October 2019
Adam Tyler, Executive Chairman, FIBA
Having spent regular time in Westminster over the last few months lobbying on behalf of FIBA members and pushing the cause of SME finance and the wider concerns of the specialist finance industry, I could not help but be reminded of the need to rally the many different components that make up the specialist finance sector around the common cause of working more effectively together for the betterment of the whole industry.
While I would hesitate to draw any direct parallel between the Brexit negotiations and uniting the finance industry, the 3 year struggle since the referendum to leave the EU on the best of terms, demonstrates how competing points of view, individual goals and agendas can create a situation where finding a path to which everyone can sign up look impossible.
The fact remains that the sector to which I have devoted a lot of my working life has, over the last 10 years, become a great deal healthier in respect of the size of the market and funding choice for customers. We are now very well established and now is the time to solidify that growth, establish ourselves and become ready, if need be, for potentially a more regulatory environment.
While it is in everyone’s interests to want to grow the sector, what is still needed is a coming together of all the major stakeholders to work out how a mutually agreed strategy can create greater benefit for everyone including brokers, lenders, advisers, solicitors, surveyors, government, regulatory and trade bodies.
Clearly at the heart of this is the end customer and what business owners want when they are seeking finance. However, it is not just a simple case of providing finance. It must include the ways finance can be accessed and how it is delivered. It requires a fully joined up approach which gives business owners not only the knowledge of how and where finance can be raised, but also real confidence in the sector. So that when they are looking, there is a clear path to good advice, easier access to a whole of market approach and total transparency in relation to terms and conditions surrounding the finance itself and the way those borrowers are treated throughout the funding term.
One of FIBA’s main goals is to represent our members and their needs, which of course, is what a trade body is designed to do. However, as an organisation we have always tried to be inclusive in the way we represent our members. It is too easy to become inward looking and what we have always believed is that we need to work with as many parties within the sector as possible, in order to achieve a better outcome for everyone.
For example, our Professional Partners Panel for solicitors and surveyors, provides our members with access to professionals who have first-hand experience of working with commercial property and completely understand the nuances and different issues that can occur in surveying or conveyancing commercial property. However, it also acts as a forum for discussion with partners to enable us to better understand their challenges and aspirations and what they are looking to achieve. They represent a key part of the whole process. Our lender panel shares the same relationship with FIBA. A willingness to subscribe to fully transparent methodology in respect of lending terms and conditions, which goes towards a serious undertaking to potential borrowers in terms of building trust.
Since we launched in January 2018, I have maintained an open door invitation to all interested parties to join us in helping to hammer out a mutually agreeable path to working more closely together for the good of the industry and that will remain one of our major goals. Cooperation is the key to a stronger and more responsive industry, which can only improve the way the sector is perceived by both businesses and policymakers.