Building the next chapter of premium funding.

Covid reinforced a lesson I still hold: a premium funder needs to understand both the risk inside the insurance programme and the capital available to fund it.

In 2020, trade-credit insurers tightened limits as uncertainty increased. Businesses still needed insurance, and brokers needed ways to arrange the funding. A good client case could become harder to place when an external limit changed.

Clearmatch's premium-funding business took shape in that environment. We connected detailed assessment of the loan and policies with our marketplace technology and Term Note investor capital. That gave us another route to consider eligible cases. Our work with Marsh included an airline premium-finance programme described jointly in February 2021, aimed at spreading insurance costs and preserving cash during recovery.

The credit thinking matters. We consider the borrower, the outstanding balance, cancellation terms and potential return premiums over the life of a loan. Recoverability and timing need attention. Trade credit insurance is a valuable tool, while eligible Term Note loans can be considered without obligatory cover. Credit discipline remains fundamental.

Today, a securitised warehouse, Term Note marketplace and selective balance-sheet capacity provide different routes. Each has requirements and depends on available capital. The value to a broker is having a team able to work through those requirements alongside the client case.

As investment manager and administrator of the Clearmatch Insurance Funding Term Note Trust, we work with lending assets and investor allocations through administration, monitoring and reporting. That operating experience deepens our understanding of both sides of premium funding.

Our internal technology team develops workflows and funding logic around the lending core. Proximity to credit, operations and treasury helps turn specialist knowledge into practical processes. AI assistance for quote preparation and policy changes extends that work; credit decision support remains in development, within defined authority and controls.

That future is being built by our people today. Credit judgement, loan servicing, treasury and technology are different disciplines, but their value grows when they work together. I want Clearmatch to be a place where skilled people can see their ideas become better ways of working and a more useful service for brokers.

The next chapter should take the experience we earned in difficult conditions and put it to work. Our priorities are clear: deepen broker partnerships, improve how information moves through the life of a loan and give our teams practical tools that support their judgement. We arrange new premium funding through brokers, and the relationships they lead remain at the centre of the business we are building.