• What has happened, and how has the industry, judiciary, regulators, treasury responded?
• Why has it happened and how do we need to respond to these challenges? Should we mandate disclosure, and should we learn to distinguish better between customers who can be relied on to act in their own interests, and those who cannot?
• What are the lessons for the industry – how can we better manage things in future?

Stephen Haddrill, director general of FLA and Jim Higginbotham, CEO of NACFB will be interviewed. A panel will discuss their observations. Wayne Gibbard from Shoosmiths will provide legal advice.

An interactive discussion in association with NACFB between Asset Finance Connect asset finance members and a selection of the UKs main brokers. Attendees will map out a framework which will enable lenders, brokers and the organisations which oversee them to understand the complexity of the asset finance market; to consider where unintended consequences lie including the problem of treating sophisticated multinationals buying plant and machinery like a vulnerable customer buying a car (or vice versa); and to provide the industry with a framework which they can use to assess whether proposed customer journeys work for both sales teams and regulators/lawyers.

For lenders and brokers in auto, asset and equipment finance

Finativ Technology and Innovation Forum

How technology can and should be adding equity value to finance companies

Case studies of successful implementations; unsuccessful implementations and conclusions you can draw from both

For lenders in auto, asset and equipment finance

The FIS technology forum

• How technology can add value to funding green
• Compare and contrast out-of-the-box with custom large-scale implementations
• How AI is delivering flexible finance; better risk management and better customer experience

Run by Murad Baig, head of asset and auto finance, FIS

For lenders in auto and equipment finance

The FICO technology forum: Intelligent Finance - AI in practice

Discover how to develop actionable insights, operationalise AI decisioning, and optimise outcomes through FICO Platform. Understand how agile, composable technologies can seamlessly sit alongside legacy systems to drive accelerated and more successful AI innovations.

AI demonstration

• How AI driven predictive modelling is used in practice alongside automated decisioning
• How optimisation provides alternatives which appeal directly to the customer in different ways
• Everything is seamlessly executed digitally and communicated to the customer
  

Moderator: David Betteley

Managing the EV residual value crisis: strategies and opportunities to navigate the next phase of the EV revolution

• Digitising vehicle access and operations
• How to identify next best use for the vehicles on your balance sheet to maximise value and mitigate RV uncertainty
• Delivering best case utilisation for multi fleet/ multi user applications. An introduction to user based products.
• Two case-studies from automotive fintechs on their platform which enables battery data to assess RVs.

Run by Chris Kirby, founder, Tomorrow’s Journey

For lenders in auto, asset and equipment finance

In this 45 minute workshop, we’ll explore the transformation to a digital, paperless world and its long-term impact on your business. Join us as we dive into the key innovations driving this aspect of efficiency and sustainability.

Driven by VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) and European e-Invoicing regulations, we’ll look at:

• The benefits of a paperless future.

• Electronic invoicing and CTC for seamless financial transactions.

• Large Language Models and AI techniques to facilitate the paperless process.

• How to adopt e-contracting, along with preparing for what’s next.

For the auto and asset finance stream

What’s been learned? Three years on from the arena fraud

In this 45 minute session we consider how unprecedented industry collaboration has been reshaping the asset finance landscape post the Arena fraud. AFC’s John Rees gets a progress report on how the entire industry working together could revolutionise the fight against fraud and asks whether now is the time for the FLA to finish the job by mandating data disclosure. We’ll hear perspectives from across the asset finance industry, including guest panellists from PRA bank owned and independent lessors.

For asset finance lenders and brokers

Automating lender <> broker admin with AI

Nivo have been working with several lenders to develop AI solutions that reduce admin effort with a focus on reducing the back and forth of gathering, sharing, and checking documents alongside removing the need for brokers to key into different lender portals.

Reserve your seat now to join this workshop with Nivo's Mat Elliott who will walk through how the technology works and the lessons learned on the path to getting AI live. The session will cover:

From hype to practical implementation: It's taken over 12 months for interest from lenders to shift from intrigue to funded projects. What were the hurdles and concerns, and why are boards now pushing for AI?

Under the bonnet: We'll walk through the design and development process on our most recent project. It's a use case to automatically respond over email 24/7 to any broker enquiry, generate AIP, integrate to lender system, create a case, and manage the shopping list collation. We'll demo the working solution, review the business case, and explore what's next.

Business change lessons: The technology is amazing; it works. But this is a people focused industry and users need to buy in to new services for them to be adopted. Some of the most interesting parts of these projects are the excitement, reservations, and considerations of the users in the teams we worked with. We'll share our experiences here too.

Run by Matthew Elliott, founder, Nivo

Moderator: Richard O’Donohue, community leader, AFC

For the auto and asset finance stream

Evidence based approach to fair-value assessments

In September the FCA announced that firms must provide reasonable and proportionate evidence in their fair value assessments. AFC asks Wayne Gibbard, Partner Shoosmiths what that means; provides an example of the work done by Propel Finance in conjunction with Investors in Customers to track customer satisfaction as a step beyond enforcing service level agreements; and considers what more lenders need to do ensure regulator satisfaction.

Moderator: Ian Isaac

What the next generation of talent want the asset finance industry to understand about their professional development…

Alex McWilliams and Lauren McQuilken, leaders of the Next Gen network of the Leasing Foundation, have a mission to help build an industry which is the destination of choice for the next generation of talented, career-minded young individuals across the UK. They’re looking to identify key action points for the Foundation’s next-gen team.

Participative session with a panel discussion and interactive roundtable conversations for all participants.

• What can the industry do to make the asset finance industry the destination of choice for talented career minded individuals?
• What does progression and development really mean to you?
• What do you need to achieve your career objectives?
  

Private meeting for Guild members only

Forget the hype - here are four finalists in our latest innovator series that we believe deliver genuine industry solutions using AI. Have we found real-life, ready-to-go, use cases for AI that you can use today in your businesses. Tell us what you think!

Fintechs will pitch their solutions; our tech judges will ask the difficult questions and you can vote on the solution you believe is best of the four.

Dragons:

• Steve Taplin, MD Asset Finance, Lendscape 
• Nick Myatt, Principal Consultant - Decision Management, FICO
  
• Catriona Powell, head of data insight and innovation, Novuna Business Finance
• Andrew Trimmer, head of tech, Simply
• Matthew Elliott, CDO & Co-Founder, Nivo

Finalists@

• Max Chmyshuk, founder, thisisjuno.ai 
• Richard Huston, Co-Founder & MD at VAMOS  
• Paul Chong, COO, Ophelos 
• Clare McCaffery, Chief Commercial Officer, Atto

“This house believes that the auto and equipment finance industry needs clarity on UK AI regulation in order to properly leverage its value”

Compare and contrast the differing approaches to manage risk from emerging AI.

The EU has provided a framework for considering AI risk which classifies activities as unacceptable, high, limited, and minimal risk. Each class has different regulation and requirements for developing or using AI systems. This helps businesses consider how best to deploy AI without falling foul of future law and regulation but it can be difficult to practically apply the classifications to proposed use cases; it may drive activity towards low reward, low risk use cases rather than focussing on high value use cases where risk may be reduced [is this true?]; and it creates an uneven playing field disadvantaging EU firms over non-regulated competitors from outside the region.

The US by contrast seems to be following a different path - providing innovators with the freedoms they need to innovate; and waiting to deal with problems as they emerge. There may be dangers in this for consumers who might well end up paying the price for this early freedom. Regulatory uncertainty may also prove a greater brake on innovation than bad regulation.

The UK approach, outlined in a white paper in 2023, suggests a likely path somewhere between the two, lighter touch than the EU and sector-specific regulation. Use of AI is encouraged for financial services especially in areas like fraud. The FCA is likely to have regulatory oversight. Emma Erskine-Fox (speaking for the motion) and Ben Cooper (speaking against) together part of TLT’s future law team will present the evidence. Judge Jason presiding. A majority decision from delegates will determine the outcome.