The awards, the parties, acquisitions and the birth of a bridging finance qualification – this year has been a big one…

This year has also been a busy one, first with the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) takeover, which brought many new rules and regulations to multiple markets within the industry. We can all agree that even though it has been a year full of change, the alternative finance industry can be proud that it has adapted to the changes with a degree of ease.

The B&C Awards 2014 also played a big part in the 2014 calendar as a big celebration before the quieter months of the summer holidays. The day event was held at the Hurlingham Club in London, saw Lancashire Mortgage Corporation and
Shawbrook Bank take home with them the Bridging Lender of the Year and Commercial Lender of the Year awards respectively.

  Shawbrook winning Best Commercial Lender of the Year
 

Lancashire Mortgage Corporation winning Bridging Lender of the Year

Other landmark celebrations of the year included Brightstar’s £500 million party in Essex, Dragonfly’s £1 billion party (including bowling), and most recently, SPF’s Christmas party, where I am sure everyone had a hangover the following morning – including myself.

Action shot of Mark Posniak at the £1bn Dragonfly party

However, 2014 was not just all fun and games – a LOT of business was done this year. A few market shaking changes included Enterprise acquiring West One Loans, Capital Bridging acquiring Mayfair Bridging and Y3S acquiring 50 per cent of Chaseblue Loans.

On top of the major acquisitions, 2014 also welcomed a few new entrants into the industry. New bridging lender, London Bridge, launched at the FP Show in November, Paragon Secured Loans re-entered the secured loans market in October after five years of absence and Aldermore launched into bridging in June this year.

As well as new lenders launching into the market space, Medianett was proud to launch two new publications; Today’s Landlord, and most recently, Development Finance Today, which have both hit off massively and have gained an huge amount of support from the industry - and for that we thank you.

As well as new entrants to the market, there has also been some departures. Paul Brett left Masthaven Secured Loans in October this year, and Simon Stern is to leave Prestige in January after 30 years with the firm. Make sure you check out the Loan Talk newsletter in January for an exclusive interview with Mr Stern about his reasons for departing!

The past 12 months has also hosted some exciting industry events including the ASTL conference in September, where Rob Jupp of Brightstar Financial asked Lynda Blackwell of the FCA if the AOBP could create a national bridging qualification – which is currently well underway and scheduled to launch in Q3 in 2015.

The FP Show which held its inaugural event in 2013, returned to London Olympia in November this year, attracting even more exhibitors and  visitors than the year before, and holding some interesting debates, including one where the FCA held its hands up to confusion in regulation, stating that they sometimes gets the messages wrong.

Recent stamp duty reforms also got the market talking as to whether it will result in an end to mansion tax next year if Labour get in. Shortly after the AOBP AGM was held at the Haymarket Hotel in London at the end of last month, the lender panel discussed the future for new lenders entering the bridging market and who would be on board with 85 per cent LTV bridging loans.

Most recently, we changed the layout to The Weekender, which has been a success and a talking point since launching earlier this year – Medianett is keen to continue writing about what the industry does after hours in 2015!

Medianett is extremely proud of what the alternative finance industry has accomplished in the past year, and we are even more excited at the prospects 2015 holds (including the Loan Talk Secured Loan Awards 2014 in January).

As we are now officially closed for the next two weeks, we want to thank everyone for your support and wish you a very merry Christmas and a fantastic and successful new year.