Brokers say business is beating expectations

Nearly half (45%) of brokers report that business levels and enquiries in the first half of 2014 exceeded their expectations, according to a survey by United Trust Bank.

The bank’s poll of over 100 finance brokers indicates a further 42% found business and enquiry levels to be around what they’d expected and just 12% were a little behind target.

Nearly 8 out of 10 (79%) broker respondents, who operate in the bridging, development finance and asset finance sectors, also reported they were starting to see the effects of an economic recovery on their business. Nine out of 10 (90%) described the outlook for their business for the remainder of 2014 as good or very good.

Harley Kagan, managing director of United Trust Bank said: “It’s great to see that the majority of brokers are still busy writing business and receiving plenty of new enquiries. Certainly at United Trust Bank there’s been no let-up in proposals or completions and the amount of money currently loaned to customers is at an all time high.”

Kagan said that specialist banks were well placed to serve the development and asset finance market, noting: “Although there’s a sense that credit may be easing as we move farther away from recession, there still appears to be little incentive for SMEs to return to the high street lenders.”