Commercial brokers have said they want funders to be more open-minded with cases, a survey from a specialist brokerage found.
According to findings from Asset Advantage, a third of commercial brokers would like funders to think “outside the box” when it comes to deals and consider the full picture of a business or the story behind the case.
A tenth of respondents also said they wanted funders to offer more flexible loan terms, and 13% wanted them to have a higher credit appetite.
Some 16% of brokers said more transparency was needed regarding lending criteria.
One respondent said: “The main thing we struggle with is consistency of credit decision. I think that more transparent underwriting criteria would help us provide proposals [that] get an approval and improve the experience for everybody.”
Philip Knight (pictured), credit and risk director at Asset Advantage, said: “A different credit appetite is different to a proposal appetite. I don’t subscribe to the former, but the latter is something that makes brokers highly relevant in the B2B lending ecosystem and, moreover, where niche lenders like Asset Advantage can be the lender of choice, rather than as a last resort.
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“I think having a boutique lender, which offers you direct access to the underwriting decision-makers, in your panel is extremely important for introducers as this is where they can demonstrate added value.”
Asset Advantage supports SMEs across the country with asset finance and business loans up to £1m. It conducts regular surveys with commercial brokers to determine the state of the commercial finance market and its demands.
Its last survey found that commercial brokers were finding it difficult to find lenders that wanted to fund business acquisition deals.
