Published on 04 January 2006

ING Lease UK last month put the finishing touches to a comprehensive review of all its business operations following its takeover of Abbey's finance business.

Also, its previous four offices in West Byfleet, Harrow, Enfield, and Redhill have been closed and all staff put in one office in Redhill. Its direct sales force was axed in March with the sales activity now concentrated on brokers and vendors.

The latter three offices belonged to Abbey before the business was taken over by ING Lease UK in 2004. The purchase last year for an undisclosed sum included Abbey's asset finance, country and vendor finance businesses.

Also, as part of the restructuring, the small ticket business will now focus exclusively on the broker and vendor channels. The direct sales staff were made redundant in order to gear the business exclusively to these two channels.

Last month the business went live with CHP's Alfa Four software, replacing Abbey's legacy GLAS software and ING's former outmoded version three.

Chris Stamper, who in November replaced Philip Derby as CEO, plans substantial expansion of the business. All options are being considered, he said.

"We are looking to grow the business, we have capacity in the new premises and we are considering all options for further expansion," he added.

ING's lease business includes smaller ticket asset finance, farm financing, vendor finance, block discounting and middle ticket leasing. Stamper added that he expects the vendor and broker programmes to expand over 2006. "We have space for 100 more people [at the new Redhill office]," he said.

The deals carried out by the middle ticket business range from £2m up to £70m.The bank's fleet leasing business is managed separately.

The restructuring has also seen an integration of ING Lease UK's business processes. "Previously we had eight businesses processed across eight departments, all in different ways, now we do it one way," said Stamper.

He added: "For instance, in the past proposal handling was dealt with in different ways by each business. Therefore it was difficult to get a concentrated focus and good measurers. Now its the same way for all the business and we have a much better understanding when things inevitably go wrong. We see things getting better. I know, for example, how effective we are at dealing with phone calls, and have accurate information on how efficient our business operations are."