Welcome to Asset Finance Connect — a day bringing together leaders across asset finance for the conversations shaping the industry right now.

The industry has had a better than expected start to the year, but the FLA expects a tougher period ahead — business investment is forecast to fall. Our survey of asset finance leaders reveals a market expecting growth it may have no plan to deliver. That's the topic we’ll consider on November 24th. 

  1. Expectation without a plan. Most lenders expect to beat a market their trade body expects to weaken; the biggest single bet is the economy; the market-expanding options rank bottom. Growth is expected, not planned.
  2. The loans divide. The one product genuinely growing has split the market into a fast-moving minority of adopters and a deliberate refusing majority citing credit appetite and conduct risk — with the refusers implicitly claiming the adopters are mispricing the risk.
  3. How loans win — the conduct strand. Speed pulls, margin steers, and awareness of asset finance is low: customers pick loans for speed, brokers usually initiate, half of lenders aren't confident the customer's interests prevail, and "unsecured" lending is backed by personal guarantees throughout (misconduct).
  4. The capability strand. Customer journey is the market's own top growth lever, yet verification and payout remain manual. Belief in capability outruns evidence of it — and capability in loans exceeds asset finance, which is much of why loans are winning.
  5. The channel strand. Direct is dead — no lender's own platform delivers material volume. Embedded is dismissed as "not yet investable" — yet embedded platforms are where SMEs increasingly meet finance, and where they're being offered loans, not asset finance. The product contest is being decided by placement. AI-driven buying is the next battlefield.
  6. The policy strand. The regulator's new growth mandate, CCA reform and risk-sharing schemes are the tools that address exactly the barriers refusers cite — so intervention, rightly designed, is the unlock.

We're looking forward to welcoming you to Kings Place on 24 November. See you there.