Shift launches Equipment Line revolving credit facility

The lender said it was the “first revolving facility for asset finance that is assessed on bank statement data alone”.

Speaking to The Adviser, Shift’s sales director Kristian McCausland explained: “Funders have had revolving facilities in the past, but never off bank statements; it's always been full financial write ups and full financial annual reviews. So, there’s always been a little bit of tediousness to it, with onerous information flows. 

“We’ve got the credit smarts with the bank statement lending that we established from the overdraft product and replicated that revolving model for asset finance to make it easier.”

Once brokers register their customers, either the broker or the customer can then initiate transactions from between $2,000 to $500,000 in value in one day.

There is a total account threshold of up to $1 million. 

Borrowers must meet Shift’s standard credit criteria (for example, have been in business for more than two years).

The product had been developed in tandem with brokers, following a pilot program which ran earlier this year.

According to Mr McCausland, the pilot had seen strong uptake from brokers and saw credit demand for both equipment and also fit-out purposes.

He noted that the pilot had resulted in the product being tweaked, so that customers could either transact fully on their own or have their broker transact on their behalf.

He explained: “We initially looked at it from a standpoint of enabling the customer to transact the invoices. And then during the pilot phase of it, we really saw feedback from the broker market that they still wanted to be involved. 

“So what we’ve enabled brokers to do is actually choose the journey. For example, if it’s a smaller transaction, they may say to the customer: ‘You can just submit the invoice and it’ll get checked and paid’. But, if it’s a little bit more complex – or a larger transaction – they can offer to submit the deal on their behalf.

“The journey is not significantly different. It’s just the product or service proposition and the customer service proposition being aligned to actually meet the needs of the customer even when they need it,” he explained.

“We’re pleased with the broker feedback on our pilot and look forward to rolling out more releases later this year to deliver finance on demand to our brokers and their customers,” he added.

[Related: Shift releases data insights platform for brokers]