December 2019
Adam Tyler, Executive Chairman, FIBA
FIBA has laid the foundations for a ‘breakthrough’ 2020
We are coming to the end of FIBA’s second full year. It seems to have gone by very fast, but so much has happened in the nearly 24 months since we launched in January 2018.
Every new venture takes time to build momentum, and launching a brand-new trade body is not a project which can be taken lightly. It requires plenty of support to form a firm foundation.
FIBA is fortunate to have The Simplybiz Group as its backer and that relationship has proved to be vital in allowing us to roll out our proposition in such a way that we could make the case for a new trade body supporting specialist property finance brokers and equally importantly to professional partners in the lending, legal and surveying fields.
The support of The Simplybiz Group has been crucial, not only with resources, but in allowing us to offer Members comprehensive support from the start, as well as access to a small lending panel while we started to forge our own relationships. The lender panel has now increased by 150% since launch, even following our selective process to ensure we have lenders to suit every possible specialist property finance request.
Thanks to that unstinting support, we have also been able to concentrate on developing our services to Members, while giving us time to launch a nationwide recruitment strategy which has accelerated during the last half of 2019 and has seen the membership grow by 67% in the last 9 months alone.
There is an old saying that Rome was not built in a day. In our case, we knew it would take time to get our message across, establish our brand and what it stands for. But having put in the hard yards, we are now beginning to see the fruits of that work as we approach the two-year mark.
In January this year, I wrote to you about the goals I set for 2019 :-
Expand the lender panel: We now have 47 lenders on panel and I still plan to meet up with six further commercial real estate lenders at the start of the year
Block PI Scheme: We saw the first participants to the FIBA scheme in early 2019, and as we now enter the busy renewal period we are already seeing a number of new policies being issued across membership.
Industry Focus Groups: We have held meetings across the country and given our Members, lender partners and professional partners the opportunity to get involved and discuss and expand on topics such as fee transparency, the role of our professional panel, future regulation, standards and of course Industry profile.
Membership in 2019: We have had an increase in Members every month since inception including all of 2019, with our largest monthly increase coming in November and it is our aim in 2020 to continue this growth as it makes us all stronger both inside and outside the industry.
Westminster representation: Carrying on from last year, I have been heavily involved in working with stakeholders in the SME sector to raise the profile of SME access to finance building on the report and survey, which I presented at Westminster. I am now preparing to meet and grow new relationships post-election.
In 2019, we have successfully established our credentials as a hub for individual broker firms, carrying their concerns to Westminster and the wider specialist finance industry. We now have a large membership base with a variety of advisers and brokers registered as FIBA Members. These numbers are growing as the FIBA message is being picked up by more trade media and our presence at trade shows such as the Mortgage Business Expo and the Finance Professional Show has elicited extensive interest not only from brokers, but also from lenders and other potential professional partners such as solicitors and surveyors.
We are at the forefront of debate on the future of specialist finance and the ability of businesses to access the funding they need. We believe passionately that the adviser community, with access to the widest range of funding options and the specialist knowledge to help business owners, is the best vehicle to provide the service that businesses need and we are committed to support you now and beyond.
With 2020 beckoning, FIBA finds itself in a strong position, having built a firm foundation on which it can grow. I would urge all our Members to spread the word about FIBA to their peers and the services which they are using. As FIBA grows, so will our ability to provide even better services and greater choice of selected member benefits, a whole range that will become available in early 2020.