Informing • Engaging • Setting Standards

The Asset Based Finance Association (ABFA) is a UK-based Trade Association representing an industry supplying much needed liquidity to UK and Irish businesses. Our Members provide Factoring, Invoice Discounting and Asset Based Lending. The ABFA's Membership comprises around 40 Members, representing about 95 per cent of the UK and Irish market providing these products.

The ABFA represents the industry in the UK and Ireland and works closely with other organisations around the world. It sets and enforces standards within the industry, informs and engages stakeholders outside the industry, and provides education and training to those within.

The Association's principal objectives are:

1. To promote and represent Membership of the Association in a national and global environment.
2. To ensure that all of the ABFA Members embrace the principle of treating customers fairly and that they maintain the highest standards of professional conduct in their dealings with clients, guarantors and/or indemnifiers.

History of the The Asset Based Finance Association

What has grown to become the ABFA was founded in 1976 as the Association of British Factors (ABF). In the 1980s the Association changed, to become the Association of British Factors and Discounters and then in 1996 was merged with the AIF and the CFA European Chapter to become the Factors and Discounters Association (FDA). Then in 2007, the FDA changed to become the Asset Based Finance Association (ABFA).

Structure of the The Asset Based Finance Association

The ABFA is comprised of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and the Executive Committee who meet four times a year on behalf of the Member companies of the Association. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman are elected by the Members and serve one year each, with the Vice-Chairman going on to be become Chairman after a year in the supportive role. Currently there are 12 members on the Executive Committee who represent a cross section of the Member companies and who are voted onto the Executive and put up for re-election by the Members once a year. The ABFA Secretariat, based in Richmond, supports the Executive Committee. The Secretariat includes seven permanent and two part-time members of staff, all reporting into the Chief Executive.