Funding Circle expands its asset finance team as demand booms

By Bridging Loan Directory 26th February 2013

Funding Circle, the UK’s largest peer-to-peer business lender in the UK today announced the expansion of its intermediary development team with the strategic appointments of Aristos Aristou as Credit Underwriter and Thomas Shave as Business Development Executive.

The appointments are in response to an explosion of demand for asset finance from UK businesses, following the news that ING, the largest asset finance provider in the UK, was exiting this sector. Since Christmas, Funding Circle has experienced a record 30% surge in registrations from intermediaries and asset finance enquiries have increased by over 400%.

Aristos joins Funding Circle from ING where he spent eight years as a Senior Risk Manager. Previously he worked at Abby National Business Finance for four years.

Aristos said: “ING was a mainstay in the asset finance market and their exit means there is approximately £1 billion of funding for businesses that needs to be found. I am excited by the potential of Funding Circle to help fill this gap. I have been hugely impressed by the maturity of their credit assessment systems and policies, and the hungriness of the team”.

Thomas Shave joins Aristos and will be responsible for helping building relationships with UK-wide intermediaries. Thomas joined from Northern Trust where he was responsible for developing the business’ pipeline and identifying client prospects.

He said: “It’s an exciting time to be joining the business. The growth of Funding Circle over the last two years has been very impressive and it’s clear that the intermediary market now views peer-to-peer lending as a mainstream way for their clients to borrow.”

Laura McMullen, Business Development Director said: “Since the turn of the year, we have experienced considerable interest from the intermediary market across all our products, particularly in asset finance. It is clear that new non-bank channels are stepping up and filling the gap left by the departure of traditional providers. I am very pleased to welcome Ari and Tom to our team.”

As part of the continued expansion, Funding Circle is hosting a series of breakfast seminars for brokers around the UK. These will take place in Portsmouth (12^thMarch), Manchester (13^th March), Taunton (19th March) and Birmingham (18^th April). Any intermediaries interested in attending should contact Funding Circle atbroker@fundingcircle.com to register.

Since launching in 2010, Funding Circle has lent more than £80 million to British small businesses and is currently facilitating more than £8 million every month. Recently the Government confirmed plans to lend £20 million to small businesses directly through Funding Circle’s marketplace, representing the first time a UK Government has ever lent money directly to businesses via peer-to-peer lending.