Is the Asset Finance Broker in decline...?

Well, its 2025 and for us Asset Finance Brokers, only 400 odd and counting, commission disclosure is in full swing (so pleased), but is the AF broker party spiralling out of control?

Now, I’m one of the more mature brokers, as many of you know and I’ve been doing this gig longer than any partner relationship I’ve had (26 years broking). So whilst I am certainly not an expert (not a word I use in my social media bio’s), I’ve picked up the odd thing on the way & getting older, means you say it as it is. Okay, I’ve always said it as it is…

Becoming an AF broker today is in reality well, easy. No qualifications necessary, no test to pass, little in terms of training (I know there is some really good training in the industry, but it’s not far reaching). A bundle of enthusiasm, a telesales script, a bunch of funders and ‘Roberts yer mothers brother’. LinkedIn & the UK here I come.

So, when I hear, as I seem to more and more these days that AN Other Broker has amongst other things said:

Promised me the lowest rate in the market regardless / based on what exactly?

Told me I can get a loan for ￡250k at an incredible rate, with little supporting information in 24-48 hours / and I’m a Dutchman

Any guarantees did you say? / Mumble incoherently, sorry the line is bad, I’ll call you back..

You are pre-approved on our system for ￡50k! / so you have blatantly proposed a deal without customer consent?

Have access to 19878 funders / now I’m Prince Harrys cousin

Will blow any rate out of the water! / Exactly who is witing your script?

Call XYX Funder Brenda, they’ll write the prop up for us / More fool the RM at the funder I say, you’re not helping the matter, your sticking a plaster on it

I know you’re buying a machine tool, but you really need is a term loan Mr Customer/ I give up..

Will put your through to our Senior Relationship Director / the fella that was working at WH Smith 6 months ago? (sorry bit facetious but you get the drift)

Then I hear we lost a deal, not to another broker late last year, or even to a direct sales force. Nope we lost the deal to a mainstream loan provider who is now broking deals off its enormous database, much of which was provided initially by….a broker! Brilliant! Is there anybody not broking out there?? My ex-window cleaner is now a broker, has 35 funding lines and he’s 16.

Now I’m rolling… I really do feel the general standards of AF broking is worse than it’s ever been if the stuff I see and I hear are remotely true. Its getting embarrassing. Funders whisper it themselves. They know. I do know some really fantastic brokers. Brokers that really know their stuff and provide a great service because they, like Percy do, really deliver to their customers. But what of our dear funders? How inefficient must it be to see prop after prop, with little or no supporting information and then, hey presto the deal gets proposed to AN Other Funder. Or 2, or 3, or 4, or 5…..etc. and Mr Funder are you that desperate for your targets (I know its yes in some cases) that you are prepared to take business from well, just about anywhere? Sadly, in many cases, this appears to be true. One senior underwriter at a funder known to most brokers told me ‘the general standard of proposal they saw, was truly abysmal’. Brilliant! So why deal with the broker? How many crap props, wasted time to find a few nuggets? Leading to poor service for the decent brokers. Other funders have given similar stories, which all leads back to the ‘Asset Finance Specialist/Expert/Top Banana’ knowing next to nothing yet is enabled to exist by the funder/broker current framework. Where are the minimum standards? Will anything be done about the lack of quality/professionalism? Why do good brokers get tarred with the bad ones? How can I, a broker, provide a great service if the funder service to me, its customer, is so poor? Is it so poor, because the inefficiencies are so poor at funder level? We used to get reports from funders around efficiencies. How many funders publish such reports today??

This is not all funders either. Some are really excellent still. The established brokers like us, know who they are and they get the levels of business they deserve. But they are in the minority. As another respected funder person said to me, it’s become like the ‘wild west’ yet this is a finance & banking sector!! Dual props, poor quality, lack of basic info, mandates prior to approval, under cutting each other, doing deals for nothing, saying just about anything whether it’s true or not, to win a deal etc. It’s a sad inditement of the times. But I feel very passionately about this and whilst not doubt many will disagree, after commission disclosure was railroaded in, funders are in a lovely position. No funder has compensated our business for the highly likely loss of income via comms disclosure (its natural), and have the funders dropped their margins? No doubt discussions around AI are in play and in time, flow-broker business will be gobbled up by technology. Don’t kid yourself it won't be.

Yes, I’m a dinosaur. It must be that. I’m exaggerating the problem. Fine. Do we always get it right? No. Do our proposals sometimes lack full details? Yes. But the vast majority of the time, we get it right. We do the basics within the compliance framework, we act professionally and we do the job to the best of our ability. Maybe I’m the only one with the balls to say this, because everybody I speak seems to agree with me. Will it change in general terms? Unlikely. So, we plod on and in some cases, mop up the mess of those that say they're broker's, when in reality they are not even close.