‘Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst’

By Tony Sanchez 2nd March 2021

Fiduciam is an institutionally funded marketplace lender.

It provides short-term loans secured over real estate in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden, from £250k to £25m, for loan terms of six months to three years, both in pound sterling and in euro.

With its flexible, efficient and competitive approach to lending it helps small and medium sized businesses grow and prosper.

In our latest Five Minute Interview, Tony Sanchez speaks to Shahrear Ahmed, Corporate Group Accountant at Fiduciam.

What is the best thing about being in the bridging and development finance business?

We are in a fast paced and competitive industry operating to tight deadlines to complete complex and interesting projects.

We often have to build new products, processes and reports to serve different stakeholders like the board members, investors, borrowers, auditors and regulatory bodies, this is one of the most enjoyable parts of being in this industry.

What keeps you focused?

Striving to deliver quality in everything I do means I am helping to improve the growth and development of the organisation, which is very important.

Also, I endeavour to never let my colleagues and other stakeholders down, which keeps me equally focussed on the task at hand.

What qualities do you look for in your employees or colleagues?

Being a team player, keeping agile, showing a willingness to learn and develop and not being afraid to try out new things. I am pleased to have found those qualities in our teams here.

Are you an optimist or a pessimist?

An optimist but sometimes have to be a bit prudent in certain areas of my work, there is a saying that I always liked “hoping for the best, prepared for the worst”.

What did you want to be as a child?

I enjoyed playing different sports and it was always changing between wanting to become a footballer or a cricketer when growing up.

I also remember becoming quite interested when I first came across economics and accounting in my studies, which later on led me to this profession.

What will be the greatest challenge facing the bridging and development finance industry in the coming months?

Everybody knows by now how COVID-19, a health crisis, is impacting the financial stability of many industries.

Every economic downturn brings new challenges and opportunities.

So, it’s important to anticipate these challenges and emerging trends by harnessing technology and relying on your people by tapping into their strengths, creativity and experiences.

Becoming a BBB accredited CBILS lender enabled us to diversify our products which, along with our work on exciting new products and developments in our IT platform infrastructure, will help us navigate efficiently through this changing business environment.

Who or what makes you laugh?

It’s good to have people around that can make you laugh, and I am lucky that my family, close friends and colleagues always makes me laugh.

Do you dread Monday mornings?

Mondays are great opportunities to organise and set out plans to tackle the challenges of the week and of course Fridays are a nice reward at the end of the week.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Picking up golf at an earlier age.

I watch the professional golfers and they all make it look so easy, but, in reality, they have spent many years perfecting their craft.

If I had started earlier who knows where I’d be now? Playing off scratch would be brilliant!

With whom would you most like to have dinner?

It would be great to meet Arsene Wenger, I really admire the way he changed Arsenal’s style of playing football and also how he established them as a financially stable organisation.