Login
ISCOVER
Byblos Finance director George Karam explains how he made commercial lending an integral part of his business.
When did you decide to start offering commercial lending to your clients?
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
When we first started the business about 15-odd years ago, I came from a commercial banking background. The business was set up just to be a mortgage originator – residential lending – but just by virtue of having had commercial clients and that type of experience and a couple of business partners at that time, the commercial business seemed to come our way. So, although we never were out looking for that type of business, we write and service those deals over the whole time. It wasn’t until more recently when it became the focus of the business.
What is your main referral source?
All our clients are referrals. They all come by referral from other clients, from valuers, from accountants, lawyers and other industry participants. We don’t pay referral fees and we don’t pay brokerage fees.
Do you specialise in a particular area of commercial lending or do you do it all?
We don’t do it all. We specialise in property finance, with a particular expertise in development and construction.
Just how important is upskilling in commercial lending?
Upskilling is a continuous process. You should never miss an opportunity to know what else is out there or to educate yourself in what the banks like and how they like things to be presented.
Because we’ve got the flow of business that is always on, we’re constantly meeting with the banks and we’re learning on a deal-by-deal basis and take lessons from each deal so that we can apply it to the next one.
How supported are you by your aggregator?
Aggregators are a great place to start, but we don’t actually rely on our aggregator much for lending support. Our aggregator has been doing a great job in providing some of the business support to assist us with growth – CRM and IT rather than the lending support.
What are the key things a broker should know about the process of a commercial loan?
You do a feasibility report and an analysis on the site, the sponsor and on the completions, and if all of those things come together then I guess the real craft is being able to present the client with options without necessarily having to go and shop them around the marketplace first. You need to have confidence in what you can deliver to the client so that they've got the confidence to deal with you. Then you would approach a bank at that point.
