Variety is the spice of life – well that is certainly true in our world. It is often wrongly assumed that we solely provide due diligence reviews on traditional asset sales and purchases of bank/building society secured and unsecured loans, but nothing could be further from reality.
Prudent businesses, including ourselves, regularly update their product offerings and from our original roots of ‘checking stuff in the mortgage sector’ we now regularly review a wide range of other asset classes. We have been involved in vendor and purchaser due diligence across a wide spectrum of products, including personal loans, car loans, consumer debt (overdrafts, credit cards and term loans), commercial loans and consumer receivables, such as mobile phone contracts.
One alternative asset class which is seeing exponential growth is ‘premium finance’. Market growth in this area is not surprising given the current economic environment. There are a growing number of people looking to spread the cost of annual purchases, by accepting regular monthly payments rather than facing one large annual sum. The range of solutions where such loans are being arranged is also growing beyond the traditional insurance premium, golf club/gym membership and dental services market. Frankly, whatever product or service attracts a large annual premium, then a financing product has been developed. Like all other asset classes, where there is one loan there is normally a portfolio of similar loans, and where there is a portfolio there are buyers and sellers of that asset. Those buyers and sellers turn to us as the leading provider of review services in the UK and Ireland.
Their requirements have changed too; there was a time when purchasers and sellers simply sought assurance that the file records and the data records matched, but with finance providers facing increased regulatory and media scrutiny, their requirements have become more complex. Firms are more often seeking assurance on other matters, outside of the original loan assessment processes, which of course remain of critical importance. We provide reviews in additional areas such as the fair treatment of customers, resultant outcomes, arrears policies and procedures, corporate governance and the identification of wider credit and evident risks.
We recently announced that we have become fully registered on the FSQS supplier qualification system, managed by Hellios. Financial institutions have enough on their plates and to have an accreditation that helps shortcut lengthy onboarding/procurement processes must be of benefit. So, if you would like to find out more about what we can do for you, or if you would like to chat about managing and mitigating risk, give us a call.