The plans were revealed when Colin Goldstein, head of strategic partnerships at iwoca, showed Bridging & Commercial around the lender’s Shaftesbury Avenue offices where almost 100 employees are based to explain what goes on behind the scenes when processing a loan

He explained that iwoca has lent £120m since 2012 to around 6,000 small businesses providing credit facilities from £1,000 to £100,000.

The firm prides itself on its flexible, responsible and fast loan processing technology systems, which have all been built in-house and are managed by a strong team of credit analysts. 

The lender has received praise from brokers for its service, including Finance 4 Business, who turned to iwoca to help a client obtain capital for their car dealership.

“iwoca is the go-to lender for clients needing quick capital,” said Keith Leighton, broker at Finance 4 Business.

“Their service is quick, straightforward and my customers have always been extremely happy with their high level of customer service.”

So what makes this process so well-liked by brokers? Colin showed Bridging & Commercial the customer story.

Applying for credit 

The broker journey begins with iwoca’s broker portal, which allows intermediaries to submit applications and check on the process of the application.

The portal begins by asking the broker simple, related questions about the business that requires funding with the portal allowing brokers to save, process and come back to it if they haven’t got the required information.

As the broker enters information about the business, these details are sent to iwoca’s risk team so it can provide the business with a live credit score.

The broker can submit the application within a few minutes. 

Thanks to iwoca’s unique technology systems it can often provide an answer within the hour.

Approving loans

Once the case is submitted, iwoca’s credit analysts are presented with a summary of the applicant’s cash flow history and highlights any potential problem areas.

Colin said that one of iwoca’s unique selling points was that it did not have many rejection rules and would try to find a way to finance a business. 

iwoca’s technology allows the broker to upload PDFs of the applicant’s bank statements, which will then be processed into simple charts to show recent transactions.

This allows the credit analyst to make a decision on whether to lend within the hour and even in tricky cases a decision will only take between two to three hours.

Broker assistance 

iwoca also has a number of account managers who can help brokers through the loan process. 

The team will help to keep the broker up to date with the application as well as chasing up missing information that is needed by the risk analysts.

The account managers will also look to try to maintain broker relations and iwoca has reported that it has seen a growth in broker retention.

Managing risk 

iwoca lends from funds it receives from investment by Commerzbank, its own bank facilities and covered bonds issued to high-net-worth individuals.

It is, therefore, the job of iwoca’s risk team to make sure lending remains responsible.

The risk team then carefully monitors individual loans using dashboards that can show lending trends such as date and time of applications, age of applicants and the type of company applying for loans. 

This can then help iwoca understand which applicants are seen to be more high risk.

Outlook 

iwoca doesn’t just provide loans to SMEs in the UK. 

It has teams within its London offices that also lend to businesses in Germany, Poland and Spain.

Having traditionally lent directly to SMEs when it launched, iwoca is looking to grow its broker relationships and is aiming to become a member of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers.

“We want to grow our broker business by four- or five-fold and we are looking to build up more resources to cope with that demand,” Colin said.

“Within the next year we hope to double the number of brokers who use us.”

Colin revealed that despite the Brexit vote, iwoca has seen a record amount of business during July.

“A lot of business has flown through and we have seen more than 100% growth compared to June. 

“We have seen no short-term impact from Brexit and for us it seems to be business as usual.”