In this issue

From a business and finance perspective, 2020 is likely to be remembered as a year of unwelcomed milestones. It’s been a year since the virus visited the northern hemisphere and the economic cost of the Covid-19 health crisis is clear; domestic production of goods and services has been stifled, governments have been pushed to amass unprecedented peacetime levels of debt, reserve banks have pushed down interest rates to record lows and the QE printing presses have been working overtime.  

What to expect in 2021? Let’s hope a recovery awaits and if that’s the case, then paying back debt is also likely to be on the agenda.  

This edition picks up on several themes what may play out in 2021. One of which is the consequence of tapering government furlough schemes and the ending of emergency lending programmes for businesses. Taken together, it is feared these events may signal ‘a day of reckoning’ for lenders. Whose borrowers can afford to repay and who is overexposed to bad debts? We look at the prospects for SME funders in the UK by focusing on the FTSE250 bank Close Brothers, who has posted solid trading figures recently.  

Also, we talk to Richard Cameron, who has the job of leading Allica Bank’s new venture into asset finance in the time of the pandemic. He lays bare his four-year plan.  

We look at the challenges for lessors across Europe in the agricultural sector and our country feature looks at Scandinavian leasing in 2020. An article by Siemens Financial Services considers how to find a finance partner for office IT vendors, and we look at the role of circular economy thinking in equipment procurement when it comes to hotel development and investment, and much more.