What is asset finance?
Asset finance helps businesses get the equipment they need, from vans, trucks and diggers to computers, machinery and solar panels, and pay for it over time. The main types are:
- Hire purchase: the business pays in instalments and owns the asset at the end.
- Leasing: the business pays to use the asset for a set period; the funder usually keeps ownership.
- Refinancing: the business raises money against equipment it already owns.
The asset secures the lending, which lets funders lend to businesses that might struggle to borrow otherwise. It's a large part of how UK businesses invest, so it touches almost every industry.
Who works in asset finance
- Funders and lenders: the asset finance arms of banks, independent funders, leasing companies and fintech lenders, who lend the money. Jobs at funders
- Brokers: firms that find business customers and place their deals with funders. Finance broker jobs
- Captive and vendor finance: finance businesses owned by manufacturers, and funders' teams working with dealers. Captive and vendor jobs
The main roles
- Sales: BDMs, broker managers, vendor BDMs and account managers. Sales and BDM jobs
- Credit: underwriters, credit analysts, credit managers and Heads of Credit. Credit jobs
- Operations: sales support, payouts and lease administration. Operations jobs
- Collections and asset management: collections, recoveries, end of lease and remarketing. Collections jobs
- Finance, legal and compliance inside lenders and brokers. Compliance and finance jobs
Routes in
Many people start in sales support, operations or collections, where you see how deals work from the inside, and move on into credit, account management or sales. Others join from business banking or other lending, bringing credit or relationship skills, or from business-to-business sales in the industries asset finance serves, such as construction, haulage, agriculture or technology. Brokers often take on people for internal sales and train them to look after their own clients.
How careers progress
A typical path might run from sales support to account manager to BDM, then senior BDM or sales manager and sales director. In credit, from analyst to underwriter and senior underwriter, with a growing lending authority, then credit manager and Head of Credit. Moves between funders, brokers and manufacturers are common, and experience of more than one side of the industry is valued.
What employers look for
For your first role: reliability, accuracy, and an interest in how businesses work. Later on: a track record you can talk through, such as the deals you've written, the decisions you've made and the relationships you've built. Knowing one type of asset well is a real advantage.
Thinking about a move into or within asset finance? Search live jobs or send us your CV and we'll be honest about your options.
Questions people ask
How do I become an asset finance broker?
Most people join a brokerage in internal sales or sales support, learn how deals are put together and placed with funders, then take on their own clients. Others move across from a funder, or from business-to-business sales with contacts in the industries brokers serve. Brokers arranging regulated finance need FCA authorisation, which the firm, not each salesperson, usually holds.
Do I need qualifications to work in asset finance?
Most roles don't need a particular qualification: people learn on the job, and employers look at experience. Finance roles usually want accounting qualifications, and some employers support professional study as you progress.
Is asset finance a good career?
It's a specialist industry where experience is valued, and many people build long careers in it, moving between funders, brokers and manufacturers. Every business needs equipment, so the work spans almost every sector of the economy.
What's the difference between asset finance and leasing?
Leasing is one kind of asset finance. With a lease, the business pays to use the asset and the funder usually keeps ownership. With hire purchase, the business owns the asset at the end. Asset finance covers both, and refinancing assets a business already owns.