Shire Leasing Selects LendingMetrics to Revolutionize Commercial Credit Decisioning

Commercial lender Shire Leasing has integrated LendingMetrics’ Auto Decision Platform (ADP) to streamline its credit decisioning processes. By removing the reliance on internal IT resources for underwriting logic changes, the SME lender aims to manage the increasing complexity of multi-channel sales while maintaining the agility required to support business equipment investments.

What was announced

Shire Leasing, an SME lender, has replaced its legacy automated underwriting system with LendingMetrics’ Auto Decision Platform (ADP). While the firm has utilised automated underwriting since 2001, its transition from single-track to multi-sales channels introduced complexities that previously required constant IT intervention to manage. The implementation of ADP is designed to give the lender's credit teams direct control over decisioning strategies without needing technical support for every adjustment.

The platform functions by connecting to a wide range of data sources, including internal databases and external Credit Reference Agency (CRA) data. This universal connectivity allows Shire Leasing to create and manipulate decisioning logic on demand. The lender cited LendingMetrics’ three-year research and development roadmap and the platform's financial stability as key factors in the selection. Furthermore, Shire Leasing noted that ADP offered a more favourable balance of cost to benefit when compared to more expensive solutions provided directly by CRAs.

The rollout is being conducted in phases. The first phase, which focuses on core decisioning logic, is already operational and has been described as highly effective. Shire Leasing is now working with the LendingMetrics team on a subsequent phase to integrate additional data streams into the platform, further refining the accuracy and speed of its lending to businesses seeking equipment finance.

"We see this as a long-term relationship, and we’re delighted that we picked LendingMetrics as a partner"

Malcolm Workman, Chief Operating Officer at Shire Leasing

The companies involved

Shire Leasing is a UK-based provider of equipment finance and leasing solutions specifically targeted at the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector. The company operates as an independent funder, offering a range of financial products to help businesses acquire assets without significant upfront capital expenditure. It has a long history in the market, having utilised automated underwriting for over two decades.

LendingMetrics is a financial technology and data specialist that provides credit risk software and data services. The firm has established itself in the market through its Auto Decision Platform (ADP), which competes against more rigid systems often provided by major credit bureaus. LendingMetrics focuses on providing "universal" connectivity, allowing lenders to pull data from multiple sources into a single decisioning engine. The company has gained recognition for its focus on R&D, maintaining a roadmap intended to keep its technology aligned with evolving credit risk requirements. Both companies operate as independent entities within the UK fintech and lending ecosystem, with LendingMetrics positioning itself as an agile alternative to traditional credit reference agency software providers.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has tracked LendingMetrics’ expanding footprint across the UK financial services sector. The company recently strengthened its leadership team by appointing Jamie Land as Head of Presales to drive further innovation in credit risk. This growth follows a period of industry recognition, including the firm securing its seventh consecutive Technology Partner of the Year win in 2026.

The adoption of ADP by Shire Leasing follows similar implementations by other specialist lenders. We previously covered how Camco Finance partnered with LendingMetrics to automate its specialist vehicle lending operations. Additionally, the platform has seen uptake in the building society sector, with Chorley Building Society going live with ADP to digitise its mortgage decisioning processes.

What this means

This move highlights a significant shift in the SME lending market: the demand for "no-code" autonomy within credit departments. For decades, lenders were tethered to IT queues or expensive CRA professional services to tweak risk appetites. As multi-channel origination becomes the norm, the bottleneck of IT-dependent underwriting is no longer sustainable. This puts traditional credit bureaus under pressure to offer more flexible, self-service tools or risk losing market share to agile middleware providers. The central question for the sector is whether legacy providers can unbundle their data from their software quickly enough to compete with these independent, data-agnostic platforms.