All articles by Brendan Malkin
Brendan Malkin
Shire-brokered leases linked to fresh fraud allegations
The intermediary, which brokered many of these leases, also brokered around 1,000 leases of telephone equipment supplied by Business Telecom Ltd, whose managing director and two employees have just been charged with conspiracy to defraud It is claimed that the trio Christopher Boughton-Fox, MD of Business Telecom Ltd, Jonathan Parish and Neil Debenham persuaded people to enter into lease arrangements for the supply of telecommunications systems and accessories by falsely representing that Business Telecom was connected with or the business arm of British Telecom PLC
Fortis Lease UK: shuts jet and yacht business, loses Isobel McEwan
Isobel McEwan is understood to have stepped down from her role as sales director at Fortis Lease UK. This takes place against the background of the purchase of Glasgow-based Fortis Lease UK by BNP Paribas Lease Group.
SEB creates SPV to handle bad leasing debts
Amidst the economic crisis that has caused significant turbulence in the Baltic states, SEB has written-off almost 40 million in leasing related bad debts from its customers in the region. These written-off leases, which are valued up to SEK400 million (37.2 million), will be channelled into a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that has been set-up in order to house assets seized from borrowers who have breached contract agreements. Details of the SPV, which will also receive around SEK300 million (27.9 million) of bad debts from SEBs Baltic real estate arm, were provided to the newswire, Dow Jones, in an interview with SEBs chief executive Annika Falkengren.
Andrew Bullard steps down after 12 years at State
Andrew Bullard, the well-liked figure who for some time has been the face of State Securities, has stepped down from his position of sales director at the subprime specialist asset finance lender after 12 years
European equipment finance: the darker side of leasing
Last month, an asset finance partner at the law firm Norton Rose was asked at a Leasing Life roundtable to comment on the level of fraud in big ticket leasing
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Get industry leading news, data and analysis delivered to your inbox
Reading the future
In the middle of an ongoing recession, Leasing Life brings together some of the industry’s leading decision makers to discuss doing business in a downturn and strategies to improve the market. In the first of a series of round table discussions aimed at identifying the issues looming large for the UKs leasing decision makers, Leasing Life met with eight of the industrys key players at Grant Thorntons London headquarters in June, to set out the pros, cons and quirks of doing business in a developing recession.
The Leasing Life Awards 2009: a night you cannot afford to miss
Welcome to The Leasing Life Awards 2009 The Leasing Life Awards are about the celebration of excellence in European small and mid-ticket asset finance Support and enthusiasm for the awards which will take place in Berlin this December have grown considerably since they were launched in December 2007
Ofcom, BERR and trading standards investigate Shire Leasing-brokered deals
Leasing arms of banks and also Shire Leasing have come under further pressure arising out of the ads and services for leases debacle with revelations that the government as well as fraud officers have launched multiple investigations into the scandal that has rocked the British leasing industry. Leasing Life has learned that the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform has launched an investigation into one of the ads for leases scandals to do with supplier Lifestyle TV Ltd after having been referred the case by detectives in south Manchester
LL advisory board reformed
The roll-call of senior leadership in the European leasing industry who have agreed to join the Board, which is due to have its first meeting later this month, includes: Mike Barley, CEO of Close Asset Finance; Nigel Jenkins, European MD of Microsoft Finance; Stephen Bassett, board member of the NACFB; John Bennett, former Leaseurope chairman and European MD of Bank of America Leasing; Rudiger von Folkersamb, the chairman of Leaseurope and CEO of Deutsche Leasing International; Peter Kainradl, MD of the White Clarke Group; Mary Whittaker, former President of GE Fleet Services Europe; and Cormac Costelloe, European MD of CIT.
Editor’s letter: What does the future hold?
In the world that existed before the financial crisis, leasing companies were driven by the desire to grow volumes This was reflected in the fact that European lease outstandings increased from 587 billion in 2005 to 780 billion at the end of 2008, a 33 percent growth.