Co-op promotes Basten and Dawson

Property finance specialists Phil Basten and Rob Dawson have been promoted at The Co-operative Bank.

Basten has been appointed head of real estate and specialist sectors where he is responsible for agency banking, treasury sales, overseas financial services and the unit itself.

He replaces Chris Wilson who has become director of corporate specialist sectors.

Rob Dawson has stepped into Basten's former role as head of the 26-strong property finance unit.

He started his career at the bank in 1987 in his home town branch in Nottingham and transferred to Manchester in 1996 to work in relationship banking in the corporate banking division.

Basten joined the bank in 1985 as an office junior in Birmingham near his home town of Lichfield and was appointed to the senior management team of the corporate banking division in 2000 with responsibility for business development. He helped to set up the property finance division in 2002.

The property finance unit has around 500 clients and total borrowings of about £3bn.