Allica Bank Celebrates £1 Billion in Asset Finance Lending and Standout Broker Feedback

WHY THIS MATTERS:
Asset finance is playing an increasingly important role in how established UK businesses invest, expand and modernise—particularly as higher interest rates and economic uncertainty make capital allocation more scrutinised. Lenders that can combine speed, clarity and specialist support are gaining share as brokers and SMEs look for dependable partners rather than transactional funding. This milestone reflects a broader shift toward hybrid models that blend technology-driven decisioning with relationship-led distribution. As demand grows for flexible financing across everything from IT and software to specialist equipment, asset finance is evolving into a core growth engine rather than a niche product. For challenger banks, scaling in this space signals maturity and relevance in serving the real economy.

Allica Bank has reached a major milestone in its mission to support the UK’s established businesses, surpassing £1 billion in asset finance lending since launching the proposition in 2021. 

After reaching £500 million in asset finance lending by April 2024, it took almost half the time for Allica to deliver the same amount again, highlighting the speed at which the bank’s asset finance proposition is scaling.

The achievement reflects the success of Allica’s model that combines powerful, proprietary technology with human expertise, specifically to meet the needs of established businesses and their brokers. Allica reports it is now receiving an average of 750 asset finance applications from brokers every month. 

Allica now has a specialist asset finance business development team of 14 people based across the UK – something the bank says is an integral part of its commitment to providing brokers with the clarity, consistency and relationship support they need to serve their clients.

Allica relies heavily on brokers for feedback when it comes to building its proposition. In the bank’s latest broker survey of over 500 asset finance brokers, 92% rated their overall experience with Allica as excellent or good, and 90% rated the working relationship, responsiveness and expertise of their business development manager, as excellent or good.

This feedback has seen Allica make a series of enhancements to its asset finance offering over the past year, including adding an enhanced refinance proposition and expanding support for high-end luxury vehicles. It also continues to invest in its technology to speed up applications and provide greater transparency, such as its proprietary auto-decisioning tool that can provide automated approvals on some more straightforward asset types.

The bank has also introduced a broader soft and medium asset range covering IT and security equipment, restaurant fitouts, software, and even funded a padel court. Allica says that these improvements form part of its ambition to build a onestop asset finance shop designed around the needs of established businesses.

Brandon Hall, Head of Asset Finance Sales at Allica Bank, said:

“Reaching £1 billion in asset finance lending is a huge moment for us, but it’s really a testament to the trust and support of our broker partners. Everything we build starts with their feedback. We review every single comment that comes through our broker surveys, analyse it as a team, and use it to shape our product roadmap. That’s how we’ve earned a reputation for fast, consistent decision making and a service brokers can depend on. 

“We greatly appreciate our broker community for their collaboration and for helping us support established businesses across the UK with their plans to invest and grow. We’ve got more exciting enhancements coming this year, all designed to make it even easier for brokers to get the right finance in place for their clients.”

This milestone follows Allica revealing at the end of last year that it had now surpassed £3.5 billion in total lending to established businesses, including through its commercial mortgage, bridging and growth finance divisions. Allica says its focus now is to continue to scale and deliver for the established businesses that make up the backbone of the UK’s real economy and communities.

FF NEWS TAKE:
This pace of growth underlines strong broker confidence in Allica’s asset finance proposition. The challenge now is sustaining service quality as volumes rise. Watch for continued investment in automation and broker tooling as competition intensifies across the SME lending market.