All articles by Fred Crawley
Fred Crawley
Duncton relaunches as Moneybarn
The non-prime funder, which has been engaged in a major drive for growth since securing more than £150m in new funding at the close of last year, sees the brand change as a necessary step in its ambition to become one of the countrys larger mainstream finance providers. While Moneybarns new website features a prominent interface for online finance applications, the company says that the increase in direct business that will likely follow will not reduce its focus on doing business through brokers and dealers
Captive finance’s days numbered?
The days of the wholly manufacturer-owned captive finance model may be numbered.”
Alphabet buys ING Car Lease for £563m
Transaction expected to close in Q4, subject to regulatory approvals Alphabet International has bought ING Car Lease for 637m (£563m), subject to regulatory approval.
Daimler revamps systems
Daimler Financial Services (DFS), incorporating Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, will implement a new system for administrating stock funding in the UK from November. The new wholesale finance system (WFS), provided by stock funding specialist Sword Apak, will replace Daimlers current Datascan system, and is intended to be fully operational by April 2013. Thomas Weltrowski, DFS director for global operations, Europe, said the nature of wholesale finance made it easier to adopt one system across multiple jurisdictions.
Mainland move going to plan
Having long led the car finance market on the Isle of Man, specialist funder Conister Bank has been making bold moves to grow its presence on the UK mainland. Entirely funded by its investors and home-grown retail deposits, the island lender has used its strong liquidity position to sell into the UK motor and asset finance markets via a growing network of brokers.
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Round table: Putting the ‘I’ back into F&I
In this fourth round table discussion hosted by Motor Finance and Frontline Solutions, industry insiders were invited to attend a discussion around the state of insurance and other non-finance products at the point of sale. The following pages provide highlights from the conversation that followed, in which dealers, insurers and sales training experts set out their ideas about the opportunities and challenges faced by providers of financial products at the point of sale.
Dear diary: Blessed are the charitable
The BEN Summer Fete and Paul Finn Vintage and Classic Car Rally took place in glorious sunshine last weekend at Lynwood, the residential complex in Ascot run by BEN, the automotive industry charity. Bellowing national treasure Brian Blessed was a VIP guest at the event, which offered a range of entertainment, including bowling, stalls selling books and beauty products, raffles and the steel band Star Rhapsody.
Black Horse launches personal leasing
Point of sale giant Black Horse has launched a consumer contract hire product, in response to demand from its dealer network. Both have been developed in collaboration with Lex Autolease, the largest fleet lessor in the country and a sister business to Black Horse under the Lloyds Banking Group umbrella.
Editor’s letter: More than lip service required
The vast number of unknown factors in the political and economic climate seems to be playing havoc with consumer sentiment, and monthly volatility in sales volumes has become the norm.
RBS: Bank partnership to become the norm for captives
This was the view taken by Chris Sullivan, chief executive of corporate banking for RBS in the UK, at a conference held recently by wholesale systems provider Sword Apak. The comment was made in a discussion on the future of manufacturer finance programmes, in which Sullivan expressed his expectation that most manufacturers would soon need to partner with banks to achieve access to capital at a sustainable price.