365 Finance is now making decisions on complete applications within three hours as it further strengthens its underwriting credentials.
The specialist SME lender recently hired George Visser as its new Chief Risk Officer. He is working alongside Anthony Or, who is Head of Underwriting and has spent over 10 years with the company, to continually refine how applications are managed.
365 Finance assigns at least two underwriters to review each application, applying its expertise as a 14-year-old lender to deliver same-day funding of up to £500,000.
With decisions made within three hours of receiving an application, the company is able to provide SMEs across the UK with access to fast and flexible merchant cash advance solutions.
Merchant cash advances, also known as business cash advances, are a form of alternative business finance that is repaid by future debit and credit card sales. They are designed to help manage the cash flow of a business.
365 Finance, which works with more than 100 commercial finance brokers as well as directly with sole traders and SMEs, has been maintained at a consistently low level of defaults over the past six years, including throughout the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic.
More than half of all 365 Finance’s credit decisions are now fully automated, with a further significant proportion requiring only light-touch review. This allows its team of underwriters to focus on more complex, judgement-intensive casework.
Anthony Or, Head of Underwriting at 365 Finance, said: “Our underwriting expertise is integral to the quality and speed of service we can provide to SMEs and brokers. Same-day funding would not be possible without the team of highly skilled and experienced underwriters we have built over the past decade, and being able to make decisions on applications within as little as three hours is another reason to be proud of the progress we have made.
“Crucially, speed can never come at the expense of rigour. While we can automate and streamline decision-making around very standard cases, we can simultaneously dedicate more time and expertise to more complex applications, ensuring we support SMEs with a wide range of circumstances and needs. The end goal is the same: to support the UK’s all-important SME community, delivering fast and flexible finance to alleviate cashflow challenges and enable them to seize growth opportunities.”
