New research* ‘Investor Sentiment: Alternative Credit’ from NN Investment Partners (NN IP) reveal increasing scarcity of high return assets followed by political risks are the two biggest issues concerning investors over the next two years. The investment manager says this will fuel growing demand for alternative credit, which delivers attractive returns that have low correlation…
Online lender Spotcap today opened the Fintech Fellowship to applicants. The programme offers an £8k award to a postgraduate student studying a fintech related course at a UK university. Applications will be open for four months and close on the 1 August 2018. The fellowship launched last year to raise awareness of the fintech talent…
Zopa has announced a governance restructure in advance of launching its next-generation bank. The re-structure will establish separate boards for the Zopa P2P business, proposed bank (subject to banking licence approval) and Group in order to facilitate the increasing scale of the business, ensure good corporate governance and protect the interests of its customers. The…
ThinCats, the alternative funding specialist, has announced a senior hire to cover the North West region. Richard Lamb joins ThinCats to lead new business origination throughout the North West, after nearly a decade as Relationship Director at NatWest, and having been in corporate banking since 1992. He joins the company’s growing team of experienced bankers who…
A new report by Aldermore titled Future Attitudes has revealed that just under a quarter (23%) of SMEs, representing 1.27million small and medium-sized businesses across the UK, are missing out on new business opportunities due to a lack of available funding a 4% increase on the previous year. The report, which surveyed over a thousand business…
The Credit Services Association (CSA), the voice of the UK debt collection and debt purchase sectors, is to host the Credit and Collections Technology Awards at this year’s CSA Gala Dinner on 13 September. The co-branded event, which will form part of the CSA’s UK Credit and Collections Conference (UKCCC), reflects the Association’s growing recognition…
SME finance monitor shows only 41% of SMEs seeking finance were confident the bank would lend to them in Q4 2017. Nic Beishon, Head SME of Commercial at Equifax, said “There are millions of companies in the UK with fewer than 10 employees and many who apply for finance often have a limited credit history –…
Peer-to-peer (P2P) business lending platform ArchOver, has announced that Bill Johnston will join its board of directors as a non-executive director (NED). In his role, Johnston will support ArchOver in formularising its training and development programme, to ensure it has the right talent in place as it continues to scale. Bill Johnson said “In the…
Fifty-five percent of UK SMEs are unable to access all funding needed to grow, and without the right knowledge or education on how to obtain it. Research from Liberis has found. Liberis report says that SMEs contribute more than £200bn a year; with this number expected to grow by almost 20% by 2025. The report…
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly turning to alternative sources of financing, according to a new OECD report. The report also shows that new bank lending is declining in a number of countries. Many SMEs remain over-reliant on bank credit, however, and the take-up of instruments other than straight debt varies greatly from one…