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The NACFB is the only UK trade body dedicated to the commercial finance broker. We represent members from across the whole commercial finance market: from buy-to-let specialists and commercial mortgage advisers to vehicle finance brokers; from leasing and asset finance specialists to factoring brokers. All NACFB members comply with an industry recognised Code of Practice
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A two-pronged attack...
7th December 2007
Business Money
January Edition
A two-pronged attack...
Following a year of both growth and consolidation for the Association, the focus for 2008 will be on two key areas: training new brokers and more benefits for experienced brokers. Chief Executive, Adam Tyler, explains.
Before leaving for Venice and the annual ABFA conference and dinner, I spent a day at the Mortgage Business Expo in Earls Court. The overwhelming impression gleaned from the show was that there was a lot of interest in the Association from residential mortgage advisers who were looking to expand their horizons and offer their clients commercial finance. The credit crunch is impacting on advisers who are now looking outside their usual business areas to offer advice in other financial services arenas.
This situation offers both opportunities and threats to the existing commercial finance market. The threat comes from the consequences of an inexperienced broker advising a client badly because of a lack of understanding. The opportunities are of course in that IFAs and mortgage advisers have access to a whole new raft of clients and potentially untapped business. However let’s look at the possible threat first. The issue of new, green brokers using inappropriate finance for clients has long been debated among members and the issued are well known. What is less well known is how to combat the problem.
The aim of the Association over the next twelve months is to bring on board those advisers who are serious about both commercial finance, and offering their clients best advice, as members of the Association. If a novice broker is serious about entering the commercial market we want to help and support them in the early stages to do deals properly. We have put together an events programme which includes training in the basics of commercial finances; for example, how to put a deal together, as well as introducing them to our panel of Patron lenders so that they can source finance appropriate to the needs of their clients from as wide a panel of lenders as possible. There will be an opportunity here to teach brokers that commercial finance doesn’t have to start and finish with commercial mortgages. Finance solutions such as factoring and invoice discounting, leasing and asset finance or fleet finance should all be part of a broker’s portfolio in order to offer a client the most appropriate financial advice.
However, that doesn’t mean that they necessarily need to experts in all these fields themselves. We also want to help them to network with our existing experienced commercial broker members to encourage both best practice and the value of using another NACFB member to place part of a deal that might require a more specialised skill set. Factors have commented that some brokers don’t know how to put a factoring deal together, and this is one area we hope to be able to address.
Established members of the Association are welcome to take advantage of training and development opportunities offered by the Association, but probably of more interest will be the launch of the new NACFB website which, although currently live, won’t be officially launched until January of 2008. The new ‘Find a broker’ facility on the site will allow members of the public to find their nearest NACFB broker by entering their postcode. They will also be able to specify the kind of finance they are looking for, if they wish. Only experienced and established brokers are eligible to appear on this search and there will be a PR campaign launched in the first half of next year to promote both the Association and our members’ services to the public and small business organisations throughout 2008.
At least part of the aim of the PR campaign is to raise awareness of the NACFB logo as a mark of quality advice. If a broker has the NACFB logo, the client can enjoy peace of mind and feel confident in the fact that the broker has been vetted by us and also needs to comply with an industry-recognised Code of Practice. If in the unlikely event there are problems, the client has the option of coming to the Association for help.
We are hoping that, indirectly, we will be responsible for putting business on member’s desks as, in due course, the message filters through to the small business owner managers. There are plans to attend Small Business Shows to promote ourselves and our members, and we are already in talks with one of the larger small business organisations in the UK about the possibility of them hosting our ‘Find a broker’ search on their website fro the benefit of their members. As with many things, these projects are in the very early stages at the moment, but we’re hoping that following a long period of preparation and consolidation, we are in a good position to be able to take the NACFB to the SME market at large. All in all, we are hoping that 2008 will be an exciting year for the Association and we look forward to the challenges it will bring.
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