Lloyds Bank has teamed up with software provider Alfa in order to make it simpler for clients to use asset finance to manage their working capital.
Managing capital properly, ensuring the appropriate balance between funding growth, increasing stock, and retaining funds for financial resilience, is a key challenge for any company’s management.
With current supply chain issues, many companies have sought to build stocks to minimize disruption as well as price volatility.
This creates a critical challenge for management teams: deploying capital from reserves tend to tie up cash that may otherwise be used to fund assets that support growth or for protection from financial market shocks.
Using asset finance may allow firms to acquire assets that support their ongoing growth, while allowing them to retain the working capital required to maintain their financial resilience and address the cost and supply challenges facing UK-based firms.
The collaboration should see Lloyds Bank transition to Alfa Systems version 5, which is described as a modern Cloud-powered system that automates its asset finance solution’s client servicing, income collection and recovery and pay-out processes.
With a planned roll out of the system later in 2022, Lloyds Bank will reportedly use API connectivity to offer an all-digital asset finance journey to clients.
Lloyds Bank has worked cooperatively with Alfa for more than 30 years, initially using Alfa Systems v3.5 for its asset finance solution.
The update should help Lloyds Bank lower its dependence on manual processing and move over to an intuitive system that offers an enhanced experience for clients as well as colleagues.
Chris Loring, MD at Lending & Asset Finance at Lloyds Bank, stated:
“The pandemic saw large numbers of businesses across the UK accelerate their transformation plans and embrace new technology to lower their costs and transition towards net zero. Businesses also now expect more connected digital experiences as standard giving them greater control over their finances.”
Loring added:
“Our partnership with Alfa is a significant step forward in improving our customer experience, including digital capability, to support our product development plans and help us grow our asset finance business.”
Andrew Denton, CEO of Alfa, remarked:
“We are thrilled to be supporting Lloyds Bank in this project and delivering Alfa Systems via the cloud for another valued, long-term client. Bringing their small-ticket and structured portfolios onto our platform is just a part of a wider digital transformation, which demonstrates Lloyds Bank’s investment in technology and commitment to the asset finance market.”
Alfa has been offering systems and consultancy services to the international asset and automotive finance sector since 1990.
The company’s Alfa Systems tech platform offers support for retail and corporate business for auto, equipment, wholesale, and dealer finance.