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Britain’s town and city centres have undergone huge changes over the last few decades. As manufacturing declined, many of the light and heavy industrial units that operated in close proximity to shopping and residential areas have been converted to offices or, more recently, apartments. Looking to the future, as retailers come under pressure, many analysts…
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Back in January of this year, merchant bank, Close Brothers published a survey suggesting that just over a quarter of UK SMEs felt they were not being served by their high street banks. In particular, the survey identified a perception that traditional banks lacked the specialist knowledge required to effectively support their small business customers.…
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The scale of Britain’s contribution to the European Union continues to be a subject for sometimes heated debate – even two years after the Brexit vote. During the referendum campaign, those on the leave side put the figure at £19bn per year, while remain voters pointed out that a large percentage of that money came…
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In December 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority issued a statement warning that Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) should be considered as high risk and highly speculative investments, suitable only for sophisticated investors. To support its statement, the Authority cited a number of risk factors that should be flashing warning lights. These included the fact that…
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Financial technology – more colloquially referred to as Fintech – has become one of the hottest corners of the UK’s startup universe. Evidence of the sector’s strength is provided, at least in part, by the growing interest of investors. In 2017, British tech startups attracted £2.99bn in equity investment, according to figures published by…
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The Alternative Finance universe is expanding and evolving, but for most small and medium sized businesses in search of funding, there are two basic options – namely borrowing or selling equity via a crowdfunding platform. Borrowing via an online platform is the most popular of the two, at least in terms of the sums…
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‘Private debt’ is not a term that has much resonance outside the financial services industry. Unlike, say, crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, the concept doesn’t attract much coverage in the mainstream press and, as yet, it probably isn’t on the radar screens of the majority of small and medium sized business owners. And yet, along with…
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2017 marked another year of growth for the Alternative Finance industry – a sector that now not only includes crowdfunding and platform lending, but arguably a whole new fund-raising category in the shape of initial coin offerings (ICOs). But what do last year’s figures tell us about the industry’s prospects in 2018. And perhaps more…
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Many businesses are already familiar with the process of applying for a term loan from a High Street bank. On the basis of ‘better the devil you know,’ it is therefore tempting to assume that the most straightforward route to agreeing a debt facility is to approach an incumbent bank or one of its major…
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What does the future hold for the Alternative Finance industry? Or to be more precise, after a year (2017) in which Altfi consolidated its position as a mainstream funding option for SMEs, how will the market develop in the year ahead? To some extent, the direction of travel is clear. In December 2017, the…
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