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• 21 Oct

  Independent Invoice Finance Brokers

  I was curious to read a recent stream of debate on LinkedIn about the "independence" of a group of asset finance brokers that had a 48% stake in their business acquired by one of the lenders that they deal with.

  The debate has centred around whether or not that affects their right to say they offer an independent brokerage service. Looking at it objectively unless there is some underlying condition to introduce to the investor, which several of the brokers' advocates went to great lengths to explain that there wasn't, then yes - they can still call themselves independent as far as I can see.

  How To Find Out If A Finance Broker Is Independent

  A more important question is for prospects to make up their own minds about the degree of independence they expect from "independent invoice finance brokers". If it was me looking for finance, I would at least want to understand if there were any possible influences on a broker, so I would ask questions to establish if there are either:

  • Ownership by a lender or
  • Investment in a lender or
  • A management role held in a lender

  If one were to be pedantic about it, even having different commission schemes, from different lenders, could create a bias (it is for this reason that we have tried to keep all of ours very similar).

  Invoice Finance Companies That Can Help Difficult Clients

  Our own experience tends to be that it is more a case of trying to find the invoice finance companies that will be able to help a particular client, rather than any bias towards one lender entering the equation. It is often a case of us searching the market to find out who can offer:

  • A credit limit on a particular debtor
  • 100% prepayment levels
  • Extended recourse levels
  • Construction sector finance against uncertified applications for payment
  • Funding against RPO debtors
  • A cheaper price than has been offered already
  • etc. 

  The list is pretty much endless - we come across such a diverse range of different requirements, that there is no one invoice finance company that can handle them all hence we deal with a wide range. We are also always on the lookout for special offers that we can extend to our prospects.

  The good news for our clients is that we are, hand on heart, able to call ourselves independent. We have no industry backers, and we are not invested in any of the lenders that we deal with.

  By Glenn Blackman