank said in a trading update yesterday (14 May)...