The mission of the Leasing Foundation is to support the leasing and asset finance industry by supporting charitable activities, by performing rigorous, challenging and relevant research in areas that impact the industry, and by seeking opportunities to sustain the industry by developing people in the industry.

D’Ammassa said: “The Foundation’s educational programmes are excellent and will help build a sustainable industry at a time when many financial services institutions are not effectively investing in people. I’m looking forward to working with the Foundation to further unify the industry as a strong and vibrant community of professionals.”

He may have been speaking of Aldermore Bank itself where he has lead the business finance division since 2013. The Bank was formed initially as a challenger bank at the very commencement of the great recession in 2009.

At the time D’Ammassa was working as chief executive of Hydrex Equipment UK, the plant & machinery and construction plant providers. Prior to this he had acquired an extensive career background in asset finance by way of a range of positions at GE Capital – most recently, and up until August 2009, as chief executive of its subsidiaries, TLS Vehicle Rental, GE Plant Hire and Key Leasing.

Initial challenge

Following a short spell at Hitachi Capital, D’Ammassa then joined Aldermore Bank as managing director of asset finance in October 2013 which was followed rapidly by promotion to group managing director – business finance in July 2015. His initial challenge at this time was coalescing the two existing Aldermore businesses of asset lending and invoice lending into the new structure – business finance.

“The aim,” he said, “was to bring the businesses together on a holistic basis to be able to provide more products and services for small and medium-sized firms which had been let down and neglected by the big four banks. This involved getting the team together and persuading every one of the importance of thinking outside the existing product silos.”

The linking of the two principal strands of the business allowed D’Ammassa to extend Aldermore’s range of specialisms by employing specific staff with expert knowledge of the assets.   These now extend across the spectrum to cover most asset classes including agricultural and construction equipment, new and used vehicles including commercials, office equipment and a range of green assets including anaerobic digestion equipment.

Net lending grows by 29%

D’Ammassa explained: “When I joined Aldermore we looked at business through a rather narrow lens and tended to concentrate on the financing of traditional hard assets such as transport. However, our growth has been phenomenal and by 2015 we had risen to become the 30th largest asset lender in Europe sitting at that position in the Leaseurope Ranking of the Top European Leasing Companies.”

Last year (2015) Aldermore’s net lending for asset finance rose by 29% to £1.3 billion and customer numbers increased by 30% to around 42,000.

In terms of new business levels, organic origination rose by 21% to £893 million – this comprised of broker origination which rose by 21% to £670 million, and direct origination which increased by 21% to £223 million.

Aldermore’s origination policy is set firmly around intermediaries which it services via a network of regional offices around the UK.

As is D’Ammassa’s policy of “putting something back into the industry”, in 2016 he is continuing a training programme, which began in 2014, and this year consists of three workshops aimed at supporting up-and-coming talent in asset finance broker businesses across the country.

Fantastic opportunity

He explained: “The training programme for 2016 consists of three free training courses offering a fantastic opportunity for those working in the intermediary sector to gain a fundamental overview of asset finance.  We’re already planning more courses for 2017 as they are always over-subscribed.”

D’Ammassa admitted: “Training in the industry, or rather the lack of it in recent times, was proving something of a worry for me - a worry that we do not have sufficient young talent coming through into our industry. My own early career’s training in the industry, like many other older lessors, had been achieved in-house by my employer – in my case GE Capital. But this now rarely takes place in-house, and I saw a serious reduction in the channels for distribution of asset finance to small businesses in the future. And this at a time when ever greater expertise, and knowledge of regulation compliance, is required.”

The three workshops covered in Aldermore’s courses contained sales skills, regulatory training for brokers, as well as principles of asset finance – and were a sell-out.

D’Ammassa stressed: “Altogether, so far around 150 brokers have benefitted from these specially-tailored workshops, which are delivered by an independent trainer with in-depth industry knowledge, and which are one of the many ways that Aldermore seeks to support the growth and development of the next generation working in asset finance.”

The UK’s National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) has supported Aldermore in its training programmes although, as D’Ammassa stressed, “not all the brokers who came on the courses are association members”.

Dreams & ambitions

How would he describe Aldermore Business Finance’s customer-facing culture?

“This is the aspect of the company of which I am most proud,” he said. “We have 150 staff all working for the right outcome for the customer. We receive around 200 credit applications every day, and each one represents the dreams and ambitions of each proposing customer. My staff are very much aware of this and seek to make those dreams and ambitions a reality in as many cases as possible.”

In the event Aldermore approves a creditable 70% of proposals from its intermediaries which is testament to the way in which the company has succeeded in making each broker aware of the most appropriate criteria required to achieve acceptance.

D’Ammassa believes that Aldermore Business Finance is well placed to continue its growth. To date growth has been exclusively organic, although he does not dismiss the possibility of portfolio acquisition in the future if the correct opportunity presents itself.

He believes that the forthcoming Brexit from the European Union will present new opportunities for a range of mergers and acquisitions. “We are facing a period of uncertainty right now,” he said, “but we remember that Aldermore itself was established on the back of a crisis – and has prospered ever since!”

It is apparent that, despite Aldermore Business Finance being on a roll at present, the UK asset finance industry as a whole is facing unknown territory in this Brexit period. However, the company undoubtedly could not have a firmer or more experienced hand on the tiller to steer it through uncertain times than Carl D’Ammassa.