With many new lenders entering the market, B&C heard from Funding 365, a lender now approaching its first anniversary, as it reflects upon lessons learnt….
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div>With many new lenders entering the market, B&C heard from Funding 365, a lender now approaching its first anniversary, as it reflects upon lessons learnt over the past year...
Clearly we have learnt a lot… for example, the world remains big enough for airplanes to vanish without trace; Alex Ferguson is (probably literally) worth his weight in gold; the US Government has access to everything we say and write (although, after watching Enemy of the State in 1998, we already knew that). Whilst all of these things are interesting, our first year in the bridging sector has also taught us some invaluable business lessons.
As we are a generous lot at Funding 365, we thought we would put these down to share with other new entrants to the bridging sector (or to any incumbents who may have found themselves suffering from the growing pains that are inevitable when part of a rapidly growing sector).
Know your competitive strengths
When making your first steps into the bridging market it’s hard to know exactly what your strengths and weaknesses are compared to the incumbent lenders. In the early days of Funding 365 we had several demoralising conversations with brokers (who shall remain nameless) where they said, “we have 100 lenders, we use about 5 - I don’t think we need another lender”. Needless to say, within six months these same brokers were banging down our door because in actual fact they did need another lender; they needed one who offered super fast execution.
It became clear to us from that point forward that the Funding 365 set up (by luck more than by design, quite honestly) allowed us to offer significantly faster execution than that offered by other lenders in the market. This was our competitive advantage and it has allowed us to capture a decent share of the market in our first year.
Your organisation may have a competitive advantage in being more aggressive on HMOs, or more attracted to properties in Scotland / Northern Ireland / ex-London and South East, or perhaps you’re happier with commercial property than other lenders. You need to find out what your competitive advantage could be, focus on it, nurture it and market it.
Understand your funding constraints and originate accordingly
Whilst there are a handful of banks operating in the bridging space, bridging lenders are predominantly privately-funded organisations. Some organisations are funded by a few private individuals, some by accessing family offices and small investment funds and some have been bought out and funded by private equity sponsors.
Understanding your funding constraints is the single most important thing that any financial institution should worry about. It’s not just about the quantum of potential funding that you have access to; it’s the quality of the funding and its flexibility that really matters. For example, why did Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley and HBOS all get into trouble? If your answer is, “they were writing bad mortgages”, you would be wrong, massively wrong (and almost seven years after the start of the crisis, even broadsheet papers (excluding the FT) are still feeding the populace this nonsense). Northern Rock et al. got into trouble because they did not have appropriate focus on their funding sources versus the liabilities they were incurring. To be more specific, they had an over-reliance on the securitisation and covered bond market which, when these markets closed (due to losses arising on US sub-prime mortgage bonds), left them unable to fund their existing commitments to borrowers. The proof that the mortgage q
uality was pretty good is contained in the fact that the Northern Rock ‘bad bank’ has been profitable ever since it was created (which confounded many journalists who bought into the myth of poor asset quality).
In the bridging sector, things are (thankfully) somewhat more straightforward. You need to understand what your funders are happy for you to originate, where they will be flexible and where they will not, and the timescales that you will have to operate under to receive funding.
Since Funding 365’s funding is 100 per cent controlled by its management team (who are also the credit committee), we can agree amongst ourselves whether we like a loan or not and therefore make decisions instantly (well, sometimes after a hot cup of coffee and a hotter debate). We do not need to strictly adhere to a matrix of LTVs or live by mantras such as, “we will never bridge a bridge”.
Ideally, you should only attempt to originate loans that you know your funders will accept without debate. If your funders delay approval of a particular loan or (as happens all too frequently) refuse to fund it at the last minute, this will sound a death knell for your relationship with the respective introducer and the borrower. Given that this is a small industry, word travels quickly and this failure will soon be known by everyone in the market.
By Michael Strange, Director, Funding 365 Limited
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