Growth went direct: asset finance rose 15% and broker-introduced business grew 2%

UK B2B credit and lending news digest, 23–29 August 2026

Summary

New in the week to 29 August: the Finance & Leasing Association published June asset finance figures showing total new business up 15% year on year to £3,816m. Direct origination grew 28% to £1,765m. Broker-introduced business grew 2% to £755m, and was flat across the three months to June.⁽¹⁾

The FLA data does not tell us why. Lenders may be winning more business directly. Growth may be concentrated in larger deals that were never intermediated. Brokers may be placing through a narrower panel. All three are consistent with the numbers. The gap is wide enough to matter if your plan assumes the broker channel moves with the market.

Two other things ran through the week. Lloyds put business confidence at 53%, up four points and its highest since March, while BTG reported firms in critical financial distress up 9.0% year on year.⁽²⁾⁽³⁾ Those are not contradictory: one measures expectations, the other measures pressure already visible in company data. And Build UK refreshed its construction payment table on 27 August, showing average time to pay ranging from 10 days to 78 across 133 filing companies, with the share of invoices outside agreed terms running from nil to 64%.⁽⁴⁾

The through-line is visibility. Direct lending, trade-credit behaviour and six-monthly payment filings each leave a different gap in the credit picture.

1. Key developments

• Asset finance grew 15% in June. FLA total new business £3,816m; three months to June £10,750m, up 11%; twelve months to June £41,612m, up 6%. Direct origination £1,765m, up 28%. Broker-introduced £755m, up 2% and flat over three months. Sales finance £1,147m, up 8%. Plant and machinery up 17%, commercial vehicle up 26%, IT equipment up 21%. Business equipment fell 15%, the only asset class in outright decline. SME lending up 11%, large-business lending up 24%.⁽¹⁾
• Critical distress rose 9.0% year on year to 53,756 businesses, with significant distress at 674,030, up 1.1%. Twenty-one of 22 sectors were higher. Construction was the one major sector where significant distress fell, down 0.7% to 101,568; real estate and property services rose 9.0% to 88,855.⁽³⁾
• Business confidence reached a five-month high. Lloyds put the headline index at 53%, up four points against a twelve-month average of 47%, with economic optimism up 18 points since June. The trading outlook stood at 58%, a three-month high, and 66% of firms expect output to increase.⁽²⁾
• Build UK’s payment-performance table was refreshed on 27 August. The spread inside a single sector remains wider than the gap between sectors.⁽⁴⁾
• The Bank of England deferred its November 2026 RTGS standards release in full, after Swift announced on 27 August that it would delay its own November Standards Release following industry requests for more time on removing the unstructured postal address format.⁽⁵⁾ Machine-readable counterparty addresses in CHAPS move further out.
• A Bank of England staff working paper published 28 August found that firms hit by a large cost shock respond by passing prices through and building cash reserves, with “little evidence of aggregate employment losses or firm exits”.⁽⁶⁾ On that reading, strain shows up in payment behaviour well before it shows up in an insolvency count.

2. Market signals

Credit quality and risk

The insolvency series and the distress series are pointing different ways. The Insolvency Service recorded 1,931 company insolvencies in England and Wales in July, 5% above June and 5% below July 2025, with the twelve-month liquidation rate falling to 50.3 per 10,000 active companies from 52.5 a year earlier.⁽⁷⁾ Underneath that, the distress base widened 9.0% year on year across 21 of 22 sectors.⁽³⁾ Ric Traynor’s framing in the BTG release is that insolvency rates lag distress and increases may follow in 2027. That is an interpretation rather than a forecast, but it is a reasonable way to hold both numbers at once.

Sector composition matters more than the headline. Over the twelve months to July, construction accounted for 3,841 insolvencies, 17% of cases where industry was captured; wholesale and retail 3,422; accommodation and food services 3,221.⁽⁷⁾ In the distress data the sharpest annual rises were leisure and cultural activities, up 27.1%, hotels and accommodation, up 26.5%, and food and drug retailers, up 18.4%.⁽³⁾

Input costs remain part of the mechanism. Business energy prices are up roughly 25% since February on Cornwall Insight’s read, published 24 August.⁽⁸⁾ Bulmer & Lumb Group, the Bradford textile dyer, ceased trading on 20 August with administrators appointed the following day and 37 redundancies, with energy and staffing costs cited. Its last filed accounts showed positive net assets.⁽⁹⁾ Leverage screens do not catch that failure mode.

Credit supply and lending conditions

Bank Rate has been 3.75% since the December 2025 cut and was held again on 30 July. The next decision is 17 September.⁽¹⁰⁾ Flash UK PMI for August, released 21 August, put the composite at 52.5, up from 52.2 and above 50 for a second month, with manufacturing at 51.5 and services at 52.8.⁽¹¹⁾

Supply is expanding selectively. Large-business asset finance grew 24% against SME growth of 11%.⁽¹⁾ Barclays reported something similar in its Q2 2026 Business Prosperity Index, published during August, where longer-term average borrowing balances among its corporate clients rose 9.3% year on year while SME loan numbers rose 0.9%.⁽¹²⁾ Two different datasets, same shape.

Second-charge lending carries a quieter signal for commercial underwriters. FLA’s June figures show new business value up 16% year on year and volumes up 9%, with loan consolidation accounting for at least 60% of new business.⁽¹³⁾ Value growing at nearly twice the rate of volume means average advances are rising. Where the borrower is an owner-director, that is personal leverage a commercial credit file will not show.

3. Where risk is building and where credit is failing

Builders’ merchants and the accounts they inherit. Otford Builders Merchants, an independent Kent merchant trading for 55 years, announced during the week that it will cease trading later in 2026, with 34 jobs lost after three consecutive years of losses. The company says it remains solvent and is winding down in an orderly way, advised by BTG, so this is not being presented as an insolvency loss event.⁽¹⁴⁾ The credit question is what happens when some of its long-standing customers open accounts elsewhere: they arrive at rival merchants as established businesses with an unremarkable reason for switching, in a sector where the merchant is the underwriter.

Construction sub-contract, at ledger level rather than index level. The Credit Protection Association’s daily notices recorded 85 winding-up petitions on 27 August alone, alongside three administrations and twelve liquidations, concentrated in retaining structures, groundworks, glazing, fixings, waterproofing and M&E. The following day’s notices included a building supplies business and a wholesaler among the petitions, both trade-account providers themselves.⁽¹⁵⁾ Winding-up petitions can provide an earlier, but noisy, indication of pressure than the published insolvency figures. Not every petition becomes an insolvency. That is still the customer profile carried on 30-day terms at a merchant.

Hospitality, leisure and real estate. Critical distress in leisure and cultural activities rose 27.1% and in hotels and accommodation 26.5%, the two fastest-deteriorating sectors in the BTG data.⁽³⁾ Real estate and property services now carries 7,641 firms in critical distress, the second-largest count of any sector. Two of the named administrations recorded on 24 August were property-linked, a suspended-ceilings sub-contractor in Whitehaven and a Leeds real-estate investment company, both with positive net assets in their last filed accounts.⁽¹⁶⁾

No usable sector average for payment performance. Across the 133 companies on Build UK’s table, average time to pay runs from 10 days at the fastest, Stanmore, followed by Citation at 15 and Segro, Mott MacDonald and J Murphy & Sons in the 16 to 17 day range, out to 78 days at the slowest, with the share of invoices outside terms reaching 64% at the housebuilder end.⁽⁴⁾ The slowest cluster sits in plant hire, materials supply and scaffolding, firms that extend trade credit downward themselves. Reports are filed twice a year.

Business equipment finance fell 15% in June, the only FLA asset class in decline, against plant and machinery at plus 17%.⁽¹⁾ That is consistent with discretionary capex being deferred rather than declined, which would soften the demand signal a lender sees before it touches approval rates. The data does not confirm it on its own.

No named public tightening surfaced in the week. Selective constraint continued at the specialist end, priced deal by deal. LendInvest completed a £909,000 development facility at 46% loan-to-gross-development-value on a part-built two-house scheme in Harpenden after the original lender withdrew.⁽¹⁷⁾ Rescue lending at that loan-to-value suggests exits rather than appetite are the binding constraint.

One check we could not complete. The GOV.UK payment practices reporting service was queried and returned no new aggregate publication, and its search and bulk-export endpoints were not reachable this run. No claim is made here about the national reporting picture beyond what Build UK shows, since Build UK is compiled from the same filings.⁽¹⁸⁾⁽⁴⁾ The Small Business Commissioner published no new Fair Payment Code signatories, awards or suspensions during the week; the latest item on that site is dated 11 August.⁽¹⁹⁾

4. Who is doing what

Bank behaviour layer and the big four

• Lloyds Banking Group, new. The August Business Barometer, published 28 August, put business confidence at 53%, up four points and the highest since March, with a trading outlook of 58% at a three-month high and 66% of firms expecting output to increase.⁽²⁾ A sentiment series, not a credit-quality one.
• Barclays, no new signal in the week, prior stance holds. The Q2 2026 Business Prosperity Index was published during August without a displayed day-date. Corporate client borrowing balances up 9.3% year on year, larger-firm loan numbers up 3.2%, SME loan numbers up 0.9%, against a £22bn Business Prosperity Fund available in 2026.⁽¹²⁾
• NatWest Group, no new signal in the week, prior stance holds. The most recent position remains H1 2026 results in July, reporting broad-based lending growth of £17.0bn.
• HSBC UK, no new signal in the week, prior stance holds. On 19 August, just before the window, it cut mortgage rates by up to 0.20% and raised maximum loan sizes at 85% LTV from £2m to £3m and at 75% LTV from £3m to £5m.⁽²⁰⁾ Capacity is being deployed where collateral exists.

Three of the four holding prior stance in a week that produced a five-month high in business confidence is worth noting on its own. None of them moved on sentiment.

Lenders tightening

No named public tightening move surfaced. On the insurer side, Allianz Trade’s Q3 UK outlook holds that corporate resilience is fading as profitability comes under pressure, forecasts global insolvencies up 4% in 2026, and models a Bank Rate rise to 4.0%.⁽²¹⁾

Lenders expanding

• Lendco completed more than £500m of financing activity in August, taking its 2026 total past £1bn: a new £300m Lloyds funding line for its buy-to-let book and a term extension on its existing £250m NatWest bridging facility, announced 27 August.⁽²²⁾
• West One Loans cut fixed commercial mortgage rates by 0.75% across the range on 25 August, with semi-commercial from 7.34% and commercial from 7.94%.⁽²³⁾
• United Trust Bank expanded its bridging proposition on 24 August across regulated and non-regulated standard and near-prime ranges and reintroduced heavy refurbishment finance. On 25 August it merged property development and structured property solutions into a single real estate finance division under managing director Adam Bovingdon.⁽²⁴⁾⁽²⁵⁾
• OakNorth lent £25m to Scottish operator DataVita to expand its Glasgow data centre, announced 24 August.⁽²⁶⁾
• eCapital Commercial Finance UK raised its maximum deal size to £10m with immediate effect on 27 August.⁽²⁷⁾
• Ultimate Finance provided a £1m invoice finance facility to Scottish surveying specialist Blackhall & Powis on 25 August, introduced by Two Business Finance.⁽²⁸⁾
• Assetz Capital set a target of supporting 1,000 homes across the South West and South Wales by 2028 and appointed Robin Bruce as senior relationship manager, announced 25 August.⁽²⁹⁾
• BCRS Business Loans completed distribution of its Community Investment Enterprise Fund allocation on 27 August: £13m to 154 SMEs across the West Midlands and Wales.⁽³⁰⁾
• Shawbrook provided Glasgow Distillery Company with an £11m inventory-backed asset-based lending facility, announced 20 August.⁽³¹⁾
• MT Finance marked a year of commercial mortgage lending on a £2.5bn JP Morgan facility and signalled new commercial products, reported 26 August.⁽³²⁾
• Rely, the OSB Group brand, launched a limited-edition buy-to-let range for landlords with eleven or more properties at up to 40bps below standard pricing, announced 25 August.⁽³³⁾
• S&U issued its Q2 trading statement on 26 August, having broken its usual mid-August cadence. Group capital receivables at a record £616m against £512m a year earlier, up 20%. Advantage deal numbers up 50% year to date on £105m of advances, with up-to-date receivables at 73% against 69%. Aspen at £208m. Borrowings £285m against £330m of facilities, with a securitisation and refinancing to be set out alongside H1 results on 29 September.⁽³⁴⁾

5. Capital and funding

The Bank of England’s July capital issuance release, published 27 August, splits cleanly. Gross issuance by UK residents reached £84.4bn against £81.2bn in June and a six-month average of £73.9bn. Net issuance fell to £10.3bn from £14.3bn, driven by a £7.1bn rise in gross repayments. Gross bond issuance fell to £44.2bn from £51.3bn, while gross commercial paper rose to £40.0bn from £29.6bn, with non-financial corporates contributing £1.5bn of the £1.6bn swing in net CP.⁽³⁵⁾ Heavy refinancing, less net new money, more of it short-dated. Commercial paper is a working-capital instrument, so that is a mix change worth tracking rather than a distress signal on its own.

Bank appetite for funding non-bank origination held: Lendco’s £300m Lloyds line and extended £250m NatWest facility, and MT Finance’s continued lending on a £2.5bn JP Morgan facility.⁽²²⁾⁽³²⁾ No UK RMBS, CLO or covered-bond deal surfaced in the announcements tracked between 23 and 29 August. Late-August seasonality makes that difficult to interpret. Directional read: open at the investment-grade top, risk-selective in specialist property, increasingly short-dated in corporate working capital.

One structural item belongs here. On 27 August the Bank confirmed it will defer its November 2026 RTGS standards release in full, following Swift’s decision the same day.⁽⁵⁾ Structured address data in CHAPS is what makes a counterparty machine-readable at the payment layer, and deferring it pushes back the date that data becomes usable for entity resolution.

6. People moves and leadership signals

Appointments and promotions. Amanda Bryden was appointed director of distribution and incoming managing director of Accord Mortgages at Yorkshire Building Society, joining from Lloyds Banking Group, with Jeremy Duncombe named to lead Accord through the transition before retiring at the end of 2026. Both announced 25 August.⁽³⁶⁾ Paul Lynam, former chief executive of Equiniti Group and of Secure Trust Bank, joined Target Group as a non-executive director on 25 August.⁽³⁷⁾ Nicki Hallett became head of securities at Skipton Business Finance on 25 August, arriving from Pulse Cashflow Finance after 25 years in invoice finance operations, risk and underwriting.⁽³⁸⁾ Jennifer Fanz was promoted to senior vice president, operations at PEAC Solutions on 24 August, effective 1 September.⁽³⁹⁾ Aldermore appointed Kitty Byrne project finance lead in its energy and infrastructure team on 24 August.⁽⁴⁰⁾ Time Finance appointed Adam Casebrook a relationship manager on 27 August.⁽⁴¹⁾ Broadstone added two senior business development managers on 24 August, and Drew Wilson joined The Right Mortgage as specialist lending development manager on 27 August.

Prior-week context. Lauren Couch joined Triodos Bank UK as head of business banking on 20 August, reporting to chief commercial officer Roger Hattam.⁽⁴²⁾

Open seats. Advertised senior credit and risk vacancies, verified live on employers’ own applicant tracking systems on 29 August, cluster in two places. At the strategy end, iwoca posted a Risk Strategy Lead for iwocaPay in London on 26 August;⁽⁴³⁾ Starling Bank is recruiting an Impairment Modelling Lead;⁽⁴⁴⁾ Monzo is carrying a senior credit risk manager for its credit platform alongside a credit model validation manager.⁽⁴⁵⁾ At the workout and financial-crime end, Tide has a Head of Collections for the UK and Europe open plus fraud and AML analytics managers;⁽⁴⁶⁾ YouLend has a Head of Underwriting in Berlin and credit risk and collections roles across three countries;⁽⁴⁷⁾ Capital on Tap is running a financial crime compliance specialist and four collections and disputes seats;⁽⁴⁸⁾ Allica Bank posted a senior manager for finance risk and controls on 11 August and an in-life lending manager on 21 August.⁽⁴⁹⁾

Across nine verified boards there is no live chief risk officer, chief credit officer or head of credit seat at a named UK lender. The advertising is modelling and strategy capacity at one end, collections and financial crime at the other.

Credit and risk leaders whose companies were referenced in the week to 29 August. Congratulations to Nicki Hallett on the move to Skipton Business Finance, to Kitty Byrne at Aldermore, to Jennifer Fanz on the promotion at PEAC Solutions, to Paul Lynam on joining the Target Group board, and to Amanda Bryden on the appointment at Accord Mortgages.

7. From the industry

Brokers. Broker-introduced asset finance grew 2% year on year in June and was flat over three months, in a market that grew 15%.⁽¹⁾ I don’t think the data tells us why yet. Stronger direct acquisition, panel concentration and a mix shift toward large-ticket deals that were never intermediated would all produce this shape, and the FLA release does not separate them. What it does establish is that a broker-dependent origination plan delivered a fraction of the market’s growth in June, which is worth testing against your own mix. The NACFB’s most recent published item is dated 29 July, so the broker-side account is not yet on the record. Its Scottish regional forum on 3 September is the next scheduled opportunity for it.

Trade-account providers and trade credit. Marsh published its UK Trade Credit Risk Report in July, and it resurfaced in the UK credit press on 24 August. The research covers 1,000 UK chief executives and finance directors at businesses with more than 50 employees and turnover above £20m, so it describes the mid-market rather than the SMB creditor base as a whole. On its own findings, 98% believe their organisation is resilient to financial exposure risk, 76% have experienced financial losses from late payments, and 99% report increasing reliance on a small number of key suppliers. Marsh lists expanding credit exposure, as businesses extend more generous terms to support growth, among the trends it identifies.⁽⁵⁰⁾ A 98% self-assessment of resilience is a mood reading, and the sample is not representative of smaller creditors. The finding that carries is the gap between how exposed firms feel and what the exposure indicators show.

Build UK’s refreshed table shows what that looks like in the one sector that publishes. Average time to pay across 133 filing companies runs from 10 days to 78, the share of invoices paid outside terms from nil to 64%, and the slowest cluster sits with firms that extend trade credit downward themselves.⁽⁴⁾ Filings are twice-yearly.

The structural moves in the merchant sector point the same way. Otford announced a solvent wind-down after 55 years.⁽¹⁴⁾ Chadwicks Group, part of Grafton, opened its first Northern Ireland branch for The Panelling Centre and Sitetech in Belfast on 28 August, adding roughly 2,500 product lines.⁽⁵¹⁾ Keyline Civils Specialist, part of Travis Perkins, reopened its Braintree branch on 25 August.⁽⁵²⁾ Selco’s tradeREWARDS scheme, launched 18 August, ties discount tiers to sustained monthly spend of £300 and £1,500.⁽⁵³⁾ Each of those opens new accounts, reawakens old ones, or concentrates more of a customer’s spend with one merchant. On 26 August STARK Group published a market outlook arguing that distributors are becoming suppliers of data as well as physical products.⁽⁵⁴⁾ The same logic runs to credit: the merchant already holds a rich behavioural file on its trade customers.

The practical implication for trade-account providers is about timing rather than rigour. One-off checks are especially weak when account bases change quickly and published payment data may already be six months old. The Builders Merchants Federation elected Adrian Shelley of Henshaws Roofing & Building Supplies to its board on 28 August, adding an independent-merchant voice as the independent end of the sector consolidates.⁽⁵⁵⁾

Alternative lenders and challengers. Expansion concentrated in specialist property and working capital rather than new fundraising: Lendco past £1bn of 2026 funding, West One repricing commercial by 75bps, United Trust Bank restructuring into a single real estate finance division, OakNorth writing £25m against a Glasgow data centre, eCapital doubling its mid-market ticket, and S&U reporting a record £616m receivables book with improving collection quality. New equity fundraising across the specialist lending universe was quiet across the last full week of August, which is normal for the period. Ownership was the more active question: the Time Finance takeover by Bentley Park remains in its offer period, and the sale process for Aldermore continued with a September deadline reported.⁽⁵⁶⁾⁽⁵⁷⁾

Credit insurance. No insurer made a new dated public risk-stance change between 23 and 29 August. The standing position is Allianz Trade’s Q3 UK outlook: corporate resilience fading as profitability comes under pressure, global insolvencies forecast up 4% in 2026, and energy-intensive and leveraged sectors named as vulnerable.⁽²¹⁾ Bulmer & Lumb’s failure on energy and staffing costs, with positive net assets, is one instance of that pattern.⁽⁹⁾ For books exposed to energy-intensive manufacturing, that published stance is an argument for reviewing limits ahead of the autumn price step rather than at renewal.

Fraud and financial crime. Identity fraud is rising and changing shape. Cifas recorded more than 220,000 cases in the National Fraud Database in the first half of 2026, the highest January to June total on record, with identity fraud at around 130,000 cases, up 9% and 59% of all cases. Unauthorised SIM swap rose 402% year on year, and money muling rose 69% and now accounts for 30% of all misuse-of-facility cases.⁽⁵⁸⁾ Controls built on document verification and SMS one-time passcodes are the exposed part, because synthetic identity and manipulated documentation are designed to defeat exactly those. On 28 August the National Crime Agency secured forfeiture of more than £3.84m from a UK trading company whose accounts traced to suspected front companies, several later sanctioned;⁽⁵⁹⁾ on 26 August the FCA banned three individuals behind a £35.5m scheme built to bypass visa rules.⁽⁶⁰⁾ For underwriting, first-payment-default and never-pay cohorts will contain more synthetic entities than a model calibrated on older vintages assumes, so the misprice sits at the tail rather than the mean. And with muling at 30% of facility misuse, recovery assumptions on fraud losses deserve a second look.

Where Grand fits. Too many business credit decisions are made at the start of a relationship and left unchanged for years. Grand keeps the picture current, with free monthly checks and no subscription. heygrand.com

8. Operator actions

Where the week’s signals appear to be landing for credit operators. Observations on the direction of travel, not recommendations.

• On origination mix: with direct asset finance up 28% against broker-introduced at 2%, the question credit and commercial teams are weighing is whether their own June mix tracked the market or the channel. Those two answers now diverge.⁽¹⁾
• On trade accounts: where a competitor’s exit, a branch reopening or a spend-concentration scheme delivers volume, it arrives in an onboarding queue looking like ordinary growth. Teams are observed treating that as a re-check trigger rather than a new-business one.⁽¹⁴⁾
• On fraud: with identity fraud at 59% of recorded cases and SIM swap up 402%, vintage curves calibrated before synthetic identity scaled look optimistic at the tail, and authentication is being treated as an origination cost rather than a fraud-operations one.⁽⁵⁸⁾
• On pricing: an insurer publicly modelling Bank Rate at 4.0% and global insolvencies up 4%, alongside a five-month high in business confidence, reads more like a repricing already due in energy-intensive and leveraged exposure than a future risk to plan for.⁽²¹⁾⁽²⁾

9. Week ahead

• Monday 31 August. UK summer bank holiday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, so the data week runs Tuesday to Friday. It is also the end of the implementation period for the earlier cohort of the FCA motor finance redress scheme, covering agreements between 6 April 2007 and 31 March 2014. Parts of the scheme have been suspended since 2 July following an Upper Tribunal order, so firms are not currently required to calculate or pay redress. Lenders must tell pre-2014 complainants who are not owed compensation by 18 January 2027, and the Tribunal hearing is listed for December 2026 or February 2027.⁽⁶¹⁾
• Tuesday 1 September, 09:30. Bank of England Money and Credit for July, with net lending to non-financial businesses and the SME split, released alongside Effective interest rates for July.⁽⁶²⁾⁽⁶³⁾ Same morning: S&P Global / CIPS UK Manufacturing PMI for August.⁽⁶⁴⁾
• Thursday 3 September. ONS Business Insights and Conditions Survey, wave 163, covering business-reported turnover direction, price expectations and energy concern.⁽⁶⁵⁾ Same morning: S&P Global UK Services and Composite PMI for August.⁽⁶⁴⁾
• Friday 4 September, 09:30. S&P Global / CIPS UK Construction PMI for August. The July reading was 44.7, a nineteenth consecutive month below 50, and new orders is the earliest visible read on materials-credit stress.⁽⁶⁴⁾
• Friday 4 September, 09:50. Andrew Bailey delivers the keynote at the LSE TRIUM Anniversary Conference in London, his last significant scheduled platform before the 17 September MPC decision.⁽⁶⁶⁾

10. Upcoming events

• 3 September — NACFB Funding Future Growth: Scotland (NACFB, Voco Grand Central, Glasgow). The first scheduled broker-lender forum since the FLA channel data landed.
• 11 September — NACFB Commercial Broker Awards 2026 (NACFB, Lancashire Cricket Ground, Manchester). A reading of which lenders brokers are placing SME business with.
• 11 September — CICM Fellows Lunch (Chartered Institute of Credit Management).
• 17 September — Bank of England MPC decision and minutes (Bank of England, London). Bank Rate has been 3.75% since December 2025.
• 18 September — PRA CP9/26 closes: Basel 3.1 adjustments to the internal model approach for market risk (Prudential Regulation Authority). The last open piece of UK Basel 3.1, with revised rules proposed to take effect 1 January 2028.
• 24 September — R3 Southern & Thames Valley: Construction Insolvency 101 (R3, Blake Morgan LLP, Eastleigh). How construction insolvencies unwind and what a trade creditor recovers.
• 24 September — R3 Eastern Forum 2026 (R3, Dunston Hall, Norwich).
• 29 September — S&U plc H1 results. The securitisation and refinancing flagged on 26 August is due to be set out.
• 19 November — Credit & Collections Technology Awards and Commercial Credit & Collections Conference (Credit Connect Media, Midland Hotel, Manchester).
• 26 November — NACFB Commercial Lender Awards 2026 (NACFB, Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, London).

References

1. Asset finance new business grew by 15% in June 2026 — Finance & Leasing Association, 27 August 2026 — https://fla.org.uk/news/asset-finance-new-business-grew-by-15-in-june-2026/
2. Business confidence highest since March, driven by stronger customer demand — Lloyds Banking Group, 28 August 2026 — https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media/press-releases/2026/lloyds/business-confidence-highest-since-march-stronger-customer-demand.html
3. Latest Red Flag Alert for Q2 2026 — BTG Consulting plc, RNS, 21 August 2026 — https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/btg-consulting-plc–btg/latest-red-flag-alert-for-q2-2026/9733079
4. Payment Performance – Construction Sector — Build UK, table updated 27 August 2026 — https://builduk.org/information/payment-performance-construction-sector/
5. Delay to the November 2026 RTGS standards release — Bank of England, 27 August 2026 — https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/2026/august/delay-to-the-november-2026-rtgs-standards-release
6. Staff Working Paper No. 1,204: How do firms cope with economic shocks in real time? — Bank of England, 28 August 2026 — https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2026/how-do-firms-cope-with-economic-shocks-in-real-time
7. Commentary — Company Insolvency Statistics, July 2026 — Insolvency Service, 18 August 2026 — https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/company-insolvencies-july-2026/commentary-company-insolvency-statistics-july-2026
8. Business energy bills have climbed 25% since February — Credit Connect, 24 August 2026 — https://www.credit-connect.co.uk/news/business-energy-bills-have-climbed-25-since-february/
9. Assets available as textiles manufacturer falls into administration — Business Sale Report, 27 August 2026 — https://www.business-sale.com/news/administration/assets-available-as-textiles-manufacturer-falls-into-administration-229657
10. Bank Rate maintained at 3.75% – July 2026 Monetary Policy Summary and Minutes — Bank of England, 30 July 2026 — https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy-summary-and-minutes/2026/july-2026
11. Flash UK PMI, August 2026 — S&P Global / CIPS, 21 August 2026 — https://www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/PressRelease/cd324ddf91f64bdb8c119dad8bfe7912
12. Turning renewed confidence into investment-led growth: Q2 2026 Business Prosperity Index — Barclays, August 2026 — https://home.barclays/insights/2026/08/Turning-Renewed-Confidence-Into-Investment-Led-Growth/
13. Second charge mortgage new business volumes grew by 9% in June 2026 — Finance & Leasing Association, 27 August 2026 — https://fla.org.uk/news/second-charge-mortgage-new-business-volumes-grew-by-9-in-june-2026/
14. Otford Builders Merchants to close after 55 years of trading — Builders Merchants News, 27 August 2026 — https://www.buildersmerchantsnews.co.uk/news/merchants/otford-builders-merchants-close-55-trading
15. UK business news, 28 August 2026 (insolvency notices) — Credit Protection Association — https://cpa.co.uk/uk-business-news-today-28-august-2026-economy-markets-insolvencies/
16. UK administrations update, 18–24 August — Business Sale Report, 24 August 2026 — https://www.business-sale.com/news/administration/uk-administrations-update-august-18-24-229641
17. LendInvest supports Harpenden development with £909,000 facility — The Intermediary, 25 August 2026 — https://theintermediary.co.uk/2026/08/lendinvest-supports-harpenden-development-with-909000-facility/
18. Check when businesses pay invoices — GOV.UK payment practices reporting service — https://www.gov.uk/check-when-businesses-pay-invoices
19. The new Fair Payment Code — Office of the Small Business Commissioner — https://www.smallbusinesscommissioner.gov.uk/the-new-fair-payment-code/
20. HSBC UK announces further mortgage rate reductions while increasing lending limits — HSBC UK, 19 August 2026 — https://www.about.hsbc.co.uk/news-and-media/hsbc-uk-announces-further-mortgage-rate-reductions-while-increasing-lending-limits
21. Q3 UK economic outlook: growth holds, inflation bites — Allianz Trade, Q3 2026 — https://www.allianz-trade.com/en_GB/insights/economic-research/q3-uk-economic-outlook-navigating-growth-holds-inflation-bites.html
22. Lendco exceeds £1bn funding milestone — Mortgage Solutions, 27 August 2026 — https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/mortgage-news/2026/08/27/lendco-exceeds-1bn-funding-milestone/
23. West One cuts commercial rates by 75bps — Business Money, 25 August 2026 — https://www.business-money.com/announcements/west-one-cuts-commercial-rates-by-75bps/
24. UTB expands bridging proposition amid momentum — Mortgage Solutions, 24 August 2026 — https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/specialist-lending/bridging/2026/08/24/utb-expands-bridging-proposition-amid-momentum/
25. United Trust Bank launches real estate finance division — The Intermediary, 25 August 2026 — https://theintermediary.co.uk/2026/08/united-trust-bank-launches-real-estate-finance-division/
26. OakNorth provides £25m loan to DataVita for Glasgow data centre — OakNorth, 24 August 2026 — https://oaknorth.co.uk/press/oaknorth-datavita-glasgow-data-centre-loan/
27. eCapital expands £10m mid-market funding — Business Money, 27 August 2026 — https://www.business-money.com/announcements/ecapital-expands-10m-mid-market-funding/
28. Ultimate Finance delivers £1m invoice finance to unlock growth for Blackhall & Powis — The Intermediary, 25 August 2026 — https://theintermediary.co.uk/2026/08/ultimate-finance-delivers-1m-invoice-finance-to-unlock-growth-for-blackhall-powis/
29. Assetz expands South West team with ambition to support 1,000 homes by 2028 — Business Money, 25 August 2026 — https://www.business-money.com/announcements/assetz-expands-south-west-team-with-ambition-to-support-1000-homes-by-2028/
30. BCRS Business Loans delivers £13m to 154 SMEs through CIEF — The Intermediary, 27 August 2026 — https://theintermediary.co.uk/2026/08/bcrs-business-loans-delivers-13m-to-154-smes-through-cief/
31. Shawbrook supports Glasgow Distillery Company with £11m inventory-backed funding facility — Business Money, 20 August 2026 — https://www.business-money.com/announcements/shawbrook-supports-glasgow-distillery-company-with-11m-inventory-backed-funding-facility/
32. MT Finance eyes new commercial mortgage products after strong first year — Bridging & Commercial, 26 August 2026 — https://bridgingandcommercial.co.uk/mt-finance-eyes-new-commercial-mortgage-products-after-strong-first-year
33. Rely unveils new limited edition range for large portfolio landlords — Business Money, 25 August 2026 — https://www.business-money.com/announcements/rely-unveils-new-limited-edition-range-for-large-portfolio-landlords/
34. Trading statement and notice of results — S&U plc, RNS, 26 August 2026 — https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/s-u–sus/trading-statement-and-notice-of-results-/9739876
35. Capital issuance, July 2026 — Bank of England, 27 August 2026 — https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/capital-issuance/2026/july-2026
36. Yorkshire Building Society appoints director to lead Accord Mortgages — The Intermediary, 25 August 2026 — https://theintermediary.co.uk/2026/08/yorkshire-building-society-appoints-director-to-lead-accord-mortgages/
37. Target Group appoints Paul Lynam as non-executive director — The Intermediary, 25 August 2026 — https://theintermediary.co.uk/2026/08/target-group-appoints-paul-lynam-as-non-executive-director/
38. Skipton Business Finance appoints Nicki Hallett as head of securities — Finance Connect, 25 August 2026 — https://finance-connect.com/skipton-business-finance-appoints-nicki-hallett-as-head-of-securities/
39. Jennifer Fanz promoted to lead operations at PEAC Solutions — Finance Connect, 24 August 2026 — https://finance-connect.com/jennifer-fanz-promoted-to-lead-operations-at-peac-solutions/
40. Aldermore appoints Kitty Byrne as project finance lead — The Intermediary, 24 August 2026 — https://theintermediary.co.uk/2026/08/aldermore-appoints-kitty-byrne-as-project-finance-lead/
41. Time Finance appoints Adam Casebrook as relationship manager — The Intermediary, 27 August 2026 — https://theintermediary.co.uk/2026/08/time-finance-appoints-adam-casebrook-as-relationship-manager/
42. Triodos Bank UK hires Lauren Couch as head of business banking — The Intermediary, 20 August 2026 — https://theintermediary.co.uk/2026/08/triodos-bank-uk-hires-lauren-couch-as-head-of-business-banking/
43. Risk Strategy Lead, iwocaPay — iwoca careers (Ashby), posted 26 August 2026 — https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/iwoca.co.uk/eae808f9-557a-4e48-a8e1-47a20c71bf94
44. Careers — Starling Bank, verified live 29 August 2026 — https://www.starlingbank.com/careers/
45. Careers — Monzo (Greenhouse), verified live 29 August 2026 — https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/monzo
46. Careers — Tide (Greenhouse), verified live 29 August 2026 — https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/tide
47. Careers — YouLend (Pinpoint), verified live 29 August 2026 — https://youlend.pinpointhq.com/en
48. Careers — Capital on Tap (Greenhouse), verified live 29 August 2026 — https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/capitalontap
49. Careers — Allica Bank (Ashby), verified live 29 August 2026 — https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/allica-bank
50. Trade Credit Risk Report 2026 — Marsh, July 2026; research covering 1,000 UK CEOs and finance directors — https://www.marsh.com/en-gb/services/trade-credit/insights/trade-credit-report-2026.html
51. Chadwicks Group expands into Northern Ireland with Belfast branch — Builders Merchants News, 28 August 2026 — https://www.buildersmerchantsnews.co.uk/news/merchants/chadwicks-group-expands-northern-ireland-belfast-branch
52. Keyline reopens Braintree branch — Builders Merchants Journal, 25 August 2026 — https://buildersmerchantsjournal.net/keyline-reopens-braintree-branch/
53. Selco launches Sorted campaign, introducing price matching and loyalty programme — Builders Merchants News, 18 August 2026 — https://www.buildersmerchantsnews.co.uk/news/merchants/selco-launch-sorted-campaign-introduce-price-matching-loyalty-programme
54. STARK publishes Sustainability Market Outlook Report — Builders Merchants Journal, 26 August 2026 — https://buildersmerchantsjournal.net/stark-publishes-sustainability-market-outlook-report/
55. Adrian Shelley to join BMF Board — Builders Merchants News, 28 August 2026 — https://www.buildersmerchantsnews.co.uk/news/merchants/adrian-shelley-join-bmf-board
56. Recommended cash acquisition of Time Finance plc — Time Finance plc, RNS, 17 August 2026 — https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/time-finance–time/recommended-cash-acquisition-of-time-finance-plc/9723817
57. CVC Capital Partners prepares bid for UK’s Aldermore — Global Banking & Finance, 20 August 2026 — https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/cvc-capital-partners-prepares-bid-uks-aldermore-sky-news/
58. Nearly three in five fraud-risk cases linked to identity fraud — Credit Connect, 5 August 2026, reporting Cifas National Fraud Database H1 2026 — https://www.credit-connect.co.uk/news/nearly-three-in-five-fraud-risk-cases-linked-to-identity-fraud/
59. AML roundup, 28 August 2026: NCA recovers £3.84m in suspected sanctions evasion and money laundering case — KYC360 — https://kyc360.com/knowledge-hub/resources/aml-roundup-28th-august-2026-nca-recovers-3.84m-in-suspected-sanctions-evasion-and-money-laundering-case
60. FCA bans trio behind £35.5m scheme designed to bypass visa rules — Financial Conduct Authority, 26 August 2026 — https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-bans-trio-bypass-visa-rules
61. Motor finance redress scheme partially suspended — Financial Conduct Authority — https://www.fca.org.uk/news/statements/motor-finance-scheme-partially-suspended
62. Money and Credit, July 2026 — Bank of England, due 1 September 2026 — https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/money-and-credit/2026/july-2026
63. Effective interest rates, July 2026 — Bank of England, due 1 September 2026 — https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/effective-interest-rates/2026/july-2026
64. UK PMI release calendar — S&P Global — https://www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Home/PDF/UK_Rel_Dates
65. Business insights and impact on the UK economy — Office for National Statistics, next release 3 September 2026 — https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessservices/bulletins/businessinsightsandimpactontheukeconomy/20august2026
66. Andrew Bailey keynote speech at LSE TRIUM Anniversary Conference — Bank of England, 4 September 2026 — https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2026/september/andrew-bailey-keynote-speech-at-lse-trium-anniversary-conference