Factoring blog for news and advice

A great infographic from the Platform Black team here, you can see more on top tips for invoice finance at our web page.

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As many of you will be aware, last year Metro Bank, the UK's newest high street bank, acquired SME Invoice Finance, which will see the bank take full ownership of the business and customer accounts. SME IF has continued to trade under its own steam, but will operate under Metro Bank as a subsidiary.

The two businesses were found to have a strong cultural match and therefore SME IF made an ideal choice of acquisition to fulfill the needs of Metro Bank in delivering new and existing customers access to Factoring and Invoice finance services.

You can see more on this and other suppliers in our factoring market place section.

The bank, which has an invoice finance operation in Manchester, has secured the funding from institutional investors Toscafund and Lansdowne Partners.

It is understood Lansdowne Partners has paid GBP10 million for around 2pc while Toscafund invested GBP30 million in return for 7pc.

Aldermore, which is considering a stock market flotation, will use the money to meet demand from retail customers and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

It now has more than 100,000 retail customers, with deposits of GBP3.3 billion and lending to SMEs and homeowners reaching GBP3.4 billion.

Chief executive Phillip Monks said: “The new funds provide us with the opportunity to do even more to champion Britain's small businesses, the lifeblood of our economy. Our strong capital position also enables us to look at a number of new product and service launches to further meet the needs of our customers."

The bank is backed by AnaCap Financial Partners and already supported by Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and Honeywell Capital Management.

You can find more information on the various banks and factoring companies on the main website.

Our MD, Hugh Craen, has created his hot sheet of top tips that you can use to identify issues that may affect your chances to get the best deal with a factoring company or invoice discounter, when trying to achieve the optimum terms for invoice finance for your business.

Whether you are looking to better understand Factoring as a new business seeking out a facility for the first time, or a veteran business owner who is just looking for a better deal than you already have - maybe some of these issues are holding you back from a better rate, better payment terms or a large value facility - check out our top tips for presenting to factoring companies.