My summary of the Vth KPF’s Cash Loan Sector Congress in Warsaw, 11 May 2016

The KPF’s 5th Cash Loan Sector Conference in Warsaw was a jubilee conference this year. Five years have passed since the first Congress, so the time has inevitably arrived for a summary. This Congress adopted such a formula.

On the one hand, this was a summary of achievements, the undeniable achievements of this sector, which, five years ago, was facing problems at practically every level, problems of financing, problems with reputation and now, after five years, it is a modern, buoyant market of modern financial institutions, which responsibly provide funding to consumers and this market is developing excellently. So a positive summary of this five-year period is justified.

On the other hand, of course, as at every Congress and this is probably the third or fourth Congress that I have attended, there was a great deal of discussion about legal regulations; here, lawyers always have ample opportunities for presentations. Although this market is not as regulated as the banking market, as the discussions have shown today, regulations are having an increasingly greater impact on the functioning of this sector.

A very interesting topic, which appeared for the first time at the Congress, is the financing of the sector. This was always a somewhat shameful topic, a sort of taboo. In fact, I have the impression that the players on the market did not want to share information on this with each other. Certain information was imparted at this Congress, hands were uncovered. It turns out that it is increasingly easier to obtain funding on the cash loans market. To the extent that, what was unthinkable just two years ago, namely to obtain a bank loan to finance lending activities, it turns out that such a transaction was conducted this year. One of the entities on the market obtained substantial financing from a bank. This is certainly a symbol of change and caused a great deal of excitement in the room. Clearly, entities from this market see bank loans as an opportunity to obtain financing, although they have also been using other forms for a long time, namely corporate bonds.

There was also talk about securitization of claims related to granting loans, although I have the impression that securitization it is still in its infancy. I have the impression that this is still being thought about rather than acted upon.

This article was also published on my LinkedIn profile and can be found here.