FIBA

First FIBA workshop 'crash course' for brokers new to specialist sectors




The Financial Intermediary & Broker Association (FIBA) has held its inaugural regional workshop event in north London, which included collaborative discussions between lenders and the intermediary community.

The event was held last Thursday (12th April) at the Village Hotel in Watford and featured five lenders and one packager in an innovative live deal room format.

Brokers were able to meet and engage with Assetz Capital, Funding 365, Octopus Property, United Trust Bank, Roma Finance and Connect for Intermediaries.

As well as hearing about the various products on offer, brokers could share real cases with the lenders and receive meaningful feedback.

Bridging & Commercial witnessed multiple roundtables where brokers were offered solutions to their client’s cases.

Damien Druce, director and head of intermediary sales at Assetz Capital, said: “Assetz Capital [was] delighted to support the first of FIBA’s regional workshops and in particular the live deal room format.

“We spoke to a number of intermediaries about their current live deals, from commercial mortgages to buy-to-let, and we look forward to assisting a large number of them, hot on the heels of the event.”

Mike Strange, managing director at Funding 365, added: “The FIBA live deal event was a great opportunity to connect with new brokers and have proper discussions with them about their bridging enquiries.

“The intimate roundtable format worked well, especially as we were able to underwrite deals with the brokers there and then – a great success all round.”

Amadeus Wilson, associate director of SPF Short Term Finance, said that the brokerage had a few representatives who attended.

“It was an extremely useful event – I am fairly new to bridging and it was a crash course in what is available,” he added.

“It was encouraging to see how much lenders want to work with us.

“Most of the lenders we met are following up with meetings in the office over the next week or so, enabling us to discuss deals in more detail.

“One deal we are working on is a flat in Chelsea with a lease of less than 20 years – one lender is going to take that on, getting the purchaser in at a discount, enabling them to extend the lease and then they will exit with a standard buy-to-let at a later date.

“Another couple of deals with self-builds – the clients have bought land and [are] looking to build their dream home on it – have also been agreed.”

There was also a GDPR briefing session from Mark Greenwood, group compliance policy manager at SimplyBiz Group.

FIBA is set to hold six more events throughout the UK, giving brokers ample opportunity to engage with the new format.

Adam Tyler, executive chairman at FIBA, said: “Our first workshop was well attended and my thanks to our sponsors, who were delighted with the cases that came into the new live deal room from our attending broker delegates.

“The outcome bodes well for our next events in June, where we are expecting even greater attendance as the word gets round that the FIBA regional workshops offer great value to attendees and sponsors.”

 

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