Invoice Finance Charges
Analysis - February 2024
Analysis of new invoice finance debentures registered at Companies House for February 2024, including charges submitted to 7th March 2024. Excluding RBS Invoice Finance, underlying activity increased by 5% year on year, boosted by smaller facilities.
Spark Intel Research Team
Data analysis and market intelligence
YoY Change (adj.)
+5%
excl. RBS Invoice Finance
Feb 2024 Total
407
new IF charges
Cumulative YTD
767
Jan-Feb 2024
Specialist Growth
+100%
Feb vs Feb 2023
Summary
The UK invoice finance market registered 407 new charges in February 2024, a headline decrease of 2.9% versus February 2023. However, when RBS Invoice Finance is excluded, the adjusted growth was +5%, driven primarily by smaller facility sizes and stronger activity from specialist providers.
Cumulative year-to-date charges reached 767, compared to 784 in the same period of 2023. Three new lenders were added to the dataset this month: Giant Finance, Key Factors, and Weston Financial. Specialist providers continued their strong trajectory with Sonovate registering 17 new charges in the month, up from zero in February 2023.
Key Insights
- Adjusted growth of 5% excluding RBS, driven by smaller facility sizes.
- Sonovate surged to 17 charges in February from zero in February 2023.
- eCapital led monthly volume with 44 new charges, up 42% year on year.
- Employment activities remained dominant with 132 cumulative charges through February.
- Mid-tier independents grew 30% with 64 charges in February vs 49 in 2023.
Sector Analysis - Cumulative to February 2024
Cumulative new invoice finance charges through February 2024 by borrower sector. Employment activities continued to lead, while specialised construction and financial services saw strong gains. This analysis excludes RBS Invoice Finance.
| Sector | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Var. | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employment activities | 137 | 106 | 132 | +26 | 25% |
| Wholesale trade | 65 | 52 | 55 | +3 | 6% |
| Specialised construction | 50 | 56 | 64 | +8 | 14% |
| Transportation | 46 | 49 | 49 | - | 0% |
| Office admin & business support | 29 | 52 | 33 | -19 | -37% |
| Retail trade | 12 | 24 | 21 | -3 | -13% |
| Financial services (excl. insurance) | 19 | 18 | 24 | +6 | 33% |
| Fabricated metal products | 21 | 14 | 20 | +6 | 43% |
| Other personal services | 15 | 23 | 11 | -12 | -52% |
| Human health activities | 17 | 13 | 14 | +1 | 8% |
| Technology & software | 19 | 17 | 17 | - | 0% |
| Building & landscape services | 12 | 13 | 15 | +2 | 15% |
| Wholesale & retail trade | 7 | 6 | 11 | +5 | 83% |
Lender Analysis
Banks and larger independents experienced a continued reduction in activity. RBS saw a significant decline from 61 charges in February 2023 to 32. Mid-tier and specialist providers both saw strong growth, with specialists doubling their February volumes year on year.
Banks
| Lender | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Var. | Refactor % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RBS Invoice Finance | 13 | 61 | 32 | -29 | 6% |
| Lloyds Commercial Finance | 43 | 41 | 34 | -7 | 12% |
| HSBC Invoice Finance | 15 | 18 | 20 | +2 | 15% |
| SME Invoice Finance | 6 | 9 | 4 | -5 | 0% |
| Arbuthnot Latham | 4 | 3 | 2 | -1 | 0% |
| Investec Capital | 4 | 5 | 0 | -5 | 0% |
| Total - Banks | 85 | 137 | 92 | -45 | 10% |
Large Independents
| Lender | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Var. | Refactor % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bibby Finance | 48 | 45 | 45 | - | 13% |
| eCapital Commercial Finance | 27 | 31 | 44 | +13 | 16% |
| Close Brothers | 28 | 33 | 23 | -10 | 17% |
| Skipton Business Finance | 12 | 19 | 17 | -2 | 24% |
| Novuna | 19 | 13 | 14 | +1 | 7% |
| Ultimate Finance | 9 | 5 | 12 | +7 | 17% |
| Cynergy Business Finance | 12 | 8 | 8 | - | 25% |
| Time Finance | 9 | 12 | 4 | -8 | 0% |
| Leumi ABL | 0 | 1 | 5 | +4 | 20% |
| Praetura | 2 | 3 | 4 | +1 | 25% |
| IGF | 2 | 5 | 6 | +1 | 17% |
| Kriya | 14 | 14 | 3 | -11 | 0% |
| Pulse Cashflow Finance | 4 | 2 | 0 | -2 | 0% |
| Total - Large Independent | 186 | 191 | 185 | -6 | 16% |
Mid-tier Independents
| Lender | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Var. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo Business Finance | 7 | 11 | 14 | +3 |
| Optimum SME Finance | 1 | 3 | 10 | +7 |
| 4SYTE | 3 | 3 | 8 | +5 |
| Wedo Finance | 3 | 4 | 8 | +4 |
| Paragon Business Finance | 12 | 10 | 2 | -8 |
| Sallyport Commercial Finance | 0 | 0 | 2 | +2 |
| Satago | 4 | 6 | 4 | -2 |
| Shire Invoice Finance | 0 | 1 | 3 | +2 |
| Castlebridge Finance | 1 | 3 | 3 | - |
| Factortech | 0 | 0 | 3 | +3 |
| Total - Mid-tier | 42 | 49 | 64 | +16 |
Specialists
| Lender | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Var. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Factors | 3 | 9 | 18 | +9 |
| Quba Solutions | 5 | 10 | 13 | +3 |
| Sonovate | 2 | 0 | 17 | +17 |
| Zodeq | 9 | 8 | 10 | +2 |
| Liquid Link | 6 | 2 | 0 | -2 |
| Total - Specialist | 25 | 29 | 58 | +29 |
Access the Full Report
Want the complete analysis including detailed sector breakdowns, regional data, and full lender tables? Get in touch with the Spark team.
Contact the Spark TeamMethodology
This analysis uses AI-driven classification to identify invoice finance charges registered at Companies House. Charges are matched based on the charge-holder name or a combination of the name and the nature of the charge description.
For some lenders (e.g. Barclays, Santander), it is not feasible to produce a strong enough pattern to reliably match charges to invoice finance. Where a group of companies has a charge, this is counted as one event. Multiple charges registered by the same company within the reporting period are not counted separately. Refactors are based on IF charges where a previous IF charge was satisfied within 100 days of the new charge or was left open.
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About This Data
This report is produced by the Spark Intel Research Team using data derived from invoice finance charge registrations filed at Companies House. All source data is publicly available under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
For full details on how this data is collected, classified, and analysed, see the Methodology, Data Sources, Definitions, and Caveats pages.
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