365 Finance cuts SME funding decisions to three hours

SME lender, 365 Finance, is now making decisions on complete funding applications within three hours and providing same-day finance of up to £500,000.

More than half of its credit decisions are now fully automated, with a further significant proportion requiring only light-touch review, allowing its underwriters to focus on more complex applications.

The lender recently hired George Visser as its new chief risk officer. He is working alongside Anthony Or, who is head of underwriting and has spent over 10 years with the company, to continually refine how applications are managed.

365 Finance assigns at least two underwriters to review each application, with decisions made within three hours of receiving it.

Anthony Or, head of underwriting at 365 Finance, said: “Our underwriting expertise is integral to the quality and speed of service we can provide to SMEs and brokers. Same-day funding would not be possible without the team of highly skilled and experienced underwriters we have built over the past decade, and being able to make decisions on applications within as little as three hours is another reason to be proud of the progress we have made.

“Crucially, speed can never come at the expense of rigour. While we can automate and streamline decision-making around very standard cases, we can simultaneously dedicate more time and expertise to more complex applications, ensuring we support SMEs with a wide range of circumstances and needs. The end goal is the same: to support the UK’s all-important SME community, delivering fast and flexible finance to alleviate cashflow challenges and enable them to seize growth opportunities.”