Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew by 7% in April, compared with the same month in 2018. New business in the plant and machinery finance and business equipment finance sectors was up by 8% and 9% respectively, while commercial…
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The Bank of Mum and Dad has been integral in funding the property sector, with one in four housing transactions in the UK reliant on funding from family. New research from Worldpay has found that family funding is also supporting the UK’s dynamic small business scene, with one in in ten entrepreneurs surveyed looking to…
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Access to financing for European small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been steadily improving as a result of the very accommodative monetary policy of the European Central Bank (ECB), which has improved credit availability and reduced interest rates. This improving access to finance has, however, made European SMEs heavily reliant on banks as an external…
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Seven in ten (70%) businesses that have attempted to raise capital have failed at least once, according to the new report from Smith & Williamson, the financial and professional services firm. Securing funding is often critical to helping businesses scale quickly and maximise their potential. However, it’s often not plain sailing. Two in five (39%)…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it will be introducing new rules designed to prevent harm to investors, without stifling innovation in the peer-to-peer (P2P) sector. When the FCA set its first rules for P2P, it committed to keep these under review as the sector evolved. These new rules are designed to help…
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More than half of small business owners say they want more help managing their finances, with almost a third adding they have lost sleep over money matters as Brexit continues to dominate the UK economy according to a report funded by small business finance broker Funding Options. Fifty-one per cent of small firms said they “need…
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Invoice finance and trade finance company, Working Capital Partners, have been placed into Administration. According to reports, the insolvency appears to be as a result of recent client fraud. Working Capital Partners, were also members of UK Finance (the industry body for the asset finance sector. The company offered a selective invoice finance service, a…
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The UK’s top 100 restaurants made an £82 million loss in the last year, down from a pre-tax profit of £102 million twelve months ago according to new research by UHY Hacker Young. Pre-tax profits at the UK’s Top 100 restaurant groups have fallen from £345 million since the first quarter of 2017. The huge…
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The proportion of small businesses predicting growth for the next three-months has fallen to 34% – its lowest level for eight successive quarters and, for the first time, the proportion of businesses predicting significant expansion has fallen below 5%. The new research from Hitachi Capital Business Finance asked a nationally representative sample of 1,184 small…
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UK property finance firm Lendy has collapsed with Damian Webb, Phillip Sykes and Mark Wilson of RSM appointed as administrators following a court order on Friday (24th May 2019) afternoon. The administrators are working closely with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) who consented to their appointment over the company. The lender was under investigation by…
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The Open Banking revolution is being hampered by outages that banks are taking weeks to fix, according to figures from SME lender Growth Street. The conclusions made by the lender are based upon analysis of publicly available data which the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) published on their API monitoring tool. The data shows that…
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The announcement by Chancellor Philip Hammond that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) would revert to secondary preferential creditor status for taxes collected on its behalf in all insolvency situations will likely have a significant negative impact on lending to UK Plc, according to analysis by Duff & Phelps. In a return to the pre-Enterprise Act…
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Financial executives gathered last Thursday (16th May), at the Microsoft Reactor office in London to better understand how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used to predict and accelerate business growth. The event provided attendees with guidance and expertise on how to effectively lead companies through the transition to AI-based financial processes. This event, hosted by…
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