Legal & General (L&G) is planning to lend money to medium-sized companies that want to reduce their dependence on bank borrowing.
In a bold move to challenge bank financing, the life insurance and investment group is aiming to launch a lending operation by the end of the year, according to the Financial Times.
The title said L&G would focus on “private placements”, allowing firms ostracised from public debt markets to attain loans from £20 million, typically for up to 10 years.”
In a video interview with the Financial Times, Nigel Wilson, L&G Chief Executive, said: “It’s disappointing, to say the least… that we [insurers] haven’t developed this as a business… We will step up and take over some of the roles that the banks have fulfilled over the past 20 years.”
However, Wilson did admit within the interview that prospective borrowers would be the larger SMEs.
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