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• 16 Nov

  SME Insights Panel - Alternative & Receivables Finance Forum

  I had a briefing with the panelists for the SME Insights Panel at the Alternative & Receivables Finance Forum today, ahead of the event that I have been asked to moderate next week. The forum is organised by BCR Publishing, and there is a full day of presentations, panels, case studies and networking opportunities planned around alternative and receivables finance.

  The SME Insights Panel

  The SME Insights panel promises to be a great discussion, with some heavy weight panelists presenting and discussing actual research about SME customer insights, and practical ways that finance companies can improve their product offerings around what customers need.

  The SME Insights panelists are as follows:

  • Don Brown - Finance Lawyer at Ashurst the global law firm.
  • Tony Baron - Treasury Policy Chair at the FSB.
  • Anton Ruddenklau - Global Co-Leader of Fintech at KPMG
  • Shiona Davies - Director at BVA BDRC, who publish a regular SME Monitor, tracking the attitudes of UK businesses.

  There will be findings from the SME Monitor presented at the forum, which will be worth understanding for anyone involved with product development around the receivables financing sector. It is going to be interesting to hear more from the panelists, so I look forward to the event.

  SME Monitor From BVA BDRC

  There is a treasure trove of useful findings within the SME Monitor published by BVA BDRC. It addresses many aspects of SME thinking related to growth aspirations, the economy and financing needs. A couple of key statistics that stood out to me, from reading the Q2 2018 summary were:

  • 8 out of 10 SMEs are profitable.
  • 47% of SMEs plan to grow this year.
  • 38% said they thought it could be hard for a business like theirs to get finance.
  • Fewer than 1% of SMEs reported using peer-to-peer, crowdfunding or single invoice finance.

  This once again highlights the need to increase awareness of forms of alternative finance, such as receivables finance, a need that I have mentioned many times before.

  By Glenn Blackman