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FIBA
Relationship-led lending is only tested when things stop going to plan
Gavin Diamond CEO Inspired Lending
One thing I’ ve noticed recently is that almost every lender describes itself as relationship-led. It appears in websites and product literature across the industry. Yet, if I’ m being honest, the phrase is rarely tested when everything is going according to plan.
The real test comes when something changes. For example, a contractor may fall behind schedule, or a planning issue emerges out of the blue. A sale takes longer than anticipated or a refinance that looked fairly straightforward six months earlier suddenly becomes that bit more complicated.
It’ s usually at this point that borrowers and brokers really discover what sort of lender they’ re really dealing with. That observation was one of the ideas we kept returning to when we launched Inspired Lending in late 2023.
Our ambition wasn’ t simply to create another bridging lender. We wanted to build a business that combined direct access to experienced decision-makers with the flexibility required to support the realities of property transactions, recognising that every borrower, project and funding requirement is different.