SME Invoice Finance are an independent invoice finance company based in Guildford.
In the early days they were looking to provide invoice discounting facilities to smaller companies that would ordinarily not qualify. These days they seem to be taking a more traditional approach.
They have grown considerably in recent years through the acquisition of Potential Finance and RDM Factors and they also bought the book of Challenge Finance when their funding line was pulled by Coface.
In my experience with SME they have a fairly cautious approach and sell on the basis of good service levels which they back up by explaining they have one of the longest client lifes in the industry. On that basis they generally do not compete on price levels as they believe their service represents good value.
If clients are happy then they are clearly doing something right. Staff retention also seems very good as do their profits so it seems to be a well run operation.
In terms of my client base I have introduced SME Invoice Finance on several occasions alongside some of their competitors and in most cases they seem to miss out because of prepayment levels being too low, pricing being to high or security requirements being too stringent.
My role as a broker is merely to explain what options are available to clients rather than selling in a particular lender. I explain all the costs involved and how each facility will operate and from there let them make a choice. To date we have not done much business with SME so clearly they are not for everyone. That said, they are a well managed business and they will be a very good option for some businesses.
