Access to Finance: Funding market has been left wide open
THE inability of the banking sector to deliver quick deals has left the funding market wide open, according to an industry expert.
Dave Jones of Reward Capital, the Leeds-based asset backed short term lender, says that because of timeframes, lenders such as Reward have been able to grasp the opportunities available.
“In turn, businesses are also able to move quickly and secure the vital funding they require if the banks can’t respond within the necessary timeframes,” Jones said.
“The current landscape, including the banking sector’s apathy towards business overdrafts, enables us to do many deals within short deadlines, with some then being refinanced back out to the banks for the longer term.
“Without our help many businesses would lose out on valuable support.”
The funding market has continued to evolve as new entrants have arrived and new ways of providing finance have come to the fore.
Alex McWhirter, chief executive of Finance Yorkshire, says the funding landscape has changed radically since 2007.
“We have been investing for four years now and over that time, the landscape has changed quite dramatically,” he said.
McWhirter pointed out that the peer-to-peer platforms and other types of finance, have really come “marching” along since new financial regulations have been applied.
“The evolution of finance has come a long way,” he said. “We are still at the beginning of how finance will evolve and each of these little challenges is essentially an opportunity for finance to evolve. I’m excited about how the internet is revolutionising the financial market, too. It’s taken some time for the traditional finance industry to get shaken up.”
