All articles by Fred Crawley
Fred Crawley
BOS staff jump ship to brokerage (Free)
Premier Asset Finance Ltd is looking to take on new staff, after a successful 18 months in the leasing business. Founded by Mark Ripley and Kevin Davidson, former directors of the Bank of Scotlands asset finance operation, Premier operates across the whole of the UK from its headquarters in Edinburgh Having opened its doors with a sales staff of one in July 2008, the introducer now employs 12 ex-BOS personnel, with an average experience of 15 years
NACFB offers brokers chance to sell insurance (Free)
Broker trade body the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) has announced the launch of a new member services initiative, in an effort to provide its members with more ways to sustain themselves while funders remain thin on the ground. The plan is for commercial finance brokers of all kinds to have access to types of finance beyond their areas of specialism, therefore gaining extra income streams. So far, the NACFB has confirmed insurance providers Legal & General and Towergate Risk Services to be involved in the scheme
IBM GF expands China operations (Free)
IBMs finance arm has signed a deal with the Chinese government to provide credit to companies working in the Tianjin economic development zone in China Late in 2009, the government of Tianjin gave IBM Global Financing an exclusive license to provide factoring products in the Tianjin Binhai New Area. One of the keys to economic recovery is the successful partnering of private and public sectors,” said Mario Bernardis, general manager for worldwide commercial financing at IBM Global Financing
Keith Sangwin leaves Barclays Asset & Sales Finance (Free)
Keith Sangwin has left Barclays Asset & Sales Finance (BA&SF), after thirty years with the business. A well known and respected sales leader, Sangwin oversaw BA&SFs sales operation until early 2008, when he was put in charge of developing the lessors medium sized commercial business.
UniCredit optimistic for CEE growth (Free)
Italian banking giant UniCredit has revised its growth forecast for the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region, anticipating 2.3 percent growth for 2010 instead of just 1.4 percent.
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A day to remember
Last month, at Leasing Lifes annual conference and European equipment finance awards, almost 200 delegates from more than 70 companies gathered in Berlin for a day of information sharing and a glittering evening of prize giving Fred Crawley and Antonio Fabrizio reveal some of the key points raised by the host of eminent speakers For some time now, senior lessors have been engaged in what has largely been a theoretical debate about whether bank-owned leasing companies might at some stage begin to lose some of their hard won and jealously guarded independence.
New horizons
Quartz Finance, Norton Folgate and Oak Leasing are just a few brokers with expanding interests,so is diversification the way forward for the UKs brokers Much of the optimism to emerge from the broker world this year has come from those companies which, finding traditional business models under pressure, have identified what it is they do best, and have then replicated it in a fresh market.
Forex worries and new regulations suppress Hungarian recovery
The Hungarian vehicle leasing market continues to suffer heavily, as uncertainty over foreign currency loans and the cost of leasing have replaced lack of funding as the main concerns of buyers. The latest quarterly figures from the Hungarian leasing association (HLA) show that the number of new contracts signed has dropped 80 percent year-on-year, with Hungary’s overall registration numbers down just 50 percent in the corresponding period.
UK police forces’ £132m leasing bill sparks procurement row
A report issued by the Liberal Democrat party has revealed that Britain’s police forces spent more than £132 million (146.7 million) on the leasing and hiring of vehicles between 2004 and 2009 a figure that has prompted widespread questioning over the effectiveness of public sector fleet management. The document, compiled from Freedom of Information requests to police forces, revealed a nationwide hire bill of £70,000 daily, a figure which Liberal Democrat shadow home secretary Chris Huhne called “unnecessarily lavish”.
KBC: Polish vehicle leasing to grow by up to 15%
Polish car lessors can expect a 10-15 percent new business increase in 2010, according to the head of KBC Autolease Polska, Ireneusz Tyminski. Automobile leasing volumes in Poland experienced a 36 percent drop last year, from 4.6 billion in 2008 to just 2.9 billion in 2009. However, with continued demand for Polish cars from neighbouring Germany, car sales totals for 2010 are expected to roughly match 2008s figures, with leasing taking advantage of the recovery.