Lend, one of the leading names in the SME fintech sector, has announced Andrew Moulds as their new Head of Asset Finance. Moulds arrives from a role as COO at Amfin, and will immediately get to work on expanding Lend’s capabilities within the asset finance space.
“From a broker expectation point of view, they can expect to see an enhancement of our existing platform,” he told Australian Broker. “At the moment, we allow them to service the funding needs of their SME clients, and we capture a number of products in the commercial space, which we will expand out to include asset finance, which will further strengthen that value proposition to clients and ensure that, from our perspective, we're providing a holistic solution to brokers for SME.”
“We'll continue to do that heavy lifting for brokers on the lender matching that we're renowned for, and apply it to asset finance. We'll be making some upgrades to our existing platform to cater for that, and additionally, I'll keep working with Donelle Brooks, our Head of Third Party, to support brokers and diversify what they're doing in commercial finance. The first example of that is a webinar that we've got on Monday about what's driving asset finance with a number of lenders on the panel.”
Moulds’ appointment comes at a time when asset finance is being trumpeted as one of the most important aspects of the COVID-19 recovery for Australian small businesses.
“Asset finance is critical to building recovery in Australia, and there's no better example of that than what we've seen with the Budget's extension of the instant asset write off through to 2023,” he said. “To support that action from the government, we need to have a robust and well-functioning asset finance market that enables SME businesses to purchase those assets that promote their growth, while still protecting their cash flow so that they can invest in employing staff, which is another key pillar of the recovery.”
According to Moulds, fintechs like Lend are ideally placed to lead the recovery.
“Fintechs are everything,” he told Australian Broker. “We're all about trying to make brokers' jobs easier, and certainly more accurate. We're helping them identify more opportunities even beyond the initial transaction. From a Lend perspective, our job is to do the heavy lifting for the broker in matching their client with the lender criteria.”
“For fintechs in the space, it's really about reducing the friction in the process. From enquiry to product matching, application, submission and settlement, fintechs should enable brokers to access technology throughout that process. To help them identify the right lender, provide customers with digital access for application, document upload and verification, and to help them with data validation and third party integration to that we improve submission quality and speed.”
“Ultimately, we're into delivering better conversion rates so that the client, the broker and the lender all get the best outcome.”
