As most industry insiders are aware a large number of independent factoring companies are funded by the big banks by means of back to back facilities. It occured to me that it’s possible that some of the 35 companies with annual turnovers in excess of £100m recorded in the quarterly statistics of the ABFA are actually the factoring companies that Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance and their ilk are funding.

If that is the case then all of the statistics are grossly inaccurate as many of the figures for the independents will have been included twice – once as the £100m+ funding from Lloyds TSB to the factoring company and again as the same funds are put out to the many clients of the factoring company.

I did ask some of the great and good of the factoring industry if they knew the answer but all said that whilst it was an interesting question they didn’t know.