Demand for bridging finance on par with pre-pandemic levels: Fiduciam

Fiduciam says it is seeing a pipeline of work "comparable to record highs before the crisis" and is on target to close another £10 million of loans by the end of April.

The £9 million of lending this week was principally in the north of England, at an average of 55% LTV with an average monthly interest rate of 0.70% per month.

The lender says there are "clear operational challenges to get transactions to complete because of the lockdown", but most operational issues have been successfully overcome.

Johan Groothaert, CEO of Fiduciam, said: “We have seen many short-term lenders close their doors and this is a pity because it is today they are needed most, especially when lending to businesses. We are very concerned that the general lack of credit for SMEs will exacerbate the crisis, in fact it may be worse than the direct Covid-19 implications for many SMEs.

“We have, for instance, been approached by a health care SME that needed an urgent loan to fit out a new facility, with an agreed contract to provide beds to the NHS, but who had been unable to get finance. How is this possible?

“I am glad that Fiduciam’s diversified institutional funding model has proven to work during this crisis and we are grateful to our institutional partners for keeping their commitment to helping to fund small businesses and entrepreneurs in these difficult times.”