The Intermediary – February 2025 - Flipbook - Page 50
The Interview.
Equifinance
from major institutions, and more recently the
capital markets.
Through all this change, Marshall says: “The
ethos of the business was always to supply
products to the market that matched customer
needs as well as supporting all our business
partners to the best of our abilities. This culture
was embedded right at the outset and has been
maintained throughout.”
While the world faced its own challenges and
opportunities, 2024 was a significant year for
Equifinance. The Intermediary sat down with
Marshall to discuss the firm’s growth, as well
as its relationships with brokers, and what the
coming years could mean for secured loans.
Transition into prime
Jessica Bird speaks with
Tony Marshall, CEO at Equifinance,
about the rising tide of second charge,
and how the market can ensure it is
primed for continued growth
ony Marshall has been at
Equifinance for 10 years, and
in the financial services sector
since 1986 across various
roles. As CEO, this experience
has allowed him to deploy
his skills to grow and develop
Equifinance as well as utilise
his expertise in the regulated environment.
When he joined Equifinance 10 years ago,
alongside chief financial officer Chris Payne, the
firm comprised six people, originated around
£0.5m per month, and managed loan assets of
around £7m. A decade later, the business has
more than 70 staff, originations of around £20m
per month, and a loan portfolio of over £400m.
Originally, the product set was niche, with
one solution focused around credit impairment.
Now, Equifinance boasts in excess of 135
products and an entirely different proposition
and place in the market, taking 10% to 15% of
market share, with 80% of its business placed
in the prime segment and supported by funding
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The Intermediary | February 2025
Early in 2024, following on from work done
toward the end of 2023, Equifinance entered
into a £260m securitisation.
Marshall says: “That was a big deal for us,
because we’re still a privately owned business
– we’re not private equity or bank owned
or backed. Prior to that, if you’d spoken to a
corporate adviser, they might have said it was
extremely difficult for us to do what we have
done, but we achieved it.
“While doing that, we completely rejigged our
capital structure – from senior funding right
the way through to junior capital requirements.
We were extremely fortunate in having Chris
Payne’s expertise in-house, who has navigated
us through all funding processes successfully.”
As a result of the securitisation, he explains,
the firm was able to “start developing
[its] products into the prime space more
competitively.”
Prior to this, because of its funding structure,
Equifinance was arguably less able to compete
with the larger players in the space. This was
not necessarily a bad thing, as it meant the
business had to be creative with product
development and create a “very diversified
product range,” but Marshall explains that it did
create challenges in terms of volume.
“As a result of the funding restructure and the
securitisation, it gave us access to a cheaper
cost of funding, so we were able to better
compete from a price perspective,” he says.
“We have therefore been able to capture a
greater market share out of that prime segment
