ING has decided to close its UK Leasing Business to new business and to place its existing portfolio in run-off.
This now leaves a gap in the leasing and asset finance market of around £1billion. Adam Tyler, CEO of the NACFB, immediately arranged meetings with a range of funders, including a meeting with both George Ashworth of Aldermore and with Investec, who advised that they have increased the amount of funds they are ready to put into the market.
Other lenders, including Funding Circle, Conister Bank, Singers and Close Asset Finance, have also pledged their support.
The NACFB statement said:
"After the recent loss of Lombard, we still had ING available to lend into the market. Whilst there is no single obvious successor to ING at this time, we do work with a number of different funders whom Adam will be meeting as a priority, and he will also be holding talks with the FLA.
"We hope to be in a position to announce some really positive steps forward next week."
Jervis Rhodes, Head of Corporate Banking at BLME, said:
"The loss of a significant and experienced funder is clearly detrimental to the UK and therefore, in common with other asset financers and funders who are open for business, we will seek to reduce the impact on the UK business community which we seek to serve. The small and mid ticket market remains under served, and we have therefore recruited new account managers in the last three months to deal with an increasing number of inquiries that we are receiving from brokers for middle ticket finance, and from independent leasing businesses looking for wholesale funding."
