My Work experience at UK Agricultural Finance

My time working with the team at UK Agricultural Finance has shown me the difference between corporate companies and SMEs. With UK Agricultural Finance being an SME, you can really see how much effort they put in to reaching out and supporting the businesses that they are helping. 

By shadowing the finance team, I got to see how UK Agricultural Finance looked at other ways they could help companies through financial struggles when they couldn’t complete some of their payments, instead of going straight to reclaiming on a default.. This could be done through a mortgage payment holiday, which is a period of time when the borrower doesn’t have to pay the monthly interest payment until they are in a position to start repaying their debt. Another method that UK Agricultural Finance uses to help people during their difficult times is a reduced monthly interest payment, which allows for people to still work off their loan but at a lower percentage than before. This impressed me because you can really see how the company is with working with people as individuals, and how much they care to see the best outcomes for both sides of the loan. This is really amazing to me, as you would never see this from the high street lenders.

Agriculture is one of the main building blocks of both everyday lives and the economic state of the country. We can see this with 64% of produce consumed in the UK coming from UK farms, which contributes over 120 billion to the country’s economy. The support given by UK Agricultural Finance is helping to make the agricultural industry even better by allowing for the expansion of farms and the development of equipment on the farmland.

I enjoyed learning about the different types of loans that are offered and how they are structured in different ways to support the borrower. One type of loan is a High-Quality Bridge loan (HQB). This is more suited to a livestock farmer or a newly developing farm as they receive the loan and then have a period of time – up 3 years – where they do not have to worry about monthly payments. This allows them to get their farm started and making money, so when the payments start they can afford them and not go into default. Another type of loan that is offered is a term loan which is more beneficial for borrowers who are established businesses that need to buy extra land or livestock.With this loan you start paying monthly interest straight away, working off your loan.

I have had an amazing time working with the team at UK Agricultural Finance, and they have given me a wide range of knowledge and experience in my short time with them. I am grateful for the opportunity that they have given me, and I wish them the best.