After all, little over a decade ago there were half a dozen travel agents on every high street. Now they’ve disappeared as consumers prefer the speed and ease of travel websites.

In one corner of this debate are traditional brokers, including the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB). In the other are new online comparison platforms.

I’ve spent the last few years building Funding Options to be a one-stop shop for business finance, and have found that – as is so often the case – the reality is more complicated. A couple of weeks ago we helped a mid-sized multinational to gain a £2m trade finance facility, which clearly needs a deep relationship. Equally, as I write, we’ve completed a number of sub-£5,000 deals, and I challenge you to find a traditional broker willing to invest their time in these micro-business clients.

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At Funding Options, we find that more than half of our SME customers can be supported with an online comparison service, with the rest – typically larger firms with more complex funding needs – needing the support of a business finance specialist. This is mirrored in government statistics, where the SME Finance Monitor (a regular survey of 5,000 SMEs) finds that more than two-thirds of all business loan requests are for less than £25,000. It’s clear that if UK firms are going to be weaned off their fatal over-reliance on bank lending, then many are going to need finance support without an expensive personal touch.

In the long term, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) seems to be raising the bar for the treatment of small business customers, which I suspect will mean many commercial finance brokers throwing in the towel or joining national platforms such as ours. If this happens, it will mirror what happened when the FCA’s predecessor toughened its policing of the Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) market.

Personal relationships and modern technology both matter. The trick is finding the right balance.