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Banking

  • Banks, Business, Finance, Financial World, Loans, Property, SME

    Looking for evidence that a broker matters? Almost a third of broker clients have secured finance, despite having been declined elsewhere!

    We often get asked why people should use a broker if they are looking to raise commercial finance. In their recent survey, the @National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers, highlighted one particular statistic which we thought really showed the value of a commercial finance broker. Of all the clients that brokers secured finance for, 29%...

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  • Banks, Business, Finance, Loans, Property, SME

    Voice activated Phone Systems – ARGHH!!!!

    I had a frustrating experience the other day. I had to phone up our bank (who I won’t name), to ask a question about our business account. Now, we are all used to being asked for security information (whilst it is annoying, it serves a purpose of keeping our accounts secure!). But this bank had...

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  • Banks, Business, Finance, Financial World, Loans, Property, SME

    Why do lenders need to see my bank statements?

    It is a question we often get asked by our clients. When we are discussing their commercial finance requirements with them, we go through the documentation that lenders might request as part of their underwriting. One thing lenders often ask for is the borrower’s bank statements. And one thing the borrower often asks is “why?”...

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  • Banks, Business, Finance, Loans, Property, SME

    You know the banks that don’t lend – we know the banks that do!

    Who can you actually speak to at your bank? Who answers your questions and actually makes decisions? If you cast your mind back, a business used to have a dedicated bank manager – someone who knew the business inside and out. And if you wanted to secure finance for your business, they had the knowledge,...

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  • Banks, Business, Finance, Loans, SME

    Some of our favourite deals from 2022

    We thought we would recap some of our favourite deals from last year. As well as the numbers (and we are proud that we raised over £150 million for small business owners), it is the people we help who are the real stories, so here are just a few examples: We helped a motorcycle enthusiast...

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  • Banks, Finance, Investment, Loans

    Do you know the difference between serviced monthly, rolled up, and retained interest?

    Interest rates are the main cost of borrowing money. When you borrow money from a lender you are expected to pay back the amount that you borrowed, plus the interest on the amount borrowed. The number of different interest rates available when borrowing can be confusing, and varied. The types of interest rates on commercial...

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  • Banks, Loans

    Scattergun Approach vs Targeted Precision – What works best for business finance?

    We were speaking to one of our lenders the other day. They were telling me that they kept getting applications from a finance broker, which they always looked at, but always knew that they wouldn’t do the deal. Why? Because that particular broker just sent a two-line e-mail to every lender they could find, in...

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  • ASC News, Banks

    “No”. “Maybe”. “If…”. “But”. Will you ever just get a “Yes” from a Bank?

    Business banks are masters of unclear language. If you ever want to find someone who’s saying “no” at the exact same time as they’re saying “yes”, talk to a business loan underwriter. There’s a saying in finance that you’ll get one of three answers from a bank if you’re looking for finance on your own...

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  • Banks, Business, Finance, Loans

    We all know the bank managers have disappeared. But where did they go?

    In the “old days”, getting a loan was perhaps a simpler task. You went to the bank, you asked for an appointment with the manager, and got yourself booked in. Then you came back at your allotted timeslot, presented your business plan, and if the manager liked the idea, then they gave you the money...

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  • Banks

    Lenders, Lenders everywhere – which one is right for you?

    If you had to name every lender in the UK, do you think you could? We doubt it. When most people think of “lenders”, what they’re really thinking of is high-street banks. It’s certainly possible to name all of those, but at most that’s going to be around 20-25 different lenders. This might seem like...

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