CRIF was established in 1988 in Bologna (Italy), and has an international presence, operating over four continents (Europe, America, Africa and Asia), in the fields of development and management of credit reporting, business information and decision support systems.

The company is currently the leading group in continental Europe in the field of banking credit information and one of the main operators on an international level concerning integrated services for business & commercial information and for credit & marketing management. More than 3,100 banks and financial institutions all over the world use CRIF services on a daily basis.

Simone Capecchi, director, finance corporate Italy & Western Europe at CRIF (pictured above) declared that “Joining Leaseurope as Associate Member will give us with the opportunity to have a better perspective of developments of the leasing market in order to contribute innovative solutions to Leaseurope and to its members in line with industry developments by consolidating the expertise that CRIF has accumulated in the corporate segment worldwide.”

Grant Thornton UK LLP is a member firm of Grant Thornton International Limited, which is one of the world's leading financial services organisations, employing 38,500 people over 120 countries and achieves combined annual turnover of $4.5bn.

Grant Thornton UK LLP has a sector-focused team lead by Tarun Mistry, partner (pictured below). The team is partly composed of ex-industry individuals with deep sector knowledge.

On joining, Mistry stressed: “the associate membership of Leaseurope reflects Grant Thornton's strategy to expand its financial, operational, strategic and regulatory compliance advisory expertise in the leasing, asset finance and automotive sectors.

“This association with Leaseurope reflects the continued growth of the team as well as its commitment and focus on these three sectors across Europe; it will further solidify Grant Thornton UK LLP as the go-to advisory firm in this market.”

Leaseurope’s chair, Enrico Duranti, added: “the coming on board of CRIF and Grant Thornton UK as associate members is fully in line with Leaseurope’s road map, especially when it comes to developing special partnerships with players active in the leasing and automotive rental ecosystem. I believe these new partnerships will translate into more value added for our Federation and its members.”