In a digital world, conversations still matter – Rubins

Then thousands of people travelled to Birmingham on 10 June for the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) Commercial Finance Expo and spent an entire day talking to each other. On the face of it, that seems slightly contradictory. 

The industry has never had easier access to information. Product guides, lender updates, webinars, podcasts and market commentary are available at the touch of a button. Yet events such as NACFB continue to attract thousands of brokers, lenders and industry professionals. The obvious question is why? 

Broker relationships are still the best technology 

Our team attended this year’s Expo, and many of the conversations they came back with highlighted that, while the industry has become exceptionally good at digitally sharing information, building a genuine understanding of what is happening on the ground is a different challenge altogether. 

I don’t think anybody attended because they needed another lender brochure. Most brokers can access those within seconds. What they were looking for was real context, and that tends to come from conversations rather than presentations. 

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Many of the discussions centred on what is actually happening in the market. How are clients behaving? Where are deals getting stuck? Which transactions are proving more difficult to place? Where is lender appetite genuinely the strongest? 

The brokers we spoke to talked about transactions taking longer to complete, clients taking longer to make decisions and development projects continuing to face pressure from higher costs and tighter margins. 

None of this will come as a surprise to anyone operating in the sector. What was interesting, however, was how often the same themes surfaced in conversations with different brokers throughout the day. 

When enough people tell you variations of the same story, you begin to build a much clearer picture of what’s happening. 

A clear understanding of market shifts 

Discussions around development finance were a really good example of this. Several brokers commented that development transactions are becoming harder to structure and place than they were a few years ago. Rising build costs, planning delays and increased scrutiny continue to place pressure on project viability, even where underlying demand remains strong. 

The conversation wasn’t really about whether development finance remains available. It was about understanding how lenders, such as ourselves, are assessing risk, how viability is being viewed and what we need to see before committing capital. 

Brokers often need clarity on how lenders are approaching risk, whether appetite remains consistent when a transaction becomes more complex and how decisions are made when circumstances change during a deal. 

Technology has undoubtedly improved communication. It has made information more accessible and allowed brokers to engage with lenders more efficiently than ever before. However, it has not replaced trust and it has not replaced judgement. 

Having been in this market since 1992, we’ve seen enough cycles to know that conditions rarely move in straight lines. Borrower behaviour evolves and lender appetite changes over time, but the value of relationships tends to remain remarkably consistent. 

Thinking back to the feedback from this year’s Expo, the most useful discussions were not about product launches or marketing messages. They were conversations about transactions, challenges, opportunities and where the market may be heading next.