UK asset finance industry needs to get serious about fraud prevention

The answer, according to Nick Leader, CEO of Acquis Insurance, is not to focus on establishing an asset register which brings with it a number of practical problems (it’s an enormous task to establish a robust, searchable database of assets with secure and unalterable unique identifiers) and to focus instead on a register of borrowers which can be easily maintained by an agreed and trusted representative of the lenders themselves.

“By focussing on borrowers, lenders can identify likely large-scale frauds where the amount being borrowed across a large number of lenders exceeds the balance sheet assets of the borrower” he notes.

This solution, as opposed to an asset register, has the advantage that it is practical and achievable and could potentially be quickly established if sufficient buy-in amongst UK lenders can be achieved.

Leader floated his idea with just such a group of industry professionals last Friday in an industry meeting which included many of the leading asset finance providers, Simon Goldie from the FLA, plus Asset Finance Connect’s content leaders John Rees and Stephen Bassett.

Although there was consensus on the need for a solution, and even what that solution would ultimately look like, opinion was somewhat split as to who is best placed to provide it. Some lenders who already share their transactions with credit reference agencies and who thought such agencies could develop a solution and others preferred the idea of a home-grown solution provided by an independent business well connected within the asset finance industry such as Acquis.

The outcome of the meeting was the establishment of a small working group who will meet once a week for the next few weeks to fine tune the design of a solution that can be shared with the wider leasing community.

Leader’s solution stands every chance if it can establish itself before the sting of the latest alleged fraud starts to fade. BUT Leader stresses “the value of any database ultimately depends on the quality of the data and this project will require industry wide commitment. We are faced with a unique opportunity to come together as an industry to create a purpose built solution to a pressing fraud issue that affects us all. Together, we are very well placed to deliver a solution quickly and efficiently that will represent a big step forward in the early identification of potential fraud.”